The following Top 5 Must-Have iPhone Accessories for New Users guide is sponsored by the TiPb iPhone Accessory Store

Just got a new iPhone? Congratulations! Now it’s time to decide if you need a little something extra to go along with it — a case to protect your investment, Bluetooth for wireless phone calls or music, headsets for wired, batteries and chargers to get you powered, and cables to keep you connected.

There are lots to choose from, enough to personalize your iPhone just the way you want, but if you’re having trouble deciding, we asked TiPb’s editorial staff to pick some of their favorites. Check them out, after the jump!

Cases

Cases come in all shapes and sizes, from the full-on armor of Matt’s favorite, the Otterbox Defender to the barely-there BodyGuardz skin. If leather is your thing, check out Jeremy’s pick, the Sena Elega Pouch, or if your prefer silicon like Leanna, try the iSkin SoloFX. And if you want to combine a charger into your case, James still loves him his mophie Juice Pack air.

Bluetooth

If you just want a Bluetooth headset to use while you drive, or for some walk-and-talk, Dieter is currently going gaga over the Motorola H17. Jeremy is likewise enthralled with the Blueant Q1. If you’d rather have it on your visor than in your ear, Chad likes the Blueant S1 while Rene has been driving with the frenemy, BlackBerry VM605-style. Now if you want to rock stereo music with Bluetooth, the Motorola S9-HD is still turning heads.

Headsets

The iPhone and iPod touch come with Apple’s trademark earbuds but for those with ears that like to listen different(ly), or just better, Rene likes the iharmonix Platinum i-Series, and Dieter’s given the thumbs up to the v-moda vibe duo. If all you need is an expensive backup or replacement buds, however, Smartphone Experts has you covered.

Sync’ers and Chargers

Everyone, and we mean everyone, loves the Griffin Power Duo charger. And again, if you just want a second sync/charge cable, Smartphone Experts has one that’s perfect, and perfectly inexpensive.

Mounts and Cradles

Still not enough? Well, if you want to mount your iPhone in the car (for turn-by-turn navigation, or to use with a Bluetooth Stereo device perhaps?), the iGrip Custom Fit is always popular. If the desk is where you dwell, then the Seidio Inno Dock is Rene’s pick — and it’s friendly to most cases!

Your Recommendations?

What did we miss? Any must-have accessories? Check out the TiPb iPhone Accessory store and drop some ideas in the comments, would ya? Make sure we get this right!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Top 5 Must-Have iPhone Accessories for New Users

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Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chad’s Pick: Lumines

This week I am picking Q Entertainment’s Lumines. This game came out a little while ago with poor fanfare due to the horrible controls. Good news? There is now and update that fixes these issues and this game is now a pleasure to play. You even have in-app purchasing for additional theme packs. The music is not as good as the original IMO, but still fun!! [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Chris’ Pick: BitFlip

BitFlip is a matching/lineup style game in the style of bejeweled, where you try to match up tiles with the same color and shape. It is a little more complicated however, because in addition to swapping two tiles to line them up, you can also “flip” them to change the tiles. With two play modes, an easy interface, smooth graphics, a fun sound track, and a $1.99 price tag, it’s a fun game for those that enjoy the Trism/Bejeweled style games. [$1.99 - iTunes link]

James’ Pick: TripIt

As a consultant, I am on the road each week. In order to keep my life organized, I would always enter my trip details (hotel info, flight numbers, etc.) into calendar entries. TripIt makes my life easier by automatically creating my trip entries for me. The service syncs with various iPhone apps like FlightTrack Pro [$9.99 - iTunes link] and they even have their own free app. If you don’t have any room for one more app, you can subscribe to an iCal feed right on your iPhone. Perfect for the road warrior. [Free - iTunes link]

Leanna’s Pick: KENKEN

As someone who loves math and anything involving logical thinking, I am quite the sudoku fan. KENKEN took it to the next level. Just as with sudoku, each row and column must contain every number exactly once with the additional requirement that the bolded groups of blocks must add, subtract, divide, or multiply into a specific number. I love a great challenge and KENKEN is a great way to get that brain working and have fun at the same time. [$4.99 - iTunes link]

