What about how voters responded to her Democratic opponent, Sen. Joseph Biden, following last night’s widely anticipated vice presidential debate?

 

According to reports, polls taken just after the event by TV stations showed that though Palin fared better than many expected, voters were more impressed with the incumbent from Delaware. A CNN and Opinion Research poll found that 51 percent thought Biden performed better, compared to 36 percent for Palin.

 

Thanks to new applications from Seattle-based Chimp Software and online magazine Slate, users of Apple’s popular iPhone (News - Alert) and iPod Touch devices will have instant access to data about where the nation is leaning in the race for the White House between GOP Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama.

 

Slate today introduced “Poll Tracker ’08,” which uses data from Pollster.com to deliver the latest polling numbers from each state, with graphs depicting historical polling trends and charts about previous elections’ voting patterns, according to the companies.

 

The new application incorporates data from Slate’s “Election Scorecard,” according to the magazine’s editor, David Plotz.

“People crave information during this election, and Slate’s Election Scorecard has been a destination online for an instant look at what’s happening in the polls,” Plotz said. “We wanted to combine that addictive content with technology that lets users have this data whenever they want, wherever they want, to create a meaningful mobile experience around the elections.”

 

The application comes as use of the mobile Web rises sharply with the advent of the iPhone and technologies that ease the Internet’s desktop-to-smartphone transition.

 

Yet there are challenges facing mobile Web proponents.

 

As TMC reported this week, an Acton, Massachusetts-based company whose technology is focused on interactive mobile media services has found through a survey that the overwhelming majority of consumers wish it were easier to access the Internet from mobile devices.

 

Officials at Azuki Systems say their survey of 275 U.S. mobile consumers shows that despite increased adoption, nearly 80 percent of respondents say slow download times and difficulty navigating the Web – including on the iPhone and BlackBerry (News - Alert) devices – are major problems with mobile Internet use.

 

According to Azuki’s chief executive officer, Jim Ricotta, the problems come as increased content fuels improvements in mobile device technology.

 

“However, as the survey results indicated, there is still work to be done in order to deliver truly usable mobile content to today’s mobile devices,” Ricotta said. “Mobile requires a different consumption and interaction model where, unlike the desktop, it is less about browsing and more about glancing to ‘snack’ on media.”

 

According to the survey, more than 54 percent of respondents said their mobile phone usage had increased by more than 25 percent over the last two years, and one in five respondents said it had increased by more than 50 percent. One catalyst behind that growth is smart phone adoption: 62 percent of respondents indicating they either own or will own such a device in the next year, Azuki reports.

 

The new Poll Tracker ‘08 application can be downloaded for $ .99 from Apple’s (News - Alert) App Store on iPhone and iPod touch, according to Chimp Software and Slate. Users can find the feature in the iPhone App Store.

GOP supporters, following last night’s vice presidential debate, likely are hoping for the tide to turn against the Obama-Biden ticket, which polls show is gaining momentum.

 

In a story published today, Jon Swaine of Britain’s vaunted Telegraph newspaper reports that all post-debate polls favored Biden, though by various margins.

 

“A survey of uncommitted voters for CBS found the split even more pronounced (than CNN's poll), with Mr. Biden on 46, Mrs. Palin on 21 and a relatively high proportion stating that neither had impressed or that they could not decide,” Swaine writes. “When the uncommitted voters were pressed, 18 percent said they would vote for Barack Obama and Mr. Biden following the debate, with only 10 percent ready to line up for John McCain and Sarah Palin. Another instant poll done by Fox News, which did not allow for such fence-sitting, had the divide between the two candidates at 61 percent for Mr. Biden and 39 percent for Mrs. Palin.”