Earlier this week Chipotle, the burrito-centric Mexican(-inspired) grill, launched an iPhone application to order your meal from your phone and then pick it up once it’s prepared.  Users could find the nearest location, customize their order, pay fo…

Have you ever jailbroken an iPhone? Ever used a software solution to “unlock” the iPhone’s SIM slot, freeing it from the shackles of its original carrier? Chances are, the iPhone Dev Team had something to do with it. This group, made up of some …

Tilt-shift photography, the popular but fashionable method of making big objects look like tiny models, is now on the iPhone. That’s good for pretty much everyone who isn’t planning their innovative tilt-shift art show.

The application is aptly called TiltShift. It costs $2, and while it doesn’t use traditional tilt-shift lenses, the software adds some blur filters to create the illusion. The user selects the part of the image to be in focus/tiny, and the software feathers the surrounding area appropriately.

We’re not sure that TiltShift’s simple, even if effective filters are worth $2 to us, but the free clone app that’s surely just days away will be a fantastic way to kill 10 minutes. [TiltShift via Wired]

Engadget’s secret sources report that Apple’s John Geleynse recently proclaimed the iPhone to be a “gaming console” and potentially a threat to the Nintendo DS.

Geleynse also said the iPhone is “not a phone, it’s a console experience.” This (as yet uncomfirmed) announcement goes along with EA’s new position in select Apple stores in the U.S. where they’ll presumably show off new games for the iPhone platform. It also makes sense considering Apple’s current TV ad for the iPod touch (“the funnest iPod ever”) that demonstrates a number of games. The overall increase in recent news about the iPhone’s gaming capabilities is exciting, but I’m not so sure that it’ll ever be a true competitor to dedicated consoles. But as a casual time-killer? Bring it on. [Engadget]

The Incase Slider is one of the more popular iPhone cases, and this new version is notable for being one of the better integrations of a supplemental battery pack yet. It’ll add some girth, yes, but it also more than doubles your battery life and offers more protection than battery piggybacks like the Mophie Juice Pack. Also features a mini-USB pass-through for syncing and charging without case removal, and it’ll cost you $100. Which is a little steep, but if more battery life is a must for you, this is not a bad way to go. [Product Page via BBG]

Google has created an app for the iPhone that will give the handset advanced voice recognition, reports John Markoff from the NY Times. The app can answer location related questions (Finding the nearest Starbucks), give driving directions, respond to generic questions, and even search local data from the address book.

It works by recording a soundbite, uploading it to Google’s servers, which will crunch the data and return an answer “within seconds on a fast wireless network”. Saul compared the function to that offered on Yahoo’s, and found Google’s to be more accurate, but still return junk results sometimes. AT&T and Microsoft also have handset voice recognition beyond simple dialing that many other phones offer. The app will be free and might be available to download as soon as Friday. [NYT]

Research group SquareTrade recently released the results of a massive cellphone study. They tracked 15,000 individual handsets over their first year of use, and they found some large discrepancies in reliability. The iPhone malfunction rate sat at a comfortable 5.6%. The Blackberry (in its various incarnations) jumped to 11.9%. But it’s all better than the Palm Treo, which malfunctioned 16.2% of the time within the first year.

To be honest, none of these numbers are particularly good, and I have a feeling that there may be a confounding iPhone White Glove EffectI keep that phone's glass screen in mind every time I put it in the pocket opposite my keys. (Ironically, iPhone users were found 3% more likely to accidentally damage their phones than their Blackberry/Palm counterparts.)

When projected to two years, the iPhone’s failure rate jumps to 11% while Blackberries level to 14% and Treos reach a scary 21%. I guess it’s a good thing we have those ridiculously binding contracts to bail us out after all. [SquareTrade via CNET]

Light a firecracker, listen to Steve Jobs’ Mercedes peeling out, grow a mustache, make a disguised-voice phone call with your various illegal demands. All in a week’s work in the App Store. Let’s have a look at the fruits of the last seven days.

Sonic Vox: Just in time for Halloween (or your upcoming anonymous ransom note telephone call), Sonic Vox is a real-time voice shifter that can add echo and changes in pitch. Hook your iPhone to line-out for Deepthroat Skype calls.

Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG App: Surely fast-tracked by AMG fan Steve Jobs (head of the queue!), for the rest of us, this is a reminder of what we will not soon experience first-handphotos and videos of a sleek, six-figure Benz, and sound clips of it peeling out.

Sonic Boom: Those folks behind the Sonic Lighter (and the voice-shifter above also, coincidentally) just can’t stop innovatingSonic Boom gives you a virtual firecracker onto which you can map a photo, adjust the size of the charge and length of fuse and spin around before making it go boom in a different-every-time explosion. $1.

Mustache: I haven’t shaved in days, but what’s on my upper lip is barely perceptible as anything beyond 7th-grade fuzz. As the developer of Mustache states: Mustaches are a symbol of power and virility, who wouldn’t want to grow one! Sadly, not everyone one can. Hand over a buck, hold a picture of a mustache in front of your face. If you’re not bold enough for this tattoo.

This week’s app coverage on Giz:
Our Android App Liveblog is going strongexpect weekly updates to commence once the store opens to developers, which is happening Monday.

The NDA keeping developers from discussing the ins and outs of their apps is dead.

Free landscape-mode emailing via Firemail

Brightkite, a location-based social network, seems perfect for stalkers.

A legal imbroglio over those silly beer apps like iBeer escalates. Yeah.

A stylophone app is coming, bringing Kraftwerkian joy.

This list is in no way definitive. If you’ve spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a good weekend everybody.