Nicole Martinelli - page 27

A little over two months ago, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev toured Silicon Valley, making a stop at Apple headquarters in Cupertino where Steve Jobs gave the Mac-happy leader an iPhone 4.

Some CoM readers wrote in to ask us what we thought the visit would mean for Russia and the future of tech there.

We might have an answer: on Monday, Sergei Chemezov, the head of a state- run holding company Russian Technologies State Corp. showed off a prototype of the country’s first domestically-manufactured 4G smartphone.

Chemezov and Medvedev met to discuss tech advances taking place the country, including broadband internet and digital TV and creating a Linux-based national software program.

The 4G phone is expected to launch next year under the Yota brand, which already makes a portable wi-fi “egg” that looks vaguely Apple-inspired in its design.

But from the transcript from the Kremlin translated by the Wall Street Journal, it sounds like they may need to take that iCopycat design back to the drawing board, or borrow the president’s iPhone for tips:

Medvedev (holding handset): Not even sure where to press …
Chemezov: It’s still a prototype.
Medvedev: But this is entirely our [Russian-made] product, which will be produced in our factories?
Chemezov: For the time being, unfortunately, we only make it in Taiwan. But soon we’ll completely switch over to production in Russia.

We’ll be curious to see how the final design of the phone, which reportedly has two screens, may be Apple inspired.

Apps are so easy — maybe too easy? — to buy on an iPad even a three-year-old can do it.

Toddler Sienna Leigh in Sydney racked up about $50 in app purchases before her mom noticed the shopping spree.

“She uses it every day for a few hours, but I didn’t think anything of it.
“She was just playing with it until, later, when she had gone to bed and I was checking my email and I saw that I had paid for a whole bunch of apps that I didn’t remember buying.”

Mother Lisa Leigh had to go to a Mac forum to figure out how her kid did it — it seems she went to a recently-purchased app and continued shopping with the saved password.

Sienna bought $17 Docs to Go app and a flight control app among others before mom managed to stop the spending spree. “But the main thing is that I’ve completely turned off the Wi-Fi on her iPad so she has no chance of accessing the app store at all now.”

Leigh decided not to ask Apple for a refund, since by the time she figured it out her other children had already opened and played with them.

Apple said it wasn’t the first time parents had contacted them about iPad purchases made by their kids.

If you have a tech-savvy toddler, here’s how Apple Fiona Martin spokesperson suggests you keep the tyke from shopping: “The restrictions preferences are located under Settings > General > Restrictions > Allowed Content (In-App Purchases) OFF. When this is activated, in-app purchases is turned off.”

Via The Age

Six weeks after inaugurating an iPad wine list, one top Atlanta restaurant is reporting an uptick in sales and interest with patrons ordering more — and often more expensive — wines.

Bones offers a 1,350 label wine list, loaded with descriptions and ratings, including those from wine writer Robert M. Parker Jr. The owners say wine purchases shot up overnight — about 11 percent higher per diner in the first two weeks compared with the previous three weeks, with no obvious alternative explanation. The New York Times reports that other restaurateurs who are experimenting with iPad wine lists, from Sydney to London to Central Park South, report similar results.

“I felt like they had given me the answer sheet to the test,” said Bradley D. Kendall, a Bone’s regular who recently used the iPad to select a 2005 Corté Riva cabernet franc for $102, about 25 percent beyond his usual range.

First-year medical students at Stanford University are finding a bunch of ways to use the iPad to help them learn.

The 91-first-year students who started three weeks ago were the first crop of pre-meds to be handed iPads.

Here’s how they’re using it:

• to look closer

A slide presentation or textbook may offer a tiny diagram of a molecular structure that students need to memorize.  “You can’t even see that,” noted student Steven Sloan. “But on the iPad, you can just touch the screen to enlarge it.”

James McCluskey was so peeved about having his backpack stolen — containing a brand-new iPad — that he turned detective to find the crooks.

McCluskey left his backpack in the office parking lot mid-morning in Onehunga, New Zealand. (There was no explanation of why he left this catnip to crooks unattended. It’s the probably the most common way iGadgets get stolen.)

Two women reportedly smashed the car windows, grabbed his backpack and sped off. The victim, a 22-year-old logistics coordinator, managed to jot down the license plate number. The backpack contained an iPad, hard drive and other personal belongings estimated at around $1,500.

He reported the theft to police, but also took matters into his own hands. Perhaps knowing that thefts from cars are the least likely to be solved (in New Zealand the resolution rate is a dismal 3.3 per cent), he tracked down the license plate number through a $2 post office search.

