i Learn With - Planet Boing! HD is part of a series of iPad apps that combine learning with fun for toddlers and young children. This particular app in the series is great for the younger players and is the central zone for both parents and kids with a free-play environment filled with lots of bright colors, music, and interactivity.

Before jumping into the fun, bouncy, colorful world, you can customize your character's look. This includes the shape of the torso, head, feet, hands, ears, and more, as well as his or her color. You can also roll the dice for a random customization.

When making customizations, you'll discover some that aren't available. If you tap it, a window will popup tell you how to unlock the item. This typically must be done by completing levels in other apps. This is a great way to motivate your child to play these learning games, but it can also get annoying for the younger kids who don't understand why the window popped up or what it says.

The main part of this app is Planet Boing, the fun world where you take your character to bounce around and gather bubbles that release things like music, shapes, characters, colors, and more. You can drag your character around the world with your finger or flick the character and watch him or her fly and bounce around.

In addition to interacting with your character in Planet Boing, you can also interact with different elements in the world, like trees and flowers, by tapping on them. You can also add more bubbles to the screen by tapping on the magic chest.

One of the fun elements of Planet Boing, is that if you have the new iPad or an iPad 2, you can use the front-facing camera to bring the fun to your world. My daughter thinks this is just hilarious.

In the Parents Center, you can see how your child is progressing in the other "i Learn with" apps and see recommendations of which apps you should get next. (Must register for a free account). These other apps are only $0.99 each and offer a lot of fun, educational content. I'll briefly share some features of i Learn With Boing: Ice Land Adventures! with you.

i Learn With Boing: Ice Land Adventures!

i Learn With Boing: Ice Land Adventures! has three main mini-games: Letters, Phonics, and Words.

In the Letters game, you have to pick the polar bear that's holding the letter shown at the bottom of the slide and guide him down the slide to help him collect all the ice cream balls.

In the Phonics game, you are given a sound, like "ma", and one letter of that sound. It's your job to fling your letter at the penguin that has the other letter on his hat. For example, if you are given the letter "a" and the sound "ma", your goal is to use the slingshot to hit a penguin with the "m_" on his hat.

In the Words game, you are given a word with a blank spot above each letter of the word. This word is actually on the back of a whale, and there are seals swimming in the water with a letter on each of their hats. It's your job to drag the penguins to their corresponding spots on the whale. When you get it right, the whale jumps up in excitement.

The Good

• Colorful
• Musical
• Fun
• Parents section is helpful for tracking kid's learning

The Bad

• Too much nagging to register and download other apps
• The location of the register button on the home screen is in the same location as the home button on the other screens. Young children like to push buttons over and over again, and my daughter hits the home button several times to go back to the home screen, but ends up at the register screen and gets frustrated.

The Conclusion

At only 20 months old, my daughter really loves this app. It may seem boring to the average adult, but for a young toddler, bouncing characters around on the screen and seeing bursts of color and shapes provides endless entertainment. She's still a little to young for the educational apps in the series, but I'm sure she will love them once she gets a little older, especially since she's already familiar with the characters.

i Learn With - Planet Boing!, Free - Download Now

i Learn With Boing: Ice Land Adventures!, $0.99 - Download Now

The Ness is a both a gorgeous and effective way to find places to eat near you

The Ness Dining Guide for iPhone is a gorgeous way to discover restaurants and cafes that you'll like. The Ness will make recommendations based on the ratings you've given to various places. You can also read reviews, add reviews of your own, and browse photos from Instagram that are matched with the places in Ness.

The first time you launch Ness, you will be asked to rate a bunch of places near you. You must give 4 or 5 stars to at least 10 locations before Ness has enough information to start giving recommendations.

The search screen is the main screen on Ness -- and boy is it beautiful! It features six pages, each with six categories. Each category is represented by a tall, gorgeous, and vibrant mouthwatering photo. You can tap on a category or type into the search bar in the center. The results page uses the photo for that category in the background and has the results overlaid on top of it. Each result shows its star rating and how far away it is from you.

Tapping on the place is where you'll find more information like contact info, your rating, reviews of "what's good" and "what's bad", how many times it's been mentioned on Facebook or Twitter, and a photo gallery of photos from Instagram that are matched with the place.

From the side panel, you can refine your personalization by rating more places, check out where your friends are going from the newsfeed, edit your profile, add friends, and look up your saved places. Unfortunately, The Ness doesn't let you connect with Twitter, so you can only add friends from Facebook, or via text message or email.

The Good

• Gorgeous, mouthwatering photography
• Makes recommends based on what you do and don't like
• Share favorite locations with friends
• Views photos from Instagram that are matched with the places on Ness
• The more you use it, the smarter it gets
• Connect with Facebook and Foursquare

The Bad

• Can't connect with Twitter

The Conclusion

You're probably sick of me saying it, but The Ness is beautiful! With these types of apps, the experience improves as more users jump on board, so please, pick this one up!

Free - Download Now

With OmniGraphSketcher for iPad you can create stunning, impressive graphs and charts with ease

OmniGraphSketcher is an iPad app that makes it easy to create gorgeous and precise graphs with lines, curves, shaded regions, and more. Instead of using specific equations, like a graphing calculator, OmniGraphSketcher let's you use multitouch gestures to chart your points and draw cuves and bar graphs.

OmniGraphSketcher comes with four sample documents so that you can easily see how they are created or just manipulate them as your own. You can use these as templates be duplicating the document you want to use before editing it.

There is also a fifth document that works like a tutorial and explains the different tools included with OnmiGraphSketcher and how to use them.

To create a text label, just double tap the screen. You can edit the font type, size, color, and choose the exact (x, y)-coordinates for the label.

To create a line, select that drawing tool and tap the screen. This will place a marker for your first point. You can drag this around precisely where you want it to be -- the exact (x, y)-coordinates will pop up as you drag around the marker and it will also snap to coordinates that are marked on your axes. Once you have it placed where you want, tap the location you want your second point to appear and adjust it like you did the first time. You can do this as many times as you want. When you're ready for the lines to be drawn, tap the last marker and the dotted lines become solid and each of the point markers become actual points.

An alternative method to selecting specific points to plot is to simply freehand the curve and OmniGraphSketcher will smooth it out into a beautifully for you. This is great for the times when precision is not important, but when want to use your graph to explain a concept or general idea.

The line style can be changed to be linear or curved and you can change it from being a solid line to one of the multiple dotted line styles. You can also adjust the thickness, and color, and whether there are arrows at the ends. You can make similar adjustments to the points as well as enter their exact (x, y)-coordinates. This helpful for those times when you may be plotting points that are hard to precisely drag to. For example, if you wanted to plot the point (2, 47.5) when the range of your y-axis is 0 to 1000.

Speaking of the x and y-axis, you can adjust their ranges by simply double-tapping the first or last number on the line and typing in what you want to change it to. You can also drag an axis after selecting it to get the same result. When an axis is selected you can also adjust the tick mark spacing.

In addition to creating curves and lines, you can also make bar graphs with OmniGraphSketcher -- and it's super easy. After plotting your points, simply choose the option that looks like a bar graph from the point's option menu. You can choose either horizontal or vertical bars and adjust their thickness and color.

To shade a region of your graph, tap the shading tool. Then tap a boundary point of the desired region and drag your finger to another boundary point, pause, and drag to the next one. Once you've selected the desired location, release your finger to complete the shading. OmniGraphSketcher lets you adjust the the color and opacity of the shaded regions.

If you're creative with your use of lines, curves, and dots, you can also use OmniGraphSketcher to sketch piecewise functions. As a math instructor, this excites me because this is very difficult to do with traditional graphing calculator apps and programs. No longer will I be hand-drawing these types of graphs for quizzes and exams -- I'll create them with OmniGraphSketcher instead!

The Good

• Beautiful
• Easy and intuitive to use
• Different line and point styles
• Create horizontal or vertical bar graphs
• Freehand sketching
• Sketch piecewise functions
• Adjust x and y axes
• Import from iDisk or WebDAV
• Share to email, photos, iDisk, WebDAV, iTunes
• Send to another app as a graph, PDF, or PNG (including Dropbox)

The Bad

• No native DropBox support

The Conclusion

I'm not going to lie, when I first picked up OmniGraphSketcher, I was a bit disappointed. I wanted the ability to graph specific equations. But the more time I spent with OmniGraphSketcher, the more I liked it and appreciated it's value of not also playing the role of a graphing calculator. It's a very simple-to-use and gorgeous app that creates very impressive graphs and charts. You may not be able to graph complicated equations, but that's ok -- there's graphing calculators for that.

$14.99 - Download Now

The Daily was the very first custom daily news app created for the iPad back in 2011, and now you can get all that great content on your iPhone. The Daily for iPhone is beautiful and extremely easy to use app for Newsstand -- no fluff or complicated UI's to distract from reading your news!

If already have a subscription to The Daily for the iPad, your subscription will carry over the iPhone for no additional cost. A subscription to The Daily is $1.99/mo or $19.99/yr. If you don't want to pay for the subscription, you will still have access to great, daily content, just not all content.

When browsing through The Daily, swiping left and right will switch between categories and swiping up and down will scroll through the stories in that category. The categories include news, business, gossip, opinion, arts & life, apps & tech, sports, video, and pictures.

To read a story, view a photo, or watch a video, you simply tap on it. The Daily include 3 different font sizes that can be changed while reading each post. You can also read comments and leave a comment of your own. For stories you want to share with your friends, you can easily send them to Facebook, Twitter, or email with just the tap of a button

This really is The Daily in a nutshell. It's super easy to use and very basic -- which is a good thing.

The Good

• Swipe up and down to scroll through stories in a category
• Swipe left and right to switch between categories
• multi-panel UI to quickly jump to a category
• Read and leave comments to stories
• Beautiful photos
• Videos
• 3 different font sizes
• Share to email, Facebook or Twitter

The Bad

• I have no clue why "Switch to New Issue" is displayed. Tapping it does nothing.

The Conclusion

The Daily is a great news app for the iPhone with great journalism. If you don't want to sign up for a subscription, you'll still have access to great, free daily content. Not only is the content great, but the UI is as well. The Daily found a great balance between being visually appealing, simple to use, and efficient.

Free - Download Now

Since Instagram still has no official iPad app of their own, Iris App is a fantastic alterative

Instagram may not have a native app available on the iPad, but Iris App is here to fill that void. You may not be able to upload photos to the popular photo sharing service, but Iris App does allow you to browse your feed, featured photos, "like" and comment photos, and more.

Along the left hand side, you'll see a thin column that give access to your main feed, featured photos, your profile, search, and the photos you've liked.

Your home feed is displayed as a grid of polaroids. Each Polaroid shows who's photo it is and the number of likes and comments. These images are nice and big and the design is very clean looking. If you want to "like" the photo, just double tap! You can also tap the heart and a sidebar on the right will slide out that lists all the users who have liked the photo, links to their profiles, and the option to "like" the photo. Tapping the speech bubble is very similar, except for comments. If available, you can also view the photo's location on a map.

Tapping on a photo will slide a larger version of the polaroid up from the bottom of the screen that looks exactly the same with the addition of an excerpt of the caption. Which leads me to my biggest disappointment -- if the caption is more than about 40 characters, the only way to view the caption is in the comment view. I think captions should be viewable from the polaroid/thumbnail view. I like to see caption as I casually scroll and browse through my feed.

If you tap on a user's avatar, you'll be taken to their profile. Along the top, you see their name, bio, number of followers and following, a button to follow/unfollow, a "thumbs-up" to recommend the user via email, and a button that lets you view all the user's photos on a map.

The photos in profile mode are displayed much smaller than on your main feed -- there is 4 photos per row vs. two photos per row. But there's a trigger on the bottom of the sidebar that lets you switch to the larger, more detailed thumbnails if you prefer.

The featured photos and liked photos pages also feature these smaller thumbnails, but oddly, there is no option to view them larger.

The Good

• Pretty
• Browse main feed, featured photos, profiles, and favorites
• Like and comment on photos
• Search for users and tags

The Bad

• Can't tap tags
• Can't change thumbnail size for main feed, featured tab, or favorites tab (main feed is big, featured and favorites are small)

The Conclusion

I often use Instagram to browse through photos even when I'm not sharing my own photos and have always longed for an iPad version. Given the fact that Facebook now owns Instagram and that the Facebook iPad app took ages to release, I'm not expecting an official Instagram iPad app anytime soon. I'm just glad to have Iris App as a fantastic alternative.

$1.99 - Download Now

Snapguide is a beautiful way to create, share, and find how-to guides, recipes, and other instructionals -- straight from your iPhone.

Snapguide for iPhone allows you to create instructional guides (including recipes) straight on your iPhone, complete with pictures, videos, and captions. When you're done you can publish your guides and share them via Twitter, Facebook, or email, as well as with the Snapguide community.

When you first open Snapguide, you'll be walked through a quick tutorial and then you'll be able to create an account. Once you've finished the quick sign-up process you can get to creating guides.

Browsing Snapguides

Searching for guides and browsing them within the Snapguide community is quick and simple. Just search for any subject or browse popular or most viewed guides.

Most users will probably want to spend most of their time viewing existing guides created by others. After you register you'll be able to do exactly that. Just use explore the tabs along the bottom to view all kinds of guides. You can also use the search feature in the upper right hand corner in order to search for a specific guide you may want to view.

Creating your own Snapguides

If you're creating a guide for others you can easily add steps including photo, video, and text to make it easier to follow along.

Once you've started to create a guide you can choose between photos, video, or text. Snap a picture or take a video of the first step to insert them into your guide. If you've got a bunch of images or video to shoot, just take them all in one go if you'd like and then go in and edit the steps afterwards.

Snapguide also has Dictation integration so if you're explaining a particularly lengthy step and have an iPhone 4S you can enjoy adding captions to your steps by speaking them.

Add many photos or videos at once and then go back and edit in steps when you're done creating media.

Once you're done snapping pictures or video, just tap them in your main guide window to add captions to them. Move things around or delete steps as needed. Don't forget to add a list of supplies that users will need as well. (Especially important for recipes!)

Once you're done with your guide you can publish it to the Snapguide community and share it via Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail.

Once you've got your guide exactly the way you want it, you can publish it with a single tap. From there it'll be shared with the Snapguide community and other users can comment on it or follow you in order to see all your guides.

You can also choose to email the guide to someone, share it to Facebook, or tweet it out. You'll have to authorize Facebook but Twitter will just pull from your native Twitter accounts (you can choose which account you'd like to tweet it from if you've got more than one). You can also copy the link to share on other sites as too.

If you forgot a step and need to edit your guide, you can do so through your profile with just a tap and then re-publish your guide. You can also re-share guides via your profile as well.