Matt’s Pick: Pocket Tunes Radio

II was initially wary of purchasing Pocket Tunes as there where other apps at a much cheaper price, however, more recently Pocket Tunes made some significant changes and addons that blows all other competition out of the water – with the ability to play streams in the background, record your favorite stations(& play them back later), and the ability to play AAC+ audio ($3 in-app purchase, but highly recommended), and if you have sirus/XM subscription, pocket tunes will play that as well! Quite frankly I got rid of my XM subscription because I could use Pocket Tunes instead! [$6.99 - iTunes link]

Rene’s Pick: NetNewsWire Free/Premium

I need to keep up with RSS, and I’ve tried every RSS reader on the iPhone. Each have their pros and cons, each makes a tradeoff somewhere between interface and feature sets, and while I wish I could just stuff several in a Hadron-esque collider and god-particle myself the one perfect reader, they just won’t (and shouldn’t) grant me access to CERN. So, I’ve been using NetNewsWire Premium a lot lately, simply because it gives me my Google Reader-synced news fast enough, lets me see the most recent updates across all my feeds, allows me to star and email out complete articles, and/or save them to Instapaper for later offline perusal. It’s not perfect, but perfectly usable for me, for now. [$4.99 - iTunes link] or [Free - iTunes link]

Your Pick?

You’re part of team TiPb too, so what’s your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us — and everyone — know in the comments!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Lumines, BitFlip, Tripit, KENKEN, Pocket Tunes Radio, NetNewsWire — TiPb Picks of the Week

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Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chad’s Pick: Reeder

I love Google Reader. The web interface is nice, but I desperately want an app to sync it with. I have found the perfect app; Reeder. Why? It looks great, has the fastest sync there is and the interface is fast and clean. At only $1.99, this app is a steal! [$1.99 - iTunes link]

James’ Pick: iPod

One of the reasons that I purchased my first iPhone is that I have always been looking to converge all of my devices into one. I travel every week for work and carrying around an iPod, a digital camera, a cell phone and a portable DVD player can be a real pain while trying to go through the security line at the airport. With all of my cords, etc. I almost always get stopped and searched. Now while it seems I am picking the iPhone in general, I most use the iPod function. While being stuck on the runway, delayed at O’Hare, or long cross country flights, I need my music to help me get through the flight. If music isn’t what I want to do, I can always catch up on my latest TV shows and movies. [Built-in]

Justin’s Pick: Maps

I know everyone frowns on picking built in apps, but I haven’t tried any new apps worth talking about so my pick is the Map app. In the past few weeks it’s helped me, more than once, navigate new roads after getting fed up with traffic and turning off the highway onto some random street. Plus, I’ve used the traffic feature to avoid some routes in the first place. Besides TweetDeck, Weather, and Facebook it’s probably my most used app. [Built in]

Matt’s Pick: Notifications

I’ve never regularly used an RSS reader, because I would add a lot of feeds, then when I’d open it, I had all these things to read and that little number badge would be in the hundreds staring at me from my springboard. I happen to be one of those people that if there’s a number badge on an app, then it needs to be resolved immediately. So I deleted the app. Resolved, right?!? The resolution to my issue was using the Notifications app. This allowed me to set up certain RSS feeds to be checked and Push notifications to be sent to me. Notifications doesn’t only do push for RSS, but Twitter, Gmail & more, This allows me to pick and choose which RSS articles (or whatever) to view when they pop up instead of putting them off for later. [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Leanna’s Pick: Bejeweled 2

PopCap Games sure knows how to feed into my addiction of puzzle games. A few months back they successfully took over my life with Peggle and now I’m addicted to Bejeweled 2, more specifically, Blitz mode. Bejeweled Blitz is a one minute speed version of the classic game that is also available on Facebook. With Facebook Connect, Bejeweled Blitz is now with me everywhere I go! Not only is this game terribly addicting, but it looks and sounds amazing as well. [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Rene’s Pick: Instapaper (Pro/Free)

I learned a while ago that I had time to either read, or write — not both. Luckily, technological advances like RSS and Instapaper have let me squeeze in some honest-for-pleasure reading again, if only newsy/opiniony web matter. Still, with drop-dead simple bookmarklet integration on the desktop (find an article, hit the bookmarklet, it’s saved), and transparent syncing between desktop and dedicated iPhone client, no longer is my day filled with “boy I wish I had time to read that non-iPhone-related post” but rather a single tap on Instapaper and it’s now “boy I hope I have time to read this non-iPhone-related post later!” (I purchased the Pro version to support the developer, but there’s also a free version if you want to try before you support) [$4.99 - iTunes link] or [Free - iTunes link]

Crackberry Kevin’s Pick: BlackBerry Bold 9700

[Er, thanks Kevin. We think. Check it out on CrackBerry.com if you must... - Rene]

Your Pick?

