It effectively replaces your iPhone Calendar app and does all the regular things (creating/editing calendar entries, inviting others, et cetera) that you would expect. It really shines, though, when you’re running late to meet someone or need a map of the venue to navigate to the meeting venue quickly with GPS.

Here’s an example. If I create a calendar event called “Lunch with Tony W. at Grim’s Seattle”, TouchBase will automatically go through my iPhone contacts and find Tony W. and associate him with the calendar event. The app will also run a Google search for “Grim’s Seattle” and insert the top-ranked search result’s address into the location/address field of the calendar event. Since TouchBase knows who I’m meeting with and automatically fetched his phone number from my address book, I can call or text Tony DIRECTLY from the calendar event, and because TouchBase has automatically fetched the meeting venue’s address, I can navigate to it and get driving directions–also straight from the TouchBase calendar event. If I’m stuck in traffic for our lunch meeting, I can simply hit “I’m running late by 20 minutes” and TouchBase will send Tony a text to let him know (or I can call him).

This is the kind of useful extension of the calendar that I wish Apple had built into the standard iPhone calendar. Anyways, you can now have this functionality for just $0.99 (the price is set to quadruple to $3.99, so get it soon!).

TouchBase App (iTunes)

Via GeekWire.

If you’re on T-Mobile USA, there’s something you should know. You’ve just hit the jackpot!

Well, kind of.

T-Mobile is upping their overage per-minute rate to 45¢ (on individual plans <$59.99 and family plans <$89.99), and 40¢ per minute for plans above those pricepoints. The rate increase is carrier-invoked and it constitutes a “materially adverse change of contract,” which means you can get out of your contract now, all without paying an early termination fee.

Who is this good news for:

a) People who wanted to jump ship to get an iPhone, but didn’t want to pay a hefty ETF.
b) EVERYONE!

The reason the change is good for all T-Mobile customers (even if you’re staying with Big Magenta) is that without a contract, you’re a free agent, and hence eligible for upgrade pricing. It’s like you’ve just been given $200 toward an expensive phone, or a free cheap phone (that you can promptly sell on Ebay).

If you’d like to take advantage of the free contract-out, click over to BGR for details:

T-Mobile raises overage rates; cancel your contract sans-ETF – Boy Genius Report

Thanks, Shyama!

This girl is a star.

Via iJustine.

Via Kanye West.

Via Microsiervos.

“… [Obama's] Blackberry is a concern, not just to the Secret Service, but also to lawyers,” who believe any emails sent/received could be subpoenaed by Congress/the courts, and may be subject to public records laws. Because of this fear, Clinton and George W. didn’t send a single email while in office.

Obama, security aides, still debating Blackberry – AP

The iPhone is a much more natural fit as an eBook reader because it’s owners carry it with them everywhere they go. It’s screen is smaller, yes. But small screens haven’t stopped the Japanese from reading and writing books on their phones. In Japan in 2007, 5 of the the top 10 bestselling books began as cellphone novels (i.e. written on a cellphone).

I believe the iPhone’s true abilities with regard to eBook reading have yet to be fully explored. There are many eBook readers for the iPhone, but none has become so dominant so as to make the iPhone a real contender in the eBook reader space.

What Amazon Needs To Do

If Amazon.com wants to survive as a bookseller, they need to compete with their own product (the Kindle) and make their electronic bookstore the standard on each and every popular electronic device. Amazon needs to build a Kindle app for the iPhone.

Think about it: what proportion of people carry their cellphone with them everywhere they go? And how many people carry around a dedicated eBook reader?

If Amazon doesn’t put out an iPhone eBook reader application in the next year, it’s possible Apple will — or one of the existing apps will become so ubiquitous that it might come installed standard on iPhones and be listed as a selling point for potential iPhone buyers (perhaps Stanza will become this heralded piece of software).

Either way, this market is Amazon’s to lose. They just have to be comfortable competing with themselves in order to provide the most utility and the best experience to the public. That’s not such a revolutionary idea, is it?

Is the iPhone the Ultimate eBook Reader? – ReadWriteWeb

Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular – NYT