If you figure out later on that you forgot a step or want to word something different, no worries. Just open up your profile and tap on the blue pencil next to the guide you want to change to edit it. Tap into the guide without clicking the blue pencil in order to view how many users have liked it or to share it again.

The Good

• Super simple interface to use
• Great layout that allows you to easily navigate and create guides with virtually no learning curve
• Already a pretty good amount of users and guides

The Bad

• Google+ and Pinterest integration would be nice additions

The Conclusion

Snapguide is a beautiful way to create, share, and find how-to guides, recipes, and other instructionals -- straight from your iPhone. I've yet to find an app that's as intuitive or easy to use as this one for creating or viewing DIY guides. If you've got an iPhone and a spark for creativity, this is the app for you. I've already found tons of home DIY guides I want to get around to trying.

If you've picked up this app, let us know if you've found or created anything particularly interesting! I've already found quite a few guides relating to iPhone, iPad, and iPod. I'm excited to contribute to that number in the near future.

Free - Download Now

Additional Resources:

• More app reviews
• Best of the best apps
• iMore apps & games forums

Although it might be overshadowed by the new iPad reviews looming large, select journos have had some time with the new Apple TV, and have posted largely positive reviews. Just to recap, the new Apple TV introduces 1080p video streaming, access to cloud-stored iTunes movies, and a brand new user interface. The $99 price point has stuck, and so has the hardware design.

TechCrunch's MG Siegler sees the new Apple TV as a threat to traditional disc-based HD media.

No, Apple didn’t give a huge incentive for current Apple TV owners to upgrade to the newer box. But they gave a huge incentive to millions of people without an Apple TV to get one. And that’s bad news for Blu-ray.

If Apple can get the content in place — even Hulu and HBO Go apps would go an awfully long way — the Apple TV will be a truly killer device, whether or not the company ever decides to make an actual TV set. Until then, devices from Roku and Western Digital still provide more complete options for cord-cutters.

At $99, the third-generation Apple TV continues to be as excellent a value as the previous model—and now it supports higher-quality video too. That’s a good thing.

The Apple TV is the epitome of convenience. With iCloud, I have access to all of my iTunes Match music and videos, so I don’t need to connect to a computer anymore. I can purchase movies, TV shows and I can watch content from Netflix. That’s perfect.

The first reviews of the new iPad are in, and as expected they focus on the areas that are visually and experientially different from last year's iPad 2. The consensus is that the Retina display is blow-you-eyeballs-back-through-your-skull impressive, and the responsiveness and LTE networking amazingly fast.

Bloomberg's Rich Jaroslovsky says the new iPad is to the iPad 2 what the iPhone 4S was to the iPhone 4.

It isn’t that the new iPad lacks impressive features --most notably, a vastly better display and an ultra-fast Internet- connection option. It’s just that it seems designed to maintain Apple (AAPL)’s huge lead in the tablet wars, rather than to extend it.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber finally has the iPad he longed for two years ago.

The retina display is amazing, everything in the UI feels faster, and the price points remain the same. What’s not to love? It’s that simple.

The Loop's Jim Dalrymple is impressed with the new iPad's day to day usability and awed by it's Retina display.

So, what did I like about the iPad? Simple — the experience. Nobody in the market today can touch the Apple experience.

Macworld's Jason Snell thinks that iPad 2 users shouldn't look at the new iPad, because it will be hard to go back.

The new iPad is just that: The iPad, updated for a new year and millions of new iPad users. It's not smaller or lighter, but it's got a remarkable screen, a much better rear camera, and support for cellular networking that can run at Wi-Fi speeds. It's the iPad that millions of people have embraced, only one year better.

The New York Time's David Pogue thinks the new iPad is less an iPad 3 and more an iPad 2S.

The new iPad doesn’t introduce anything that we haven’t seen before, either in the iPhone or in rival tablets. There’s no Steve Jobs “one more thing” moment here; Apple just took its white-hot iPad and added the latest screen, battery and cellular technologies.

SlashGear's Vincent Nguyen thinks evolution is more important than revolution for tablets.

Steve Jobs would have approved of the new iPad. With its focus on the holistic experience rather than individual boasts around its constituent parts, it’s the epitome of the Post-PC world the Apple founder envisaged. No lag or delay; no frustrating cloud settings or arcane minimum software requirements. Simply pick up, swipe, and you’re immersed in a joined-up ecosystem. Apple doesn’t need another revolution, it has already started one, and the new iPad brings a fresh degree of refinement to a segment in which it is undoubtedly the king.

TechCrunch's Mg Siegler says looking at the new iPad is like putting on your glasses and seeing the world clearly again. He agrees with our buying/upgrading advice as well.

Technology is amazing, and this new iPad is amazing. Also amazing: the only company competing with Apple right now in this particular space is Apple.

The Telegraph's Shane Richmond says the differences between the new iPad and the old iPad 2 are amazing, and also uses the glasses-on/glasses off analogy.

If you have been holding off getting a tablet then this is the one to go for. In my view, it's the best that money can buy. Existing iPad owners who are thinking of upgrading should take a look at this new device. You'll see the difference very, very clearly indeed.

USA Today's Ed Baig like the new additions, but doesn't seem to understand even Adobe's given up on Mobile Flash...

Pro. Stunning screen, 4G speeds (on certain models), decent dictation and improved camera optics. Strong battery. Apps galore. Con. Shooting with camera can be awkward. No Adobe Flash. No camera flash. No expanded storage.

The Verge's Joshua Topolsky still laments the lack of glance-able information on the iPad, but can't recommend any other table more highly. And the Retina display? It looks like a glowing piece of paper.

Minor gripes aside, the iPad remains best in breed when it comes to design and materials. Other tablets may have more ports or larger screens, but few can match the elegance, sleekness, or solidness of this device.

The Wall Street Journal's Wall Mossberg says the new iPad display is dramatically better and the content delivery is dramatically faster.

Since it launched in 2010, the iPad has been the best tablet on the planet. With the new, third-generation model, it still holds that crown.

We'll add more to the list when we find them, and will be providing our own, full on iMore review this weekend!

Barcode Scanner is exactly what you need to easily find and enter PointsPlus values, and a great companion app to Weight Watchers Mobile for iPhone

If you're a Weight Watchers subscriber using Weight Watchers Mobile for iPhone, Weight Watchers Barcode Scanner is a great companion app for quickly calculating points values. Manually typing in fat, carbs, fiber, and protein can be a daunting task especially when grocery shopping. The barcode scanner app makes the task super simple and easier than ever, and is a great way to avoid impulse junk food purchases.

The biggest hurdle I've had to face since starting back up with Weight Watchers is grocery shopping. I've stuck with buying healthy foods but it can be a task to manually enter in the contents in order to decide whether or not a food I want is a healthy decision.

Once you've sign in you can start scanning and managing foods and point values quickly and easily

The Weight Watches Barcode Scanner helps cut the time I spend looking for healthy foods in half while shopping. If you've used any type of QR code scanner on your iPhone you'll be right at home.

The first time you launch the app you'll be asked to sign into your Weight Watchers account. (You can choose for it to remember you in the Settings tab). Weight Watchers Barcode Scanner will load the scanner by default on launch. Then all you do is simply align a bar code and it scans away. It'll read it and tell you the PointsPlus value for a single serving. If it can't find an item, it'll allow you to manually enter in carbs, fat, fiber, and protein into the points calculator.

Quickly scan an item to see the PointsPlus value in seconds. If the app can't find a value, it'll allow you to manually enter nutrition information.

If the app doesn't know the serving size it will simply say unknown. I've found most of the time that it calculates a points value but says unknown serving size, it's on items that are off-brand or measured in cups. You'll just need to follow the serving size on the box. If you can't get a good view of the bar code with the scanner, you can also choose to enter it in manually.

Quickly add scanned items directly to your favorites or tracker in a few quick taps. No need to jump into another application.

Weight Watchers Barcode Scanner will also keep track of all the foods you've scanned under the Lists tab. Not only can you view the items you've added, you can add them to your favorites or your tracker directly from the application. Since Weight Watchers stores all your information online, you'll see the information added to your tracker via Weight Watchers Mobile as well next time you launch it.

There are a few apps in the app store that spit out Weight Watchers point values. I've found this one to be the best simply because it ties directly into your online tracker and integrates nicely as a companion app to the full Weight Watchers Mobile app. I don't have to jump out of whatever I'm using to scan bar codes and into Weight Watchers mobile and re-enter information. I just add the item I want directly to my tracker from Barcode Scanner and it's already there.

The good

• It makes grocery shopping for healthier foods less of a task and not so overwhelming
• Gives the option to add directly to your favorites and tracker which eliminates having to jump into another app
• The overall UI is very similar to the Weight Watchers Mobile app so you'll feel right at home

The bad

• You'll need a Weight Watchers subscription to utilize the application which may not be an option for some users as the cost may be more than they're willing to pay
• You won't always find bar codes for many off brands
• No auto-focus can be annoying at times when the app doesn't automatically center in on the bar code

Conclusion

If you're looking for an easier way to find PointsPlus values than typing in numbers each time, Weight Watchers Barcode Scanner is exactly what you're looking for and a great companion app to Weight Watchers Mobile for iPhone. While there are competitors out there, they just can't provide the tight integration into the Weight Watchers system that the official app can.

The fact that I can add things directly to my tracker and favorite items while I shop without jumping into multiple other apps makes it a hands down winner.

If Weight Watchers is your diet plan of choice, let us know your experiences in our Health and Fitness Forum and check out what the rest of our staff is picking to get healthier during Mobile Nations Fitness Month.

Weight Watchers Barcode Scanner is free to download but you'll need a Weight Watchers subscription in order to log in and start using it.

Free - Download now

If you're looking for a stylish pair of headphones without a hefty price tag - the RF3 LIVE natural wood stereo earphones may be worth taking a second look at. Everything from the design of the actual earbuds down to the elegant packaging makes these headphones stand out from a lot of others in the same price range. But what about the most important feature of a good pair of headphones? Sound quality. Follow along to see how we felt they performed.

When it came to sound quality I thought the RF3 headphones held up extremely well for the price. The headphones themselves are noise isolating and come with a few different sets of tips for a better fit. They were rather comfortable to wear but I wouldn't suggest them as the best option for athletes or runners as I had them fall out of my ears a few times.

The 3.5MM headphone jack has a longer adapter which also allowed me to use them with virtually any case. One quirk I've never really gotten over with my Bose headphones is that the jack is shorter and some cases including bumpers don't like to play nice with them. That isn't the case here.

The headphones also have a built-in mic that you can interact with just like you can default Apple earbuds. This means iPhone 4S users can easily interact with Siri quickly and easily. I tested the mic on several occasions and had no issues with Siri picking up on what I was saying even in a semi-noisy environment.

As far as the acoustics and sound while listening to music, I thought they held their own against many other headphones in the same price range. They even performed better than some more expensive headphones I've used in the past. The only issue I did see was when it came to bass levels. I felt that they were rather shallow. Even with my iPod settings set to enhance the bass they didn't seem to perform near as well as my Bose MIE2i headphones. That is not as fair of a comparison though since they are nowhere near the same price range.

Overall, I'd say they perform well for the price if you want a decent pair of headphones that stand out from the rest without breaking the bank. You can find the RF3 LIVE natural wood headphones in the TiPb accessory store for $34.95.

Pros

• Great price for a quality product
• A variety of ear tip pieces included
• Built-in mic works exceptionally well
• Noise cancellation works just as good as most expensive noise isolating headphones
• The sound doesn't distort when at a high level like some lower priced ear buds
• The headphone jack seems to fit well with almost every case I have, bulky or not

Cons

• Not great for runners and athletes as the headphones don't offer a very firm and secure fit (or I just have little ears)
• The bass levels seem to be rather shallow compared to other ear buds

Giveaway

Just leave a comment below telling us what you'd listen to if you were given a set of RF3 LIVE Natural Wood Stereo Earphones of your very own! A special song? A great audio book? A bunch of Mobile Nations podcasts? What?

Full review of Apple's 2011 iPhone 4S: Faster, better camera, smarter antenna, and Siri

iPhone 4S is minor spec bump over last year's iPhone 4. Except it's not. It's a full on assault of the senses, with eyes, ears, and feel far beyond any previous mobile device. Yes, the hardware bumps specs to be certain -- faster chipset, better camera -- but it's what Apple's iOS 5 software and iCloud services do with that hardware that makes iPhone 4S so compelling, including one feature in particular that makes it the biggest leap forward in mainstream computer interfaces since multitouch on the original iPhone -- Siri.

It's fast, the antenna is rock solid, the camera is amazingly good, and Siri just might be the next big leap forward computer interfaces.	It's the same design as last year, including the glass backing, which may rankle potential buyers who'd hoped for a change.
Apple has produced an incredibly compelling upgrade from feature phones, and the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. iPhone 4 owners have little reason to upgrade unless speed, camera, or Siri are unusually important to them.

Previously on iMore

iPhone 4S is the 5th generation iPhone, and one of three models on the market for 2011. While an incredible amount has changed, there are still a lot of features that have carried over from years past. Here, then, are those reviews.

• White iPhone 4 review (May 2011)
• Verizon iPhone 4 Review (February 2011)
• AT&T/GSM iPhone 4 Review (June 2010)
• iPhone 3GS review (June 2010)

iPhone 4S hardware

From the outside, the iPhone 4S looks almost identical to the iPhone 4. It's the same iconic shape, the same Braun- and Leica-inspired slab of glass and stainless steel. It may no longer be as fresh as it was when it debuted some 16 months ago, but it's still among the best designed and certainly the best built hardware on the market. It's also just as fragile, with chemically treated glass on both front and back, and an exposed antenna array all along the sides.

There are some small, subtle differences between iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. They're both 0.37 inches (9.3 mm) thin at 4.5 inches (115.2 mm) high and 2.31 inches (58.6 mm) wide but iPhone 4S is just a tad heavier at 4.9 ounces (140 grams). That's 0.1 ounces (3 grams) heavier than the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.

Like the original AT&T/GSM iPhone 4, all iPhone 4S models have a microSIM tray. Like the later Verizon iPhone 4, the iPhone 4S has symmetrically aligned gaps in the external antenna array -- two on both sides.

All the buttons and ports are where you'd expect them. 3.5mm headset, noise-canceling mic, sleep/wake button, microSIM card slot (even on CDMA models, see below), speaker, 30-pin dock connector, phone mic, volume up and down buttons, and the ring/silent switch. On the front, below the screen there's still a home button. Above the screen is the ear speaker and the VGA camera. On the back is the LED flash and the new 8 megapixel still, 1080p video camera.

Sensors also remain the same, with aGPS, a digital compass, ambient light, proximity, accelerometer, and gyroscope.

