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: BeejiveIM 3.0.

What makes this IM/Chat client so great is the multiple services you can add (AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN/Windows Live, MySpace IM, Yahoo! and Facebook) and the great customization features. You can customize the background wallpaper for each chat, change chat bubble colors and more. Apple’s Push Notification service works really well too, I can’t praise it highly enough in this instance. If you need a mutiple -account chat client, Beejive is the way to go! – [$9.99 - iTunes link]

Chris’ Pick: Zombieville USA

I have been spending some time this week playing an old favorite – Zombieville USA. I happened to open it up, saw my high score, and was on a quest to beat 714 zombies. Last night, around 12:32am, I finally got 726 zombies killed! [$1.99 - iTunes link]

James’ Pick: iTunes App Store

Since I have been traveling for the last few weeks, I have been in cities where I am not all that familiar with the surroundings. Enter the App Store. With the ability to find new apps that help me in my current city, I was able to find out of the way places to eat, the BART schedule and tracker in San Francisco and a new game or two to pass the time.

Jeremy’s Pick: Pocket Tunes Radio

Forget paying that $3 a month fee to Sirius XM and still listen to everything they have to offer including Howard Stern. Pocket Tunes does it all for a single fee of $9.99. Well worth it. (Note: you must have a Sirius XM subscription) [$9.99 - iTunes link]

Leanna’s Pick: AT&T Navigator

I’ve been using AT&T Navigator for a couple days now and am rather impressed. It calculates routes quickly and the ETA is very accurate as well. You can also search for places nearby or by name and of course create favorite places. I’ve always been hesitant to get a navigation system because I though Google maps with GPS was good enough… I was wrong! [Free + $9.99/month - iTunes link]

Matt’s Pick: iPhone 3GS Oleophobic Screen

Since getting the iPhone 3GS, I have sat down with it while eating, checking emails & Twitter, all the while sliming up the screen with my oily-chicken fingers. After eating I can simply wipe the screen onto my jeans & viola! the screen is clean. This is one of my favorite things about the new iPhone 3Gs!

Rene’s Pick: 1Password Pro

I’ve already picked 1Password, and explained the reasons why. Now I’m picking 1Password Pro for pretty much the same reasons I did last time but now with the added benefit of iPhone 3.0 enabled copy and paste goodness. Instead of using the in-app browser, you can still keep your passwords locked up safely and now just copy, switch to Mobile Safari, and paste them in. You can even use the enhanced javascript-based Mobile Safari integration to automate the transition process. And they promise more to come (check out the video how-to). Can’t wait. [$5.99 - 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.

BeeJiveIM, Zombieville USA, App Store, Pocket Tunes Radio, AT&T Navigator, Oleophobic Screen, 1Password Pro – TiPb Picks of the Week

BeeJive is my IM solution of choice. I don’t use a lot of the more advanced features, but the reason I keep going back to it is just this: speed. It gets me in, working, and back out fast. And BeeJive IM 3.0 with support for iPhone 3.0’s new Push Notification service is no exception. In fact, it rules.

One of the problems with Push Notification is that while the actual alerts are speedy, acting on them is not. Take IM for example. If you enable Text Alerts, an SMS-style popup window presents, tells you the IM app has a new message, and lets you Dismiss or View. If you View, the iPhone then has to 1) close the alert, 2) launch the app, 3) re-establish the app’s server connection (Push Notification uses a different, Apple-powered server), 4) download the IM to the app, and potentially 5) issue the app’s own internal alert if that’s enabled as well.

That can be some overhead. Sure, maybe iPhone 3G S (for speed, remember) will quicken the pace, but BeeJiveIM on an iPhone 3G was impressively responsive already.

Testing it over the last couple days, alerts presented, I tapped them, and everything listed about was handled smoothly and quickly. So, again, I was able to get in, work, and get back out fast. It’s everything that was great about BeeJiveIM 2.0, plus the convenience of Push.

BeeJiveIM 3.0 for iPhone and iPod should be hitting the iTunes App Store any time now. We’ll update with the link as soon as it’s live.