You’re part of team TiPb too, so what’s your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us — and everyone — know in the comments!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Reeder, iPod, Maps, Bejeweled 2, Notifications, Instapaper – TiPb Picks of the Week

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Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chad’s Pick: Eliminate Pro

This week’s has to be Eliminate Pro by ngmoco:) The iPhone community has been yearning for a solid FPS for a while and ngmoco:) delivers. There is debate as to how the energy system works, but at the end of the day, Eliminate is free and you can frag with your friends over 3G and Wi-Fi. What more could you want? [Free + in-app purchase - iTunes link]

Chris’ Pick: iMac (Late 2009)

My pick of the week is the new iMac. We just got one for my wife, and the added functionality combined with the iPhone is great. Adding in the MobileMe account, my wife is ecstatic with the iMac/iPhone combo, and I have to admit I am more than a little jealous. [$1,999.00+ - Web link]

[I got one as well. Phenomenal. - RR]

James’ Pick: AppleTV 3.0

When Apple announced the iTunes LP and movies extras, I hoped the functionality would be rolled out to AppleTV and the iPhone. With AppleTV 3.0, it has. The previous 2.0 OS was getting a little long in the tooth, so having a fresh UI and some new features has breathed some new life in Apple’s “hobby”.

Leanna’s Pick: Touch Pets Dogs

Touch Pets Dogs is absolutely adorable and my new addiction. The idea behind this game is that you have one or more virtual puppies that you must take care of by feeding, playing, training, etc. Touch Pets Dogs is very creatively made and your puppies respond great to your gestures. Want to pet your puppy? No problem, just rub your finger on his little body and he’ll respond by pushing his neck toward you just like a real dog would. This game has a similar feel to The Sims in that your puppies have various attributes you must keep up or else your puppy will get sad. Touch Pets Dogs also runs live, so if you go too long without playing with your puppy, you will receive a push notification telling you that you have a sad puppy! Touch Pets Dogs also uses the Plus+ network to meet other puppies, go on play dates, and possibly find a love interest for you puppy! If you pick this one up, look up llofte and meet my puppies! [Free/1 bowl of food - iTunes link, $0.99/10 - iTunes link, $1.99/20 - iTunes link, $9.99/120 - iTunes link, $29.99/400 - iTunes links]

Matt’s Pick: Trip Cubby

I recently began a new job for a production company and found myself driving all over Texas for commercial shoots. I soon realized that I needed an app to keep track of my trips. While I sifted through several apps, I finally came across Trip Cubby and haven’t looked back. Trip Cubby has a nice and easy workflow for entering data. It remembers recent locations, your last mileage entry, displays graphs, exports as CSV attachment and even has an online sync. If you are one of those people that need to keep track of mileage for deduction reasons, then this app is for you! [$6.99 - iTunes link]

Rene’s Pick: Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic

Joss Whedon didn’t bring his A game to Dollhouse, not the way he did with Buffy, Angel, or Firefly. For Astonishing X-Men, assisted by the amazing art of John Cassaday and the gorgeous (and uncredited!) colors of Laura Martin, he brought the A+. It was simply the best X-Men I’ve read since the original Phoenix Saga (yes, I’m that old). If you didn’t catch the comics, trades, or omnibus, Neil Adams’ company and Marvel Studios have brought it — at least the first chapter of it, Gifted — to Motion Comics life. 2 episodes of 6 are available now. I hope they do all 24 + the Giant Sized conclusion. Grab it from iTunes, sync it to your iPhone. Watch it now. With beer. [$10.99 Season Pass - iTunes link]

Your Pick?

You’re part of team TiPb too, so what’s your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us — and everyone — know in the comments!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Eliminate Pro, iMac, Apple TV 3.0, Touch Pets Dogs, Trip Cubby, Astonishing X-Men – TiPb Picks of the Week

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Math Ref Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Math Ref is what its name implies - a math reference app. It includes formulas, tips, and examples from many areas of mathematics. Math Ref has the potential to be a very helpful tool once some errors are fixed and the organization becomes more intuitive.

