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?

iPod touch 4 early review round-up is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Is it possible the new iPod nano isn’t running iOS, but isn’t running the old iPod OS, either? The latest firmware has hit Apple’s servers so developers are tearing into it and here’s what Steven Troughton-Smith had to say on Twitter:

The nano codename is N20 it appears; also labelled as “1.0″ of the OS. Definitely not iOS

Rusty Mercury also says it’s running on a Samsung S5L8723, a step up from the previous Samsung 8730.

So what is this OS 1.0? something new? Something hybrid?

[@stroughtonsmith via 9to5Mac, @RustyMercury]

iPod nano not iPod OS, not iOS, something new? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

The final release version of iOS 4.1 for iPhone or iPod touch hits sometime this week (perhaps Wednesday?) and we’ll post it up right on the front page the minute it’s ready. Before you race to download, however, there are a few steps you want to go through to get ready — to make sure you have the smoothest upgrade possible.

Check device compatibility

iPhone 4 gets the full update. iPhone 3GS and the 2009 Pod touch G3 (64GB and 32GB) get everything their hardware supports (no HDR photos, HD YouTube uploads, etc.).

iPhone 3G and iPod touch G2 (which includes the 2009 iPod touch 8GB) get performance fixes, which really plagued them following iOS 4.

The 2007 original iPhone 2G and iPod touch aren’t compatible with iOS 4 or iOS 4.1.

If you’re not sure which iPhone or iPod touch you have, check Apple’s support pages. [iPhone, iPod touch]

Make sure you’re running iTunes 10

You need iTunes 10 in order to use all the new features, like Ping social music network. Apple released it last Wednesday so, if you haven’t gotten it already, hit Software Update and download the latest, or get it directly from Apple. [iTunes 10].

(Developers, remember you have the option of updating via Xcode instead of iTunes).

If you’ve Jailbroken, re-virginize

Many folks who Jailbreak their iPhone or iPod touch likely won’t rush to update but will wait for an iOS 4.1 Jailbreak first. If for some reason you do want to update sans Jailbreak, consider restoring to stock 4.0.2 first. You may not have a problem, but we’ve heard from enough readers enough times that we recommend this including this step.

Again, updating to iOS 4 will mean no Jailbreak, no unlock for now. If that’s a deal breaker for you, don’t upgrade.

If you need extra help with this step, we’ve got a thread up in the TiPb Jailbreak Forum just for you.

Backup your data

Once you have iTunes 10 installed, plug in your iPhone and/or iPod touch and sync it. You want your data backed up, anything you’ve purchased or updated on-device transferred safely to your Windows/Mac library, and the position of any media you’re currently enjoying recorded so you can keep going from the same place once your iOS 4.1 update is done.

Remember, if you haven’t synced in a while it could take a few minutes to backup. Don’t be impatient, let it run.

Once that’s done, launch iPhoto on your Mac or your favorite image capture program on Windows and copy over any photos you’ve taken on the iPhone. Losing your Camera Roll, especially if it has a lot of special moments recorded, is something to be avoided at all costs.

Get up to speed on iOS 4.1

Once everything is done and ready, and if you’re still waiting for Apple to release the update, why not check out our complete iOS 4.1 walkthrough so once you’ve downloaded and installed it you can spend your time enjoying the new functionality, not trying to discover it.

Jump into the forums and learn more

Did we mention how smart TiPb forum members are? If you have any lingering questions or need any additional help, or you just want to relax and chat with like-minded iOS enthusiasts and technology adepts, head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forum.

Best community on the ‘net, check it out.

Anything else?

Did we forget anything or just plain get something wrong? Any tips or tricks you use before updating to a major new version of iOS? Let us know in the comments and we’ll update.

Planning on updating to iOS 4.1 this week? Here’s what you need to know! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

If you’ve ever wanted to plug in your friend’s iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into your computer to listen to their music, 9to5 Mac points out that today is your lucky day. Doing so will grant you access to all of the music on that iOS device to play via iTunes 10 without having to enable manually manage music mode.

Just don’t expect to be able to export the music files to your computer…

[9to5Mac]

iTunes 10 features: Listen to music on someone else’s iPhone, iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Looks like Apple has just reset Game Center, their new social gaming network, and any developers testing the service on the Gold Master (GM) seed are now greeted with a “create new account” screen. Moreover, all existing Friends are gone, meaning if you intend to keep connected when iOS 4.1 goes live this week, you’ll have to send and approve your friend requests all over again.