Screenshots after the break!

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

Quick App: BeeJiveIM 3.0 for iPhone with Push Notification

Yeah, BeeJive is totally teasing us now. Instant messaging (IM) is one of the most anticipated services when it comes to iPhone 3.0’s Push Notification service, and BeeJive aims to deliver and soon.

Best of all — (see screenshot, above) — they aim to deliver it free to all current customers. Maybe as soon as WWDC next week?

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

BeeJive 3.0 with Push Notification Just in Time for WWDC?

For those of you who are not familiar with our Apps for Less posts, they are simply a way for us to point out a few good applications in the App Store on sale or at a price that we feel is worth mentioning to our valued readers.

First up we have an Apps for Less favorite, BeejiveIM [iTunes Link]. This application has been spotlighted in Apps for Less 3 times with the price dropping as low as $9.99. We have some good news for you, BeejiveIM is once again on sale for the low price of $9.99. You may be thinking that the price is still too high but honestly, you will not find a better IM client on the App Store, plain and simple. So if you are looking for the best out there, this is the one for you.

Next up we have a good one for all of you Kung Fu + word game fans. WordFu [iTunes Link] is a dice-based word game that combines a Kung Fu theme with many elements of other popular word games. Your task is to assemble as many words from the given letters as possible. All in all it’s a fun game that is pretty simple to play and for the low price of $.99 can you really go wrong? Just keep in mind it is a limited time sale. The price will be increasing so grab it as soon as possible!

The last app we have for you today is a little game called Enigmo [iTunes Link]. Enigmo has been one of the most successful games within the App Store.

“Enigmo is the most unique game that you’ll find for the iPhone or iPod Touch. It is a 3D puzzle game where you manipulate slides, bumpers, and other pieces to control streams of flowing liquid. Liquids (water, oil, and lava) fall from “droppers” and will bounce around the walls of a puzzle. You move and rotate the various puzzle pieces in order to divert the flow of the falling droplets so that they can reach their target. The faster you complete each level, the more bonus you will receive.”

This is one great game with an even greater price. For a limited time you can now purchase this app for the cheap price of $.99! That’s $3.00 off the regular price so don’t delay!

Hopefully some of you can take advantage and get in on these deals before it is too late! Enjoy!

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

Apps for Less: BeejiveIM, WordFu, Enigmo

Today we have a few good apps worth grabbing at discounted prices.

First up is an application everyone should be aware of by now, BeeJiveIM. From Monday, March 2 until Sunday, March 8th you can purchase BeeJiveIM in the app store for the low price of $9.99, which is down from $15.99. Not a shabby deal, grab this one before the sale ends! You won’t regret it.

Next we have a app we featured in a Quick App a while back, Resco Bubbles. You can now get Resco Bubbles for only $.99. This game is pretty addicting, well worth a buck!

This next app is in direct competition with another app from the previous Apps for Less. i Fishing is now on sale until March 4th. You can catch yourself this fine fishing app for only $.99! That’s $2 off the regular price.

Last but not least, we have one for the kids today. Whack It: For Kids is now 50% off and is available for the low price of $.99. This sale will run for only 3 weeks so be sure to get in on the sale. Your kids will appreciate it.

As always, if your application is going on sale or you’ve just dropped your price, be sure to let us know and we may include it in the next Apps for Less!

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

Apps for Less: BeeJiveIM, Resco Bubbles, i Fishing, Whack It: For Kids

Well here are two apps to pick up just in time for the holidays. Raging Thunder and BeejiveIM have just dropped in price! [iTunes links]

Raging Thunder is a game you’ve probably heard of before here at TiPb. It dropped in price back in October and once again it has dropped ever further to a deal you should not pass up, $1.99 for a winter blow out sale!

Ok, this next app really needs no introduction, BeejiveIM. From now until Saturday December 27th you can pick this great IM client up for $12.99, saving a few bucks off the regular priced app. The developers also tell us to pay attention to a large update (V2.0) with some changes and improvements coming soon!