General

Upon launching Math Ref, you are given a list of topics (described in more detail later). Tapping on a topic will give a list of sub-topics. Choosing one of these sub-topics will provide a page of definitions, formulas, figures, and equations relevant to the chosen topic. Tapping a definition, formula, figure, or equation will usually give more information about it. Many times this information is some historical background about the topic, which I think is great. The following screenshots show the sequence of Topics > Algebra > Exponential & Logs > Special Element 1.

This brings me to my first “complaint”. The description should technically say: “It is also important to note that any nonzero number raised to the power 0 is equal to 1.” However, I’m willing to agree that I’m just being picky.

Under each topic, there is also an option to view examples. These examples are generally written very well and do a good job of describing the steps that are taken. Just as with formulas, you can tap an example to find out more about it. Here’s the screenshots of a derivative example and it’s description.

Topics and Organization

Math Ref covers the following areas of mathematics:

• Algebra - addition & multiplication, exponential & logs, formulas, quadratic equation
• Geometry - lines, shapes (2D/3D), surfaces
• Trigonometry - functions, Pythagorean & ratio identity, laws of sines & cosines, double angle identities, half angle identities, sum & difference identities, composite identities, unit circle
• Linear Algebra - definition, addition & multiplication, properties, determinant, 2D transforms, eigenvectors
• Series & Sequences - definitions, properties, sums of powers, geometric, harmonic, alternating, telescoping, power, binomial, binomial coefficients, functions, taylor, Laurent
• Differentiation - definitions, methods, table of derivatives
• Integration - definition, properties, methods, numerical
• Table of Integrals - polynomial, trigonometric, inverse trigonometric, hyperbolic trigonometric, exponential & logarithmic
• Vector Calculus - definitions, dot product, cross product, coordinate conversions, differentials, gradient, divergence, curl
• Differential Equations - linear, separable, homogeneous, inhomogeneous, exact, Bernoulli, real repeated & complex, undermined coefficients, reduction of order
• Discrete - propositions, quantifiers, gates, sets, relations, permutations & combinations, induction

The first thing I noticed when starting to use the app is that there are way too many sub-topics within each topic. For example, the various types of trigonometric identities should be grouped into a single sub-topic. Many times, a student will be using most of the identities during a single homework assignment and going back and forth between sub-topics would get annoying.

The next organization style that I don’t like is that lines are grouped under Geometry. I have not heard of a single geometry course that teaches how to find equations of lines. This is taught in algebra classes, and so lines should be in the Algebra topic.

The last thing about the layout I find disappointing is the fact that landscape mode generally doesn’t make a difference. It would be nice if landscape mode took advantage of the wider screen and increased the text size. Here’s a screenshot to show what I mean.

Errors/Confusion

I found a couple errors in MathRef and consider this terribly inexcusable. Users need to be able to trust that apps like this are actually providing them with accurate information. I’m concerned that there may be other errors that I did not notice.

• Under Discrete > Relations, you can find the definitions to surjective and injective. They are reversed! The definition they provide for surjective is actually the definition for injective. However, when you tap on surjective for more information, you are given the correct definition. The situation is similar for injective. Very confusing!
• Under Linear Algebra > Addition & Multiplication, the definition of matrix multiplication is technically correct, but incredibly vague and incomplete. When tapping for more information, it tells you that the size of the matrices are crucial, but never teaches what size matrices need to be when multiplying them. Matrix multiplication is defined by Math Ref as multiplying the columns of the first matrix with the rows of the second - but how does one multiply rows and columns and where does the answer go in the resulting matrix? All of this needs to be explained.
• Under Differentiation > Table of Derivates, the notation is confusing and simply incorrect. (d/dx) should be used instead of (dy/dx).
• Under Geometry > Shapes (2D/3D) the definitions and figures for the areas of regular polygons do not label what a is. Likely a student will remember that a represents the distance to the center, but there are two different distances with regular polygons - which one do we use?

Under Geometry > Shapes (2D/3D) the definitions and figures for the areas of regular polygons do not label what a is. Likely a student will remember that a represents the distance to the center, but there are two different distances with regular polygons - which one do we use? I have attached screenshots of the errors at the end.

Conclusion

Although my review has been primarily negative, I DO think this is a wonderful app. The things that are correct are done very well and the examples are helpful. I think after a few updates, Math Ref will be awesome. However, because of the errors and unintuitive & inefficient organization, I give Math Ref 3 out of 5 stars. (Fixing the errors alone will bring the score up to 4).