Design evolution

While iPhone 4S is the 5th generation iPhone, it's only the 3rd major casing design in the product's history. Here it is compared to the original iPhone (2007) and the iPhone 3GS (2009).

8 megapixel, 1080p camera

Apple chose not to improve the front-facing iPhone camera. Even though Macs have gone to FaceTime HD in 1280x720 (720p), iPhone 4S remains disappointingly 640x480 (VGA).

The rear-facing camera is another story entirely. It's been increased to 8 megapixels and is capable of recording 1920x1080 (1080p) video. Apple has also improved the backlight sensor, added an f/2.4, wide angle lens to capture as much light and picture as possible, and added an extra piece of glass into the assembly to increase sharpness. There's also an infrared filter to improve colors, face detection for better exposure and focus on portraits, and image stabilization to keep your videos from shaking.

We asked our app editor and resident photographer, Leanna Lofte to put it to the test.

• Complete iPhone 4S 8 megapixel camera review
• Complete iPhone 4S 1080p video review
• iPhone 4S photography examples

Overall, the iPhone 4S did a phenomenal job with landscapes, especially considering the broad range of lights and darks. With HDR (high dynamic range) enabled, the results were excellent. The f/2.4 lens lacks manual controls but handles motion far better than last year's iPhone 4.

Face detection works impressively well, even when the subject is moving around and the face partially obscured. The improved backlight sensor does far better in low-light situations, capturing shots that were impossible with iPhone 4.

Macro photography, however, proved to be more of a challenge. They look great if focus locks on, but often the iPhone 4S fails to lock focus. This might be an iOS 5 issue, and if so, hopefully Apple will fix it in a future update.

The 5x digital zoom and flash are serviceable if you really need them, but are really only useful when you have no other options.

For video, the iPhone 4S 1080p camera did a terrific job adjusting between shade and light, though under bright backlighting the video remained slightly underexposed. Image stabilization worked well for walking and panning but couldn't compensate for more extreme motion like running.

Low-light was better than iPhone 4 but wasn't great. There was visible grain, and image stabilization didn't work as well in low light conditions, but iPhone 4S' ability to compensate for color distortion was impressive and a huge improvement over iPhone 4. Again, macro video was incredibly sharp but iPhone 4S had trouble locking focus on very thin objects.

Apple has also focused on reducing the time it takes to get your photo or video. You can now double click the home button and tap a new Camera button right on the lock screen to go directly to the Camera app (bypassing Passcode Locks, so beware of pranks if you leave it unattended). You can now also take photos with the Volume Up button. The time it takes the shutter screen to "open" -- previously a area of frustration -- is also dramatically faster. And, according to Apple, a dedicated Image Signal Processing chip speeds up picture taking, with the first photo taking only 1.1 seconds and subsequent photos taking only 0.5 seconds.

Overall, for impromptu, casual photo and video taking, low end point-and-shoots have just been made redundant. Even for special occasions, vacations and other events, non-photographers and non-videographers can realistically rely on an iPhone 4S and be well served. Apple has done a terrific job here, giving iPhone 4S an incredible new eye.

Antenna and reception

If iPhone 4 had an achilles heel it was the external antenna band. At 5 bars, touching the right antenna junction could drop it down to 3. At 1 or 2 bars, it could literally became a network pause-play button. Yes, the mainstream media blew it completely out of proportion, and a case made it go away completely, but it was a flaw.

And Apple has addressed it by adding a second antenna and giving the iPhone 4S the ability to intelligently switch between the two to make sure reception is more reliable, more often. It also doubles the previous HSPA 7.2 speed to 14.4 Mbps.

• iPhone 4S intelligently switching antenna hands on

The new Qualcomm RTR8605 chipset is technically HSPA+, but doesn't include the much faster HSPA+ 21 or 42 Mbps data speeds. So data is faster if not dramatically so. In most areas those top speeds remain theoretical anyway, but it's a shame people who can get them, can't get them with iPhone 4S.

For CMDA users on Verizon and Sprint, none of this matters anyway, because iPhone 4S is still stuck on the 3 Mbps EV-DO rev A network, with all the limitations that come with it. These will likely only be overcome in 2012 or beyond, when LTE 4G (Long Term Evolution) chipsets are thin and energy efficient enough to meet Apple's requirements.

However, the new Qualcomm chipset does support dual-mode CDMA/GSM. That makes it a world-phone, and means if you travel outside the US you can roam on international GSM carriers. Verizon and Sprint may even unlock the GSM radio for you, if you're a good enough customer and ask nicely enough. Then you can use a local microSIM when you travel and avoid paying data roaming altogether.

Even so, you can't switch between Sprint and Verizon, or put in an AT&T SIM and have it just work. The carriers are still locking that down. (Time will tell if the Jailbreak community can set it free.)

Here are the supported bands:

• UMTS/HSPA at 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
• GSM/EDGE at 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A at 800, 1900 MHz

The AWS 1700 MHz band used by T-Mobile the USA, and Wind, Videotron, and others carriers in Canada, is still missing. That means T-Mobile is now the last major carrier in the US without an iPhone to offer, and it means that if you do run an unlocked iPhone 4S on T-Mobile US, it can still only run on the old, slow EDGE 2G network.

Wi-Fi has stayed the same as last year, with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. The 802.11n also remains 2.4GHz only. The Bluetooth radio on the other hand has gotten a boost and now supports Bluetooth 4.0, which offers lower power consumption and lower latency.

Speaker and mics

Every year we hope the inventor of the iPod will put a decent mic and speaker system into the iPhone, and every year we get made fun of by BlackBerry, and more recently, Android Beats users.

While there haven't been any audio announcements by Apple, or stage demos by Apple executives similar to the kind afforded the optics, iPhone 4S does show real signs of improvement. The speaker is louder and clearer, making it easier to do hands-free calls.

The noise canceling mic does an excellent job in keeping both phone conversations and Siri voice commands functioning even in busy, noisy rooms.

And the vibration motor, which has reportedly been redone in a linear rather than rotational arrangement, is less annoying when it goes off, yet every bit as noticeable.

Audiophiles might still be waiting for Phil Schiller to give them the attention photographers got this year, but for average users the sound is an improvement.

Apple A5 System-on-a-chip

The iPhone 4S gets the dual core Apple A5 system-on-a-chip (SoC) that was first introduced last spring alongside the iPad 2. Reportedly based on ARM's Cortex A9 central processing unit with Imagination's PowerVR SGX 543MP2 graphics processing unit, Apple will only say it provides 2x the computing power and 7x the graphics power of iPhone 4. This lets it power everything from AirPlay Mirroring to the Siri virtual assistant.

Doing bigger things isn't the only point, however. Doing more smaller things faster makes a difference as well. Launching apps, rendering and scrolling through web pages, playing games -- all these things are palpably faster. Near-instant, in fact. You'll feel it right away, and if you ever go back to an older iPhone or smartphone, you'll miss it immediately.

Interestingly, Apple's stuck with the same 512MB of RAM for the A5. While competing phones are sporting 1GB these days, Apple seems to believe they don't need more RAM for better performance, or perhaps don't need the potential tradeoff in power consumption. Given the immediateness of its feel and its ability to keep a large amount of everything from web pages to apps in ready and available, it's hard to argue. Still, developers will keep pushing the silicon and it would have been interesting to see what 1GB would have let iOS 5 games achieve.

Battery power

With the monstrous new Apple A5 SoC, and demanding new features like location-based Reminders and voice-crunching Siri, battery life should be a legitimate concern. Apple impressively claims very little change from the iPhone 4, though standby time seems to have taken a very large hit (down 33%).

• 3G talk time: 8 hours
• 2G talk time: 14 hours
• Web browsing: 6 hours
• Video watching: 10 hours
• Audio listening: 40 hours

In our tests it's hard to get a handle on. Reminders, Siri, and the other new features are so useful you end up using them more often, which leads to faster battery drain. If you stop using them (or turn them off in the Settings app), the battery seems just below iPhone 4 standards, but you lose out on all that great functionality.

If you charge frequently you can enjoy the best of both worlds, a phone doing what you need with power enough to do it when you need it. If you can't get to power, you'll have to moderate your usage.

We'll keep an eye on battery life going forward and update.

Accessory compatibility

While iPhone 4S is almost identical to iPhone 4, it's that almost that can get you. Depending on how well a manufacturer followed Apple's tolerance guidelines, most iPhone 4 cases should fit iPhone 4S, with Verizon iPhone 4 compatible cases likely providing the best fit. If in doubt, check into the specific case you want and ask about iPhone 4S compatibility. Here are some examples.

• TiPb iPhone 4S Accessory Store
• Amazon iPhone 4S Accessories

Sticker skins, cables, chargers, and headsets should all be compatible, and with better Bluetooth support, track information and other features should be better than ever before.

Likewise, the iPhone 4S gets not only the iPad 2's AirPlay Mirroring feature to get content to Apple TV and onto the big screen, but is compatible with the HDMI out Digital AV Adapter as well.

iPhone 4S Software

iPhone 4S ships with iOS 5, Apple's fifth generation mobile operating system and arguably the biggest update in the history of the platform. It includes features like unobtrusive Notifications, iMessage, Twitter integration, and a location aware Reminders app. Check out our massive write up on all the new features:

• Complete iOS 5 feature walkthrough

iCloud

iCloud isn't unique to iPhone 4S but it's launching at the same time and for the first time it makes online services and integral part of iOS. From eWorld to .Mac to MobileMe, Apple's previous Internet history has been one of high price and relatively low adoption. iCloud aims to change all that by not only being free, but far more functional than ever before.

We included iCloud in our iOS walkthrough, linked above, but here are the highlights:

• PC Free. iPhone 4S is the first iOS device you can take straight from the box and activate and setup with out ever plugging it in to a Mac or Windows PC. Backups and restores can likewise be done on-device and without a PC, and iCloud will also handle software updates over the air as they become available.
• Documents in the Cloud. For any app that supports it, like Apple's own iWork productivity suite of Numbers, Pages, and Keynote, any file created on one device -- iOS or Mac OS X -- will be effortlessly stored up on iCloud and pushed down to every other device.
• iTunes in the Cloud. Previously applicable only to App Store apps and games, in regions where Apple has secured the licensing, you can now also re-download previously purchased music, and in some areas, even TV shows to your iPhone 4S.
• Find my iPhone, Find my Friends. While Apple has been letting you track your iOS devices for a while, now you can also share location with your friends, either persistently or temporarily. Privacy controls are friend by friend, time restrictions down to the hour, and a kill switch is always on hand.
• Photo Stream keeps the last 30 days or 1,000 images available on all your iOS devices, and all your iCloud-enabled images backed up in iPhoto or Aperture on the Mac (but not both at the same time). Other than deleting the stream or logging out, however, there's no way to delete potentially awkward or embarrassing images -- or stop them from appearing as your Apple TV screen saver, for example. So shooter beware.
• Mail, contacts, calendars. Previously the largest part of MobileMe, Apple @me.com accounts can now be created on, or converted to, iCloud accounts. (Sadly, there's still no way to combine multiple accounts, for example MobileMe, iTunes, FaceTime, etc.)
• iTunes Match. Apple's music locker service, while announced, is not yet publicly available. When launched, it will scan your iTunes desktop library and, for $25 a year, make it available to you via iCloud -- in 256 bit ACC if it's part of iTunes massive collection.

All in all, iCloud seems to be a solid foundation for Apple. It's limited and has some flaws, like most first generation offerings. Hopefully it will grow to provide easier multi-device sync for things like game scores, and hopefully webOS-style Synergy services where multiple data types can be independently pulled, stored in separate silos, but presented in both single and combined views for users.

AirPlay Mirroring

AirPlay mirroring lets the iPhone 4S share it’s screen -- any screen on any app -- with the Apple TV over Wi-Fi. Since the Apple TV is designed to be plugged into an HDTV, this means you get your iPhone 4S content on the big screen.

While on the surface AirPlay mirroring might not seem like a major feature, it takes the personal, intimate experience of everything from gaming to FaceTime and makes it social. A keynote presentation projected in the boardroom or a group of friends playing a board game around the TV are just some of the obvious uses. Companies like Firemint are continuing to push the envelope as well, with concepts like multiple-device-to-Apple-TV Party Play. That's where iPhone 4S becomes a controller, and iOS starts to become a serious threat to traditional consoles in the casual space.

Siri

Siri is a natural language interface for iOS that combines powerful voice recognition (rumored to be powered by industry leader Nuance) and synthesized speech with an artificially intelligent query and response engine designed to become your “virtual assistant”. It replaces the previous Voice Control feature introduced with iOS 3 on the iPhone 3GS.

Siri is also the single biggest feature of the iPhone 4S. The speed is impressive, the camera a remarkable eye, but the voice and ear of Siri is what could define the next generation of computer interfaces. While that may sound hyperbolic, it's no more so than when Apple mainstreamed command line interfaces with the Apple II, mice and windows with the Mac, or multitouch with the original iPhone. All were derided as "toys" by those who lacked vision or merely disliked the idea of democratizing technology.

If Siri were simply a voice control and dictation system, like Android has had for a while, or like apps such as Vlingo or Nuance itself have previously made available on a variety of platforms, including iOS, that would be one thing. But Apple has imbued it with an almost Pixar-like humanity, a personality that while unmistakably artificial is also undeniably charming and engaging. That's probably why Apple, atypically, didn't rename Siri after purchasing the company behind it. Asking Siri a question creates a connection that would be far more difficult to achieve with a nameless "assistant" app.

Siri understands context. It understands relationships. It understands a smiley face. It can joke, even if canned. It makes you feel, for the first time, like you can have a conversation with your computer. You can ask Siri to tell your mother you're running late and it will address an iMessage. You can ask Siri to wake you up in 15 minutes and it will set an alarm. You can ask Siri to find you breakfast and it will search for local restaurants. You can ask Siri for the cast of the movie you're watching and it will query Wolfram Alpha. You can ask Siri her favorite color, and she'll tell you. She'll even present widgets, unique to her interface, if you prefer to tap than to reply.

Siri is activated by pressing and holding down the Home button, or by bringing the iPhone 4S up and to your ear, like you would to make a phone call. You can activate the dictations feature alone by tapping the new microphone button on the system-wide keyboard.

Siri is, of course, by no means perfect. It's still in beta with limited language and even more limited location support. Siri's voice is female in the US and male in the UK and you can't alter that (unless you alter the region and your accent). Siri relies on servers that sometimes seem to be struggling to keep up with demand. There could be a customer insight play behind it. And, like humans or Pixar characters, it's fallible and frustrating at times. It makes mistakes, and it tries to "learn" going forward.

