In an effort to stop campus gadget and computer thefts, New York police are bringing an ID program to the New York University students.

On Thursday afternoon, police will set up an engraving station in a dorm lobby for students to bring their iPods, cell phones and computers. Operation Identification is part of a city-wide police program to ID valuables that was extended to the campus after an ongoing increase in “iCrimes.”

An infrared pen will mark student gadgets with a serial number that will be housed in an NYPD database, allowing police to access a description, model and owner information, should the device be recovered. After items are tagged, police can view the serial number by shining a light on it.

This isn’t the first iPod ID scheme we’ve seen at a school — one New Hampshire high school recently embarked on the same kind of program — but it is the largest. NYU has nearly 55,000 students.

Once again, it’s debatable whether ID-ing gadgets will prevent swiping or if it would be easier if Apple provided some sort of lock-down system after thefts.

What are the chances of an invisible serial number stopping a quick grab of an iPod in a dorm room at the end of a long night?

Via NYU news

Pretty darn clever. I really like the use of the pinch gesture. Strangely, it seems to have no effect.

YouTube via BoingBoing

It’s Cyber Monday, so there’s a lot of good deals out there today. But these three deals in particular caught our eye:

• Logitech’s Squeezebox Radio — $149 at Amazon. The Squeezebox is a fantastic internet radio that looks and sounds great. It makes it dead easy to listen to thousands of online radio stations. Works great with Macs and Apple Airport networks (full review coming soon).  Normally $199, but on sale at Amazon for $149. This is a good deal. Recommended.
• Samsung 52″ 1080p 120Hz Widescreen LCD HDTV for $1,399 — 52% off at Amazon. Samsung’s big-screen HDTVs are some of the best available right now, but it’s difficult to choose the right one. The company has tons of models with slightly different features. There’s several models exclusive to Best Buy on sale right now, for example, but they tend to be crippled, offering last year’s tech, limited connectivity or slower refresh rates. But the LN52A750 52″ LCD HDTV at Amazon looks like a killer deal. This box is 1080p and has excellent connectivity — four HDMI ports, VGA, component and others, plus two USB (for watching MPEG movies off a thumbdrive). It’s also got a 120Hz refresh rate, which is much better than last year’s 60Hz. And it’s 52% off. The LN52A750 is on sale at Amazon for $1,399.99 with free shipping (that’s a $1,500.00 saving).
• Dell Inspiron Mini 10v — $279 at Dell Home. When it comes to netbook Hackintoshes, Dell’s Mini 10v is your best option. It’s a well-made little machine and thanks to new OS X distros, all the hardware works right out of the box (including WiFi). Dell Home offers the Inspiron Mini 10v for $279 with free shipping (that’s $119 off).

We end the month of November with a number of ways to get your Christmas shopping (remember, just 25 days left) off to a good start. iMacs and MacBooks were big sellers on Black Friday and we have them both. First up, 22-inch Core 2 Duo iMacs running at 3.06 GHz. The desktop computers come with 8GB RAM and AppleCare for $1,407. Next is a 13-inch MacBook laptop, running 2.26 GHz with 4GB RAM and 500GB HD for $1,149. Along the way we check out a third-generation iPod touch for $170, Apple’s 2TB Time Capsule for $449 and a new batch of App Store Freebies.

As always, details on these and many other bargains are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump. Good hunting!

Has Apple manipulated flash memory supply and demand, causing prices to fluctuate? An unnamed memory industry official tells a South Korean newspaper the Cupertino, Calif. company “should certainly be blamed for deteriorating the supply and demand cycle in the global NAND flash market.”

The comments are just the latest pointing a finger at Apple for changes in how much NAND, or flash memory, is purchased by the company and the effect on Korea’s memory makers, such as Samsung and Hynix. Anonymous sources told The Korea Times Apple will often order, then buy less than expected, creating an excess inventory and lower flash memory prices. The supposed tactic is being attacked, given Apple’s record profits amidst lean times for chipmakers.

