With three months to go until the presidential election, the two major candidates are doing everything they can to get the message out. In 2012 the state of the union is such that releasing an iPhone app is de rigueur and both the Obama and Romney campaigns have in fact done so.
Mitt’s VP is an extremely basic app. Its only significant function is to alert the user when the Romney campaign picks a vice-presidential candidate. The app claims that if you enable push notifications you will “get the exciting news before the press and just about everyone else (except maybe Ann).” I like that they are suggesting that it is only a “maybe” that Mr. Romney’s wife will know the vice-presidential candidate before it is electronically transmitted.
With Mitt, which got a lot of press for its (now corrected) major typo “A Better Amercia,” is the Romney campaign’s other app. This app allows you to take a picture using your iPhone and then tweak the photo with “a variety of Mitt-inspired artistic frames, add personalized messages, and then share with your friends via email, Facebook, or Twitter.” We are not suggesting that you use this feature to take prank photos, but if you do, please share them with marketing@smalldog.com!
Obama for America is a much more comprehensive app. It includes information that is customized to your location (as long as you allow Location Services when you first launch the app) including links to your local campaign office, volunteer sign-up, and how to register to vote. It also has plenty of detail on President Obama’s positions on the issues and his accomplishments while in office. My favorite thing that I found within the app was a link to a video showing Mr. Obama donating to his own campaign using his MacBook Pro (customized with the Presidential Seal over the Apple logo) and Magic Mouse. Thanks to federal law, he has to disclose his employer and and occupation (“United States of America” and “President” for those of you really not paying attention.)
Download these apps for free and stay informed!