Hopefully you will take advantage of these sales! We will continue to keep an eye out for some more sales for the holiday!

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

Apps for Less: Raging Thunder and BeejiveIM

Since our last Apps for Less post, price drops worth mentioning have been far and few between. Well today we finally have a notable mention for you. Especially if you are a fan of IM clients…

Today is the final day to get the best IM application available on the iPhone, BeejiveIM (iTunes Link), on sale for $3.00 off the normal price for $12.99. While that is still not the price you’d like to pick it up at, it’s better than the normal price of $15.99. So if you were waiting for a price drop be sure to head into the App Store today!

Once again, the sale ends TODAY! This is the IM client to get, you get what you pay for and you won’t be disappointed with this app. And if you are still on the fence, be sure to check out Dieter’s first look and Casey’s BeeJive vs. Palringo review showdown.

(Thanks to Mr. Hi-Definition for the tip!)

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

Apps for Less: Last day for BeeJiveIM Sale!

[This is a TiPb AT WORK App vs. App Review! The TiPb iPhone Forums voted on their favorite Apps, we took the top two, and now they're going head-to-head. But wait -- there's more! One of the forum voters has already won a copy of the winning App... Congrats duhockey! Want another chance to win? Comment on this post and make sure you leave a valid email address in the comment form -- it won't be made public, but it will be used to contact you if you win! Check out the full contest details, then grab your iPhone and get ready to get things done -- the TiPb AT WORK IM Showdown starts now!]

Instant Messaging has become one of the most popular forms of online communication because it offers instant access, no SMS costs, and unmatched convenience. How Apple doesn’t implement an iChat Mobile on the iPhone is simply beyond us, we at TiPb think an iChat Mobile would be a top contender for an App vs App.

With that said, 3rd party apps are beginning to fill the holes that Apple left open. Two of the more popular, argued about IM Clients available in the App Store are Palringo and BeejiveIM. Though at the core of each is an IM Client, they could not be more different. How do they perform? Which IM Client is better? Who will win the first edition of AppvsApp: AT WORK ?

Read on for the rest of the review!

First Impressions

BeejiveIM

Okay, the $15.99 price tag is hefty and borderline egregious but it doesn’t come without cause. BeejiveIM is perhaps the easiest, most intuitive, and slickest IM Client on the iPhone. Everything makes sense, it supports a ton of different Instant Messaging programs and is very, very stable.

I had no problems logging into my AIM and Google Talk accounts at the same time and was off to chatting in a moment’s notice. The buddy list supports buddy icons, groups and status. The basic layout of the application includes tabs for Buddy List, Favorites, Chats, Accounts, and More

It also provides a very neat feature where it can keep you logged in after you exit BeejiveIM (24 hour max period) and will send you a notification of IM through your E-Mail account. This works best if your E-mail account supports push since it serves as a pseudo-push notification feature. So if you reason that you’re using their servers to remain connected, the $15.99 price doesn’t look as bad.

To put it into perspective, BeejiveIM is essentially everything you want AIM to be but better.

Palringo

Palringo is free. That’s a huge selling point in itself. But make no mistake though, Palringo isn’t some second-class IM Client; it is capable, almost as stable, and possibly even more full-featured.

The unique aspect of Palringo is that it strives to be more than just an ordinary IM client. Palringo serves as a full communication tool—you can send text IMs, voice IMs, or even picture messages—all in Palringo. It is limitless fun to send your buddies snapshots of your daily life and accompany them with voice notes.

However, with Palringo you have to sign up for a Palringo-specific account. Though this sounds easy enough, there have been reports of spam reaching your linked E-Mail account because of Palringo. Also, when I first tried to log in, the app just kept loading and loading and loading. Not until I re-installed Palringo could I finally get access.

Palringo also supports pretty much all the Instant Messaging programs available but its buddy list doesn’t support groups and buddy icons. It also lacks a favorite tab and a chat specific tab.

I found that even though Palringo is free, it is absolutely a full-featured IM Client that doesn’t cut any corners.

