Verizon Wireless today introduced Visual Voice Mail, an application that works much like Apple’s iPhone Visual Voicemail. The application is available for the LG Voyager, an iPhone-clone of sorts, that gives the Verizon user the ability to check voicemail right on their phone. Going beyond the iPhone’s simple listen at your conveniences, Verizon’s Visual Voicemail allows for customers to forward voice mail messages in addition to the ability to listen, delete, and reply to. The non-linear system allows a Verizon customer to retain up to 40 messages for 40 days on their LG Voyager.

Verizon also notes that customers can create up to 10 greetings, 20 distribution lists and 50 distribution members to receive messages.

Verizon relies on the Alcatel-Lucent 5150 Messaging Applications Broker (MAB) for visual voice mail, “Which provides enhanced notification and content delivery services for voice, text and video messages through an intuitive visual interface.”

One of my early complaints with the first generation iPhone, which remains to this day, was the inability to send my “card” to another iPhone or smartphone user. Just days before the purchase of the Apple phone, I was able to transmit my contact card to any other Windows Mobile or Symbian user via Bluetooth or even Infrared. So why wasn’t this greatest phone ever allowing me this same convenience? Well, with no IR port and a severely retarded Bluetooth stack, it just wasn’t going to happen. What a shame and yet another ding against the Enterprise user by Apple.

Tapulous, a group of guys in Palo Alto (home to Apple CEO Steve Jobs), have thought that iPhones should be able to share contacts. Not just your contact but any of your contacts. The makers of the widely popular Twitter application for the iPhone, Twinkle, will be releasing a new application called friendBook. In its third application for the iPhone (the other the popular game Tap Tap), Tapulous brings a more powerful contacts manager to the iPhone. Not only will one be able to trade contacts, but better manager them right on the iPhone away from the connected computer. Easily find duplicates, merge contacts, and even dial a member of your virtual black book by a picture of the person, friendBook is surely to be a hit once on the App Store.

There is no immediate release date or pricing details for friendBook but rumor has it that the application has already been submitted to Apple and is merely awaiting approval. So look for it through the week and download it quickly! Who knows, Apple may deem this “bad” and remove it like it did Netshare.

If you haven’t noticed in iTunes yet, the firmware update for the iPhone, 2.0.1, has just been released. In the always descriptive change log, Apple tells us nothing once again. The 249 MB update addresses “bug fixes” per Apple’s announcement that many hope will fix the Contact delay, Safari crashes, and issues with many of the new native applications. One major out cry, extreme sync times due to back-ups, have not been resolved according to some users who have already upgraded. Others are reporting that Contact searches have sped up, as well as iPod and Calendar response seeming to be more peppy.

Next up, 2.1. The rumors have cut-n-paste and MMS as new features as well as the push-notification API available for third-party vendors for use with such programs as Instant Messaging.

If you’re like me, you have most likely noticed that new sweet 3G iPhone drains a lot faster than the life changing 1st Generation iPhone did. Now I find myself plugging in my 3G into the car charger anytime I’m in my truck. I feel like I’m reverting to my Windows Mobile days.

Thankfully, Mophie, makers of external batteries for iPods and the 1st generation iPhone have updated its Juice Pack to work with the “twice as fast and half the price” iPhone! Giving your demanding 3G iPhone 350 hours of standby time, 6 hours of 3G talk time (12 for 2G), 6 hours of 3G Internet use, and 7 hours for Wi-Fi. The Juice Pack will give you much needed juice. Your iPod audio will now play for more than a day at 28 hours and you’ll get 8 hours of video play. Splendid, no doubt?

Ross Howe, Sales and Product Development Director for mStation/mophie says in its press release that, “Since its debut, power users of the iPhone 3G have demanded a product that will boost battery life for extended on-the-go use” . Howe continues, “juice pack 3G delivers this exceptional battery enhancement while keeping the unique style and feel of the iPhone intact.”

You can pre-order your Juice Pack for $99.95 at Mophie’s web site now.

Apple has gotten a beating with its Mobile Me launch from the press and this post really isn’t meant to add to the blows. Rather, it’s to amplify to the greatness of what Mobile Me was set out to be. In its fully working state, Mobile Me indeed was supposed to be “Exchange for the rest of us” and then some. This is Apple we’re talking about. The company that made the Super Phone super its first time out of the gates while other manufacturers that have been doing this trade for near a decade has still yet to pull of what Apple did on its release day. With early reports coming from Apple’s own Mobile Me blogger that all is fixed now, hopefully Mobile Me can be the glorious cloud we all want it to be.

That said, what about iDisk? I mean, all my Macs happily share documents, files, and such via the synchronized “disk” in the Mobile Me cloud. Why can’t my iPhone have access to it? I mean, the iPhone can already handle many document types and via QuickTime other multimedia files. So, browsing ones iDisk hierarchy shouldn’t be a problem at all, right? I mean, the column view was made for the iPhone! To be able to realize while at a business meeting that you forgot some information from a document and then be able to say, “Oh, I’ll just look it up via my iPhone on the iDisk,” would be a life saver! Or being able to show videos off to your friends at a party by just simply logging into to your iDisk. Speed shouldn’t be an issue with 3G or Wi-Fi, right?

Apple, I hope you’re on the same track that I am and that you’re just simply being very secretive as usual. I hope, along with my cut-n-paste, this will be coming in the firmware update 2.1. Please tell me it’s so! If not, please add this to your list ASAP!

(PS: I know I can log into the web site and do this, too, but come on, we want native support!)

A smaller, more affordable version of the Jamo R 909, the new R 907 tower speaker is also designed for the true audiophile—but designed to work brilliantly where space is at a premium. Like the R 909, the R 907 features dipolar engineering, which means that sound is distributed from both the front and the back of the speaker. The reflected audio from the rear adds ambience and gives the impression of a much larger room—in other words, a more lifelike, live performance sound.