Then things got a little hairy for the would-be detective: McCluskey tracked down the person whose name was listed on the registration, 17-year-old Christine Wilson.

Depending where you fall on the “I’m a Mac” scale, the candid snapshots of Apple customers at Apple retail stores are a little unsettling.

People of Apple is a cringe-gallery modeled on the creative back fat of People of Walmart.

If you identify with the idea that Apple people are cool, you may want to think different after perusing a few pics of box-licking from the site that promises “Real people. Real Steve Jobs worshipers.”

So far, it’s a pretty bare bones WordPress site that has also used some pretty stale Mac fanatic photos — anybody who regularly reads Apple-related sites will recognize a few old costumed dogs and the infamous bathing suit. The slams at pretty regular-looking folks (the “Librarian” and “Cousin Vinnie“) just seem gratuitous.

Who’s behind it? As iPhone Savior first discovered, it’s registered to Fake Steve Jobs, aka Dan Lyons. We double-checked with whois and it checks out — he’s owned the domain for a year but has just now started populating the site.

Would you be proud or shamed to end up in People of Apple?

Via iPhone Savior

The Royal Mail is hoping to boost the collectibility of its stamps with augmented reality.

Pointing your iPhone camera at these special-edition stamps featuring the Great British Railways leads you to a video of Bernard Cribbins (that’s Wilfred Mott to you Doctor Who Fans) reading W H Auden’s poem, “Night Mail.”

The Royal Mail isn’t new to these kind of media tie-ins, Auden’s poem was written for a 1930s documentary of the same name about a mail train from London to Scotland.

Charles Miller has made his reputation hacking Macs. His most recent exploit earned him $10,000 by exposing soft spots in Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Safari in March. It was the third year in a row he hacked into a MacBook at CanSecWest Pwn2Own hacker contest.

Mac Directory sat down with Miller, whose Wikipedia entry describes him as a “security researcher,” to to talk about Apples weaknesses, his rep and whether Apple devices are still safer than PCs.

Question:> It is said that “Apple products” are safer than Windows-based products. Is this really true or are hackers too busy hacking PC-based devices?

Charles Miller > Both of your statements are true. They are safer exactly for the reason that not many criminals are looking at them. Most malware is written with the purpose of compromising as many hosts as possible, and that means Windows. There is nothing inherently more secure about Macs, in fact they’re probably a little easier to break into, but really they are protected for the moment by their limited market share.

By letting citizens get information about road conditions, pay for parking and complain via iPhone apps city governments in the UK have reportedly saved about $350 million (£230m).

According to a report released by the The Local Government Association (LGA), in 2009 these apps cut costs considerably. There’s a wide range of iGovernment apps, from five city councils who put the hygiene ratings of local eateries on iPhones to real-time info about bus schedules and vandalism-complaint apps that require the snap of a picture to send the info to city hall.

“Whether it’s bin men working smarter, fewer phone calls to inquiry centres, freeing up staff from time-consuming checks or reducing parking ticket machine maintenance costs, making the most of modern technology and data sharing has seen huge cash savings across the country,” said David Parsons, chairman of the LGA’s improvement board.

Parsons also added that he expects that further use of iPhone apps could potentially save city councils up to £372 million ($569m) by 2014-15.

We’ve written about a lot of US city governments going app-happy — for reporting potholes and complaints — have you used any of these services?

Do you think that they make local government more efficient?

Via ZDnet

SUV owners not only drive like jerks, but now instead of just taking up three parking spaces and cutting you off, they may be out for your iPad.

A pair of iPads were snatched from their owners in a Seattle neighborhood, both of the crooks used SUVs as getaway cars.

One happy hour customer at Julia’s had a decidedly unhappy few minutes when another patron grabbed his iPad and ran out. The manager gave chase but was left in the dust when the crook jumped into a dark blue SUV. The iPad snatcher was described as a “a white male in his 20s, with dark hair and wearing a t-shirt.”

Not too far away that same day, another man had his reading interrupted when a thief ran into Philadelphia Fevre sandwich shop and took his iPad. This iPad grabber is said to drive off in a white SUV.

Here’s hoping the thieves get nailed for a typical SUV driving habits and get nailed for the thefts.

In the latest in a long string of murders over iPods, a 16-year-old in Salt Lake City is now being charged as an adult after the alleged stabbing of a classmate over an Apple device.

