Must Have Apps for iPhone to Help Fight Poverty

The Social good movement has revolutionized and re-energized fundraising, with mobile apps  The ability to help others is now a tap away.

Here are five iPhone apps to help in the fight against poverty.

1. Make Poverty History

The white bandwith the words “Make Poverty History” can be purchased as a background for your phone for $0.99, with 100% of the profits going to charity.

With more than 50 million iPhones sold world wide, and more than 3 billion apps downloaded, if every iPhone owner was to download this one app, it would definitely be a start towards making poverty history.

2. Give Work

Give Work is a free app designed to benefit the refugees in the developing world. This app is a little strange: It asks you to complete a task on your phone and a person in a developing region will do the same thing. Your partner will get paid for both tasks.

The organization behind the app, Samasource, works with refugees by giving them “life-changing opportunities via the Internet.” Samasource says that in doing so they “enable socially responsible companies, small businesses, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs in the U.S. to contribute to economic development by buying services from our workforce at fair prices.”

3. Compassion

Here is an app to tug on your heartstrings and open your check book. Compassion gives you access to information on child poverty from its blog, and connects you to the organization’s Facebook Page andTwitter feed. Compassion International is a Christian child advocacy group that began providing Korean War orphans with aid and Christian values.

With this app, you can search through profiles of children in need of aid in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean and make your selection of who you’d like to sponsor. If sponsorship is not for you, there is also the option to donate directly from your phone to the Disaster Relief Fund.

4. CauseWorld

CauseWorld is a geolocation app that allows you to check in, earning you karma points instead of badges, which you can cash-in as donations to charities.

The app has you performing “good deeds” just for walking into a stores like Trader Joe’s and Borders. Sponsors like Proctor and Gamble, Citibank and Kraft donate money for your checkins. You can choose where the money is going: Poverty in Africa, Chilean relief efforts, clean water initiatives, chimpanzee habitats, tree planting efforts, education, and cancer research are just some of the deserving causes. You can earn more karma points by scanning the barcodes of specific products, and you can download certain associated iPhone apps, both free and paid, to earn more karma.

To date, CauseWorld and its karma have been able to offset 1.4 million pounds of carbon, raise more than $100,00 for Haiti and Chile, donate more than 228,000 meals to hungry Americans, plant more than 58,000 trees in rain forests, donate more than 24,000 books to children, and provide more than 18 million liters of clean drinking water.

If you are going to check in somewhere it might as well count for something good, right?

5. Donation Connect

If you’re a busy person, it’s sometimes difficult to talk to the college-aged kid canvassing on the street for charity even if you really want to. Here is an easy solution: Donation Connect brings all your valued charities right to your phone.

Download the app and hit “Find a charity.” You’ll be directed to a list of categories where you can pick which charity you’d like to support. The amount that you choose to give will then be charged to your wireless bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. You’ll never not have time to give again.

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Windows Phone 7 Syncing for Mac

Microsoft revealed that it will offer a Mac version of the Zune software by the end of the year. In a Twitter tweet that was subsequently removed, a Microsoft source stated, “I’m glad to confirm that Mac users would be able to use Zune on their Macs to sync with [Windows Phone 7].”

Apple’s iTunes software has been available for the Windows operating system for years, Microsoft’s Zune has not.

However, both the Apple iPhone, and the recently unveiledWindows Phone 7 smartphones rely on the respective music and digital content platforms to sync the smartphones with music, photos, and other data. Allowing Mac OS X users to join in the Windows Phone 7 fun by providing Zune for the Apple OS makes strategic sense.

Stay tune for more info.

App Alert: Square iPhone Credit Card Swiping App

While thumbing through the iTunes App Store today . I came across this really cool and useful app today. It is called Square, it’s a mobile payment processing service founded by Twitter Co-founder Jack Dorsey. Well-funded and ambitious, Square aims to become the standard for mobile payment processing, especially for small businesses.

Check out a video of Jack Dorsey’s presentation of Square at this year’s DEMO conference.