Also, Settings can't be toggle by Siri yet; there's no turn on/off Wi-Fi or Airplane mode. It can't launch apps to update your Facebook status or get you back into a game. It can't plug into the camera for Google Goggle's type searches, or into Apple's Faces technology to find a photo of your child. Siri is at her beginning, but it's a beginning that we've only ever seen in Star Trek. And that's exciting.

Apps and games

iPhone 4S is compatible with all the hundreds of thousands of iPhone apps contained in Apple's iTunes App Store. It's still not ideal -- there remain no upgrades, no demos, and Apple as single curator sets itself up as both bottleneck and -- though increasingly infrequently -- rejector of all apps on the platform.

With the power of the Apple A5 GPU, however, games have never looked better, and with the functionality of iCloud, apps have never been more useful. So while the app and game count remains the same, the potential has never been better.

• Complete TiPb app and game coverage
• Top 5 app and game lists

iOS also remains the most web app-friendly platform in mobile, with an incredibly powerful HTML 5 rendering engine and fast Nitro JavaScript engine now available within Safari, embedded Web Views, and web apps saved to the Home Page.

Accessibility

Apple finished the iPhone 4 FaceTime video by showing a deaf person signing to a loved one. Apple finished the iPhone 4S Siri video by showing a blind person replying to a message through voice alone. They've also added custom vibration alerts, AssistiveTouch gestures, and other features. I'd be hard pressed to think of another company in consumer electronics doing as much to increase accessibility as Apple. They once again deserves a ton of praise for continuing to make this a priority.

Pricing and Availability

iPhone 4S is getting the widest, fastest distribution in Apple's mobile history. Starting October 14 in the US, Canada, Japan, France, Australia, and Germany, it will spread to over 70 regions by the end of 2011.

As always, Apple kept the pricing the same as previous years, offering more phone for the same money. This year, however, they've added a 64GB model for $399 on contract. And, while last year's iPhone 4 drops down to 8GB and $99 on contract, they've taken the unprecedented step of keeping the 2009 iPhone 3GS on the market, also at 8GB, but at $0 on contract. That's an iPhone at every price point from nothing to four hundred. No umbrella indeed.

Apple has also added Sprint as a carrier in the US, making it the 2nd CDMA carrier after Verizon.

• Sprint iPhone 4S review

They're also shipping the white model day and date.

Should you upgrade or cross-grade?

Overall, if you're thinking about upgrading from a feature phone or an iPhone 3GS or earlier model iPhone, do it. You'll be getting a spectacularly improved experience and feature set. If you're thinking about upgrading from an iPhone 4, then you need to make sure the major new features -- speed, camera, antenna, and/or Siri -- are compelling enough to warrant the cost. For most mainstream consumers, they won't be. For gadget lovers or geeks, you've likely already found a reason to justify it.

If you're thinking of crossing over from webOS, you should also do it. Now that Sprint is available and HP is floundering, iPhone 4S is a great choice. For BlackBerry lovers and Android aficionados, if you're not tired and ready for a change, wait and see what RIM's new QNX/BBX superphones and Google's Ice Cream Sandwich powered Galaxy Nexus-lead generation brings to the table.

Either way, here's some help in deciding which, if any, iPhone is for you:

• Should you get an iPhone 4S?
• Spec Wars: iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy S II vs. BlackBerry Bold 9900 vs. HTC Titan vs. Pre3
• iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, or iPhone 3GS: Which should you get?
• AT&T vs. Verizon vs. Sprint: Which iPhone 4S should you choose?
• Verizon and Sprint iPhone 4S and the limitations of CDMA
• 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB: Which iPhone 4S capacity should you get?
• Black or white: Which iPhone 4S color should you choose?

If you do decide to go with an iPhone 4S, here's some help getting started.

• iPhone 4S glossary
• How to setup your new iPhone 4S
• How to transfer your data over from your old iPhone to your new iPhone 4S
• How to transfer your data over from your old Android, BlackBerry, webOS or Windows Phone to your new iPhone
• iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad walkthrough
• Top 10 best tips and tricks for new iPhone owners
• Top 10 best apps for new iPhone owners
• iPhone Live! podcasts (with video!)

Conclusion

iPhone 4S may be evolutionary hardware, faster than iPhone 4, with a better camera and more resilient antenna, but iPhone 4 was a great phone and iPhone 4S is even greater. While the design remains one of the best in the industry, it also remains unchanged. If you like Apple's aesthetic, then you'll be very happy. If not -- if you would have preferred a larger screen or physical keyboard or a greater amount of standard ports -- than Apple has done nothing here to win you over, and likely won't ever on most of those counts.

In terms of software, almost everything about iOS 5 feels broader and better, and not only more functional, but more personal and more tactile as well. Apple has added more granular levels of control to things like Location Services and Data Storage, so you can keep private what you want to keep private and delete what you want to delete. They’ve also added more direct touch manipulation to the UI in Calendar and Mail, so the interactions are viscerally intuitive. At the same time they’ve increased the social, sharing aspects of iOS with services like AirPlay and apps like Find My Friends. It’s a clever balance. So is the interface, which Apple has kept as easy for novice users as it was in iOS 1 in 2007, and yet added ever greater layers of complexity for power users, including Fast App Switcher in 2010 and Notifications in 2011. For my sister, an iPhone makes calls, plays music, and takes photos. For me it can increasingly do almost anything.

Again, I can't help but come back to Steve Jobs, the man whose vision and singular will drove Apple to create the future of consumer electronics, device by device, app by app, culminating in the iPhone 4S announced just a day before his passing.

Like Jobs did, it stands at the juncture of technology and liberal arts, powerful and yet accessible, capable and yet beautiful, incremental new hardware brought to life by ambitious new software.

It's certainly not the device for everybody, but increasingly the iPhone is the device for most people.

A few of our senior forum members are taking requests to review iOS games/applications of your choice. We’ve decided to spotlight these reviews and encourage all of you to reply with your opinions regardless or whether your agree or disagree. We want to know what you think of these applications.

• Pictureka, by Electronic Arts (iPad)

• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit HD, by Electronic Arts (iPad)

• iGo North America Primo, by NNG (iPhone)

• Spinballs, by Christian Gross (iPhone)

Would you like to see a particular iOS application reviewed? Let us know here for iPhone apps and here for iPad apps! Keep in mind a request is simply just a request but if our reviewers think it’s worth a look, rest be assured you will see it reviewed.

See you in the forums!

We go through this every year, so apologies for not posting it sooner, but once again we'd like to remind everyone not to leave bad app reviews based on crashes or other "bugs" under iOS 5. Why?

Because iOS 5 is in beta. You're not supposed to be using it for anything other than testing your apps. Developers can't even upload iOS 5-compatible binaries to Apple right now, so there's nothing they can do about it, nor is there anything they should have to do about it.

So if you went ahead and installed iOS 5, you've given up your rights to publicly review apps until the fall. You're under NDA. You agreed to it. That's it. That's all.

Geek up, bear it, and save your snark for the fall -- when devs will be able to, and need to, support iOS 5 for all your apps. Then if they don't, let them have it!

[MBarclay via Daring Fireball]

Some of our senior forum members have graciously decided to take requests to review iOS games/applications of your choice. We've decided to spotlight these reviews and encourage all of you to reply with your opinions regardless or whether your agree or disagree. We want to know what you think of these applications.

• Ragdoll Blaster (iPhone)

• SimCity Deluxe (iPad)

• Slot Machine Roundup (Various Slot Machine games for the iPhone)

Want a particular iOS application reviewed? Let us know here for iPhone apps and here for iPad apps! Keep in mind a request is simply just a request but if our reviewers think it's worth a look, rest be assured you will see it reviewed.

Some of our senior forum members have graciously decided to take requests to review iOS games/applications of your choice. We've decided to spotlight these reviews and encourage all of you to reply with your opinions regardless or whether your agree or disagree. We want to know what you think of these applications.

• Ingenious (iPhone) (iPad)

• MLB At Bat 20011 (iPhone)

• PhatPad (iPad)

Want a particular iOS application reviewed? Let us know here for iPhone apps and here for iPad apps! Keep in mind a request is simply just a request but if our reviewers think it's worth a look, rest be assured you will see it reviewed.

Some of our senior forum members have graciously decided to take requests to review iOS games/applications of your choice. We've decided to spotlight these reviews and encourage all of you to reply with your opinions regardless or whether your agree or disagree. We want to know what you think of these applications.

• MLB At Bat 2011 (iPad)

• Fruit Frenzy (iPhone)

• 8mm Vintage Camera (iPhone)

• Death Rally (iPhone)

Want a particular iOS application reviewed? Let us know here for iPhone apps and here for iPad apps! Keep in mind a request is simply just a request but if our reviewers think it's worth a look, rest be assured you will see it reviewed.

One of the new apps for iPad 2 is iMovie. It was originally released for the iPhone 4 this past June, but Apple recently updated it as a universal app for iPhone 4, iPad 2, and iPod touch 4. On the iPad 2, iMovie is fantastic.

The editing screen is set up similar to iMovie on the Mac and split into 3 different screens. On the bottom of the screen, you find the timeline for your movie, on the top left, you find available media, and video preview is located in the top right. The "My Projects" screen is beautifully designed to look like a vintage movie theater.

Editing movies is very easy on the iPad 2. You can preview clips by dragging your finger across them and trim the edges before adding them to your project. To move clips around in your timeline, simply drag it to where you want. If you want to split a clip, position the curser, select the clip, and swipe down along the curser. You can also easily record audio and video directly into the timeline.

iMovie is stocked with 8 different themes, each of which comes with its own title screen format, transitions, and theme music. It also comes with a plethora of sound effects to add to your movies. Sadly the new Trailer templates from iMovie '11 on Mac didn't make it into the iPad version but hopefully we'll see those in an update.

Sharing your movies is a breeze and iMovie is equipped the the ability to send directly to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and CNN iReport. Just tap the familiar sharing arrow from the projects screen and make your selection.

I am very impressed with how well iMovie runs on the iPad 2. It responds well and performs tasks quickly. iMovie on the iPad may well become my primary video editing software - yes, I will chose it over iMovie '11 on my Mac.

To check out the movie I created in the video above, follow along after the break!

The early iPad 2 reviews are in and as expected it's getting its fair share of "evolutionary not revolutionary" and "a good thing even better" takes. We've already told you what key features might make you want to upgrade from iPad 1 to iPad 2, or to consider an iPad 2 as your first tablet. To hear what everyone else thinks, follow on after the break...

• Joshua Topolsky: It might frustrate the competition to hear this, but it needs to be said: the iPad 2 isn't just the best tablet on the market, it feels like the only tablet on the market. As much as we'd like to say that something like the Xoom has threatened Apple's presence in this space, it's difficult (if not impossible) to do that. Is the iPad 2 a perfect product? Absolutely not. The cameras are severely lacking, the screen -- while extremely high quality -- is touting last year's spec, and its operating system still has significant annoyances, like the aggravating pop-up notifications. [Engadget]
• John Gruber: The iPad 2 is a solid second-generation iteration. Easier and more comfortable to hold, noticeably faster, equippable with foldable covers that are both literally and figuratively magnetic. Like last year’s iPhone 4, it seems like technology from the near future. [Daring Fireball]
• Vincent Nguyen: On most levels, then, the iPad 2 over-delivers. By boosting speed and graphics performance while simultaneously slimming down the chassis and preserving battery life, Apple has maintained its core strengths and extended its lead in what are arguably the toughest areas rivals faces. Sure, a Retina Display would have been great, and high-resolution camera, but it’s relatively straightforward to drop those into the next iPad; it’s a whole lot more difficult to make a super-thin tablet with 10+ hours of runtime. [SlashGear]
• Jason Snell: For Apple’s competitors in the tablet-device market, the iPad 2 is a bucket of water to the face. After more than a year of struggling to catch up to the original iPad, here’s a new model that addresses many of the iPad’s deficiencies, dramatically improves its speed, and doesn’t cede any ground on price, features, or battery life. The iPad 2 raises the bar Apple set a year ago—and it’s time for the rest of the industry to scramble again to catch up. [Macworld]
• MG Siegler: In terms of the other competition out there that doesn’t begin with a lowercase “i”, it’s becoming clearer by the day that most don’t yet stack up well against the iPad 1, let alone iPad 2. I’ve only played with a Xoom for a few minutes, and I was generally impressed, but apparently it’s very, very buggy. Just listen to Jason talk about it here. The tablets from RIM and HP aren’t out yet, and the pricing details around them don’t sound too promising. Further, the app support support for all the rivals isn’t too promising right now either. That’s one of the iPad 2′s greatest advantages that doesn’t show up on a spec sheet. [TechCrunch]
• Ed Baig: The iPad 2 doesn't deliver everything on your tablet wish list. But when it comes to the ever-evolving state of the art, iPad 2 is second to none. [USA Today]
• Walt Mossberg: As new contenders move into the field, Apple isn’t likely to keep its 90% share of the booming tablet market. But the iPad 2 moves the goal posts, by being slimmer and lighter, boosting speed and power, and holding its price advantages, available apps and battery life. As of now, I can comfortably recommend it as the best tablet for average consumers. [WSJ]
• David Pogue: Thousands of news and entertainment Web sites still rely on Flash, and the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch simply can’t display them. But you know what? The iPad will still dominate the market, because it dominates in all the most important criteria: thinness, weight, integration, beauty — and apps. [NYT]

We'll add more as they go live.

AT&T boasts of being "America's fastest 3G network", so I've been putting that claim to the test by comparing the speeds with Verizon and AT&T iPhones side-by-side. The results were incredibly surprising. To find out what they were, watch the video above then follow along after the break!

First of all, I must preface this by saying that these tests took place in Denver, CO. Testing elsewhere could yield significantly different results.

When it comes to numbers, AT&T typically (not always) has faster speeds as you can see in the screenshots above. However, when it came to real world tests with Safari and Facebook, Verizon was neck and neck with AT&T and often times faster.

When out and about, I was consistently getting these results, but not at home. In my house, I have very spotty AT&T coverage and typically connect to a microcell to ensure I can make a phone call. In order to test AT&T against Verizon, I unplugged the microcell and got surprisingly mixed results. Even though I often only have 1 or 2 bars with AT&T, browsing with the AT&T iPhone is usually significantly faster than with Verizon. I say usually, because there are times when AT&T slows down to match Verizon. It's very inconsistent to say the least.

I cannot emphasize enough how my results were obtained from Denver and cannot be generalized to all of America. In fact, Ally has been executing the same tests in the Chicago area and been getting significantly different results than me. Not only do the following screenshots show AT&T with must faster speeds, but Ally reports that the difference is undeniable in practice.