Analysts predict lower Black Friday sales at Apple’s brick-and-mortar retail locations may be offset by a double-digit increase in online electronic purchases. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said Mac sales were down compared to 2008, but warned investors it may be too early to predict Apple sales on the all-important after Thanksgiving shopping spree.

Munster said the analyst firm noticed 8.3 Macs sold each hour, a drop from 13 per hour last year. A team from Piper Jaffray counted Mac sales for nine hours in three retail stores Nov. 27.

Clues of a possible successor to the iPhone 3GS have been detected by an application used by San Francisco public transportation. The hints were found in logs of iBart, a guide to the California city’s subway, according to a report Monday. The logs identified as “iPhone 3,1” a device used to connect to the transportation guide. The iPhone 3GS identifies itself as “iPhone 2,1” – a signal the mysterious handset could include major upgrades to Apple’s popular touchscreen phone.

The report by MacRumors cites PinchMedia which created the iBart software for San Francisco. In early 2009, the publication reported the “iPhone 2,1” string was detected followed by Apple’s June release of the current iPhone. The Cupertino, Calif. company uses the first number in the string to signify a major change.

Epson should have called the Artisan all-in-one the “Intern” instead — it works that hard to please. It’s up on all the latest technology, surprises with nifty tricks; and while it isn’t exactly cheap, for what it does it’s a bargain. And unlike that sloppy, kind of half-working old printer with coffee-stained teeth you hired ages ago, Epson’s new beauty is snappily dressed, fast and reliable.

The “On Language” column in the magazine of the New York Times is among the world’s truly transcendent experiences. Fussy, concerned, and talky, it never hesitates to let you know how its author really feels bout minor issues of language and typography that scarcely manage to raise an eyebrow in the general population.

Last week’s target? Apple and its love of the so-called “Camel Case,” a typographical habit in which upper-case letters are sCaTtereD in the miDDle of otherwise unsuspecting words. Yes, the iPhone is named as chief perpetrator:

Though proper nouns conventionally begin with a capital letter, Apple spells the device’s trademark with an initial lowercase i, followed by an uppercase P. Thus styled, the word has a hump in the middle. I could print it here to show you, but I refuse to allow my prose to be so disfigured.

What’s great about this column is that Apple loyalists such as myself are every bit as likely to be offended by the rendering “Iphone” as the NYT’s Caleb Crain would be by “iPhone.” What we have is a Classic Camel Case Conundrum. Personally, I’m strongly in favor of rendering a trademark as its holder writes it, particularly when doing so has the potential for comedy (here I’m thinking of “Aol”). But the truth of it is that I’m typographically incorrect, as the author is factually fudging. Our language has been corrupted by Apple’s success.

What else is new?

Never one to miss an opportunity for adulation, Atebits founder Loren Brichter managed to get the new version of his superlative Twitter client Tweetie through the App Store over the Thanksgiving Holiday. And oh, boy, it’s a doozy. Download here (iTunes link) for $2.99 if you’ve somehow held out thus far.

Basically it implements every new feature that has shown up on Twitter in the six weeks since Tweetie 2 dropped — but better: Lists, new-style ReTweets, and GeoTags. It also throws in a ton of bug fixes; having used it all day long, it seems as solid as the previous iteration, if not a bit faster. Loren even threw in TweetStream break indicators to let you know when you’ve missed out on a few hours of your friends’ navel-gazing. All told, it takes the best Twitter experience on any platform to the next level without a hitch.

I said awhile ago that Tweetie 2 was the best iPhone app. I retract that now. Tweetie 2.1 is.

Via Mashable

Batches of stolen iPhones snagged during the “Great iPhone Heist” in Belgium earlier this month are showing up on the Russian black market.

Two weeks ago, thieves made off with 3,000-4,000 iPhone 3GS from a Belgian warehouse belonging to wireless carrier Mobistar. The haul was valued at $3 million. Now the stolen iPhones are being offered to cell-phone vendors in Russia.