Sonic The Hedgehog 4™ Episode I Is Now Available for iPhone

The Hedgehog lover in me is excited now that Sonic 4 is out and available at the iTunes store. Reviews say that it features classic run and jump gameplay at a breakneck pace. It includes 12 zones, closely modeled on 16 bit Sonic game levels. Both score attack and time attack modes are available, and there are a couple special tilt based iPhone exclusive levels.

According to AppAdvice.com “The game also FEELS like Sonic. It has a classic Green Hills zone. It has a old school Labyrinth zone complete with underwater sections. Mad Gear is based off Metropolis Zone from Sonic 2, including the tube like teleporters and conveyor belts There are enemies and bosses from Sonic 1 such as the enemies that appear then charge towards you and the ones that shoot out of the walls in Splash Hill, which also finishes with a twist on the old school “swinging ball boss” The game’s aforementioned speed and fluidity add to this vibe.”

I am so excited that I about to download now.

source: Appadvice

App Alert: Look through Google Goggles for iPhone

One of my favorite Android Apps Google Goggles is now available for the iPhone.Google Goggles launched as an Android app in Google Labs in December of last year. The app processes pictures taken with the phone and recognizes the text within it, creating search results for things like books and business cards. It also recognizes things like landmarks, logos and book covers, but isn’t able to recognize food or animals. Even though Google is working on the functionality it is definitely going to become a must-have  app.

Just In: Motorola Mobility Sues Apple for Patent Infringement

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – Oct. 6, 2010 – Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today announced that its subsidiary, MotorolaMobility, Inc., has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iTouch and certain Mac computers infringe Motorola patents. Motorola Mobility also filed patent infringement complaints against Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) in the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida.

Overall, Motorola Mobility’s three complaints include 18 patents, which relate to early-stage innovations developed by Motorola in key technology areas found on many of Apple’s core products and associated services, including MobileMe and the App Store. The Motorola patents include wireless communication technologies, such as WCDMA (3G), GPRS, 802.11 and antenna design, and key smartphone technologies including wireless email, proximity sensing, software application management, location-based services and multi-device synchronization.

Motorola Mobility has requested that the ITC commence an investigation into Apple’s use of Motorola’s patents and, among other things, issue an Exclusion Order barring Apple’s importation of infringing products, prohibiting further sales of infringing products that have already been imported, and halting the marketing, advertising, demonstration and warehousing of inventory for distribution and use of such imported products in the United States. In the District Court actions, Motorola Mobility has requested that Apple cease using Motorola’s patented technology and provide compensation for Apple’s past infringement.

Kirk Dailey, corporate vice president of intellectual property at Motorola Mobility, said, “Motorola has innovated and patented throughout every cycle of the telecommunications industry evolution, from Motorola’s invention of the cell phone to its development of premier smartphone products. We have extensively licensed our industry-leading intellectual property portfolio, consisting of tens of thousands of patents in the U.S. and worldwide. After Apple’s late entry into the telecommunications market, we engaged in lengthy negotiations, but Apple has refused to take a license. We had no choice but to file these complaints to halt Apple’s continued infringement. Motorola will continue to take all necessary steps to protect its R&D and intellectual property, which are critical to the company’s business.”

Left 4 Dead 2 for Mac: Now In Stock

For all the gamers out there Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 for Mac is now available through the Steam store. Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first person zombie shooter.

Through the Steam Play functionality, existing Windows users can download the Mac version for free. New customers can also play on either platform while purchasing only once. Steam also launched their new “The Sacrifice” add-on pack for the game.

“The Sacrifice” is the prequel to “The Passing,” and takes place from the L4D Survivors’ perspective as they make their way South. In addition to advancing the story, “The Sacrifice” introduces a new style finale featuring “Sacrificial Gameplay” where players get to decide who will give their life so the others may live.

As a launch promotion, Valve is offering Left 4 Dead 2 at 66% off, with a single license priced at $6.79 and a four-pack priced at $20.39.