Now, Chicago is one of the best places to have AT&T because it is very stable and running HSPA 7.2. It just goes to show that location is very important when choosing a network. If possible, run tests yourself while within your return period before committing to a network. Here in Denver, I may be considering a switch to Verizon if the iPhone 5 is available on Verizon the same day as AT&T.

Your data speeds?

To help increase our sampling, please add your carrier, location, and current data speeds in comments. Lets see what iPhone 4 can do on Verizon and AT&T in different parts of the country!

Verizon boasts of being "America's largest and most reliable network" and I've been putting that claim to the test. I've been comparing reception, voice quality, how quickly voice calls are placed, and messaging speeds with AT&T's iPhone. To see my results, follow along after the break!

First off, it's important to note that my testing took place in Denver, CO. Networks vary depending on location, so someone in a different parts of the country may obtain different results.

Reception

I must be going to all the wrong places, because I have yet to find a place where Verizon and AT&T both have 5 bars at the same time. One of networks seems to always have 1 or 2 bars more than the other and it's an even split between who has more bars more often. So, in my experience, AT&T does not have "more bars in more places", but only in some places.

With that said, I have not had a single dropped call on the Verizon iPhone 4 - not even a skip.

The dreaded 1xRTT

However, Verizon is not immune to that dreaded little circle that, on AT&T's GSM network, indicates GPRS. In fact, minutes after purchasing the Verizon iPhone 4 from the Apple Store, Ally called my AT&T iPhone 4 as I was leaving the parking garage. As you likely guessed, the call dropped. I instinctively grabbed the Verizon iPhone to check the reception, and there it was - the circle! But what exactly does this mean on Verizon's CDMA network?

When that ugly little circle appears on a Verizon iPhone, it is indicating a connection to 1xRTT which is basically CDMA's version of GPRS. According to Wikipedia, it supports packet data speeds of up to 153 kbps with real world data transmission averaging 60–100 kbps. It's probably not even worth trying to surf the web when connected to 1xRTT because of how painfully slow it is.

Voice Quality

I've heard many people praise Verizon for their superior voice quality, but I honestly didn't notice a difference. Ally had the same experience; neither one of use could differentiate the voice quality between Verizon and AT&T iPhone 4's.

Making a voice call

You know how there is always a pause between the moment you place a phone call and when you hear the ringing tone? Well, this pause is consistently shorter on Verizon's iPhone. When placing the same phone call (regardless of network) on both iPhones at the exact same time, the AT&T iPhone was always sent strait to voicemail while Verizon's iPhone went through with the call. To see the comparison in action, check out the video above.

Sending messages

The last thing I tested was sending SMS and MMS messages. In every instance, the Verizon iPhone sent out SMS messages faster than AT&T's iPhone. We only talking a matter of seconds, however; so in the grand scheme, it's not that big of difference. With MMS, Verizon usually sent the message quicker than AT&T, but as you can see in the above video, AT&T did win that race once.

Conclusion

Overall, I do agree that Verizon provides the iPhone 4 with a more reliable network in Denver, CO; however, AT&T isn't far behind. AT&T's network is very solid here and I generally only get dropped calls when in situations like in a parking garage. The best advice I can give is that before deciding which network to purchase your iPhone 4 with, ask around. Find out the reputations of the the networks in your area.

Early reviews of the Verizon iPhone 4 have hit the web and the short answer is pretty much what we all expected -- AT&T can be faster for data and handles simultaneous voice and data, but Verizon sounds better and has more reception in more places. For the long answers, follow on after the break!

• BusinessWeek: My early conclusion is, [the Verizon iPhone provides a better experience than the version that runs on AT&T]. I’ve been using the Verizon iPhone, available today for pre-order and in stores on Feb. 10, for about a week in various locales in Northern California, and it has yet to drop or fail to connect a call. That’s a sharp contrast with my AT&T iPhone, which continues to lose calls regularly.
• Daring Fireball: It’s the same phone. The only differences are (a) a brief period of Verizon exclusivity for the Wi-Fi hotspot feature, and (b) the network. And Verizon’s network is better.
• Engadget: While it isn't all rainbows and flowers (the data speed issues or the voice / data considerations could be a dealbreaker for some), it does kind of feel like Apple and Verizon did the impossible: they made the best smartphone in America just a little bit better.
• Laptop Mag: It was worth the wait. The iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless delivers the reliable data and voice coverage AT&T has failed to provide, making this device a dependable partner for work and play.
• Macworld: For all but the most discriminating user, the new Verizon version of the iPhone 4 is the same iPhone 4 we’ve known for the past seven months. If you’re thinking of buying an iPhone and are unsure about which carrier to choose, you’d be well advised to talk to friends about coverage and dead spots near you, and to compare rate plans. If Verizon’s network serves you better than AT&T’s, you can finally make the move (though you may have to pay a fee to get out of your contract—that’s something would-be AT&T switchers should check before committing to Verizon).
• New York Times: And to answer everyone’s question, the Verizon iPhone is nearly the same as AT&T’s iPhone 4 — but it doesn’t drop calls. For several million Americans, that makes it the holy grail.
• PCMag: Overall, I liked the iPhone with AT&T, and I like it even more with Verizon. I expect many other consumers will feel the same. Sorry, AT&T.
• Slashgear: Whether that’s future-proof enough will depend on individual subscribers, but it’s clear that the CDMA iPhone addresses an issue very much of the present. Out in the real world, away from the rumors and speculation, the Verizon iPhone 4 performed as you’d want it to: consistent network service to match the consistent software experience.
• TechCrunch: For me, as someone who has spent three and a half years fed up with AT&T, the Verizon iPhone is absolutely, 100 percent worth it. I’ve already cancelled my AT&T contract (by way of Google Voice, actually) and I cannot forsee a future where I ever go back. There’s long been a slogan that goes along with many Apple products — “it just works”. It’s also the best way to sum up this review. The iPhone 4 on Verizon: it just works.
• USA Today: The iPhone 4 is arguably the smartest smartphone. Verizon Wireless is arguably the most solid network in lots of places. Bringing the two together forms a wireless Dream Team that should more than thrill fans of both companies.
• Wall Street Journal: In my tests, the new Verizon version of the iPhone did much better at voice calling than the AT&T version, and offers some attractive benefits, like unlimited data and a wireless hot-spot capability. But if you really care about data speed, or travel overseas, and AT&T service is tolerable in your area, you may want to stick with AT&T.
• Wired: If you have the liberty to choose between AT&T and Verizon to buy an iPhone, your best choice depends on what you value. If you enjoy making phone calls, the Verizon iPhone is the obvious winner. Or if you’re an AT&T iPhone customer and your reception is just pathetic wherever you live, then by all means, pay the price and jump ship to Verizon. With all that said, if you use your iPhone more often as a general computing device rather than a phone, then the AT&T iPhone’s faster transfer rates should serve your needs.

Pre-ordering starts at 3am EST.

360 Panorama for iPhone just issued a large update to their popular panorama app that uses the built-in gyroscope feature. This essentially allows you to capture more accurate panoramic photos much easier. It can take a bit longer than a standard stitching app but the overall quality seems to be better. As iPhone photography becomes even more prominent and mainstream, good photography apps tend to do well. 360 Panorama is definitely an app to check out if you enjoy editing and taking photos on your iPhone.

iTunes Link

When you first load the app you'll be presented with a 360 view grid with an image in it. You'll simply select capture and the app will capture what you're viewing as a panorama in real time. The app has built-in light sensing too as well. This will automatically help the app adjust for low light settings. In good light settings, you should have no problem panning continuously to get a pretty good shot. In low light, I tended to go a bit slower to prevent seeing seams in the image.

Occipital has also mentioned that holding your phone at an angle also allows you to maximize capture area. This is a great feature if you have good light quality. In a low light setting, this feature wasn't too great and I'd still recommend holding it in portrait.

After you've finished creating your panoramic shot, you can view it live in the app as a 360 view image. Simply rotate your phone and the gyroscope feature will automatically pan the live shot for you (refer to video for example). You also have the option to save the image to your camera roll as a regular image, e-mail it, or upload. Some uploads allow the full 360 view as well. Nice little add on for those who want an interactive photo.

Overall, I'd say this is one of the better pano apps I've used on my iPhone. The only issue that really bugged me was that when you attempted to move the phone up and down a bit in order to maximize a capture area, the image didn't line up very well and you'd be left with overlapping elements. But for a simple 360 shot, this app will be a great addition to anyone's photography app portfolio.

Pros

• Extremely easy to use
• You have options when it comes to sharing your photos in-app
• Rendering time is faster than other similar panoramic applications
• Overall quality is much better (in most situations) than stitching applications

Cons

• When creating a pano, if you move your phone up and down, sometimes the seams don't match up properly
• In low light settings, seams can be noticeable if you pan around too quickly

The most common words used uniquely in 1-star and 5-star App Store reviews, according to Instapaper and Tumblr developer Marco Arment who wrote a script to collect the data:

5-star: awesome, worth, thanks, amazing, simple, perfect, price, everything, ever, must, ipod, before, found, store, never, recommend, done, take, always, touch

1-star: waste, money, crashes, tried, useless, nothing, paid, open, deleted, downloaded, didn’t, says, stupid, anything, actually, account, bought, apple, already

His analysis is well worth the read.

[Marco.org]

The new iPod touch packing iOS 4.1 should be hitting US stores tomorrow and that means some early reviews are hitting the web tonight. What's the bottom line? Follow on after the break for the first batch and we'll add more as they go live.

• Donald Bell of CNET says: "The Apple iPod Touch is arguably the last shot fired in the war of portable media players. There's simply no catching up to it in terms of quality and capabilities. In fact, we sometimes joke around at CNET about how many product categories have been unintentionally maimed by the Touch, including Internet radios, PDAs, portable gaming devices, and GPS receivers."

• Joshua Topolsky of Engadget says "The new touch isn't magical or revolutionary, or even unfamiliar. What it is, however, is a product without a peer; a media player that does far more than media playing. Besides the smaller screen real estate, the touch might be better compared to a tablet or netbook -- it has many of the same functions (more, in some cases)."

• Chris Breen of Macworld says: "Despite the cameras’ weaknesses, this is a very good iPod touch. If you have a third-generation iPod touch and lack an iPhone 4, this iPod’s FaceTime capabilities may tempt you to upgrade. If you’re unhappy with the performance or capacity of an even earlier iPod touch, this iPod is more compelling still. And if you’re without iPhone or iPod touch and have been holding out for a device thiiiis close to the iPhone—without the incumbent data plan and two-year commitment (and, of course, the phone features)—that realization has never been closer. It’s hard to imagine what more Apple could do to tempt you."

• Tim Gideon of PCMag says: "The only real problem with the touch is its high price—especially if you want a decent amount of storage. But with an entry point of $229, you do get a camera, HD video recorder, music and video player, portable gaming console, Web browser, e-mail, and app device in one slick, pocket-size package. There's just no other portable media player that can do what the iPod touch can do."

• Vincent Nguyen of SlashGear says: "Finally, the iPod touch, and if ever there was a device to overshadow the iPhone 4, this is it. It’s tough to imagine Apple being able to shave anything more from the touch, and a brief hands-on with the PMP is enough to convince most that the Apple premium is worth it."

• MG Siegler of TechCrunch says "For some people, [720p video] alone will be reason enough to part with at least $229 for the 8 gigabyte version. But when you add in the fact that it has the same “Retina” display that Apple made for the iPhone 4, and the A4 chip which Apple included in both the iPhone 4 and the iPad, and of course, FaceTime support, there’s no question that this thing is going to be a massive hit for Apple."

• Ed Baig of USA Today says: "Steve Jobs noted during last week's unveiling of freshly designed iPods that the iPod Touch has been called "an iPhone without the phone," and an "iPhone without a contract." Now that it's even more like the iPhone 4, it's sure to remain the most popular iPod."

If you didn't order yours already, do any of these make you want to stop by the Apple Store tomorrow and pick one up?

iRealSMS 3.0 for iPhone is a jailbreak utility that you can use in place of the default messaging app.  Up until this point, I had always used QuickReply for SMS.  A several of you TiPb'ers recommended I look at iRealSMS 3.0 so I did. And I'm impressed.  iRealSMS 3.0 exceeds the features of QuickReply for SMS by a landslide.

When you launch the app, you're greeted with a screen that shows 3 tabs along the bottom; folders, conversations, and settings.  Everything you need is in one easy to access place.  I like that aspect a lot, as most apps put their user configurations in settings, which just means you have to go one more place to make changes.  I wish more developers would start including settings within their applications.

One thing I didn't like about QuickReply was if you closed out of a text, you still had to exit out of what you were doing in order to respond.  This isn't the case with iRealSMS 3.0, you simply set a shortcut in your settings to be able to access Quick Send.  I love this feature as I'm really forgetful.  I will be playing a game or reading news feeds and think of 2 other things I needed to tell someone and have to close out of my current task in order to do it.  With iRealSMS, this is no longer a problem for me.

You also have the option of a blacklist feature.  You can also choose to have all texts sent by a blacklisted number automatically deleted.  Another feature that most texting apps lack is delivery notification.  Very handy feature.  Some users reported it didn't work but I tested it with a friend and it seemed to work okay with me.

Emoji also show up in an easy to access drop down menu or you can choose to have any emoticons you type out automatically turned into Emoji.  I remember last summer Leanna introduced me to the world of Emoji via the app store, and I haven't been able to go a day without them since (thanks Leanna!).

The price tag for iRealSMS 3.0 is a bit steep compared to that of its counterparts, but for the feature set you get, the $9.99 price tag may be well justified.  There's a free trial as well, so you can always try it out and see if it seems like a good value to you, and purchase after giving it a test run.

iRealSMS also has an iRealNetwork, as they call it, which will allow you to buy texting credits if you don't wish to have a texting package.  The current rate is 8 EURO cents per text (of course you'll have to convert that to your own currency).  In almost every case, that'll average out to a heck of a lot cheaper than standard texting plans cost for those of you who are looking to save some cash or cut out texting charges.

If you picked up iRealSMS 3.0 or have another jailbreak text supplement you use, let us know what you think in the comments!

Pros

• Folders
• Blacklist
• Snappy response times
• Very configurable
• QuickSend option
• Credit System for those who don't have a texting package
• In-App Settings
• Voice Notification if you choose to enable

Cons

• Price is a bit steep
• Delivery Notification not very reliable

iPhone 4 reviews are beginning to go live around the internet and impressions so far are resoundingly positive, though as usual AT&T takes some heat.

Josh Topolsky of Engadget says iPhone 4 is the "best smartphone on the market right now":

We're not going to beat around the bush -- in our approximation, the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market right now. The combination of gorgeous new hardware, that amazing display, upgraded cameras, and major improvements to the operating system make this an extremely formidable package. Yes, there are still pain points that we want to see Apple fix, and yes, there are some amazing alternatives to the iPhone 4 out there. But when it comes to the total package -- fit and finish in both software and hardware, performance, app selection, and all of the little details that make a device like this what it is -- we think it's the cream of the current crop. [link]

More early looks after the break.