Jonatan Bustos is in jail charged with criminal homicide-murder after a tussle with classmate 15-year-old Taylor Pankow over a stolen iPod.

How many years could Bustos get?

Killing for Apple’s must-have device has earned perps a wide range of sentences — from under 10 years to life in prison.

Choices, choices. The latest in Apple-related furniture is a custom made iPhone 4 table. Details on it are scant (OK, it seems the Internets aren’t yielding much of anything other than the photo), but it is a slick piece of design that wouldn’t look out of place in many a living room.

In terms of a conversation piece, though, it perhaps looks too much like a normal table and less like one of Apple’s iconic devices. (It has been suggested you jazz it up with iPhone icon coasters, but for some that may be overkill).

The iPod Table made by Italian graphic and industrial designer Mirko Ginepro, still one of our favorites, looks much more like a pop-art nod to the real thing, just giant and made from Corian.

Which one would you rather have to receive your guests?

Sales of Sony’s MP3 Walkman briefly outsold iPods in Japan again, but that was before the iPod Nano “wristwatch” hit the scene.

This small victory also happened at the same time last year in Japan, during the not-so-retailing frenzied month of August.

Survey results from Tokyo-based BCN (Google translated version here) show that 2010 August sales figures have the Walkman grabbing 47.8 percent share of the portable music player market, while Apple captured 44 percent.

If that seems like a slender victory, in 2009 Sony squeaked by Apple MP3 player sales by just 43 percent, creeping above Apple’s 42.1 percent.

BCN says that the two electronics titans currently hold 90 percent of the market and that the slight edge Sony had during the August selling slump may not hold out with the refreshed Apple iPod lineup.

The most popular Sony Walkman was the Sony NW-E042, a 2GB shuffle-like device launched in May that retails for about $80 or 8,000 yen.

Will Japan go gadget-crazy over the new iPods?

Via CNET

[polldaddy poll=”3703931″]
It’s smaller, cheaper and packed with HD offerings — let us know in the comments whether you’re ready to spend $99 for the new AppleTV.

An iPhone app that works as a stethoscope may change the way doctors work in a heartbeat.

So far, some three million physicians have downloaded the $0.99 iStethoscope to be able to monitor the heart rates of patients on the go.

According to creator Peter Bentley, a researcher at University College London, “smartphones are capable of saving lives, saving money and improving health care in a dramatic fashion.”

Bentley hopes that in the future smartphones could become mobile vital sign monitors, “fully fledged integrated designs capable of taking ultra sound scanners or monitor a patient’s blood pressure.”

With some 80 percent of doctors say they expect to be using a smart phone by 2012, this inexpensive app definitely quickens the pace of many. Although the heart-monitor app is undoubtedly handy, it does sound slightly awkward to use without a bit of practice.

The Apple universe is all a twitter on the day before the Cupertino company makes its holiday product announcements. The folks at bookmaker.com are wagering that we’re most likely to see an iPhone 4 revision and a bigger, better iPod Nano. (Yep, that’s over 100%. For once, the fuzzy math isn’t mine, that’s how betting odds work).

These outcomes are slightly different from what CoM and most of you readers believe, if our reader poll is at all trustworthy — most expect the iPod but also something new for Apple TV and iWork.

Anybody willing to put their money where their mouth is?

Sending cutesy virtual crap to your friends on Facebook is so 2008: dial into the Bartab iPhone app instead and send them cheap, real drinks.

Picking up the tab has never been so painless. Download the free app or go to bartab.com. (Not all your pals have iPhones? There’s an Android version, too).

Pick the person who you want to offer a pint — or Pisco punch or shot of Peppermint Schapps — and the bar where you want to send it, pay a buck and pow: your friend shows their iPhone screen to the bartender at a participating water hole and gets a drink. They also have to pay a buck to redeem the drink coupon, it’s apparently due to some annoying state regulations.

[polldaddy poll=”3692852″]

Apple has called a press conference on Wednesday, September 1st in San Francisco 10:00 AM PST. Yeah, we know, it’s not that far away, but here at CoM we had a spirited discussion over the weekend about just what they’ll be introducing.

Let us know in the comments what you think.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is the third most popular celebrity whose home is “stalked” by UK users with Google Street view.

From across the pond, there are just two other places that nosy Nellies want to take an up-close look at more than Jobs’ house:  the White House and Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion in Los Angeles. (Just to save you the keystrokes, it’s a futile bunny hunt, no street view is available.)