Pros

• Many examples with well written explanations
• Covers many areas of mathematics
• Lots of information

Cons

• Several errors or confusing definitions
• Landscape is generally the same format as portrait
• Some unintuitive and inefficient organization

TiPb Review Rating

Math Ref is available for $0.99 from the iTunes App Store.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: Math Ref for iPhone

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(Photogene Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

Photogene is an iPhone “touch up” utlity that can be used to touch up or enhance photos you take with your iPhone.

First, what Photogene isn’t. It isn’t simply a series of filters that you can apply to photos. There are lots of apps out there that can apply a huge range of filters (oil painting, cartoon, black and white, sepia, posterize, etc). I have reviewed a couple of them. This app does have a few filters, but it is more about touching up photos (fine-tuning them, if you will) rather than simply applying a filter to make it “art”.

When you start the app, you can choose to take a new photo, edit an existing phot, or continue a previous session. This last option is particularly nice, it means the app “remembers” where you were and what you were doing. If you get interrupted, you don’t need to start over. One cool little thing is when you start the app, a “tip of the week” appears about taking photos with the iPhone. Normally I don’t like tips that appear like this, but I like it here because the tip is specific to using the iPhone camera (not just a general photography tip).

I was using a general photo of some mosquito cages when testing this app. The touch up features include a crop option, rotate option, three filters, color adjust, symbols, and frames. When you finish with your editing, you can save the photo or start over (take a new photo or edit a new photo). There is an undo button to undo the last edit, but there isn’t a complete “reset” button to undo all adjustments. I would like to see that in a future release. So let’s talk about the touch up features.

With the crop feature, you can choose to crop it with a specific ratio (3:4, 9:16, etc). The area that will be cropped appears highlighted on the picture, and you can resize it or move it around. One nice thing is that as your resizing the crop, you can see the pixel size that the new image will be - very useful. You can’t do a free-form crop however.

The rotate allows you to rotate the picture by 90% or flip the picture on an axis. If your image is at an angle, you can also do some slight angle adjustments to make it level.

The app comes with three filters - sharpen, pencil, and effect (which includes sepia, night vision, or infrared (heat vision). With sharpen and pencil, you can adjust the level of effect as well. Pencil is sort of cool, making your picture look like a pencil drawing. But as I said, this app isn’t about having 30 filters - it is mostly about touching up photos to make them as nice as possible.

Next we move onto color adjustment. Here, you can see the color histogram and either adjust it manually or automatically for the best color image. You can also adjust the exposure, contrast, saturation, color temperature, as the actual RGB levels. These are, in my opinion, the best features of this app because this is the area that really helps you touch up a picture to optimal quality.

You can add symbols like stars, word ballons (with text), arrows - about 13 symbols in all. These aren’t anything really that help the picture, but they can make a picture a little more entertaining.

Lastly, you can add a frame - ranging from a “blurred” frame that doesn’t have a distinct edge to more tradition picture frames to a stamp border or photo album “taped on the corners” frame. There are about 15 frames in all to choose from.

Working on a couple sample pictures, I was able to make some nice adjustments and really make some of the pictures shine. You are still working within the limitation of the iPhone camera, so pictures that are outdoors or in bright light are going to be the best, but you can really enhance some pictures that you might have throught were lost. The features like frames and symbols aren’t really that necessary, and I would have preferred more filters instead of having those, but they can be fun to add to some pictures.

Pros:

• Touch up iPhone pictures to make them shine

Cons:

• Some features don’t really add anything,
• no ability to completely reset a picture

All in all, this is a good, all around photo touch up tool for the iPhone. Rather than just rely on applying filters, you can make some manual adjustments to thingsl ike saturation and exposure to try to bring out the best in your pictures. Some of the effects don’t really add anything to the picture quality, but they might be fun to include in some pictures. There is no way to remove all the touchups at one, however - you have to reset each feature individually. But the color adjust can really make a picture shine. The app is $2.99, so the price is great if you use the iPhone camera a lot. Four and a half out of five stars.

TiPb Forum Review Rating

[http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=309327900&mt=8">Photogene is available for $2.99 via the iTunes App Store]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: Photogene Photo Enhancer for iPhone

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Convertbot Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!)

ConvertBot is by Tapbots - the developers of WeightBot and for those of you that love the way the application operates, this one will not let you down.