Usability

BeejiveIM

I really believe if Apple were to design an iChat Mobile, it would look strikingly similar to BeejiveIM. The buddy list is clear, the fonts are wonderful, and the whole experience is unbelievably smooth. Even the colors and sounds used are consistent with iChat and the iPhone in general—if you showed a Mac user BeejiveIM they would automatically think iChat—it’s simply that well made.

When in a chat, the typing interface is unique and well thought out. Instead of offering a small linear box to type in, BeejiveIM instead chooses to offer a text bubble overlay—the overall conversation moves to the background and what you type comes to the forefront—this offers more seamless chatting. The conversation is still visible because of the transparent text bubble.

Though this method of inputting messages is smart, it isn’t consistent with the iPhone and almost looks out of place in BeejiveIM. BeejiveIM uses a lot of blues and muted greys in their interface so using a black text bubble sticks out like an eyesore.

Though I absolutely love using the text bubble over any other text input interface and certainly appreciate the innovation, I just can’t wholly agree with its design—a more streamline color would have been appreciated.

BeejiveIM also offers support for landscape mode so our fat-fingered friends won’t feel left out. As an added bonus, you can even e-mail the current chat to your e-mail account for future reference. It also has a contact search button so your buddies won’t get lost. One more tip, theres a dedicated SMS button that makes it easy as pie to send SMS through BeejiveIM (which should be cost free to you).

Palringo

Palringo is well implemented and looks good but you can’t deny the fact that Palringo just looks like a third party application. Though it does use a mixture of greys and blues, the base color of Palringo is a deeper black than the iPhone that doesn’t stay consistent with the rest of the iPhone’s apps.

Let it be known, when using Palringo, sending text IM’s becomes bland and boring because of the alternatives offered. When you have voice and picture options, who needs text? It gets to become a minor annoyance when you want to send a text IM because every time you open a chat, it gives you three options: Text, Voice, and Picture. Select the option, than begin typing.

Sending voice messages and picture messages are a breeze, over Wi-Fi and 3G it is absolutely snappy and even on EDGE it can be considered quick. There is also a search bar option for contact search and you can swipe screens to move over to the next window. Palringo also offers support for hyperlinks, making it easier to surf the web and IM at the same time.

Negatives/Annoyances/Gripes

BeejiveIM

Though BeejiveIM is absolutely well-designed, there are still a few missing features and odd choices that make you question your money spent. Firstly, its chat-to-chat movement is less intuitive than AIM and Palringo. Instead of swiping the screen to move to the next window, you tap the top of the screen and select the buddy icon of the chat you want to jump to. Though this method is sometimes more effective than swiping multiple times to jump to a specific conversation, it is largely less intuitive. BeejiveIM also lacks hyperlink support which makes it much more troublesome to access web pages.

I had a few more complaints about BeejiveIM until I realized the features I thought were missing were actually included. BeejiveIM has different depths and layers to grow accustomed to, you won’t learn them all overnight. It is probably one of the most well-made applications in the App Store and has features that make you go “Man, that’s just smart”.

Palringo

There’s also no way to keep your message history, so good luck looking up information on your old IMs. Also, if you misspell the last word in Palringo it doesn’t automatically correct the error instead choosing to send the message as is. I also preferred the font of BeejiveIM over Palringo. The interface just didn’t work as well as BeejiveiM’s, it did the job but it never really raised the bar.

Final Thoughts

It can be argued that Palringo offers an arguably more well-rounded service than BeejiveIM. But when comparing IM to IM, BeejiveIM manages to run away with a victory.

BeejiveIM is simply one of the best applications available in the App Store: it is polished, it is well constructed and it is stable. It overcomes the lack of background apps and push notification on the iPhone by coming up with its own solution. It handles multiple accounts very well and is designed almost perfectly. The BeejiveIM team certainly needs to be commended for such great work. In the end, both IM Clients are great but BeejiveIM is simply in a class by itself.

BeejiveIM Rating:

Palringo Rating:

TiPb At Work Winner: BeejiveIM

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

TiPb AT WORK Instant Messenger Showdown: BeejiveIM vs Palringo