The tool has more horsepower under the hood than might be obvious, but it still depends on volunteers willing to spend lots of their own time. The Obama campaign today launched its much-anticipated Dashboard platform, described by National Field Director Jeremy Bird in a video as "the organizing network of supporters helping to reelect Barack Obama." Read The Wall Street Journal for a healthily skeptical take. (No, a website does not a president make.) But with that out of the way, we're freed up to consider what's meaningful and potentially powerful about the work they've done. Log into Dashboard, tell it where you live, and it connects you to your "neighborhood team," the basic building block of the Obama organizing model famously espoused by Harvard's ... Continue reading →

Apple Apple has introduced significant improvements to the iPhone's camera capabilities in nearly every iteration of the device. And while rumors about the next-generation iPhone have largely concerned screen sizes and exotic materials, very little has been rumored about the camera thus far. We decided to examine some potential technologies Apple could incorporate into the next iPhone to boost its photographic flair. Because the iPhone's camera is a combination of sensor and lens hardware controlled with software, we'll look at each part separately. Hardware The iPhone 4S camera hardware is already pretty capable, especially given the constraints of the device's size. It currently features an 8 megapixel sensor with backside illumination and a "full-well" design, both technologies used to maximize its light gathering capabilities and ... Continue reading →