This is probably the sleekest conversion application I have seen with its cool animations and sounds. However, the only issues I ran into – it takes longer than I thought the program should take to load. At first I believed that it was the app itself checking an Internet connection to update the currency conversions, but when I put my iPhone in Airplane mode, it took just as long. But it is a good thing to note that even though the currencies could not update, the program is still usable.

The sleek interface is what really makes this app so nice. This has to be the coolest working Conversion app for the iPhone. The “wheel” that takes up the main part of the screen can be rotated to set the conversion type:

• Angles: Degree, Radian, & Grad
• Area: Square Meter, Square Centimeter, Square Millimeter, Square Mile, Acre, Square Kilometer, Square Yard, Square Foot, Square Inch
• Currency: Australian Dollar, Brazilian Real, Canadian Dollar, Swiss Franc, Danish Krone, Euro, Pound Sterling (UK), Japanese Yen, Mexican Peso, Swedish Krona, US Dollar
• Length: Foot, Meter, Inch, Centimeter, Mile, Kilometer, Nautical Mile, Yard, Millimeter, Foot+Inch
• Mass: Milligram, Kilogram, Pound, Ounce, Gram, Stone, Stone+Pound, Metric Ton, Pound+Ounce
• Power: Watt, Horsepower, Kilowatt, BTU/Minute, Foot-Pound/Minute, Foot-Pound/Second
• Pressure: Pound/Square Inch, Centimeters of Mercury, Inches of Mercury, Kilogram/Square Meter, Pascal, Atmospheres, Bars, Pounds/Square Foot
• Speed: Miles/Hour, Kilometers/Hour, Knots, Miles/Second, Miles/Minute, Feet/Minute, Feet/Second, Kilometers/Minutes
• Temperature: Celsius, Kelvin, Fahrenheit
• Time: Second, Millisecond, Microsecond, Nanoseconds, Year, Week, Day, Hour, Minute, Hour + Minute
• Volume: Cup, Teaspoon, Tablespoon, Cubic Feet, Gallon (UK), Quart, Pint, Ounce, Cubic Meter, Gallon (US), Liter, Milliliter, Cubic Centimeter
• Work (Energy): Kilogram Calorie, Foot Pound, Newton Meter, Joule, BTU, Erg, Watt Hour, Calorie

Once you have rotated the wheel to the type/category, then you tap on the bottom left button and you use the “wheel” to select the specific conversion unit, take the center blue button, “ok” and it locks that unit in. This unit is the unit you are converting from. The other black button is the unit you want to convert to. You repeat the same process of locking in the unit.

By tapping on the top “number screen,” this opens up a keypad so that you can type in the amount you are converting from. The application has a live update, in which the app auto converts as you type the number into the app. Tapping on the “number screen” again brings back the conversion “wheel”

You can tap on the center wheel to switch the units if you need to.

By tapping on the “i” icon you can view the Settings which allows you to turn the sound on or off as well as the choice of viewing the Demo (which is quite a nice feature in the app).

Issues:

• Would like to have the “wheel” spin more smoothly, rather than “clicking” into place.
• Not as common currencies are not available in the app. (exe.: Argentinian Pesos or Chilean Peso)

Pros:

• Sleek Interface
• Sounds & animation to go with each “screen” or tap
• Complex conversions

Cons:

• Takes quite long to update currencies at app start up (quicker in airplane mode, due to currencies not updating)
• “Wheel” ‘clicks’ into place rather than smoothly rolling.
• Uncommon currencies not available

TiPb Review Rating

[Convertbot is available for $0.99 from the iTunes App Store.]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: Convertbot Unit Converter for iPhone

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(MLB At Bat 2009 Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

Okay, I admit it, I am a die hard baseball fan. One of the first apps I bought last year was MLB At Bat, and when I heard it was coming out again, after a brief period of annoyance, I decided to purchase it again.

On a side note, I expect to see many more subscription based or “partial” purchase based apps with the new pricing methods in the app store. I don’t think it bodes well.

But anyway, I decided to get the app when I saw that this year it included the MLB Audio - radio broadcasts of the games. As a bonus, you get to choose the stream to listen to!

So how does it stack up?

I must say, very well.