The crowded iPhone GPS nav market is already starting to resemble a Southern California freeway on a Friday afternoon. But two just-launched GPS apps by Portuguese-based NDrive are different: they cover a much smaller area — they also carry a much lighter price tag.

The two apps, NDrive Los Angeles and NDrive New York City, cost $3.99 a pop, and are on sale during Black Friday for $2.99 each. NDrive has been outfitting our friends across the pond with GPS devices since 2005, but the two new city-cenetered iPhone apps mark the company’s first adventure into the US market

The apps look like they cover the two metropolises in gorgeous detail, with 3D-rendered landmarks, and an abundance of detail. One thing to note, though: The prices cover map licenses for one year only, which probably means forking over another couple of bucks every year.

[via Macworld UK]

Are you looking for an Apple bargain, slashed prices on iPhone or iPod gear, or a refurbished 16GB or 32GB iPhones from AT&T? Well, catch your breath from all of the Black Friday scrambling and check out our latest daily deals. Also on tap: new App Store freebies to fill up that iPhone or iPod touch, a new deal on 160GB AppleTVs and a travel charger for your device.

As always, get details on these and many more Apple-related bargains at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

The iPhone is not yet selling in South Korea, but already tremors are being felt from its upcoming introduction. KT Corp., which will begin selling the smartphone Saturday, says it’s received 53,000 advance orders since Nov. 22. A rival carrier pointed to the iPhone as one of the reasons it will cut in half the price of its Samsung Omnia II smartphone.

Although Samsung and LG have between 80 percent and 90 percent of the 47 million handsets sold in South Korea, the recent approval of iPhone sales by South Korean Communications Commission provides Apple entry into a potentially lucrative market. South Koreans pay the world’s highest prices for cell phones, with Samsung and LG phones sold in the nation costing twice that elsewhere. Almost half of the country’s cell phones owners reportedly buy new handsets every two years.

The 21-year-old Australian guy who got chewed out by his parents for launching the first iPhone worm landed a job with an app company.

Ashley Towns wrote Ikee, calling it an “experiment that got out of hand,”  a worm that  switched iPhone wallpaper for an image of 80s pop singer Rick Astley. Astley, who sang the 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up,” who morphed into the Internet prank known as “Rickrolling.” The bait-and-switch worm replaces an ordinary video with one of Astley.

The day after the worm infected jailbroken iPhones, Towns said he had received a death threat, media attention and job offers.

The BBC reports now that Towns signed on with mogeneration, an Australian app company with four apps currently available at iTunes, two are kid distractors and two are restaurant finders.

The worm Towns created wasn’t but opened the door for a nasty worm targeting online banking customers of ING.

“It leaves a nasty taste that he has been rewarded like this, yet has not even expressed regret for his actions,” Graham Cluley of Security firm Sophos told BBC News.
Towns said he created the virus to raise the issue of security. He did not face any criminal charges.

I’m probably not anything like the target demographic of the Harry Potter: Spells iPhone game. Even so, a chance at reviewing an app that leverages the iPhone’s motion sensing abilities to let me turn my friends to stone was too good to pass up.

Unfortunately, Warner Bros. has taken an ambitious idea and executed it without much thought to gameplay.

Never let it be said that Apple doesn’t keep its promises. Six weeks after announcing it would open up its iTunes LP file format to all developers and labels, Apple delivered this morning with specifications and resources for both iTLP and its DVD-like iTunes Extras. All of the contents are here. The company also through in the TuneKit framework, a set of resources for delivering superior multimedia experiences through iTunes.

Apple also reiterated its support for making iTunes LP and Extras the format of choice for the store, just not quite yet. According to its development site, all approvals for both features will be handled manually until the first quarter of 2010, at which point submissions will be handled like all other iTunes uploads.

I’m thrilled to see it. Digital media has so much more potential than just the content by itself. These are a clear step into a brighter future. Well done, Apple.

