Pretty Darn Cool

Obama's campaign created an iPhone app. That's very leading edge. Not only that, but as an iPod Touch user, I really appreciate that they modified it for that device as well. We get the short end of the stick on apps.

Features

Call Friends: A great volunteering tool that lets you make a difference any time you want by talking to people you already know. Your contacts are prioritized by key battleground states, and you can make calls and organize results all in one place.
Call Stats: See nationwide Obama ‘08 Call Friends totals and find out how your call totals compare to leading callers.
Get Involved: Do more. Find and contact your local Obama for America HQ.
Receive Updates: Receive the latest news and announcements via text messages or email.
News: Browse complete coverage of national and local campaign news.
Local Events: Find local events, share by email and get maps and directions.
Media: Browse videos and photos from the campaign
Issues: Get clear facts about Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s plan for essential issues facing Americans.

You can download it here.

...I should also note here that some bloggers are doing a phonebanking party on Sunday. Check it out if you want, and get involved.

Friday Random Ten

I have to commend Apple for their new additions to the iPod Touch, although I fail to understand why I had to pay $20 more bucks for them. The email feature is really great - smooth and easy to use. I can load up my emails on my Wi-Fi at home, and then periodically check them when I'm out. Seeing that I get a metric ton of emails, this is pretty crucial.

I also enjoy getting the weather.

You Were Right - Badly Drawn Boy
The Middle - Great Northern
Imagine This - Mediacracy (nice that I found this song, it takes Bush speeches and cuts them up to have him sing the words to John Lennon's Imagine)
We're Going To Be Friends - The White Stripes
Thank You, Lord, For Sending Me The F Train - Mike Doughty
If You Want Me - Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglova
Alright - Guided By Voices
I Am The Resurrection - The Stone Roses
Celebration - Kanye West
Lightness - Death Cab For Cutie

Enjoy.

Friday Random Ten

OK, walking out of my car, I dropped my iPod touch on the ground and cracked the glass. I'm still in shock. But it does still work, and it gives it that weathered look. I'm so indie! And I was able to get these ten songs out:

Masterplan - My Morning Jacket
Let Down - Radiohead
Down On The Street - Rage Against The Machine
Walk On The Wild Side (remix) - Lou Reed (I don't know who made this remix, it includes new lyrics and a reference to Iraq so it's recent)
Pimple Zoo - Guided By Voices
Low Expectations - Edwyn Collins
Making Plans For Nigel - Nouvelle Vague
Addiction - Kanye West
Sting Me - The Black Crowes
Fanatic Heart - Black 47

Bonus Track:

Slow Hands - Interpol

Friday Random Ten

Good to have a full iPod again...

Yolanda Hayes - Fountains Of Wayne
Broken Levee Blues - DJ Shadow
The Night Starts Here - Stars (might be the best song of 2007)
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song - The Flaming Lips
I Think I Smell A Rat - The White Stripes
Realizer - The Crystal Method
Hiperboreal - Dandy del Sur
You Know It's Hard - The Crystal Method
Neighborhood #2 (Laika) - The Arcade Fire
Razz - Kings Of Leon

Now, the next step is to get some new music. But only legally, I don't need me a $222,000 fine. By the way, that's a completely ridiculous award to the music industry, who should know better than to alienate their fans. Furthermore, the prosecution claimed that ripping your own music onto your iPod should be considered stealing. No wonder that industry is losing money hand over fist.

The Random Ten Returns - Eventually

So I did get my iPod Touch in the mail, only to find that it only works with Mac OS 10.4 and above. Which I have on my laptop but not my desktop. And of course, my desktop is where all my music resides. It's one of those fun little Easter eggs that Apple throws at you every now and again to keep it fun. Like the time when they just stopped allowing you to connect your iPod using FireWire, forcing everyone to buy a USB cord. Fun! I love planned obsolescence!

So while I'm in the midst of dealing with that, I only have a couple hundred songs to choose from on the iPod, which is no fun. I'll put one up over the weekend. It'll give me time to add to 50 Cent's retirement pressure by getting the new Kanye album, anyway.

You're All On Pins And Needles Waiting To Hear About My New Ipod

So I left my iPod on a plane about a month ago, and I was about to replace it when I got wind that a new product line would be coming out today. As you may know, they released what amounts to an iPhone without the phone part, with a touchscreen, wi-fi, 16 gigs of storage for audio, video and photos, etc., for about $200 less than what they were selling the iPhone for. Thinking this is a great deal, I jumped on it, only to find out minutes later that they also cut the iPhone price by $200, which is just beyond bizarre. Apparently, people at the product launch thought so too:

The decision to cut the price of its most expensive iPhone to $399 from $599 - and phase out an entry-level iPhone that had sold for $499 - was clearly a shocker. Barron's tech writer Eric Savitz, who was in SF for Apple's product announcement, said "this was a move that no one in the room expected; people were truly stunned; and I mean jaw-dropping, mouths agape, stopped in their tracks stunned. The news almost erased all the good feeling in the room from the day’s various product announcements, and replaced it with a sense of shock. You’d think a dementor had flown into the room." Why all the fuss? Well, how would you feel if you had spent hours, even days, waiting in line for a $599 iPhone just two months ago - and now find that it's being priced at $399?

Apparently the stock dropped on this news too. If I had an iPhone I'd be pissed. From what I heard, the phone was the worst thing about the iPhone; the plan is locked in to AT&T, the service is scattershot at best, and the plans are costly. Getting all of the features I wanted without having to deal with the phone is like the best of all possible worlds, and I kicked in for the extra memory to get 16 gigs (I only used about 10-12 gigs of my old 20Gb iPod; seriously, does anyone even KNOW 40,000 songs for the 160Gb model they released today?).

Maybe if they opened up the device to competition from other cellular networks, it wouldn't be seen as too expensive considering it doesn't work well. Making the device open would allow more people to keep their service and transfer it over, and would make the phone more attractive to those who like their plans. But Apple was stubborn, fell in line with the typical way things are done in the cell phone industry when they had the juice to be bold, and now they're paying the price in a big way.

Technology is like information; it wants to be free.

UPDATE: This is not the publicity any company desires:

Steve Jobs' casual announcement today that Apple (AAPL) was cutting the price of the 8GB iPhone by $200 is not going over well among customers who paid $599 for theirs. In fact, it has sparked an outright rebellion in the Apple support forums, where discussion threads filled with hate mail are piling up faster than Apple can delete them.

"The more the day goes by, the more furious I become," writes VSiskos in "1 Million People Slapped In The Face Today," one of the forums still standing.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS!" adds graphicalliber425. " Somewhere in my heart I'm hoping, Apple's going to offer all of us an extended return policy, or a brand new iPod nano right?"

Under's Apple's standard return policy, customers who bought a product within 14 days of a price reduction can ask to be reimbursed the difference, and some Apple stores have reportedly done the same for iPhones purchased earlier than that. But those random acts of flexibility seem only to have further inflamed the wounded feelings of those who weren't extended the same courtesy.

"They told me to shove it," wrote tulanejosjh. "14 days or nothing."

"Same here," added jmolina1313. "The guy treated me like I was on drugs!"

Apple had to know that people would be furious about this. They obviously calculated that they would rather take that hit (and the loss of perhaps fifty million dollars in revenue, if a just a quarter of iPhone purchasers turn theirs in) than try to sell a lame product. They must be cursing AT&T something fierce right now.