The newest top tier organization to make their website iPhone optimized is the Associated Press. That’s right. The world’s oldest and largest news gathering source has joined the fray, making AP News available to iPhone users in a now familiar optimized version. Visit APNews from your iPhone to see AP’s Mobile News Network to stay up on the latest world news.

I have the ability to search through the news, and I can define a local region to see news from a particular area based on zip code. For example, I live in Santa Monica so I have zip code 90401 set as my primary local news preference. I spend a lot of time in San Francisco, zip code 94107, so I set it as a locale I also want news for. When I look at my local news on the AP News site, I see relevant headlines to Santa Monica and San Francisco.

News is sorted by category, and I can choose what I want to see. I enjoy the ability to customize what shows up on my home page by turning categories on or off, based on my personal preferences. News categories include: Local, U.S, World, Photos, Entertainment, Sports, Business, Videos, Elections, Wacky News, Technology, and Government. Photos and video can tell very dramatic stories by themselves, and offering them with the written news is one feature I am seeing on more sites, most recently Google News.

When I find a news story that I find interesting, funny, or compelling enough to share with someone, I have the option to email or text the story. I would like to be able to see more stories per category without having to select “More Stories”, but keeping the number of stories I see on my home page helps maintain a clean look.

How do you consume your news? What news sites do you read from your iPhone?

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Accessing my Google applications from my iPhone has just been made easier by the good folks over on the Google mobile team. As a long time user of Google applications on many mobile devices, no interface has been so clean and light as this newest iteration of Google’s productivity suite for the iPhone and iPod Touch. According to the Google Mobile blog, the polished Google experience is also now “available in 33 new markets and 16 new languages, from Argentina to New Zealand, from Swedish to Chinese.”

Now, armed with my iPhone, I can be quick on the draw when I am challenged to “Google it!”. Having added the familiar www.google.com to my iPhone’s Home Screen, I have the added bonus of Gmail, Calendar and Reader at my fingertips in just two taps. With little effort, I also have access to Google Docs and News.

Google News for the iPhone launched on May 1, 2008, and is available to users in over 30 countries. I can now browse the front page of Google’s current news, events and stories. There is even a search box which enables me to see results of a search initiated from the News home page. Where available, many of my search results included a YouTube icon displaying associated video to compliment the written story. Clicking on the YouTube icon and video opened and played it right on my iPhone.

Ulf Waschbusch, Product Marketing Manager on the Google mobile team writes:

“Furthermore, if you use Google Apps - now is the time to use your domain name on the iPhone as well. Just bookmark http://www.google.com/m/a/YOURDOMAIN for fast one-click access to Google. Please make sure to replace YOURDOMAIN with your actual domain name.”

I am using a personalized domain, www.girlsgonegeek.tv, with Google Apps and am hosting my email there. To have access to the Google productivity suite, when logging in using my at girlsgonegeek dot tv email address, I had to configure my settings within Apps administration to have access to all of the modules (Documents, Calendar, Reader, etc.). Also a user of a separate, free at gmail dot com account, my Apps run like clockwork without any setup or permissions needing to be configured.

There is no better price than free, and Google has done a great job of building applications that work well on the desktop and now on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Bravo!

Let me know what you think of the new interface. What is the next step for Google’s mobile UI?

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Musician, Geek and iPhone fan, Geoff Smith, has been making music for podcasters for a few years. Recently, he was featured as a co-creator of the iYule with Cali Lewis. He has teamed with Klaus Lovgreen to develop Ringtone Feeder - “a weekly automated delivery of original ringtones exclusively produced and optimized to sound great on the iPhone.”

The installation and execution of the process was seamless and light. I appreciate that. Ringtone Feeder gets it right. Once I had an account created and clicked on the Ringtone Feeder URL, iTunes was launched, and I was prompted for my username and password. After entering the required information and selecting “Remember My Password”, the inaugural ringtone was being downloaded into iTunes. In order to use the ringtone, I had to complete two additional steps: 1. Create a smart playlist of the ringtones, and 2. Sync the playlist with my iPhone.

Continue Reading »

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Single-page aggregation of the web’s freshest stories is the beauty of Alltop.com. I love using Alltop, because I am able to search by category for the content most recently published from the top blogs across the web. Categories run the gamut and include: Beauty, Gadgets, Art, Lifehacks, Education, and my favorite, Hawaii, to name a few.

Fresh and hot off the presses, the crew over at Alltop mobilized their findings for people like you, me, and Dupree. Okay. Well, anyone who has a mobile device, like an iPhone, can now visit alltop.com/m for the same look, feel and experience of its big brother.

If you’re looking for one of the best websites, mobile or not, to get stories when they’re hot, Alltop.com is the place.

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I was in the middle of nowhere. It was just me, the cows, and my iPhone. Cinderella team, Davidson, had been giving KU the run of its life and on the brink of one of the biggest March Madness upsets sure to be remembered for eternity. I had no idea - no idea, that is, until my iPhone lit up with this text “Davidson down by 2 with 2:30 remaining.”

“What?! I’m missing this?!” These were my exact words. The cows were supportive, although, unmoooo-ved. Fortunately, me and the cows had access to satellite radio. So, we searched, and we found it. The game, at that time, had wound down to 2:15. Only a 15 second difference between my RUWT alert and my listening to it live. THIS is what my iPhone was made for. We cheered and enjoyed the excitement of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, as we did as kids with The Wide World of Sports.

How many tied games, close finishes, and upsets that happened in triple overtime have you missed? Well, what if you don’t have to anymore? AreYouWatchingThis.com (RUWT) is here to help you see, in real time, what games are on the brink of being classic, right from its iPhone optimized website. As a sports nut, I am able to follow all of the major sports, including: pro and college basketball, Major League Baseball, hockey, golf, and pro football, to name a few. After I created my RUWT account, I was able to watch “my” games based on the local television or cable network I selected for my area. Based on the zip code you provide in your profile, you will be able to do the same. I can also choose what sports or specific teams I want to watch. What this means, for me, is that I will be notified by text or at their website from my iPhone, when a game is tied, going in to overtime, or if it looks like a close finish.

Go to AreYouWatchingThis.com from your computer to set up your account. Follow the action on your iPhone. Never miss another awesome game.

Go Lakers! Go Blue!

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by Liana Lehua

I was listening to the Pat Metheny Trio today, and I was lost in the music. The quality of the trio’s sound was really coming through on my desktop speakers, and I really wanted to share my thoughts with you. I have taken these speakers for granted for quite some time. I have the Audio Engine A2B Black model on my desk connected via the 1/8″ mini jack (aka the “headphones” jack) to my MacBook Pro. Other devices I have connected to them include my Asus Eee PC, any one of a number of music players (iPhone, iPod, for example), my Playstation Portable, and Nintendo DS Lite. Continue Reading »

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by Liana Lehua

As a matter of fact, this is an iPhone in my pocket. And, in this other pocket, I have my iPhone ear buds. You all know me by now. iPhone cases and I go together like Imelda Marcos and shoes. This case is a little different, and some of you may already know about it, while others have merely heard about it in passing. Either way, it probably has never been presented to you as the ultimate iPhone case. For me, the new women’s travel vest from ScotteVest is my favorite piece of outerwear at the moment. The men have many more styles and options from which to choose, and I hope to see the women’s line follow suit. Continue Reading »

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