The other day, I wrote a post about Zimride, a new online carpool app that integrates with Facebook to match up riders and drivers. I knew when I wrote that post that I had seen another similar program in the iTunes Application store, but couldn't remember the name at the time. Well, thanks to the people behind that iPhone/iPod Touch app (who are apparently AutoblogGreen readers and wrote in to remind me what I'd seen) I can now confidently say that what I'd seen was called Carticipate.

I downloaded the app (it's free) and fiddled with it for a while. The controls seem all right, but the biggest problem is that there are no rides or riders available in my area. As Carticipate's Steffen wrote in to us, the production version of the app has only been out about two weeks, so we might need to wait a while to see if this "experiment in social transportation (TM)" is something worth logging onto. Anyone else tried it?

[Source: Carticipate]

For those of you who read AutoblogGreen on your iPhone/iPod Touch, we've got good news. A new, stripped down version of our site is now available for mobile devices. The new URL is http://i.autobloggreen.com/ and it's already up and running. Pictures and galleries don't look quite as impressive in the new format, and all of the navigation links are either missing or in different places, but at least the text is a good size to read on the iPhone's screen. Why is the site optimized for Apple products? Because our numbers tell us that over 90 percent (92.8 percent to be exact) of the mobile device page views AutoblogGreen has had in 2008 were from the iPhone or the iPod Touch.

Of course, you can always keep reading ABG on the iPhone's Safari browser the "normal" way, with all the pictures and everything formatted correctly, just by viewing the standard URL. But, if you were looking for a more streamlined way to get your green car news, feel free to make iABG your new start page (do people still have start pages?). Enjoy.

UPDATE: There is also a version of AutoblogGreen optimized for mobile devices (not just the iPhone/iPod Touch) here. The URL is http://m.autobloggreen.com/.

Click above for more images of the iPhone 3G's GPS capabilities

Alright, so perhaps that iPhone 3G's GPS system leaves a little to be desired for the hardcore automotive crowd, but that doesn't mean that your brand new purchase can't prove useful to you for more than its normal mobile phone abilities. Since you're reading this article here on AutoblogGreen, we are going to go ahead and assume that you are interested in saving gas, either for the planet's sake or at least for the sake of your wallet. Take a look at these five programs which were designed to help owners of a brand spankin' new iPhone save a few bucks on gas. From fuel mileage tracking to finding the best gas prices in your area, developers have jumped on the ability to develop new applications for die-hard Apple users like nobody's business. Best of all... they range in price from free to just shy of $2 bucks.

[Source: Earth2Tech]