Appletell

As the 2008 presidental contest heats up, the candidates are increasingly taking advantage of technology and social media to connect with their supporters. Today, the Obama campaign released an iPhone/iPod Touch application which will allow supporters to track and coordinate their volunteering efforts, as well as receive updates regarding their candidate. 

What’s interesting to me is that the app also adds a competitive element, allowing users to track the calls they’ve been making against a leaderboard.

Jump past the break to see the full list of features.

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Popular iPod accessory maker ezGear has announced a new video cable that will work with current generation of iPods and the iPhone. The ezGear video cable for iPod lets you connect your iPod or iPhone to a television or ezVision Glasses to play movies, music, TV shows, YouTube Clips or view pictures.

These video cables are sealed with shielded cables for better image and design and even includes Apple’s authentication clip which is incorporated into Apple’s Dock Connector under the made for iPod program. It is proven to work with iPod Touch, iPhone, iPod Classic, and iPod nano G3. In addition to being a video cable for iPod, this iPod accessory doubles up as charger through its female USB connector.

The ezGear video cable for iPod and the iPhone is slated for June release at an SRP of $40, but you can score one for a discounted introductory price of $20 if you pre-order soon, as inright now.

Product [ezGear]

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According to Henry Milan, owner of patent number 6,991,483, Apple is infringing on his patent for a method to connect a Flash memory device to a connection port on another device, such as a computer.  This would affect devices such as the iPod Touch and iPod Nano, but Information Week has mentioned that, surprisingly, the iPhone is not mentioned in this report although it could be added.  The lawsuit wants to receive damages for the infringement as well as an injunction against the sales of the devices.  However, the law firm, Butzel Long, is not sure whether or not they want to pursue the injunction yet.

I’m sure Apple’s lawyers are busy over in Cupertino trying to get this straightened out, and I hope the lawsuit is settled quickly and efficiently for both sides.  I find it highly unlikely that the iPods will have to stop being sold, but that’s fairly obvious.  What are you thoughts on this patent dispute?  Is Mr. Milan on to something here?

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It looks like Apple could be tossing it’s current touch panels for the iPhone in favor of some Haptic technology from the ever popular Immersion (you know, the maker of those touch panels in Nokia products). Anyhow, reports say that Apple has been having many meetings with the guys over at Immersion regarding licensing of the technology and product. If all goes well, of course, we should be seeing some new and improved touch panels in the iPhone, possibly with vibration feedback. What’s even more interesting is that President and CEO of Immersion, Clent Richardson, worked at Apple for five years, so the chances of this rumor being true are even greater now.

Via [Engadget]

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Rogers Communications Inc, the only Canadian carrier with a GSM network, was hoping to include the iPhone in a touch screen phone campaign they were planning to launch around May or July.  Now, neither side is talking and there hasn’t been any official statements yet, but a source has mentioned that Rogers and Apple are close to signing an agreement.  As for the history, Rogers initially said it would have the iPhone, but never made any actual deal.  The most likely reason for this is the fact that Rogers doesn’t like unlimited data plans and typically has higher charges for their data plans.

So is this just another rumor to boost you hope again, or do you think Rogers will actually release the iPhone at the above mentioned time?  I personally hope this rumor is in fact true because I would love to see my Canadian friends and all of their friends able to get the iPhone.  They have waited long enough and Apple is missing out on quite a few customers up there.

Via [TheStar]

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The US Patent and Trademark Office published several of Apple’s patent approvals today, all of which relate to different aspects of the iPhone’s functionality. The first patent that has been approved deals with organization of the iPhone’s interface, mainly to reduce the clutter of adding too many visual elements to a document. The patent indicates the use of nested interface elements, for example, clicking a button to bring up a menu with operations that the user may perform.

The second patent approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office demonstrates user input on the iPhone’s touch keyboard and how the iPhone highlights the letter that is pressed, as well as how long the button stays highlighted.

The third patent relates to touch gestures which can select, as well as delete items using the iPhone’s touch screen. The process recognizes gestures in the order of first editing a list, selecting an item for deletion, and then finally being prompted on whether or not to delete the item.

Check out the three iPhone patent applications at MacNN.

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Apple Japan has recently launched a promo and is including limited edition cases with iPod Nanos and Touches.  However, the Nano case costs 2,280 yen ($22), and the Touch case is 2,680 yen ($26).  The cases are made of hardened polycarbonate and coated in black rubber while the etching are made of a golden color.  The etching features the district it is bought in (Ginza, Shibuya, Nagoya, Sendai, Sapporo, Fukuoka, or Shinsaibashi), as well as a traditional Japanese symbol.

If you have picked on of these up or plan on it, let us know how it is.  Is it worth the extra money?  From the pictures, it looks pretty interesting.  It could be cool if Apple does something like this in the USA, Europe, or Canada.

Read the article at a Google translated site.

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Computers.  Displays.  Cell phones.  Music players.  Online music.  Storage.  Networking.  Apple is already in a ton of markets, many of which, unfortunately, are tightly tied together.  However, Apple is still a relatively young company and can branch out so much more.  The questions is, if at all, where?  Will they enter the digital camera market?  The gaming market?  The GPS and auto market?  Or maybe even video cameras?  It could be any of the above, especially given the fact that Apple has applied for so many patents lately.  It will be interesting to find out, but heres my thoughts:

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An awesome VoIP client known as “fring” that was previously only available for PCs and other mobile phones has now been released for Apple’s iPhone (and iPod touch). Of course, only jailbroken iPhones will be able to run the unofficial third-party application, and its VoIP capabilities are only available over a WiFi network.

The developer of fring is labeling it as a “light, sneak preview R&D version” so it appears that they are only testing the functionality and observing the popularity of the application on jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches before the application is officially released once the iPhone 2.0 software update goes public.

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Many iPhone users dislike typing with its built-in touch screen QWERTY keyboard, and finally, a man named Ruddy Ugarte has come up with a practical and affordable solution. The new product, called My Touch Keys, is a transparent protective screen protector, with cut-outs for for the iPhone’s keyboard. This amazing product lets you feel where each letter is located on the textured surface, reducing typo errors that are common among the iPhone among most other mobile phones.

The best part about it is that this practical screen protector only costs $7.99 USD for a pair and is definitely worth investing in. Even if you don’t find that the product is suitable for your needs, at least you wouldn’t have spent a lot of money on it.

Unfortunately, shipping is free for US residents only, so you’ll have to pay a bit more for third-party and international shipping services.

The picture shown is only an illustration, as the actual product itself is completely transparent, and Ugarte claims that you won’t even notice the cut-outs; plus it won’t affect the iPhone’s multi-touch interface, which may be a problem among thicker third-party iPhone screen protectors.

[Via iPhone Buzz.]

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