T-Mobile has issued a warning that the ongoing, dare we say catastrophic failure of the Sidekick servers could result in permanent data loss if Sidekick users in any way reset their devices during the outage:

“Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power.”

Scary, but also an urgent reminder to everyone who uses Cloud Services, including iPhone owners with MobileMe, Exchange ActiveSync, Google Gmail/Calendar, or any other, similar accounts.

Best practices dictate that data doesn’t exist unless it’s in at least three locations: local, local backup, and off-site backup. Cloud covers offsite (so does a duplicate drive at another location), but if any of your data is irreplaceable, even important, you need to make sure it’s backed up locally.

You can typically save emails, and export calendars and contacts. You can get cheap external hard drives and either manually copy your files over or get easy-to-use automatic backup solutions (some, like Shadow Copy for Windows and Time Machine for Mac are even built into the OS).

Storage is cheap, photos, videos, information, etc. can be priceless. Back it up now. If you need help or advice, check out TiPb’s iPhone Forums.

[ZDNet via Engadget]

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!

Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who are a bit disappointed with your current iPhone Twitter client because of the lack of a little something called “push notifications” – You must check out Twitbit 2.0. [$2.99 Sale Price - iTunes Link] We’ve had the pleasure of testing the 2.0 build for quite some time now and we are happy to report this update has been finely tuned while adding a boatload of new features, so many that you’ll have to wait for our full review.

• A completely new look
• Push notifications for direct messages and mentions
• Rich media integration to share all of your media which now includes Flickr
• Significant performance boost
• Configuration: Set up Twitbit 2.0 exactly the way you want it
• Free updates!

Still not convinced enough to make the purchase? Try out Twitbit 2.0 Lite. [Free - iTunes Link] You’ll get all of the same great features, new and old, minus push notifications and Flickr support.

Stay tuned as we will bring you a detailed review shortly!

According to AppleInsider, Apple is once again leading the way for a worldwide NAND Flash memory shortage… again:

“Taiwan-based memory module houses are moving to diversify their NAND flash suppliers to minimize procurement risk, according to industry sources,” the report said. “NAND flash supply has reportedly become tighter as major chip producers Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, Micron and Hynix Semiconductor favor demand for Apple devices.”

With the release of the iPhone 3GS, new iPod Nano/Touch, and the iTablet device rumored to be released sometime in the first half of 2010 – it’s no wonder this current shortage exists. One thing is for sure, the chip producers bend over backwards to make sure Apple gets all of the memory they need — even if it means less for other companies.

Tweetie 2.0 [$2.99 - iTunes link] is the second generation release of one of the iPhone’s most popular Twitter clients. According to developer Atebits, it’s also a ground-up re-write — it even has a snazzy new gray, single, cut-out bubble icon to prove it — the only thing 2.0 having in common with 1.0 being the name. I’d argue that point — they’re also both darn good Twitter clients, and they both share a price of $2.99.

That’s right. Since Apple doesn’t (yet?) provide a mechanism for upgrades (which to many developers means incentive and to many users means discount), and since in-app purchase can only add content, not replace an entire app, Atebits is packaging Tweetie 2.0 as a whole new app. And they’re charging the same price. In other words, whether you bought the first Tweetie or not, you’ll have to buy Tweetie 2.0.

Is it worth it? Let’s take a look…

Read the rest of this entry »

Adobe has released Photoshop.com Mobile [Free - iTunes Link]. The App Store is cluttered with a ton of photo editing tools, but this was one obvious omission. Nice to see Adobe fill it.

• Crop, rotate, change color with just a touch.
• Give an extra glow with Soft Focus.
• Get artsy with Sketch.
• Apply one-touch effects like Warm Vintage and Vignette.

The app can take photos with the iPhone and/or edit photos already on the iPhone or iPod touch, but can also use a free Photoshop.com account. It’s a cinch to set up. Simply take a few moments to open your photoshop.com account to edit, upload, store, and share all of your iPhone photos.

[Via The Loop]

Are you looking for some good iPhone conversation? From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now.

First topic up for today, App Store Genius and how is it working for you? Rene doesn’t seem to be having the best of luck with his Genius, for me it started out pretty so-so but it seems the more I delete the more accurate it seems to get. Perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me, how is it working for you?

iPhone OS 3.1.2 was released yesterday and we are assuming most of you jumped right in and updated your phones. Cdudek was wondering, how is your battery life on the 3.1.2 software? Anyone notice a significant change for the better or for the worse? Check the thread out to see results from other forum members and while you are there, post your own.

This next thread for today comes to us from naviwilliams and he offers up a question that we hear quite often – do you leave Wi-Fi on or off? It is a fact that using Wi-Fi over 3G will save you a decent amount of battery life so I have a tendency to leave it on since Wi-Fi is available to me at work and at home. How about you?

Last up for today is one of my personal favorite forums to check out – the iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock forum. This is the place to check out if you are interested in jailbreaking or unlocking your device. Most of the time you can find the answers to your questions within minutes.

See you on the forums!

Apple’s MobileMe News page has posted two updates today, one on recent MobileMe service improvements, including direct access to Find my iPhone, and the other on iDisk public folder updates.

First up, the service improvements:

As part of an update to the MobileMe web applications, you can now access Find My iPhone directly from the MobileMe toolbar. This support article contains information about this and other service improvements.

Second, iDisk:

Your iDisk Public folder, a place where you can share files with friends, now matches the look of me.com and supports drag and drop for moving files between folders. You can manage your Public folder preferences at me.com including allowing visitors to upload, move, and delete files, and setting a password to protect your Public folder. To edit preferences simply click the Action button (gear icon) in the iDisk web application and select Preferences. You can then upload or move files to your Public folder at me.com, and your friends can access them by visiting http://public.me.com/[YourMemberName].

Apple’s iPhone has stepped into first place in both personal and business categories of J.D. Power and Associates’ second wireless phone satisfaction study of 2009.

The study was based on physical design, features, operating system, ease of use, and battery function on a 1000 point scale. iPhone scored top honers with 811 in personal use and 803 in business use. Respectively, LG took second place in personal use with 776 and RIM landed in second under the business category with 724 points.

None of these results surprise any of us here at TiPb, especially given how the iPhone keeps on racking up the number 1 spots in general.

Steve Jobs has a huge smile on his face right about now…

[Via Arstechnica]

Daring Fireball has been linking to some interesting discussions on Adobe’s recent announcement that Flash CS5 will compile “ahead of time” native iPhone binaries that can be submitted, as is, to Apple’s iTunes App Store.

First up, KickingBear reminds everyone to give it a chance before burying it just on concept or principle:

Let’s be frank here – **** the tools. If you’re as deep a fan of the Cocoa tool-chain as I am then you likely came to them as I did – after years of dealing with the drastically inferior. Do I believe Cocoa is still the best tool? Yes, I do. But let’s not pretend that it’s the only tool. Some crazy people may prefer other tools, and we may well think they’re insane for doing so. The proof, however, is in the pudding. And it’s the pudding that our customers buy. I’m in love with my oven and at this point I doubt I’ll ever change it but I have no illusions that fashion won’t pass me by. If Adobe, or anyone else, can produce tools that provide a more compelling application on the iPhone then good for them.

On the flip side, /dev/why takes a look at what’s generated by the current process:

Now, the notion that what this thing emits is indistinguishable from something Xcode emits is laughable. They are very different, and not in a good way. While the apps may get acceptable frame rates on an iPhone 3GS, they don’t on earlier hardware, and they almost certainly uses substantially more power battery than native games.

If you’re interested in the topic, give both articles a read and then let us know what you think.