That is, if Apple doesn’t reset it again before launch. But that’s what development builds are for, right?

UPDATE: Apple has also confirmed compatibility for Game Center:

• iPhone 4, iPod touch 4
• iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3
• iPod touch 2

Yup, no iPhone 3G listed. Can’t wait to hear why not…

Updated: Apple resets Game Center in advance of iOS 4.1 launch is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

We’re talking Apple’s special music event, and iOS 4.2 for iPad. Plus gaming gets Unreal, 1 million iTunes users get Ping, being more popular than Linux, Sammy gives us a double whammy, and RIM will take those docs to go. This is iPad live!

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

iPad live #20: iOS 4.2 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

While we won’t know for absolutely certain until the final release version of iOS 4.1 for iPhone arrives sometime this week (maybe Wednesday), it’s looking like HDR photography will be exclusive to iPhone 4 and not available for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS users.

HDR photography requires separate 3 pictures be taken as simultaneously as possible — regular, overexposed, underexposed — and then combined together and tone mapped to produce the final image. iPhone 4 with its Apple A4 chipset and 512MB of RAM certainly takes photos much faster than iPhone 3GS. Traditionally Apple would rather not provide a feature at all than do it poorly on older hardware (e.g. no 15 fps video recording on iPhone 3G), so is this just another case of that?

There are HDR apps that work on older iPhones, though not in the same, speedy, integrated way as the built in iOS 4.1 version.

If it does indeed turn out there’s no HDR photography for you, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS owners, does that seriously harshen your iOS 4.1 mellow? Or are bug fixes, TV rentals, AVRCP Bluetooth, Game Center, and the other features enough to keep your childlike sense of wonder intact?

No HDR photography for iPhone 3G/iPhone 3GS? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

There is a lot of debate out there about Twitter’s new official universal binary app for iPhone/iPad. The iPad update brings an all new interface to the iPad. What’s new? What’s great? What’s not so great? Let’s start at the beginning…

Interface

Twitter for iPad brings a new and unique redesign to the Twitter experience that we know and love on the iPhone. Immediately after signing into the application I noticed something that looked, well, odd. The screen was split about 40/60 in portrait mode. Most other Twitter applications I have used took the full screen in portrait. So, I began my usual scrolling through the timeline and all seemed well and good. The familiar release to refresh was there and everything.

Next I proceeded to tap a tweet. Boom. This is where my Twitter world turned upside down. Next thing I know there is a flurry of screen animations and I am presented with a tweet partially overlapping the timeline! What’s going on here?

What Twitter and company have done is create a snazzy way to view your tweets. This is how it works:

• Tap a tweet with no replies- You see the tweet as well as the user profile of the user
• Tap a tweet with replies- You see the conversation
• Tap a tweet with a link- Take you directly to the webpage

When these actions above happen, everything, I mean everything become stacked. The profile stacks on top top of the tweet, which stacks on top of the timeline, etc. When you are done viewing, say the profile of a user or tweet, swipe it off to the right and you are taken back to your timeline view. I find this interface to be quite fun. Twitter has also found a couple of fun additional interface functions too. If you see an “@” reply in your timeline, place too fingers on the tweet and scroll down. This will display the conversation without selecting it. Want to see a profile? Pinch and zoom out to literally fold open the user profile; do it slowly to get the full effect. You have your standard fanfare for reply, reply all, favorites, retweet, retweet with quote, translate, email tweet, copy tweet and Instapaper. If you have multiple accounts, it couldn’t be easier to switch accounts. All of your accounts appear on the left side of the screen with an icon. Tap the icon to switch accounts, it couldn’t be easier.

Compose/Replies/Direct Messages

If you want to compose a tweet, tap the compose icon in the lower left. This makes the compose window appear above the timeline. The keyboard pops up from the bottom and you can start to type. You can add media, geotag and shrink URLs from here. But what is missing? A couple things. For starters you don’t have username look up. That is just crazy. Second you don’t have hashtag lookup either. Again, crazy. There is room on the screen for them, but I can only assume they have not made it into this build (but for all I know they are hiding somewhere with some sort of crazy finger flick I haven’t found yet.)

