Nicole Martinelli - page 29

Note to crooks: the grab-and-snatch iPhone tactic just got a little more risky now that GPS apps can tell police exactly where you are after you take it.

Horatio Toure, a 31-year-old crook in San Francisco, learned this the hard way.

He pedaled up on a bike, snatched a woman’s iPhone, then rode away. He didn’t know the victim was part of a company’s demonstration of a real-time GPS tracking program called Alert & Respond from Covia Labs,  SF Gate tells us.

Just 10 minutes later and only a half-mile from the scene of the crime, police nabbed him.  He was booked into jail on suspicion of grand theft and possession of stolen property.

Of course, this is great publicity for the new service, but as we reported Apple’s Find my iPhone program for MobileMe subscribers has also already tracked down another unlucky iPhone thief in much the same manner.

It’ll be interesting to see if these apps become widespread enough to deter thieves in quick-grab operations, which some police accounts say are on the rise.

Via SF Gate

You may prefer to roam the highways on your BMW bike alone, but thanks to an iPhone app you’ll always have help at hand if you need it.

Every BMW motorcycle comes with BMW Motorrad USA Roadside Assistance for three years, with the free iPhone app you can get help whether you’ve run out of gas, need a tow, have a flat or are looking for a dealer or need access to your service records.

It can hold info for up to four bikes — you can ID them with nicknames, photos or vehicle identification numbers — and is compatible with any BMW Motorrad model in the US from 1981 onward.

Developed with Allstate enterprises, BMW also provides similar service for BMW cars and Mini drivers.

Here’s hoping the concept will trickle down to the humble Vespa.

Via motorbiker

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siWJuJPGeeI

Unable to walk and chew gum at the same time, I’ve always admired how musicians can play and turn the page on sheet music without losing the plot.

They may need a little less coordination now thanks to a new iPad app and a Bluetooth foot switch called BT-105.

Still a prototype, maker Airturn says this Bluetooth version of their wireless, hands-free automatic page turner will be compatible with Bluetooth-enabled computers including the iPad.

With the tap on a foot switch, you turn to the page forward, if you hit it too soon, another tap turns the page back.  On the demo, the musician flips the switch using a third-party app with a zoom feature,  moving the sheet music half a page at a time.

Expect to see start seeing this page-turning app in late 2010.

Via Wired

Artist Xylo planted these fake iPhones to protest the working conditions at Foxconn, where electronics giants including Apple make their gadgets.

Defined by the artist as “street protest art about the iPhone prison death camps,” the outcry iPhones are made from a fine cement mixture, painted by hand and currently hanging around London.

After Apple changed its privacy policy to collect geo-data from customers, lawmakers called on Apple to explain exactly how and when it collects that information.

The answer? If you have an iPhone running OS 3.2 or iOS 4, Apple collects location information from you every 12 hours.

The GPS on Apple mobile devices collect data, encrypts it, then sends it back to Apple every 12 hours using wi-fi. The GPS data comes with a random ID number the phone generates once every 24 hours. Individual users cannot be identified. Apple also reminds lawmakers in the letter that customers can always turn off all location-based services. You can read the full 13-page response, here (pdf.)

This basic black iPad case and carrier has a few tricks in its sleeve: Berlin company Bagjack designed it so that it props up your device as you wear it for hands-free access.

Hang the CircDisCover iPad Case over one shoulder and voila’: next time you’re at a trade fair or conference or standing in line at the airport, you can access your iPad — either horizontally or vertically — without having to prop it up somewhere or hunt and peck with one hand.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-ECt7X4bew

I know, I know: who wants to wear a man purse? You should: this simple, clean design can be worn right under the arm (think public transport, on your bike), on your wrist or  horizontally with a wide carrying strap like a regular computer case.

The only trouble with these kind of wear-it-20-different-ways type garments, at least for me, is that I probably learn to do two of them and never bother with the rest.  Still, once you figure out how to wear it in hands-free mode, you’re golden.

You can pre-order it in black, white or grey for €129 euros, here.

