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In December of last year, augmented reality (AR) browser makers Layar chose to pull its iPhone app from the App Store due to frequent crashes reported by users. They thought it was better for their brand to remove the application than to promote a faulty product. As we've mentioned in the past, Layar had hinted that a revamped iPhone app would be out near the end of February, and earlier this week they released just that.

The Center for American Progress, a liberal policy and advocacy group, just released an interesting memo (PDF) about the White House's use of Web 2.0. There can be little doubt that the Obama campaign skillfully used the Internet to raise funds and create and manage a grassroots organization that, in the end, carried them to the White House. Now, however, a lot of us have grown a bit restless, looking at how slowly the White House is adopting Web 2.0 tools like social networks and blogs, especially when compared to the Obama campaign. This memo, however, puts things into perspective. While the campaign team dedicated over 170 staffers to new media, the White House New Media team has fewer than 10 full-time employees.

Few topics are galvanizing the American public right now like the stimulus bill and how the stimulus money will be spent. ShovelWatch is a joint project of not-for-profit news organization ProPublica, PRI's The Takeaway, and WNYC Radio that plans to track the "stimulus from bills to building." ShovelWatch currently aggregates the best stories about the stimulus bill from all three sites and will feature more original reporting from citizens in the future. The site also features some of the most informative infographics about the stimulus bill.