Depending on your stalkerish inclinations, you can see Jobs’ current residence with his car parked outside, or the Los Altos garage of his parent’s home where Apple was founded.

Bill Gates came in sixth in the survey. Other celebs people wanted to see include David and Victoria Beckham, Jay-Z and Beyonce. Nearly half of the people polled said they also looked for their childhood home and 16% tried to get a glimpse of an ex’s home.

The corn fields of Nebraska are at the heart of these new plant-based iPhone 4 cases.

Bioserie cases are offered in six colors (including two shades of green) and unlike most plastic cases, it can be recycled or industrially composted.

These cases are 100% made from plants, namely Ingeo biopolymer — boiled down that’s a corn-based polymer often used in those earth-friendly coffee cups and food containers — plus a proprietary mix of biobased components. (Side note: even though the main ingredient in Ingeo is dextrose made from No. 2 yellow dent corn, they still don’t recommend you eat it but the material is non-toxic).

Going green will cost you $34.95, cases ship in early September.

The company already offers plant-based cases for iPhone 3G/3GS, iPod touch and iPod nano.
A plant-based case for the iPad is in the works for September.

The first porn service to target iPhone 4’s video chat feature FaceTime claims some 1,000 callers have been, uh, satisfied in the first five days of operation.

Called iP4Play, the service costs $4 a minute to chat live with a video vixen. Most of the service subscribers, 93% of whom are men, opted for what the company dubbed a “quick-draw McGraw” five-minute session.

While interactive video sex chats are nothing new,  FaceTime brings portability and convenience to virtual cavorting — it’s definitely easier to lock yourself in a bathroom than get your groove on in front of a 27-inch iMac screen.

FaceTime is an iPhone 4-only videoconferencing service that works over Wi-Fi. Both parties need iPhone 4 for it work. Callers pay via credit card for time increments of 5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes.

Women out for a stroll at a busy farmer’s market found themselves starring in one man’s iPod video upskirt movies.

Erik Alvarado, 35, landed in jail after shooting video at least 15 women at Saturday’s downtown farmer’s market in Salt Lake city’s historic Pioneer Park.

A sharp-eyed shopper told a police officer that a man had “a mirror or something” inside his shoe, according to jail documents.

Police discovered that Alvarado was in fact walking around with an iPod Nano strapped to his shoe. Alvarado captured video with the Apple device by placing his foot under victim’s skirts.

People who quilt are also nerdy. Or nerdy people also quilt. Either way, there’s some bitchin’ stitchin’ happening — as per this compendium of Dr. Who and Harry Potter blankets — but we especially like these Apple-related sewing projects. Quilt different!

iNerd Mini Quilt

Liz Harvatine made this for her husband as kind of an emblem for the North Hollywood Classic Mac Collectors Club of which he is one of two proud members. It’s a nice banner to be under…

Pixels At An Exhibition, an online gallery of iPhone photography,  launched a new Remix feature with a stunning series of nudes.

As per the site’s house rules, all photos are edited on an iPhone, this time other artists were invited to re-interpret a photo series.

There are two Remix galleries of the Sarah nude series in what will become an ongoing feature; the originals are by photographer Christian Peacock.

(Here in the luxurious and well-appointed Cult of Mac offices, one could get a good gander at these pics without recrimination, but we erred on the side of caution, including the ones chosen for this post.)

Brandon Smith is in jail accused of ripping off Bill Jordan’s pinky while snagging his iPad outside a Denver Apple store. Smith is also now accused of putting out a hit on Jordan from jail to stop the trial.

Smith spoke to CBS about the whole mess the day before his appearance in court. (Yes, CoM has gone all iCrime central this week with the news of Apple-related mayhem. Once you get started, it’s hard to stop).

Smith has still not confessed to the crime — either the iPad theft or the murder plot — but did say:

“I’m sorry for whatever, and for him losing his finger. That’s awful from just a theft. That’s a bad theft gone wrong, you know what I’m saying.” And adds that if he could give him his own finger he would.

Smith, who just turned 21, says he was jacked up on drugs (speed and heroin) at the time of the crime and while he admits to desiring Apple’s latest device, he still will not say he committed the crime.

“I wanted one but I’m not going to say that I ripped one off and everything.”  Smith also denies writing the hit letter, saying his cellmate did it. Smith’s brother turned him in after seeing the video surveillance footage on crime stoppers.

Ugh. Maybe he should think about changing lawyers for a more coherent strategy (is he apologizing to the victim for the crime or not?) before appearing in court today.

Via CBS