Via High Snobiety

It was just a matter of time before someone devise a way to let you wake up to a custom alarm from your iPad. The iPad dock, charger and radio called the iA100 — all the variations of iSleep or i40winks were apparently already taken — is being billed as an “amazing app-enhanced, Bluetooth-enabled FM radio alarm clock.”

Though its top-heavy looks don’t immediately appeal (and could be dangerous, depending how clumsy you are in the morning), it has enough features to keep you up at night tweaking your sleep habits: it comes with a Free iHome+Sleep app download that lets you set up  custom alarms, sleep stats, social media alerts, weather and overnight news. The iHome + Sleep app can also customize your wake up and nap settings, so so you don’t have to fiddle with it to get a day’s siesta.

iHome wants to put this new model beside your bed, though they are playing coy and haven’t released pricing or availability yet. It also works with your iPod or iPhone, too.

What do you think — is a wake-up call worth using your iPad for or will you stick to an old school alarm or using your iPod or iPhone?

Via Chip Chick

[polldaddy poll=”3480967″]

The iPhone 4 press conference offered some new (and unexpected?) declarations from Steve Jobs, including “Phones aren’t perfect. It’s a challenge for the entire industry” and “The iPhone 4 went through all of these tests. We KNEW that if you held it in a certain way, the bars would go down.”

After a presser that lasted nearly an hour and a half  and the promise to give free bumper cases, what’s your impression of how Apple handled the “antennagate” issue?

Vote and let us know your reasons in the comments below.

Retrevo created this handy flowchart predicting consumer reactions following Apple’s press conference.

Of the four types of people — two are Apple fans in varying degrees, one is a hater and the fourth doesn’t really care about tech — any one who rates themselves a fan (Campin-Tosh) won’t change their opinion one iota, even if Steve Jobs outs himself as recreational bunny torturer who financially backs the Westboro Baptist Church.

The AppleSofties — who like Apple products enough but want to keep options open — will likely “file for divorce” no matter what the Cupertino Company says.

Which apparently means that, uh, if you are a bit more committed to Apple products, you drank the koolaid and will pretty much tolerate anything.

What do you think, are the predictions accurate?

Via Retrevo

Steve Wozniak loves his iPhone 4, but carries a back-up phone because of “death grip” antenna problems.

In a conversation with Dutch journalist Henk van Ess,  Woz says that he immediately noticed reception problems with the latest Apple smartphone.

Henk van Ess: How did you find out about the antenna problems?

Steve Wozniak: The first time I tried I was able to duplicate the problem. My wife was driving me to the airport and as soon as I got a short distance from my home, and no longer on wifi, I tried it by accessing a web page (using Safari on my iPhone 4) and observing the progress bar.

As the bar started to proceed I lightly (‘lightly’) touched a couple of fingers to the trouble area and the progress bar froze. When I lifted my fingers the progress bar continued it’s (sic) rapid progress. Putting my finger[s] back down halted the progress bar again. Lifting my fingers another time allowed the web page to finish loading.”

This huge hollowed tree trunk serves as an iPod dock and speaker system. Created by Austrian design studio KMKG, it weighs in at 60 kg (about 130 lbs).

They describe it as “just a simple tree (trunk) hollowed out with a special technique to create extraordinary sound.” They worked with speaker company Lenz on the sound engineering, customers can choose the type of wood, length of the trunk and  have some input on which techniques are used to influence the type of sound.

The one pictured above was a prototype used for a recent installation, designers are now at work on a product. They’ll be using Swiss pine or pinus cembra for it, noting that “this one is going to smell nicer, too.”
No word on price or availability,  yet.

This is kind of the supersize version of all the wood iPod cases and docks we’ve seen recently, though whether the green-minded would feel comfortable knowing a tree had been cut down for it may be another thing.

We’ve heard a lot about the iPhone 4 “death grip.” Reception problems are said to be alleviated by applying a spot of tape or using a bumper.

But what about those bumper cases?

Ryan McManus took a much-needed humorous spoof on antennagate with his discovery of a “shocking flaw” to using the iPhone 4 with a bumper case:

“The problem is, in a word, friction. While the rubberized front and back of the iPhone 4 Bumpers may protect the device in fall situations, and keep it it from sliding on a desk, this very friction keeps the device from easily sliding in and out of jeans pockets.”

Continue reading

Tape is the cheapest DIY fix for the much-disputed iPhone 4 — even Consumer Reports recommends wrapping up your phone if you can’t get your hands on a bumper case.

Now you can do something good while fixing your phone: for $2, buy a roll of iTape on eBay and all of the proceeds for the quick fix go to the American Cancer Society. (It’s worth a visit to check out the iTape slide show, a nicely-done take on the iPhone 4 ads.)

Seller Jason Nolasco says:

“Yes, I will ship you a roll of tape in exchange for your assistance in fighting cancer. No, I can’t guarantee it will look like the picture. No, I don’t hate Apple. All in good fun. 100% of the proceeds go the American Cancer Society.”

We like.

Send in the clowns: Jeremy Clarkson, Britain’s alpha dog of all things auto-related, sucker punched the iPhone 4  on his uber-popular TV show “Top Gear.”

He’s not even particularly funny, but the point is the “death-grip” reception issue has become so widely known that it’s good for a chuck-let on a mainstream TV show. (On this side of the pond, David Letterman took a pot shot at Apple a few weeks ago.)

Not so good for Apple’s “it just works” selling point and one more sign that the Cupertino company has a PR debacle on its hands, however you hold it.

Via Crunch Gear

Consumer Reports says the iPhone 4 has a design flaw with the antenna that adversly affects reception, and cannot recommend buying the iPhone.

The leading consumer magazine says the “death grip” reception problems are not software related, as Apple earlier claimed, and cannot be fixed with an update.

“When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal, ” the Consumer Reports wrote in a blogpost. “Due to this problem, we can’t recommend the iPhone 4.”

The magazine tested three iPhone 4s in a radio frequency isolation chamber, which cuts off outside radio signals, and connected the phones to a special cell-tower emulator inside the chamber. The magazine also tested an iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre and found none had reception issues. The magazine says its tests question Apple’s honesty about the issue.

Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4’s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that “mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.”

Consumer Reports is instead recommending consumers buy — or keep — the older iPhone 3GS or check out another kind of smartphone altogether.

If you still want an iPhone 4, or already own one, the magazine advises covering the antenna gap with a piece of duct tape or another thick, non-conductive material. “It may not be pretty, but it works,” the magazine said. This quick fix is in lieu of a case, which the magazine admits it hasn’t been able to test yet.

Consumer Reports had earlier reported that the iPhone 4 death grip was probably no big deal.

Via Consumerist

A federal judge greenlighted a monopoly abuse case against Apple and AT&T Inc.’s mobile phone unit, it can now move forward as a class action suit.

The June 2008 complaint took aim at locking-in iPhones for use on the  AT&T network and its control over what iPhone users can install and use on the devices.

The lawsuit also says Apple secretly made AT&T its exclusive iPhone partner in the U.S. for five years. Consumers agreed to two-year contracts but found themselves bound to a half-decade relationship with AT&T, the lawsuit argued.

Judge James Ware of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said parts of the lawsuit that deal with violations to antitrust law can continue as a class action, according to court documents filed July 8.
Anyone who bought an iPhone with a two-year AT&T agreement since the device first went on sale in June 2007 can join the class suit.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to keep Apple from selling locked iPhones in the U.S. and from determining what iPhone programs people can install. It also seeks damages to cover legal fees and other costs.

Will you join this class action suit or not?

Via AP

A growing number of large US businesses are arming their employees with the iPad,  proving that the tablet computer’s usefulness goes way beyond keeping the kids quiet.

Recent corporate converts to the iPad include Wells Fargo, SAP and Telllabs.

“This iPad thing has taken the world by storm,”  Ted Schadler, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc. told Bloomberg.  “It came in as a consumer product and very quickly the people who actually bought them were business people.”

The iPhone 4 videochat feature FaceTime may not be televising the revolution any time soon, but at least one pair of doctors have used it to consult on a patient who risked amputation.

In what may be the first documented iPhone 4 medical video consultation, University of Arizona surgeon David G. Armstrong, connected via FaceTime to give with Los Angeles Surgeon Lee Rogers’ a look at a patient who had undergone foot reconstruction at the University’s Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA). The virtual consult came in handy since Dr. Rogers was attending the American Diabetes Association meeting in Orlando, Florida when he took the “FaceTime” call from Armstrong, who had returned from Orlando to his SALSA clinics a day earlier.

Police searched an iPod as evidence in a rape case after his accuser recounted that her attacker had recorded the incident.

According to court documents, Kerry LePage of Raleigh, North Carolina was arrested in May for second-degree rape. The woman pressing charges said she remembered that LePage had an iPod in his hand during the attack. The iPod was later found between the mattress and box springs and is being held by police.

This isn’t the first time the iPod’s video recording has landed it in police custody:  an iPod Touch’s large storage capacity and big screen were at the center of a middle-school sexting scandal and some teens were recently apprehended after filming a theft with an iPod.

Via News Observer

This is the iPad version of the quickie, DIY iPhone stand made from office supplies. This one isn’t made from the usual yellow No. 2 pencils but a handful of Faber-Castells —  the fittingly cultish 2001 Grip model with a triangle shape.

The makers over at Geeky Gadgets suggest using pencils with erasers to avoid scratching but note that you should extend the two pencils until there is plenty of wood to rest your device on or wrap a little tape around the metal on each to protect the edge of your iPad.

Would you use one of these to prop up your iPad in a pinch?

Via Geeky Gadgets

Last year we published a list of five Apple stores to visit before you die. The list, done just in time for summer jaunts, included Sydney, Tokyo, Scottsdale, London’s Regent Street and New York’s famed 5th Avenue store.

But now there’s Paris, which definitely makes our bucket list of Apple stores to visit.  The recently-opened store is Apple’s third retail outlet in France and the Cupertino company’s 294th shop.

[polldaddy poll=”3421479″]

Apple issued a lengthy public apology this morning about the antenna issues plaguing the iPhone 4 while still maintaining the launch was the most successful in the Cupertino company’s history.
Will the “uh, we’re sorry” cut it?

Tell us why or why not in the comments.

There’s so drama surrounding the iPhone 4 — fake Steve Jobs’ quotes, class-action lawsuits, defect claims —  that the professionals at bookmaker.com have set the odds for a recall.

How likely is a recall?

Well, expert bookmaker Mickey Richardson and his team are now placing the odds 35%  that the new device is recalled by July 31st and 80%  that it will not be recalled within the month. (Yep, that’s over 100%. For once, the fuzzy math isn’t mine, that’s how betting odds work).

Anyone willing to wager on it?

A poll of iPad users — 6,000 of them — found they are overwhelmingly pleased with the device.

Technologizer asked iPad owners in May how they were getting on with their new device, they were overwhelmingly pleased with battery life, speed and reliability and some 59 percent were satisfied with speed and reliability of the 3G network.

Despite claims that the iPad was nothing more than a kiddie pacifier, about 93 percent of owners surveyed said they either “frequently” (73 percent) or “occasionally” (over 20) use it instead of a traditional computer.

Some are also using it in place of smartphones, too. Over 80 percent of iPad owners surveyed are also iPhone owners, about 60 percent of respondents said they “frequently” use the iPad instead of their smartphones, another circa 25 percent “occasionally” use their iPad instead of the phone.

Does this reflect how you’re using your iPad or not?

Celluloid-worthy beauty Anna Chapman, arrested by the FBI for belonging to an Russian espionage network called “the illegals,” may also go down in history as the spy who loved Macs.

On January 25, the 28-year-old told her 175 Facebook friends: “My new Mac has been the buy of the year…Love it!”

It wasn’t an easy relationship, though. According to the FBI documents, her spy job was plagued by network problems that made transmitting her weekly Wednesday intelligence reports via a private wireless network at Starbucks and Barnes and Noble in New York a major hassle. Documents didn’t mention which Apple laptop she used.