Dipolar loudspeakers have existed for many years; most of them have been electrostatic designs. However, electrostatic technology has one significant drawback: bass frequency reproduction is compromised. They simply aren’t able to produce the characteristic physical bass “thwack” you feel in your midriff. The Jamo Reference R 907 audio tower uses electrodynamic speakers instead of electrostatics—and the results are amazing. The exceptionally firm, deep bass and concert-like high end dynamics put you in the middle of the soundstage.

By using 12-inch woofers rather than the 15-inch drivers found in the R 909, Jamo engineers were able to make the R 907 approximately 20 percent shorter and 15 percent slimmer than the larger model—and even more ideal for smaller living spaces.

Available in striking high-gloss red or black finishes, the R 907 is sure to attract attention as much for its unique look as for its incredibly detailed sound reproduction. The open design allows you to see the quality components that make the Jamo R 907 so remarkable: the two woofers, the Hard Conical Cone midrange driver and the premium tweeter. From deep, precise bass to startlingly concert-like vocals, we’ve spared no expense to deliver sound in its purest form—and the evidence is clear at a glance.

The Jamo development team was given a mission: to “translate” the design and the acoustic characteristics of the R 909 into a new, less space-demanding speaker system. Like its bigger brother, the R 907’s sound quality is very open and dynamic, with extremely low distortion throughout the entire range. It features a highly-detailed midrange with optimal voice reproduction, and a firm, powerful bass, unmatched by mass-produced dipolar speakers.

The Reference Series offers pure works of art that demonstrate superior power handling and audio quality. With their refined sound, both the R 909 and R 907 are, without a doubt, designed exclusively for those discriminating listeners who prefer high end speakers that deliver perfect two-channel sound.

Boinx Software introduced today FotoMagico 2.5, its award-winning photo presentation tool for professional photographers. Recently honored with the Apple Design Award (ADA) 2008 - “Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application Runner-up”, the new 2.5 version of FotoMagico now features support for Adobe Lightroom libraries, a teleprompter that shows notes for every slide on a presenter´s display and a new export option for uploading slideshow videos directly to YouTube.

“We want to thank thousands of users who take part on our public beta program and gave feedback to make FotoMagico even better”, says Oliver Breidenbach, co‐founder of Boinx Software. “We are dedicated to making FotoMagico the premier slidehows tool on the Mac, two Apple Design Awards are proof that we are on the right track.”

“With FotoMagico 2.5, keeping your audience at the edge of their seats with a great show is now as easy for Adobe Lightroom users as it was for Aperture and iPhoto users before”, says Peter Baumgartner, lead-developer and “father” of FotoMagico. “The teleprompter enables a Steve Jobs-like performance for everybody and sharing shows with a global audience was never easier than with the new YouTube export option.”

Adobe Lightroom Support

FotoMagico 2.5 now supports the iMedia Browser framework. With the integrated iMedia Browser users can now seamlessly access GarageBand songs, iLife sound effects and their media libraries not only from iTunes, iPhoto and Aperture (Pro version) but also from other software including Adobe Lightroom (Pro version).
Teleprompter

With the new teleprompter of FotoMagico 2.5 Pro users can show their photos on one display and read their notes for every slide on another. Nicely animated, they get a preview showing which pictures come next and can even jump back and forth to every slide in the storyboard with just a click of the mouse.

YouTube Export

The Sharing Assistant feature adds a new export option, allowing to upload photo presentation videos directly to YouTube to reach a global audience. Video encoding for YouTube can be accelerated with the powerful Turbo.264 video encoder hardware from Elgato.

Availability and Pricing

FotoMagico 2.5 is available immediately for download from http://www.boinx.com/download. A built-in assistant will guide users through the process of aquiring the proper license. The update to FotoMagico 2.5 is free of charge to current FotoMagico 2.x license owners at their current license levels. FotoMagico 2.5 Express is available for $49 and FotoMagico 2.5 Pro is available for $129 via Kagi. For all purchase options see http://boinx.com/fotomagico/buy. Commercial multi-user license discounts are available upon request.

We’ve all had this problem. You’re out at Sea World and you’re taking a gazillion pictures of Shamu and you’re 4 GB Compact Flash card has only a handful pictures left when your wife says sweetly, “Hey honey, why don’t you take some pictures of the kids in the stands?” Mmm, delete Shamu or tell the wife you can’t? Ya, tough situation that once happened to me where I got in a heap of trouble for not deleting the hundreds of HO scale trains I took for a few pictures of our kids on the merry-go-round.

There have been a few solutions for this problem, namely dragging your laptop around with you and off load your pictures that way. But who wants to do that? Man, the diaper bag alone is big enough for me to want to ditch it immediately! Other portable hard drive readers, some with screen and some without, have slowly made there way into the alternative space. Of course, you can just buy more flash cards, too.

Digital Foci goes with the hard drive solution. Its new Photo Safe II accepts Compact Flash (including Extreme III, IV, UDMA), MMC, SD/HC Card, miniSD, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, MS PRO Duo, and xD-Picture card. Ya, pretty much everything. All the pictures are stored on either an 80GB or 160GB internal hard drive. Once you get home or to the hotel, then you can connect the Photo Safe II to your computer and off comes all those saved pictures of both Shamu and the kids!

Photo Safe II is easy to use and only requires pressing one button labeled “Auto Copy”. At speeds of 5.0/MBsec, a full 1GB card will be copied in about 3.5 minutes. All file formats, including RAW, are supported. A backlit LED screen gives information as to space left, copy progress, and battery life.

Photo Safe II works on both Macs and PCs and retails for $139 for the 80GB version and $189 for the larger 160GB drive.