Via TUAW.

Apple Australia has gone live with the company’s Black Friday savings — and the same deals are likely to be offered in the U.S.

Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington has written a nice essay giving thanks this Thanksgiving — to Steve Jobs.

Arrington rightly points out that our world would be very different if Jobs hadn’t returned to Apple 12 years ago. Mobile phones would still be horrible, computers would still be ugly and the music industry would have collapsed.

“… What would our world look like without him? We’d likely still be in mobile phone hell. Chances are we still wouldn’t have a decent browsing experience on the phone, and we certainly wouldn’t be enjoying third party apps like Pandora or Skype on whatever clunker the carriers handed us. Even if you use an Android, Palm Pre or newer Blackberry today, you must thank Apple for pushing open the doors to mobile freedom. Think back to the phone you had in 2006, and then tell me you don’t love Apple for the iPhone alone (yes, I’ve moved on, but the iPhone was the genesis).”

I’m with Arrington. Let’s give thanks for Steve Jobs.

Here’s four iPhone apps that may come in handy on Black Friday if you decide to brave the crowds. All three help you keep track of Black Friday deals from your iPhone:

• TGI Black Friday — Free. Displays BF ads from all major retail stores. Search ads, create personal shopping lists and compare prices. Powered by TGIblackfriday.com and DealCatcher.com. App Store Link.
• Black Friday Ads — Free. Listings by store. View actual ads as PDFs. Twitter, Facebook and email connectivity. App Store Link.
• Black Friday Wish — $0.99. Verified Black Friday deals “hand picked and verified.” Compare prices across stores to find best deal. Add unavailable items to wishlist and get alerts if/when they go on sale. App Store Link.
• Black Friday — Links to Black Friday deals posted to FatWallet.com forum “uncovered by other consumers like you.” App Store Link.
• ShopSavvy — Free. Scan a barcode to pull up prices at competing stores. App Store Link.
• Mall Maps — You Are Here— $2.99. Figure out where you are in the mall. Includes floor plans for major shopping malls. App Store Link.

Today’s Best Thing Ever is Lo-mob, a gorgeous new photo effects app for iPhone.

The emphasis is on decidedly retro-looking shots. There are 28 (count ’em) different effects on offer, ranging from 35mm format film to a variety of instant camera prints.

Lo-mob will take photos from your Camera Roll or let you snap fresh ones. It then takes a few seconds to generate preview thumbnails of all the different effects, and shows you a list. Pick from the list to see a full-size version (you’ll need to wait a few more seconds to see it).

Lo-mob isn’t the fastest app around, and could do with some tweaks to make it easier and faster to use. (Such as: flick left and right to move from one effect to the next; a “save all” feature to save full-size versions of all the effects; and a favorites feature so you can remove the effects you don’t plan on using.)

But those are minor niggles. I really love this app and haven’t been able to stop playing with it. There are a lot of effects apps on the App Store, but none of them have yet managed to offer anything very different (CameraBag remains the best of the bunch). Lo-mob does offer something different, and deserves a place alongside CameraBag on your iPhone.

To give you an idea of what it can do, I’ve taken screenshots of all the different effects.

Here’s the original photo:

These are the “Classic Vintage” effects:

Microsoft says that a filter and human buffer are stopping inappropriate tweets from being displayed in monitors in Saks Fifth Avenue windows in New York.

The Twitter stream which broadcasts on one of the world’s busiest shopping streets had been flooded with “Get a Mac!” messages, but Redmond spokespeople say they are not going live.

Microsoft sent seattlepi.com this statement (emphasis ours):

This holiday, Saks Fifth Avenue and Windows 7 are working together to bring the magic of the season to life. For the first time, the legendary Saks Fifth Avenue’s holiday windows are powered by Windows 7. As part of this campaign, there are three Microsoft Windows on 50th Ave that feature video monitors displaying a live feed of people’s holiday wishes for the season shared via Twitter and from kiosks in store.