When composing direct messages, again you don’t have the username lookup function so composing can be troublesome. You can use the standard Twitter syntax of course, but to be honest I have become dependent on many of the conveniences Twitter applications provide, such as this.

Lists

One of the biggest features to come out of Twitter in recent months is the List feature. I use Lists to separate out my tweets from news to people and so on. One of the typical workflows I have when on the go when I use competitive products to this official Twitter app is to add the person I follow immediately to a list. Sadly, any list management features are completely gone from this version of Twitter for iPad. You can view your lists, view others’ list but no editing, subscribing or adding users from this app.

There are some other things to discuss like options, Instapaper support and more, but the key things I feel people care about is what is the experience like. I really enjoy the experience. it is fresh and fun. In this reviewers opinion it does for Twitter what Reeder did for RSS. However, there are plenty of folks who are not as much of a fan (including our own Rene Ritchie, he just wants to swipe those panels away!).

Should you download Twitter for iPad? Most definitely, afterall it’s free. I think that it breaks new ground and I enjoy what Twitter is trying to do. Will you like it? That is the question.

[Free- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Easy account switching
• Selected tweets stay on screen
• Peek at a profile (pinching)
• Two finger scroll in timeline to view replies

Cons

• When composing, no saved hashtags
• Tweet “breaks” don’t scroll to oldest tweet first
• Missing features
  • No user list management
  • No Username Search
  • No export to address book
  • No Saved hastags

Twitter for iPad – app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

We’ve heard Google pays Apple millions to be the default search engine in Safari but now AdAge is reporting Apple (and AT&T) gives Google millions right back for AdWord advertising.

By comparison, one of Google’s top advertisers that month, AT&T Mobile, spent more than $8 million on AdWords in June, a big month for the company, which was supporting the launch of iPhone 4. (AT&T is the third-largest U.S. advertiser, according to Ad Age DataCenter; it spent $2.8 billion on measured media — almost $1.3 billion on TV alone — in 2009. The company declined to comment on its search spending.) [...] Tech rival Apple spent just under $1 million on search during the month, as did chip maker Intel.

How much of that went to lock up the keyword “Droid”?

[AdAge via MacRumors]

Apple, AT&T paid Google millions for advertising in June is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

If you had to trust a water-proof case to protect your precious iPhone 4 during a torture test, which would it be — the Overboard or the Aquapac? That’s the challenge they gave me for the latest episode of TiPb’s Amazing Case, our hardcore, case vs case tests of strength, durability, and performance.

We figure if either — or both — of these water cases could survive being thrown into the deep end and taken through the high-pressure car wash then they can survive a dip in the tub or day at the beach.

Follow on after the jump for the details, and the give-away!

Aquapac vs Overboard

Truth be told these two cases are very similar. Both are clear plastic that retains the capacitive touch so you can keep using your iPhones while they’re inside. (At least when you’re out of the water — no capacitive touch can work when you’re under water). This means you can still make calls, record video, check the web, etc. with ease.

The Overboard has a black outer lining that does conceal part of the iPhone which I found kind of annoying. The Aquapac is clear all the way around allowing you to be able to see the whole screen of the iPhone and use the camera without having to worry about the view being obstructed.

Both the Overboard and the Aquapac have hard plastic seals that close tightly and securely. They do allow a small amount of water to get caught in the closure though, so you need to open the cases with caution or you risk dripping water on your iPhones. And yes, both cases are equally hard to get iPhones into and out of.

Lanyards are included with both the Overboard and the Aquapac so you can hold onto them or tie them to something to make sure you don’t lose them in the water.

Fight! (and give-away)

So which water proof case was the most protective? No spoilers! You have to watch the video above for the results of our Overboard vs Aquapac ultimate iPad scratch test.

When you’re done leave me a reply in the comments below and tell me which one you’d rather have protecting your iPhone 4 — Overboard or Aquapac — and where exactly you want to take you iPhone 4 that it needs water protection.

We have a one of each to give away, so make sure you leave a valid email address so we can contact you if you win. (US mailing address required for delivery).

Ready? Fight!

Overboard vs Aquapac in iPhone 4 water torture test – Amazing Case [give away] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog