Mint.com, the popular web based service has launched their own mobile phone application that can be used for iPhone and iPod Touch. This app can be downloaded free from the Apple App Store. Through this application, the user can manage his credit card and bank accounts from his mobile. Once the user logs on to his account, Mint.com enables him to access the details from anywhere.

In case the user loses his mobile phone, there is a feature which disables mobile access to the online account. However, the iPhone and the iPod Touch application has no password feature till the user logs out every time he stops using the application.

There has been new range of iPods launched in India by Apple during the festive season. This new collection of Apple varies from 1GB iPod shuffle to 32GB iPod Touch, the cost of which would be Rs 2,300 and Rs 21,100 respectively. These models will be available in eight different colors and it also features a curved aluminum enclosure.

The new versions would offer music playback time up to 24 hrs in its full-charge mode along with the video playback time of up to four hours.  The Second Generation iPod Touch features a thin contoured metal design, a 3.5 inch widescreen glass display, integrated volume control, in-built speaker and accelerometer and some advanced sensors. The Touch has the ability to store up to 30,000 songs, 150 hours of video and 25,000 photos.

Mark/Space, the creator of the award-winning The Missing Sync(TM) synchronization software, recently announced the release of Fliq Notes, a powerful notes application for iPhone and iPod touch. Fliq Notes is first a great note-taking application that lets users create, categorize, search and sort notes and memos -- large and small -- by name, date, event and category. Fliq Notes does what no other notes application can: it allows users to send, or 'beam,' and receive notes over a Wi-Fi network with other network too.

With Fliq Notes, users can categorize notes and memos by topic or event and beam them back and forth with friends etc. Plus, users can also beam notes to and from their Macs and Windows PCs with iPhone and iPod touch users using the Mac and Windows PC versions of Fliq. Founded in 1990, Mark/Space, Inc., the sync experts, develops and markets mobile and wireless software, including Fliq, Sync Together and the award-winning Missing Sync products that connect Mac and Windows computers to mobile devices and smart phones from Apple etc.

Certainly one of the coolest features of the iPhone is the motion sensitive controls for games and phone functions. Some rumors say that next year and updated version of the iPhone could get a new and more sophisticated gyroscope. Iphone and IPods are coming with remarkable features.

The technology behind the rumored new gyroscope is called MEMS and this is the technology used in the Nintendo Wii controller that allows for such immersive and fun game play.
The iPhone won't be the only handset using the new MEMS Gyroscopes; Pocket-line says that handsets using the same technology are expected from Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, and LG in 2009.

Reprints of Star Trek comics are now available on iTunes for reading on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Comics publisher and Trek licensee IDW started a regular publishing cycle on Apple's download service with "Star Trek Archives: The Best of Peter David No. 1" -a DC Comics reprint. The entire comic costs 99 cents through iTunes -- with more issues to follow. The bigger story here is how the iPhone/iPod Touch is becoming the preferred method of electronic distribution for comics. A quick tour of the iTunes store reveals several online comics, including a sequel to Clash of the Titans. Most of these efforts give you the first taste for free before charging the download fee for follow-up issues.

 Paramount Wireless on Monday introduced a new iHarmonix product line, focused on offering earphone designs. The new earphones are designed to work with iPods, iPhones and Blackberry devices, and run $29.95 - $59.95 depending on the model.
The Platinum i-series features an in-line microphone, multifunction button to send and send calls and to pause music. The eve-Series is designed to work with an iPod; it offers in-line volume control. The e-Series eschews volume control all together. The earphones share 11mm drivers with neodymium magnets, and brushed stainless steel front housing and polished gun-metal alloy rear casing.

iPhone 3G, the original iPhone and iPod Touch have a new feature, the Velaclock 1.3 designed by Vela Design Group. Velaclock is a world clock through which users can display the time of sunrise, sunset and twilight for both dawn and dusk, duration of daylight, moonrise, moonset, moon phase and tilt and a lot more. This clock is much popular among the photographers who look for the magic hour.

 It also shows a list of cities and their corresponding local times. There is a daylight bar in the row of the cities which gives the user a picture of 24 hours of natural light. The daylight bar may be centered at noon or the current time and when the moon is visible, there is a thin whit bar to indicate the same.

According to a Kaufman Bros. analysis, the Black Friday discounts were not as step as expected in Apple Inc.’s computers and iPods. This proved that the company is sure of its holiday sales and is quite confident. Apple has offered nothing new in its discount offers. It’s the same as it was last year somewhere between 5 and 10 percent.

Only the accessories have been slashed with some speakers to 40 percent, says analyst Shaw Wu. According to Wu, apple should have provided more discount range but the present scenario shows that the company does not need any heavy discount to move its product. Still, some retailers have offered discounts of up to 13 percent on Macs and iPods.

Nokia is now emerging and shifting to contents and services taking the mobile beyond plain talk and text messages. With this regard, the mobile giant company is releasing an online music service on December 18th to match the iPod maker’s iTunes service. The company is offering a handset-bundled with a download offer for the first year where you can download as many as millions of songs. This is in partnership with a few Indian content providers.

Nokia also launched a touchscreen model with 8GB memory at Rs. 20,000 in comparison to rival the iPhone available at Rs. 30,000. Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president of Nokia stated that mobile music will be the key priority area for Nokia in 2009 and that the strategy is to develop the market by following a partnership driven model.

Marantz introduced its new wireless Bluetooth iPod Dock having a speaker and multiple docks. This also allows charging your iPod and iPhone. The best part is that with Marantz’s wireless dock the contents of the iPod can be played through the home theater system and can be controlled through the remote.

It supports Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR A2DP and Bluetooth AVRCP. Both Apple’s fourth generation iPods and second generation iPod Touch are supported by this dock. The receiver can be connected to the network using an Ethernet port using the S-video component, composite video terminals and analog audio terminals.

 The Marantz wireless iPod dock is priced at $280 (approx. Rs.13, 875) and will be available in Japan in the month of January