The windows are the private property of Saks Fifth Avenue. As such, there are filters in place to make sure that in opening them up to Twitter feeds we had content that was appropriate for the general public to view and was within the holiday theme. This filter includes any attempt to spam the windows with negative commentary that is not in the spirit of the holidays. The windows have not been hijacked.

Here’s the thing: if you look at the #holidaywindows, if they filter out “Mac” messages as inappropriate, there’s almost nothing left.

So we need your help, CoM readers: if you’re in New York and happen by the Saks window display on 50th Ave, send us pics.

An iPhone application developer has upped the ante on criticism of Apple’s App Store approval policies with apprejections.com, a website devoted to collating “all the known examples of rejected Apps.”

Adam Martin, CEO of UK-based Red Glasses, makers of three iPhone apps (and a software development start-up with a curiously thin web presence), created the site earlier this month to document and share all known examples of “what is actually rejected” from the App Store — and he pulls no punches in his critique of Apple’s process for deciding which apps and updates make it onto the iTunes App Store.

“Apple has a secret, undocumented, unquestionable, random process for deciding which applications to “allow” onto the deck,” claims Martin on the site. Ironically, his own BrainGame Summation (iTunes link) app had an update rejected this week for using a common workaround to bugs in the official Apple APIs; the worrkaround previously appeared to pose no approval problems but has apprently been the basis for several recent rejections.

“Apple point-blank refuses to document the criteria – or even to discuss the matter on anything except a case-by-case basis,” Martin writes, though he does allow that “in most cases, rejections [are] perfectly reasonable, and/or Apple had officially warned developers “don’t do this; we won’t allow it”.

But the site does take App Store gatekeepers to task for being, among other things, “unskilled staff [who] are given a technical tool (the secret static-analyer) [sic] which they don’t understand – but trust 100%, [causing them to] reject apps that haven’t done anything wrong, but which the tool (incorrectly) flags.”

Martin acknowledges that the fledgling site has only just gotten started, but writes that he’s “been following reports on app-rejection for over a year,” and aims to catalog everything unusual and unfair about the mysterious process for joining the 100,000 (and growing) iPhone apps available now on iTunes.

It’s now gone from “easy” to “tricky” to avoid having your App rejected by Apple, according to Martin.

4iThumbs is a $14.95 overlay for the iPhone screen that provides tactile feedback when using the on-screen keyboard. It has little bumpers placed right above the virtual keys that provides the feedback.

If you previously owned a Blackberry, typing on an iPhone might be a pain for you. Even though the on-screen keyboard is pretty responsive, it lacks the tactile feedback that you get on devices like BlackBerry Storm 2 etc. Now with 4iThumbs, you can fill that gap. The company boasts that the typing experience should become much better within just hours of use. As an extra feature, it also acts like an anti-glare screen protector.

However, it doesn’t look like an ergonomic option. The overlay is required just while typing and becomes a hindrance when doing other stuff like playing games. Thankfully it’s removable but taking it off and putting back on every single time is even worse. Also, carrying an extra screen every time in the pocket isn’t something that people like.

Currently, it’s the only option if you are looking for a way to have tactile feedback from your iPhone keyboard. Even though their commercial depicts just the portrait version, a landscape version is also available.

via Engadget

Tired of all the ringtones the iPhone comes with, and can’t stomach loading a Kenny Chesney tone onto your phone? Here’s your salvation: The ringtone upstarts at San Francisco-based iRingPro are tossing out free goodies for Thanksgiving — namely, a free, tri-pack sampler of their sangfroid-inducing ringtones.

We ran a post in August pointing out what makes these quieter, more civilized tones so cool.

The sampler includes one ringtone from each of their three theme packs: Zen, Tek and Origin. The last is my personal favorite of the three, as the complete tone is split into three pieces and plays progressively with each ring.

The theme packs are $9.95 for anywhere from 22 to 31 ringtones. The free sampler is, well, free.