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal thinks "the new iPhone keeps Apple at the top of the class", even while wishing it wasn't bound to AT&T:

Just as with its predecessors, I can’t recommend this new iPhone for voice calling for people who experience poor AT&T reception, unless they are willing to carry a second phone on a network that works better for them.

For everyone else, however, I’d say that Apple has built a beautiful smartphone that works well, adds impressive new features and is still, overall, the best device in its class. [Link]

David Pogue of The New York Times starts off by saying "new iPhone arrives; rivals beware", though he thinks the technically inclined might prefer them anyway:

[Android devices are] more complicated, and their app store not as good, but they’re loaded with droolworthy features like turn-by-turn GPS instructions, speech recognition that saves you typing, removable batteries and a choice of cell networks.

If what you care about, however, is size and shape, beauty and battery life, polish and pleasure, then the iPhone 4 is calling your name. [Link]

Ed Baig of USA Today says iPhone 4 lives up to the hype, especially FaceTime:

As with previous iPhones, the latest model breaks new ground. FaceTime video calling on the iPhone 4 is one of those cool "seeing is believing" features, and it arrives on top of several across-the-board enhancements. And iOS 4 is a mostly terrific software upgrade.

Cutting through the hype, Apple has given longtime diehards, and first-time iPhone owners, plenty to cheer about. [Link]

Boy Genius goes for first impressions in point form, among them:

-The size and weight just feel right. - [The screen] is stunning - The industrial design is really solid, you feel like you are holding a luxury item. - Speed. Oh it’s fast. [Link]

Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing says she would buy it:

The fourth incarnation of Apple's iPhone is an incrementally improved, familiar device—not a new kind of device, as was the case with the recent introduction of iPad. Yes, the notable features with iPhone 4—both the device and the iOS4, which came out yesterday in advance of the iPhone itself—are mostly tweaks. But what tweaks they are: Apple's focus on improvement is as much key to the quality of its products as innovation. But there's one flaw it can't completely eliminate: the unreliable quality of calls placed over AT&T, which remains the iPhone's only U.S. carrier. [Link]

There you have it, the mainstream take on Apple's new iPhone 4. If you got an early iPhone 4 delivery of your own -- or when you do -- let us know your take as well.

QuickReply for SMS functions basically as an expanded plug-in to the built-in SMS app.  There is no icon for QuickReply and it just interacts with built-in functionality.  QuickReply attempts to solve a lot of the problems that the native SMS app still has.  The major one being when you get a text, you have two options, either close the text or view it to respond.  If you're in the middle of doing something on your phone, it'll close you out of it in order to take you to the text app.

QuickReply solves this problem by adding another button.  In addition to the traditional close and view buttons, you'll see a reply button to the right.  When you click reply, it'll simply bring up a keyboard and you can reply to the text without interrupting the app you are currently running.  When you're done, tap send and you're done!  The keyboard disappears and your text sends in the background. In settings, you have the option of changing the traditional keyboard to a transparent type keyboard if you'd like as well.  You'll also see an option to replace the view button with a call button.

With the latest update to QuickReply, contact pictures were added. I thought this was a really neat addition. If you have a picture set for a person in your address book, it'll pop up in the right hand top corner of the text on the homescreen. Speaking of the homescreen, QuickReply also allows you to reply directly from the homescreen. Enabling the lockscreen option in settings will allow you to double-tap a text off the homescreen and bring up a keyboard to respond without even having to unlock your phone.

QuickReply is definitely one of those apps I'd sorely miss on a stock iPhone. For anyone who's jailbroken, it's definitely worth the $2.99. And if you'd like to try it out, they have a trial period available.

[$2.99 - Cydia Link]

Pros

• No extra icon cluttering your homescreen
• Ease of use
• Reasonably priced

Cons

• Available to jailbreakers only

We just took delivery of the iPad Keyboard Dock and what can we say - it's an iPad dock with a keyboard attached to it. Ok, we can say more - the keyboard is excellent, it matches Apple's usual quality with keyboards and while we know some don't like their recent designs as much as the older stuff, we do. The keyboard dock is also heavy, we'd guess at least a pound. The obvious benefit there is that, unlike the standard dock, when you lift the iPad out the keyboard stays put.

More thoughts, video hands-on and gallery after the break!

The dock works like a standard iPad dock with a charging port and line-out on the back - though unfortunately it doesn't come with any cables or a 2nd charger. At $69.99, that would be nice to see but it's not entirely surprising.

The keyboard has some nice functional touches as well. You can (obviously) use the shift + arrow keys to select text; command + X/C/V works for cut, copy, and paste; and finally there are is a row of buttons at the top for various iPad functions. You can jump to the homescreen, go to Spotlight search, adjust brightness, start the lock-screen slideshow, toggle the on-screen keyboard, control the iPod, adjust volume, and finally instantly lock the screen with the top row. Another nice bit is that hitting any button immediately turns on the iPad without forcing you to slide-to-unlock.

So it's a nice keyboard and has Apple's standard elegance. Unfortunately it's not a great travel keyboard - both the weight and the fact that the stand doesn't fold down means that road warriors will likely be doing some very serious soul searching when they think about tossing it in their gear bag.

TiPb has done the full iPad review, of course, but while we're iPhone, iPod touch, and now iPad-centric, there are a lot of more general technology columnists and gadget bloggers out there who've gone touch-to-screen with Apple latest mobile device, and different perspectives are decidedly a good thing. So here's a roundup of what they think:

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal says it's "pretty close" to a laptop killer. He also got 11:28 of battery time on it!

After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades.

David Pogue of the New York Times actually writes two reviews, one for the more tech-centric critics and one for the more positively inclined mainstream.

The techie review is decidedly negative:

The bottom line is that you can get a laptop for much less money — with a full keyboard, DVD drive, U.S.B. jacks, camera-card slot, camera, the works. Besides: If you’ve already got a laptop and a smartphone, who’s going to carry around a third machine?

The mainstream review is more positive:

The iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget. Some have suggested that it might make a good goof-proof computer for technophobes, the aged and the young; they’re absolutely right.

Ed Baig of USA Today says it's a winner.

The iPad is not so much about what you can do — browse, do e-mail, play games, read e-books and more — but how you can do it. That's where Apple is rewriting the rulebook for mainstream computing. There is no mouse or physical keyboard. Everything is based on touch. All programs arrive directly through Apple's App Store. Apple's tablet is fun, simple, stunning to look at and blazingly fast.

Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times says the iPad is pure innovation and one of the best computers ever.

The most compelling sign that Apple got this right is the fact that despite the novelty of the iPad, the excitement slips away after about ten seconds and you’re completely focused on the task at hand ... whether it’s reading a book, writing a report, or working on clearing your Inbox. Second most compelling: in situation after situation, I find that the iPad is the best computer in my household and office menagerie. It’s not a replacement for my notebook, mind you. It feels more as if the iPad is filling a gap that’s existed for quite some time.

Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus of the Houston Chronicle says the iPad is better than expected.

It turns out the iPad isn't as much a laptop replacement as I thought (though it could easily be used as one). Instead, it's an entirely new category of mobile device. For example, now when I want to surf the Web from the couch or back deck, the iPad is the device I choose. Starbucks? Same thing. Think of the iPad as a new arrow in your technology quiver, an arrow that will often be the best tool for a given task.

Tim Gideon of PCMag says the iPad just makes sense.

When you combine basic-but-essential work tools with iWork, an improved browser, e-mail, iPod, and photo applications, a well-executed e-Book platform with iBooks, and throw in thousands of downloadable apps and games, and package it all in a gorgeous, slim slate with a beautiful 9.7-inch touch screen, you have yourself a winner.

Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing says the iPad is a touch of genius.

Flick the switch and the novelty hits. Just as the iPhone, Palm Pré and Android phones scratched an itch we didn't know we had, somewhere between cellphone and notebook, the iPad hits a completely new pleasure spot. The display is large enough to make the experience of apps and games on smaller screens stale. Typography is crisp, images gem-like, and the speed brisk thanks to Apple's A4 chip and solid state storage. As I browse early release iPad apps, web pages, and flip through the iBook store and books, the thought hits that this is a greater leap into a new user experience than the sum of its parts suggests.

Joshua Topolsky of Engadget says, like Mau'dib of Dune, the iPad's name is a killing word:

more than a product -- it's a statement, an idea, and potentially a prime mover in the world of consumer electronics. [...] The buyer of an iPad is one of two people, the first is someone who sees not just the present, but the potential of a product like the iPad... and believes in and is excited about that potential. This is also a person who can afford what amounts to a luxury item. The second is an individual who simply doesn't need to get that much work done, and would prefer their computing experience to be easier, faster, and simpler.

Vincent Nguyen of SlashGear thinks it has the same mix of wonder and frustration as past Apple 1.0 devices:

Yes, there is a sense that in the process they’ve simply left out anything they couldn’t polish to the same standard – whether it is Flash, multitasking or a webcam. This is a first generation device, though; look how long it’s taken Apple to deliver on some of the more common phone functionality in their three-generation-old mobile platform. You might not like the way they do it – holding off until the user experience, the market, or the combination of both is right – but millions of happy iPhone owners are evidence that there’s certainly an audience for it.

Matt Miller of ZDNET (and sibling-site Nokia Experts) thinks the hardware is rock-solid but hopes it gets a multitasking software update soon (us too, Matt!)

After several hours of usage, I have to say I am very pleased that I made the purchase. The hardware is better than I thought it would be, developers didn’t just make apps bigger to fit the screen, the battery life reported by everyone has been at least 10 hours, there is more media content than I thought we would see right at launch (Netflix, ABC Player, MLB At Bat), and apps are rolling out fast. With my Palm Pre Plus and free WiFi Hotspot service I think the iPad will actually fill a role in my life as a daily train commuter and heavy web surfer.

So, did any of these reviews change your mind? Did any of them convince you to get an iPad... or convince you not to?

Well, it looks like UPS did indeed deliver a few iPhone 3G S a tad early. Heh. And here's what some of the top guns in tech thought of Apple's newest handset.

Overall, most felt it was evolution rather than revolution, a solid update if not one re-forged in the unicorn tears of it's ancestors. Is the best getting better enough? TiPb will tell you our thoughts after we stand in line tomorrow and grab ours. If you're waiting as well, check out the reviews and let us know what you think:

• Chicago Sun Times: Review: iPhone 3G S is a slick upgrade for a slick device
• CNET: Apple iPhone 3G S - 32GB - black (AT&T)
• Engadget: iPhone 3GS Review
• Gizmodo: iPhone 3GS Review
• New York Times: Apple Fills in Some Gaps With Latest iPhone
• USA Today: Upgrade makes great iPhone even better
• Wall Street Journal: New iPhone Is Better Model–Or Just Get OS 3.0

Motorola HT820 Stereo Bluetooth Headset ($49.95 - WMExperts Store link): Chad thought this headset was great, and I will “suffer” through the minor ear fatigue just to use them. They provide a great value in functionality and sound great. Minus side, they're a tad heavy and aren't the best for use when lying down.

Plantronics Voyager 855 A2DP Stereo Bluetooth Headset (69.95 - WMExperts Store link): Jeremy said this headset is a fantastic deal. Not only will you be able to take full advantage of the upcoming 3.0’s A2DP feature you get a very good overall bluetooth stereo headset. Cons include the lack of noise cancellation.

Motorola S9 A2DP Stereo Bluetooth Headset ($49.95 - WMExperts Store link): Rene's take is if you want something solid, affordable, portable, and functional for your iPhone 3.0 device on the go, you’d do well to consider the Motorola S9s. On the negative side, fitting may be an issue and they don't work well for lying down.

Motorola S9-HD Bluetooth Stereo Headphones ($84.95 - WMExperts Store link): Rene's conclusion is if you want this form factor and sound quality matters to you more than price, these are top of the charts — easily. Cons were same as the non-HD version.

First Impressions

This is my second iGrip review of an iPhone mount and it is very different from the first. This mount comes with the detachable sled for the iPhone, a posable swivel neck mount and adhesive suction cup. I was a little concerned about the mounts overall height when I took it out of the box. My first thought was, "Where is the extender", "This is it?". However, there was no need to worry, this swivel mount does the job.

Daily Use

First I tried to to attach it to the windshield.  I ran into an issue since the mount is so short I could not reach it from the drivers seat. So I had to look at other alternatives. I then affixed the suction cup to the mount and decided to place it on the dashboard directly above the instrument panel. This proved to be an excellent idea! The iPhone is now clearly positioned so I can view it easily if someone calls, or I am using GPS (yes, there GPS apps on non- jailbroken iPhones). So first up, the phone call test.

If someone is calling you, ya just can't miss it, the screen is directly in front of you. The mount does not grip tightly to the iPhone. You can very easily grab the iPhone with one hand from the mount and answer your call. You could even answer it with speakerphone, but while driving it makes it difficult to hear the other person. Answering a call with a Bluetooth headset was simple as well.

Next was GPS and it was an absolute dream. I use G-Map for iPhone and it worked perfectly (the mount of course). The maps were at eye-level and were in the best possible position.

Using music on the mount was easy too. Click the iPod app and flick to the music I wanted... nice.

Because the iGrip Swivel is not a gooseneck-style mount, it does not bounce; there is no limp part or the ability to move accidentally.

Conclusion

Pros:

• Rock-solid
• No bounce
• Can be tightened to a position you want
• iPhone fits securely with out snapping into place, it can be lifted out easily

Cons:

• No landscape orientation
• No extra "adhesive sticker" if you use the base mount to adhere to a dash
• Does not work well for windshield mounting, I found it worked best on the dashboard

TiPb's Rating:

Seems Emoji aren't the only thing being scrubbed from the App Store today! MacRumors is reporting that old reviews made my users who hadn't actually downloaded the app they were reviewing are also being removed. Apple stopped non-users from reviewing apps a while back, this is just retroactively applying the new policy to the old reviews:

Several long standing apps have seen dramatic decreases in their review counts. SEGA's Super Monkey Ball count dropped from 4197 reviews down to 3710 while Namco's Pac Man dropped from 395 to 122.

Most everyone involved, from developers tired of no-good-nicks trying to game the system, to users tired of sorting through gamed or off-topic reviews, will likely appreciate this move. Maybe this is one rejection Apple's done right?

It was not long ago that Rene introduced all of you to yet another TiPb giveaway. Element Case was kind enough to provide TiPb with THREE amazing custom made cases for our faithful readers to win. Today we bring you a full review of those cases, and details on how to enter to win the very first one of them. Read on for both the review, and the contest, after the break!