When you start the app, you are presented with a screen showing the days games. The current score and inning are listed, and if you click on a game, you get a short highlight summary at the bottom of the screen (how many outs, who is pitching and batting, on base, etc). You can scroll through the various games. When a game is highlighted, you can click on “audio” and choose from either of the teams radio stream to listen to the game. Unfortunately, you can’t have it in the background (curse you iPhone) so you need to stay in the application in order to listen to the stream. If you click the blue arrow, you are taken to what I call the “game” menu.

The game menu is broken down into a variety of screens. The first one, gameday, shows you the current batter, pitch by pitch (with location) action of what is going on. You can also see the fielding situation (including dimensions for each stadium), the box score, the game summary, and of course video highlights (just like last year) by selecting the various tabs at the bottom. The video highlights are supposed to be better quality this year, but I always look at them when I am connected via wifi, so I have no problem with the quality. I wish they had more highlights to choose from (it seems that they are moslty focused on big hits). The video is not HD quality or like watching a movie, but it certainly is okay to watch for a ten-second highlight.

Back on the main screen, there is an additional button for “extras”. With Extras, you can look at additional MLB videos (like “A look at the ballparks of the last decade” and fantasy updates”). You can also look at the up to date standings, legal information, or be taken to the MLB.com website in safari. I wish they have other information like leaderboards, player stats, matchup information. It is all available at MLB.com, but I would think it would be easy to have it in the app itself (especially since if you leave the app, the audio stream is lost).

Out of curiosity, I tried watching the game-day play by play, watching a game on TV, and listening on the radio, just to see how it synced up. The radio had the longest lab, the TV was the fastest, but evne then it was only about one pitch behind.

Pros:

• Audio!
• Gameday effects are nice,
• lots of options for “in game” status

Cons:

• Lacking some basic statistical information,
• some video highlights seem to be sparse (for some teams)

Conclusion

All in all, for baseball fans on the road, this is almost a must-have app. The price ($9.99) is not cheap, but it is very reasonable compared to what they charge for Gameday audio online. I wish they have video highlights for every half inning or so, rather than just having (at times) one or two per game. I also wish they have more reference and statistical information. But this is a great app for following a team when you are on the road - just make sure you have your car charger! Most of the stuff I found lacking were things that don’t really detract from the app, but rather things that would put the app over the top.

TiPb Forum Review Rating

[MLB At Bat 2009 is available via the iTunes App Store]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: MLB At Bat 2009 for iPhone

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ReaddleDocs Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!)

ReaddleDocs is a document viewer that basically covers all the ways of getting the document onto you iPhone – so there is no way that you cannot have your documents on hand.

When you purchase ReaddleDocs, you also receive 512MB of storage space on their server. This allows you to upload any documents to the server via any browser and then sync them with you iPhone via any data connection (EDGE/3G/WIFI).

When you tap on the “Online” tab, you select the server you want to connect to and then you have the ability to sync with the server so that any new documents that you have retrieved via the iPhone will backup to your server and vice versa.

Besides using your Readdle Storage space, you can also connect to your MobileMe iDisk or connect to a WebDAV enabled server.

A second way of getting documents onto your iPhone is by forwarding your attached document in an e-mail to you ReaddleDocs e-mail address (given to you when you create your online account). Then, again, you sync you iPhone with your account.

A third way, is to use the built-in browser and navigate to a document then tap on a button to download the document to your iPhone.

A fourth and final way is to transfer the documents from your computer to your iPhone via WiFi.

When viewing your documents, you can edit them - delete, move, create folders, rename folders, rename documents, mail documents, and add a document to a zip achieve.

All documents that can normally be viewed on the iPhone can be viewed via this application as well.

I really like the icons that it uses to represent the type of file (red icon for pdf files, blue icon to doc files, etc.)

Interface

Within the app you can view all your documents, view your online documents (through whichever server,) use the browser, view recently opened files and adjust settings for the app.

I think for the most part those screen are self-explanatory.

I also like the document “reader” interface. When viewing files such as *.doc, *.rtf, the viewer is simple – you can scroll through your document like you would in the iPhone document viewer, however, you have and “add” button at the top, which allows you to insert bookmarks for that document. I find this incredibly convenient when reading a large document or e-book. The toolbar at the bottom of the screen allows you to view and edit bookmarks, e-mail the document, scroll through a document quickly using the slider and a full screen button.

If you turn the iPhone to the landscape position, it automatically goes to full-screen and rotates the document accordingly.