Apple Introduces New Retina Display

Now that that the iPhone 4 has been out for awhile and everyone is excited about the rumors of  Apple/Verizon deal. We have to pay homage to iPhone 4, with its new Retina display. The Retina Display uses technology called IPS (in-plane switching) — the same technology used in the Apple LED Cinema Display and iPad — to achieve a wider viewing angle than on typical LCDs. Which means you can hold iPhone 4 almost any way you want and still get a brilliant picture. That’s perfect when you’re sharing photos with a friend or moving your iPhone around while playing a driving or flying game. In addition, the Retina display offers four times the contrast ratio of previous models, so whites are brighter, blacks are darker, and everything is more beautiful.

Advancements in the glass. And under it.

Made from the same materials used in helicopters and high-speed trains, the Retina display glass is chemically strengthened to be harder, more scratch resistant, and more durable than ever. The glass also features an oil-resistant coating that helps keep the screen clean.

The Retina display includes LED backlighting and an ambient light sensor that intelligently adjusts the brightness of the screen for optimal viewing and battery life. When you lift iPhone to your ear for a phone call, a proximity sensor immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent accidental dialing.

In a word, resolutionary.

By developing pixels a mere 78 micrometers wide, Apple engineers were able to pack four times the number of pixels into the same 3.5-inch (diagonal) screen found on earlier iPhone models. The resulting pixel density of iPhone 4 — 326 pixels per inch — makes text and graphics look smooth and continuous at any size.

iApp To Organize Your Business Cards

Apple Observer readers if you are anything like me you probably take every new business card you receive and log its information into a database of some kind. Insane and time consuming isn’t it?

I have my own system: One black card book for important cards, and a small tin can for more less important ones.

Great news, mobile app developers are trying to break people like me by offering a way to quickly scan and organize business cards. ScanBizCards ($7 on iPhones) and WorldCard Mobile ($6 on iPhones) are now ready and available for downloading.

If you already have CamCard, as your business card management system then you are ahead of the curve.. Reviewers on iTunes, Android’s Market and BlackBerry’s App World have lauded the app for its simplicity and versatility.

The app can scans cards in 12 languages, while others focus on English or, in the case of WorldCard Mobile, English and Chinese. CamCard also allows editing of the card’s image, which will appeal to those who would prefer not to see a coffee, tea or soda stain each time they view an important card.

CamCard renders nearly every letter and number correctly. After the scan, CamCard places the information into a virtual card holder that can be sorted by name. It also includes a search box at the top, a welcome feature that the other apps lacked.

The other apps were good, but over all, CamCard felt more refined.

And for those who cannot bear the thought of spending $7 on an app, CamCard offers free “lite” versions that scans cards but stores only a few.

Digital music sales level off this year

Reuters reports on data from research firm Nielsen showing that U.S. digital music sales plateaued in the first half of 2010, marking a dramatic decrease from the 28% growth enjoyed just two years ago.

According to research group Nielsen, digital sales were flat in the U.S. market after a 13 percent increase from 2008 to 2009 and 28 percent growth from 2007 to 2008.

Nielsen points to a variety of factors, including economic uncertainty, a lack of appeal for new releases, and confusion over digital sales options as possible reasons for the leveling off.

Apple has long dominated the digital download market in the U.S. and many other countries, consistently registering on the order of 70% of digital industry sales and now exceeding a quarter of all music sales. Consequently, a plateauing of digital music sales growth set against a backdrop of stagnating overall music sales suggests that Apple may have a difficult time growing its iTunes music business in the U.S. if the trend continues, given the company’s already-high market share. Data from Apple’s announced milestones for iTunes music sales already reveals a leveling off at around 250 million downloads per month.

Some hope may remain in international markets, however, as Nielsen notes growth in digital music sales in a number of other countries.

According to the Nielsen research, digital music sales were up 7 percent in Britain, up 13 percent in Germany and up 19 percent in France.

Apple has also become less reliant on iTunes Store music sales for driving hardware purchases as the company’s media devices have become more capable, allowing the company to branch out into applications, movies, and TV.

source: reuters

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