Design

I will admit I am not the biggest fan of hard cases for any of my iPhones. Usually a simple drop would send a case flying in two pieces with the iPhone following. Now I'm not sure about you, but that is not my idea of protection. Enter the Liquid Case from Element Case. Four nickel-plated screws bolt your iPhone into its acrylic body armor and then a plastic shield snaps into place with the help of four magnets. With this case your iPhone or iPhone 3G is securely held in place and protected very well. So if that accidental drop does happen, rest assured your iPhone will be protected and come away scratch free.

Now you may be saying to yourself $99 for a case is just crazy. Well you do get what you pay for my friends. Every single Element Case is custom built and hand-assembled right here in the USA. They are injection molded from the finest clear Impact-Acrylic and PolyCarbonate polymers. Each case is custom painted with up to 7 layers of House of Kolor paint, which is not only excellent paint but also provides a top notch appearance as well. Graphics are then laser engraved into the flip-lid and backplate of every case, providing a customized look for the iPhone and iPhone 3G. The Liquid case gives you three choices of color: black, grey and white. You also get a free extra lid with your purchase. You will have your choice of 22 different graphics for your lid and and eight different colors. This means you will have little issue coming away with a very unique case. An don't forget for a extra $25 gets you a custom engraving Hence the super cool TiPb logos on the cases we are giving away.

Daily Use

This case has the iPhone gamer in mind (or simply someone who wants the best protection available). The extra size may not be to everyones liking, but one of the nice things about it revolves around it's main purpose, gaming. It fits very nicely in the hands especially while playing a game. One of Dieter's biggest gripes while holding the iPhone 3G in landscape mode was that your hand would cover up the speaker blocking the sound! Well worry about that issue no more gamers.

There is no doubt that dropping your iPhone with this case on will save your investment from any harm. You even have the option of putting the lid on to cover the screen while not in use. Although some may find it a hassle to have to remove it every time you need to access the phone it is nice to be able to give it that added protection while not in use.

Everything is easily accessible while the case is on the phone. From the 3.5 headset jack, power, volume, ring/vibrate switch, and charging port. The Element Liquid Case has you covered.

Conclusion

I have to say, I really do like this case. The many options can make for a unique look and it offers excellent protection. I am not aware of another case out there that enables you to have this much control over customization. From colors to designs, the possibilities are endless. The price is steep and it may not be for everyone but if you are into gaming and want the protection, it really is worth checking out.

Pros

• Top notch all around protection
• Great for gaming
• Feels great in your hand
• Looks cool
• Very high build quality

Cons

• Starting at $99 it is a bit expensive
• The 4 screws make it a hassle to put your iPhone in the case or remove it.
• The size it adds to the phone may turn some people off.

TiPb Review Rating:

Element Give Away: Case #1!

So now that you've read all about it, how about a chance to win one! Just jump on over to our TiPb iPhone Forums Element Case thread to find out how you can take home the first of three one-of-a-kind custom TiPb'd out Element Cases!

I have reviewed a few headsets here at TiPb (Apple's headset, Jawbone and Jawbone 2) and the latest is the Jabra BT2070. This is a slick looking headset! The BT2070 is not just for good looks, it is light and small. The iPhone Blog Store has this headset for $49.95. 

Read on for the review, after the jump!

In the box:

The packaging is clear and contains just the basics: headset, charger, instructions and two earhooks. There is no included case or any other peripherals. Then again, it is a tiny headset, so a case is not needed.

Design and build:

Most of the small headsets I have used, have been solid, and this one is no exception. The design is light-weight and comfortable. The headset is essentially two molded pieces of plastic with an answer/end button joined by a volume up/down buttons accompanying it on either side. The answer/end button is illuminated by a yellow circle that surrounds it then continues to create a division line between the volume buttons; very sharp. The headset can be worn in either ear with or without the earhook. Speaking of earhooks, the headset comes with two; just to make sure it can be as comfortable as possible. 

Using the headset:

After charging the device, I paired it with the iPhone 3G and it worked as advertised. I could listen to voicemails and make calls with ease. The answer/end button was responsive. However, I did find it difficult to adjust the volume while wearing the headset. A good resolution for this is to briefly take the device out of your ear, crank the volume up and manage the volume directly from iPhone's volume controls. 

The Jabra is comfortable in the ear; much more so than some other headsets I have used. What I like most of all is the headset gives you options; you can wear it with or without the earhook. For example, you can place the device directly in the ear (It is more comfortable than the Apple bluetooth headset, I was surprised) and it fits snugly without being uncomfortable. This is due to the earpiece being a kneadable unlike the Apple headset which was plastic with a solid rubber edge. If you use the earhook, the headset just "rests" in your ear canal. Since the device is so light, you can almost forget you are wearing it (is this good or bad?).

When talking on the device, I had no real static issues. I typically find there is always some static with bluetooth; the technology is far form perfect, but the fact it is 2.0 compliant with EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) means that you get good clarity on a call.

Talking with friends, the typical feedback I received was that the device has great noise-cancellation ability. I talked in grocery stores, malls, etc. and most friends said that they heard no background noise or very little (sometimes if you are under a speaker in a store, there is not much you can do about how loud noise is). The only concern here is wind. Yes, when the wind is howling outside and you are trying to talk on your headset... apparently the recipient can't hear a thing...

Charging the headset took no time; 1.5 at most. You can get about 5 hours of talk time. This is sufficient for me since I rarely talk than 2 hours on my iPhone in a single day. 

Conclusion:

I really like this bluetooth headset. It is relativly inexpensive, light weight, good call clarity and comfortable. If you are in the market for a smaller-style headset that looks good, the Jabra BT2070 might just be for you! There are better headsets out their, but they typically cost about twice as much. For what this headset is, it is a good value.

Pros:

• Comfortable
• Light
• Good call clarity

Cons:

• Difficult to adjust volume while in your ear
• Even on maximum volume, could be louder
• Useless in windy conditions

Rating:

[Ed: Wondering where you may have seen this case before? Look no further than our ongoing Smartphone Expert Round Robin! Yup, one lucky TiPb reader will be winning the Naked Case along with a shiny new iPhone 3G, both courtesy of Case-Mate! Huge thanks to them, and our new sibling store Smartphone Outlet for making all this possible! Now hurry up and read all about what you just might win!]

Need a new case that is light-weight, thin and protects the iPhone screen? Look no further than the Case-Mate Naked Case Touch Through Acrylic Case for iPhone 3G! This case is available for $34.95 from the Phone Different Store. This case totally encompasses your iPhone protecting it from any accidental damage. How does it work? Read on for more information!

Design

Case-Mate's Naked Case comes in a few different colors; black, white, grey, pink and clear. In this review, we are looking at the "clear" case. The design allows for a simple two-piece solution. The two section of the case slide together, seamlessly snapping at the bottom of the case, by the iPhone's dockng port. The top half has openings for the front sensors, power button and volume controls. It also have an elegant black outline covering the perimeter of the device. The translucent top piece is not only a protectant, but it is an electrostatic membrane that allows you to touch the screen. More on this later.

Daily Use

Once your iPhone is encapsulated by the case, it is fully protected. That doesn't mean you can drop it in water, it means that 95% is covered. There are still needed openings for the Home button, speakers, power button, etc. How does this device work on a daily basis? Let's start with the basics: the touch screen.

I have to admit I was a little leery of using a case that covered my touch screen. However, there is no need to fear, the device responds perfectly fine. The case is designed with such precision, the touch screen lines up beautifully with no gaps; even the home button is exact. Kudos to Case-Mate. The only distractor I could find is sometimes that the too screens just barely touch, So sometimes, there are sections of the case and touch screen that meet and it can leave a somewhat distracting "bubble" on the screen. To be honest though, if you touch it, it typically disappears and probably won't cause too much distraction.

I have myself trained that I use the power button to turn by iPhone on and off. I don't use the home button, just the power button. This has been a challenge because I find the the power button is recessed a little too far for my "fat" fingers. But hey, I embrace change, and pressing the home button to boot up is a satisfactory second place. 

I have found all of the other opening sufficient for what they do. I can easily access the ringer switch, volume controls, camera lens, headphone jack and docking port with ease. 

The case adds minimal bulk to the iPhone. I am not one to usually have a case attached to my phone all the time; I typically slide it in and out of a case. However, with the very thin form factor of the Naked- Case, I could still easily slide it into my pocket with no worry of it being uncomfortable or bulging out too much from my pocket (ok, no jokes here). 

Conclusion

Overall, I like this case, I really do and this is a first for me with this type of case enclosure. Sure there are a few distractors, and a couple nagging idiosyncrasies such as the Apple logo is completely obscured when using one of the colored cases. However, what is gained is awesome; a lightweight case that protects your iPhone top, front and back. The electrostatic membrane is responsive and works like a charm. All ports are assessable and is easily taken off and removed. Oh, that part reminds me of something; durability. I can't say I feel that I were to drop the iPhone on concrete the case would live to see another day, but I sure feel the iPhone will. Oh, and check out the gallery and YouTube video at the bottom

Pros

• Solid
• Touch screen works great with case!
• Easy to snap on and off

Cons

• Not dockable with case
• Some iPhone buttons are hard to access

TiPb Rating:

Searching for a unique case that’ll make heads turn? Looking for a case that offers great protection and adds superb grip for your iPhone 3G? Well then, the Speck Products PixelSkin for iPhone 3G ($24.95) just might be for you. With a waffle-like texture wrapping around the entire case it offers both daring style and a sense of security. How does it perform? Are all those squares really put to use?

Read on for the rest of the review!

Design

Make no mistake, the Speck Products PixelSkin isn’t an ordinary iPhone 3G case and it doesn’t pretend to be. Where other case makers choose to offer simple designs that try to remain as invisible as possible, the PixelSkin is loud, fun, and bold.

The PixelSkin is a rubber case that is textured with square blocks that wrap around the entire case. Imagine it as a big graphing grid or a waffle or a turtle shell or even a grenade. The rubber is thicker than most other cases and offers great protection of nearly the entire iPhone 3G—the PixelSkin even offers protection for the home button!

The color options are bright, bold, and plentiful. Black, White, Purple, Blue, Green, Pink, and Yellow are all available—for this review we’re using the Yellow version.

Usability

By choosing a thicker rubber, the textured grid of squares offer a much more superb grip than ordinary iPhone 3G silicone cases. Not only does it offer better protection than thinner cases, it also feels magnificent in hand. The rubber that Speck chooses is certainly best-in-class. However, the downside of using thicker rubber is the added thickness—you would have to debate whether the added protection outweighs the thickness.

Design-wise, the PixelSkin is likely to be a hate-it or love-it type affair. When using it as my main iPhone case for the past couple days I’ve received numerous compliments on it and questions asking where did I get one. I think for those wanting a stylish, attention-grabbing case— the PixelSkin is as good as it gets. It is eye catching and it is fun. The coloring is also wonderful, the yellow was more bright and bold than mold and mustard.

Because of the PixelSkin’s unique bottom port design (it kind of extends a thinner layer of rubber outward) it is able to be docked. This is highly unique with rubber cases because the added thickness typically does not fit. Applaud Speck Products for creating a great design. Frown on Apple for not including the dock with the iPhone 3G. Also, the cut for the headphone jack is very snug with the included Apple headset, so there may be connection issues with bigger headphone ports.

The problem with the case however is that the square grid design creates a lot of grooves for dust to settle in and the material itself seems to attract a lot of lint and dust. Though this isn’t a huge factor, I did find myself brushing off dust inside the grooves more than a few times.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I loved the feel of the PixelSkin—it manages to use a bold styling choice that doubles as a wonderfully grippy texture. The grid design will certainly have onlookers wondering just what the heck you are carrying. Though some might find the added thickness a nuisance, I think the added protection is worth it. Some silicone cases protect from just nicks and scratches, I’m fairly confident that the PixelSkin can survive drops. I think the PixelSkin should be considered by anyone looking for a fun case that adds good protection and incredible grip.

PROS

• Fun & Bold Design
• Grippy Material
• Many Color Choices
• Great Protection

CONS

• Design Might Not Appeal To Everyone
• Adds Thickness
• Attracts Lint & Dust

RATING:

eWallet

Ilium Software offers their popular eWallet app for Palm, Windows Mobile Pro and Windows Mobile Smartphone. Now, you can have this useful app on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

How does eWallet for the iPhone measure up? Read on for the full review!

Credit cards, bank accounts, memberships, passwords, PIN numbers, health information -- I'm a bit ashamed to admit that this is the kind of information I used to store unsecured in Memos on my Palm or, more recently, as a Note on my iPhone. Now, I've stepped up my game and am trying eWallet.

First Impressions

The app is fairly easy to use, complete with Get Started for help, Sample Cards, and more samples to choose from. The interface is simple to use and it's great to make virtual cards to store all my personal data. 

Filling Your Wallet

With eWallet, you first must create a new "wallet" for storing your data. You can name it whatever you wish. Once a wallet is created, you assign a password to protect the data you are about to store in your wallet. Create different wallets for different categories of data, if you wish. For example, create a Credit Card wallet for all your credit cards, a Bank Accounts wallet for your bank accounts, etc. For security, eWallet provides 256-bit AES encryption to ensure your data does not fall into the wrong hands, even if your iPhone does.

After assigning a password, you can begin making virtual cards. For example, if you want to store a credit card in your wallet, you can create a virtual card complete with all your credit card data: credit card number, expiration dates, name as it appears on your card, PIN number, verification number, contact phone number, security questions, and more. After creation, you can edit your card information by tapping the "gear" icon in the lower left corner of the screen.

eWallet allows for quite a bit of customization for your virtual cards. There are several different formats to choose from, from credit cards to your driver's license, from health numbers to insurance policies. Customization doesn't end with the type of card or data you can input. eWallet gives you other options, like selecting the color for your card, the type of icon displayed on the card face, gloss effects and rounded corners. You can even select a photo from your iPhone as the background.

Whatever your data may be, it's very likely that eWallet has a way for you to store it securely on your iPhone. If you are a Windows user, good news -- you can download a desktop version so you can backup and sync your eWallet wallets to your PC. If you are a Mac user, like me, you have to wait a bit longer for a Mac desktop version. Ilium informed me that it's coming soon, so I'm looking forward to adding that feature when it's available.

Final Thoughts

Pros

• Simple interface and easy to use
• 256-bit AES encryption security
• Create several wallets
• Customizable cards for all types of data

Cons

• No Mac desktop for syncing and backup

Rating:

Apple has made a vital change to the App Store, in order to review an app you now have to actually have downloaded it first. All I have to say is... it's about time!

This brilliant idea (that should have been in place since day one!) means we no longer have to read reviews from people who have never tried the app out -- or don't even own a iPhone or iPod Touch!