When viewing an *.xls document, you have all the same features as above. At the top of the document, you can change between the sheets. You might also notice that when switching between sheets, arrows will appear at the bottom of the screen. These arrows are much like the arrows you would use in the browser.

When viewing images, you can view them much like you would in your photo reel, just tap the arrows to move through the pictures within that folder. You can also mail the documents via this image viewer.

Besides viewing and retrieving documents, you can also view the device photos (which might prove a faster way of delete picture on your iPhone if you have to do it that way.)

Settings

In the setting screen, you have the ability to view or hide the “device photos” folder, setup mail settings – mail from and mail signature; allow WiFi network drive and apply username and password; several different viewing options including “view HTML as book”; you can also enable a passcode lock; and setup the document encoding.

Issues Encountered

There is no way to move the images to your iPhone photo reel or set as wallpaper functions, while the picture is on my iPhone in a sense, I cannot actually do anything with it unless I email it to myself and do it that way. I don’t always have a data connection when I am traveling so it would be nice to move the images over to do what I wish with them. When viewing the a PowerPoint document, the slides seems to form one large “page” (see screen shot).

Conclusion

In my opinion the Pros out weigh the Cons and the price tag of $9.99 is completely worth it. To have the ability of getting my document on my hand held and having them at my finger tips is worth it. I was on a film set when I was asked to operate a Sony F900 camera. Luckily, I was able to go to a website using the browser interface and download the manual on my iPhone and had the ability to quickly skim through it and figure out how to use the camera.

Pros

• Multiple ways of retrieving documents onto your iPhone
• 512MB of server storage
• nice document viewer
• document logos make finding documents easier
• Ability to sync iPhone with server & vice versa
• Book marking in documents

Cons

• In doc viewer, tapping bottom of screen makes doc auto scroll, can be annoying at times
• Can’t handle large documents (over about 8MB)
• Viewing *.xls (or of the like) documents doesn’t always format correctly
• Viewing *.ppt (or of the like) format into one long page

TiPb Review Rating

[ReaddleDocs is available for $9.99 from the iTunes App Store.]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: ReaddleDocs for iPhone

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Flight Control Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Ever want to be a flight controller? The most stressful job (so I hear) ever? Well, if you want the fun, but don’t want the stress, Flight Control is the game for you.

With Flight Control, you play a flight controller who needs to guide planes in for a safe landing. You have two runways (red and yellow) and one helicopter pad (blue). As planes fly in, they are either red or yellow, indicating which runway they need to land on (helicopters can only land on the pad). Your job is to guide the planes to the appropriate runway while avoiding in-air collisions.

Sounds easy, right? Sure it is…when there are only one or two planes coming in at a time. But as time progresses, more and more planes enter the playing field, increasing the risk of close calls and collisions.

The process of guiding a plane is very simple. Simply tap the plane, and slide you finger along the path you want the plane to take. As you are creating the path, it appears as a dotted line. When you lift you finger, the planes path is “set”, and it starts to follow it. Need to adjust a path? Just tap the plane and slide your finger to create a new path. Not sure you know where you want the plane to go? Draw it flying in circles or a big loop, and then come back to it later. Don’t forget about a plane though! If a plane finished it’s path and hasn’t landed, it just keeps flying straight (pilots are sort of dumb like that).

This game is really sort of cool, and there aren’t any other games out there like it. The controls are very easy, making good use of the touch screen. The game warns your of potential collisions and incoming aircraft (which are offscreen so you can’t see them). As with most games, I wish there were some sort of multiplayer or competitive option, but the game can get pretty hectic on it’s own. The game’s difficulty increases quickly - one or two planes on the screen is fine, but with 5 or 6 planes it can be very difficult to keep track of them all.

I would love to see some different “airport” options - different layouts of runways and helicopter pads, so you could choose which airport you wanted. This would also be a good way to allow different difficulty levels. But the included airport is fun. The stats page gives you a nice rundown of your performance, including your average score, the most planes on the screen at one time, you highest score, etc.

Pros:

• New game concept,
• easy game play

Cons:

• No multiple airports

Conclusion

All in all, this is a fun little game. It takes the iPhone and brings a new game concept to it (at least a concept I haven’t seen before). The game design is perfect for the iPhone. At $.99 (current grand opening sale) the game is a must try. The normal price is probably going to be $2.99, and even at that price it is worth it.

TiPb Forum Review Rating

[Flight Control is available via the iTunes App Store]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: Flight Control for iPhone

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