Now all we have to get rid of are the thousands of reviews that simply say "How do I uninstall this?" That is so sad, not only because they give it a rating of 1 star but the person has no clue how to uninstall a app! Is a 1 star rating simply because you can't uninstall the app fair to the developer? I think not.

Your thoughts?

(Via DaringFireball)

I've become a big fan of snap-together hard cases for my iPhone. I'm sporting a form-fitting hard case with "soft-touch" on my iPhone 3G right now, and my original iPhone is protected by the Griffin Reflect Case available in iMore Store for $24.95. If you still have the iPhone 2G and want an attractive yet functional case, read on for the full review!

Out Of The Box

The Griffin Reflect Case is packaged with a premium cleaning cloth and a static peel screen protector, some welcome additions and added value to your case purchase. Whenever I'm suiting up my iPhone with a new case, I like to thoroughly clean it first to reduce the chance of scratching, so the cleaning cloth is very handy. The screen protector is also a plus -- although the iPhone's glass screen is extremely scratch-resistant, I've found that the use of screen protectors have minimal impact on screen touch sensitivity, yet perform quite well in reducing finger smudges that are inevitable on the glass surface.

Form

As pictured above, you will see the front and back halves of the case and the plastic packaging containing the premium cleaning cloth and the static peel screen protector. The case is constructed of durable polycarbonate to protect your iPhone. The front half is reflective in a chrome-like fashion, adding both protection and style to the front of your iPhone. The back half has a matte black rubberized surface for better gripping, reducing the chance of your iPhone slipping from your hand like a bar of soap.

This Griffin Reflect Case offers full access to your iPhone's multi-touch display, the dock connector on the bottom, as well as the speaker and microphone. The volume rocker, sound switch, headphone jack and power button are also fully accessible. On the front of the iPhone, the earpiece speaker and "home" button are exposed for easy access while the case protectively covers the rest of the phone, again without obstructing the screen in any way. There is also a cutout on the back for your iPhone's camera lens.

Function

The two halves of the case snap together around your iPhone, encasing it in the polycarbonate protection while still offering accessibility to all controls, camera lens and screen. A benefit of this kind of case is that once the halves are snapped together, the case fits snug around the phone and allows no movement. My pet peeve about other cases, particularly rubber, is that softer cases can stretch over time and move ever-so-slightly against your phone, causing small scratches as dust and dirt get between the case and phone. The Griffin Reflect case is hard and inflexible, so once snapped into place, it won't budge a millimeter.

A downside to hard cases is related to their installation - they snap together, leaving an almost imperceptible seam around the phone. This is not a problem until you accidentally drop your phone. Although your Griffin case will offer some protection from the immediate impact, it's inevitable that the case will separate from your iPhone in the event of an extremely hard impact (like concrete, for instance) and your iPhone will be bare-naked and likely scratched and scuffed. For me, the assurance my case will not scratch my phone due to subtle case-slippage is worth the risk of what may happen if I drop my iPhone.

Added thickness is another downside to a case of this kind. The polycarbonate material is protective, but a little on the thick side. Your iPhone will appear less svelte, but it will be well-protected.

Conclusion

The Griffin Reflect Case for iPhone, available now for purchase at iMore Store for $24.95, is literally a snap to put together around your iPhone 2G and offers great protection while still allowing full access to the screen, camera lens, headphone jack and other controls. The reflective, chrome-like front surface is attractive and the matte black rubberized surface on the back offers protection and a more secure grip. Although there is risk of case separation if you drop your iPhone on a hard surface, the protection benefits far outweigh this risk.

Pros:

• Hard polycarbonate material offering maximum protection
• Full access to screen, camera lens and all controls
• Rubberized back is "grippy"

Cons:

• Hard case can separate if dropped on hard surface
• Case adds thickness to iPhone

Rating: 4.5/5

SplashMoney, from the folks over at SplashData, Inc., is now available in the iTunes App Store for $9.99 with a desktop version available for $19.99.

SplashData's products have been ever-popular on other platforms, such as Palm, Windows Mobile Pro and Smartphone editions, and BlackBerry. Now, they have taken the plunge and offered up some of their goodies for iPhone.

How does SplashMoney for the iPhone measure up? Read on for the full review!

Ever since I replaced the old paper planner with a shiny PDA, I have looked for ways to eliminate paper and consolidate all of my information into one electronic brain. One of my favorite apps over the years has been a little checkbook register app for my Palm -- it allowed me to leave my checkbook register at home and input my financial transactions as I spent my hard-earned cash. Now that I'm an iPhone user, I was immediately intrigued about SplashMoney and knew I had to give it a try.

First Impressions

The Setup

Setting up your accounts is rather simple to do. With SplashMoney, you have the option of either managing your accounts manually or connecting and syncing the financial data and transactions from your bank or other financial institution (i.e., credit card company). The list of available banks is extensive and I was pleased to find my credit union on the list.

The top part of the Account screen has an "Edit" button for editing your accounts and a "Tools" button to adjust various settings, from setting a password and editing payees and categories to Syncing your data to the desktop app (sold separately) or running the Quick Start Guide. Along the bottom of the screen is a " + " for adding new accounts, a pie-chart icon for Reports, a piggy-bank icon for managing your Budget, and a "download" icon to download your financial data to your iPhone. Additionally, there is a running balance indicator that you can customize to reflect any and all of your accounts. Given my personal financial situation, it is far more morale-boosting to just include my checking account balance so the number stays in the "black" as opposed to a "red" number with a negative to the left.

It was during the account setup period that I ran into some bugs -- sometimes SplashMoney will reset, particularly when you are in the middle of downloading the financial data online from your accounts. Hopefully this is an issue that will be resolved in future updates. Even with the reset nuisances, the ability to sync up and download your current balances and transaction histories is a tremendously positive feature for me. I like to see what's happening in my accounts while I'm on the go, and SplashMoney does a good job of displaying that information for me.

Form and Function

SplashMoney also supports multiple currencies and online real-time currency updates. Custom icon support and the ability to print registers and reports are also included features, as well as scheduled transactions and reminders. Some people may be hesitant to use the online account update feature, but fortunately there is secure password protection using Blowfish encryption.

Desktop Syncing

It's nice to have the backup and redundancy of my financial data on both my iPhone and desktop. I'm using the Mac version and syncing my data was painless. You can download a 30-day trial of the desktop app to see if it's right for you.

Final Thoughts

I would be far more pleased if I had more money to manage and see more balances in the "black", but that's not SplashMoney's fault. In fact, I look forward to delving deeper into the features and utilize budgets and reports to manage my money better and watch with satisfaction as more of those "red" balances turn to "black." 

SplashMoney offers a nice user interface on the iPhone and desktop app alike, and the ability to sync online with your accounts is a really nice touch. The app is simple to use but offers up very powerful features that can please the novice and power-user alike. I look forward to seeing future updates and see just how polished SplashMoney can become.

Pros

• Simple, clean interface
• Online account syncing
• Supports categories, reports and budgets
• Desktop app available

Cons

• Sometimes crashes during accounts setup
• Does not online sync to all accounts

Rating: 4 / 5

Read on for the rest of the review!

Design

The Nu Form is designed as a 2-piece polycarbonate shell with a smooth upper and grippy bottom exterior. The case is connected together by sliding the top portion (about 3/5th the iPhone length) with the bottom portion (2/5th). There is no snap mechanism or enclosure to click, the case just slides into one another, connecting in a sure grip of the iPhone. The benefit of creating a 3/5th design is to allow the iPhone 3G the freedom to dock, but given that Apple excluded the dock as a standard accessory, there is less need for such a design.

Also included in the box is a front screen protector that seems a tad bit too thick and clunky. Using a clear, thick plastic screen instead of a film solution leaves room for air bubbles and adversely affects the touchscreen, I would recommend searching for another solution from the likes of Bodyguardz or Invisibleshield or doing away with the included screen protector entirely.

Usability

The Nu Form case itself allows for easy access to all buttons and doesn’t inhibit any controls. Though some may complain that the openings in the case allows for easy damage to the controls, I would much rather have easy access to the iPhone than a diminished user experience. The protection that the Nu Form offers is more than adequate and is similar to competitive products.

What makes the Nu Form stand out from being just an average case is its stylish design. The smooth white upper includes a box graphic that added a bit of character to the case. The bottom portion of the case differs from the top in that its exterior materials provide for more grip and texture. Overall, the look and feel of the Nu Form is great. This case is a joy to use.

The case adds minimal thickness to the iPhone 3G and from my testing seemed pretty good to hold in hand. Having the Nu Form case on the iPhone 3G seemed like a much better solution that constantly wiping away all the fingerprint buildup on your glossy iPhone 3G.

One potential issue that I do see with this case is its inner design. I would have been happier if Griffin included some felt lining in the interior because plastic on plastic typically leads to scratches. But in slipping the case in and out multiple times, there seems to not be an issue. So I presume adding a felt lining would only serve for my peace of mind.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I can recommend this case to anyone looking for a stylish solution that doesn’t strip away all the unique character from the iPhone 3G. It offers adequate protection and is one of the better looking cases available for the iPhone 3G. However, I would recommend doing away with the included plastic screen protector and instead choose a solution from Bodyguardz or Invisibleshield. It comes in either White/Light Grey or Dark Grey/Black Combinations available at the iPhone blog store now!

PROS

• Stylish Design
• Easy Access to buttons
• Easy Removal for Docking Purposes
• Adds Minimal Thickness

CONS

• Plastic Screen Protector Diminishes Sensitivity
• Styling Might Not Be For Everyone

Final Rating: 4.6/5

(cjvitek is back with a review of Units ($.99 at the iTunes Store), a straightforward unit conversion app. It's currently sitting pretty at #4 on the bestseller list, but does it belong? Read on to find out!)

On my old Treo, I had a great conversion program which I used frequently. When I switched to the iPhone 3G, I was hoping to find a similar program. The best I have found so far is "Units".

Units is a conversion program that allows you to convert currencies, length, area, temperature, energy units, volume, time, speed, and weight. It has a simple, straightforward interface. First you select the mode you want to convert (say, currency), then the "from" units, then the "to" units. You select these options be repeatedly tapping on the "mode", "from", and "to" buttons until you get the selection you want. Then, using the calculator style interface, you type in the number you want converted. While I haven't used the currency converter yet, the currency values are updated daily (automatically) or you can update them yourself manually.

The program also comes with three "quick launch" buttons that are customizable, so you can choose the three conversion types you do most often (including setting the default "from" and "to" units). In addition, it also has a "switch" button on the main screen, so you can quickly switch the "to" and "from" options.

A secondary screen gives you a little more control. You can choose the mode and units from a list, rather than repeatedly tapping on a button to find the one you want. In addition, this is also where you can customize the shortcut buttons.

All in all, I found this to be the best conversion program available so far. The interface is clean and easy to use, and it offers a wide array of conversion options. I do with it had a greater number of units to choose from. For example, while it does list liters under volume, it doesn't list microliters or mililiters. Some of the units it does offer are useful and unexpected - for example, under temperature it includes kelvin (most programs simply have F and C). Eventually I also hope to see a greater number of units to choose from, and potentially more modes (for example, a shoe size mode would be great when travelling abroad).

At $0.99, this program is priced right,and well worth the cost for anyone who will find themselves in need of converting units on a regular basis.

Pros:

• Cheap,
• simple interface, easy to figure out

Cons:

• Repeatedly tapping to choose mode or units can be tiresome,
• some modes a lacking some units

All in all: 4 out of 5 stars.

Please note, this is the program from Crossroad Solutions. There is another program named "Units" from Ben Spratling. I didn't find this one as easy to use.

Friend Book envelopes and extends the iPhone's built-in Contacts app. Divided into three parts, a photo contact viewer and manager, a wireless contact exchanger, and photo dialer, it gives contacts some fabulous new abilities, though sometimes at the expense of quirky new constraints.

Note: I grabbed Friend Book pretty much the instant it was released on the App Store. Since then, it's been taken down to address an issue with contact permissions but should return shortly. If any functionality changes in the re-release, I'll update here.

Read on for the walkthrough, after the break!

Contacts: Photos and Management

Friend Book's icon is a variation on Apple's standalone Contacts App icon. Tap on it, and you'll see the same holds true for Friend Book itself. First up is a very familiar alphabetical contact list view with one slight -- and major -- difference: photos. Along the right hand side of each contact is the associated photo (or logo if you've set those up for businesses).

Working on the theory that our brain's pattern recognition is faster than text decryption, this makes it very easy to pick people out at a glance.

Tap the folder icon (bottom middle) and suddenly you can delete contacts, move them between contact groups, copy them to multiple contact groups, or merge two contacts together. Since Apple hasn't provided this type of functionality, it's very welcome in Friend Book.

Wireless Contact Exchange

Tap the hand icon on the bottom right, and a new panel slides up giving very explicit directions on how to exchange your contact information with another iPhone owner's.

And innovative and fun interface leveraging the iPhone's capabilities, the inability to exchange more than just a "Me Card" is a downer, especially for those used to the extensive infrared-based contact beaming Treo owners have always enjoyed.

Visual Photo Dialing

Ever since Bill Gates showed this concept off at CES on the Palm 700w, I've been a fan. I really liked Gx5's DialByPhoto for the Palm OS, especially their 3x3 grid view. Fortunately for me, then, that the 3x3 grid is just how Friend Book does it as well.

Tap the contact icon at the bottom left, and a panel slides in with nine little polaroid-style frames. Tap the edit button top right to begin filling them. Select a frame and you can browse your contacts. Pick a number, and that contacts picture and the type of number (home, work, mobile) take their place on your grid.

It's an elegant system -- or it would be if not for the baffling fact that your ability to browse your contacts is limited to your last list view in the main part of the app. If you were in one group, family for example, there doesn't seem to be a way to get back to all contacts within the selection process here. You have to back out of edit mode, back out of the the photo dialer, go back to the main contacts section, get back to all contacts, then begin the process again. That's a lot of back peddling. If the editor contained the standard "Groups/Back" button in addition to a "Cancel" button, it would fix this. Hopefully that's just an update away.

Another strange one: The search box is always present in the contact list browser, but sometimes is not enabled. There's no visual clue for a user, however, when its enabled or not, making for a confusing experience. I'm not sure if this is a limitation to the controls surfaced in the SDK, but it will need to be addressed by either Apple or the developers.

Conclusion

Friend Book comes to us from the folks at Tapulous, who are currently enjoying huge success with the Tap Tap Revenge, and some ups and downs with Twinkle. Friendbook seems more like the latter than the former for now: awesome app with great potential, and just a few bugs/quirks holding it back.

(Ratings reserved until Friend Book is re-released in the App Store).