Njection Mobile is a new iPhone app designed to alert you to speed traps, red light cameras, and speed detection devices using the phone’s 3G and GPS capabilities.

The app uses a native Microsoft Virtual Earth Web Services (VEWS) implementation, leveraging the mobile tile set to speed up map displays, and provides what promoters call “one of the best mapping experiences on the iPhone.”

Drivers may be alerted audibly to approaching speed traps based on several different criteria. The application uses an Active Intelligence Selection System to alert users to the most relevant speed trap, based on speed, direction of travel, and current time. Users can submit and verify speed traps directly from the iPhone as well.

The $9.99 application’s features include:

• Speech notification of Speed Traps based on current moving direction, speed of the driver, and distance to closest point using Active Intelligence Selection System (AISS)
• Live Updates of speed traps updated from the website or other iPhone users
• Speed Trap Ranking based on level of enforcement and time of day area is monitored
• Submit and Rate Speed traps from the iPhone or on the website

Njection Mobile is compatible with both 3G and Edge network protocols, though the developers caution it may not work as well without GPS.

Citing a “more conservative outlook for the PC industry,” Credit Suisse Thursday cut the target price for Apple shares to $120 from $135. Analyst Bill Shope also trimmed Apple’s 2009 revenue projection

In a note to investors, the analyst reversed his projection of PC shipments for next year. Shope believes shipments will fall 4.7 percent rather than increase 4.9 percent.

Overall, PC industry revenue is expected to fall 16.6 percent in 2009, according to the Credit Suisse note.

Shope said his estimate is in line with an outlook for a “severe recession” in the PC market with a 13.7 percent drop in desktop computers compared to a 4.2 percent previously projected.

With consumer buying in the tank and computer makers reportedly readying $299 holiday PCs, can Apple afford to repeat its usual $100 discounts on Macs? One analyst thinks its time for Steve Jobs to get ‘aggressive’ during the all-important ‘Black Friday’ after-Thanksgiving sales.

Barclay Capital’s Ben Reitzes told investors Wednesday Apple should offer discounts on iPhones and iPods, as well as Macs.

“We would like to see Apple get more price aggressive in every product, including the iPhone, given obvious weakness in the economy,” he wrote in a note to investors.

Word comes from Le Macbidouille of Apple’s plans to set up shop in the “Carrousel of Louvre” at the famous gallery complex in Paris.

Slated to begin at the turn of the year, Apple has apparently expanded upon plans originally announced over a year and a half ago, and may become a very high profile tenant at an attraction that drew over 8 million visitors in 2007.

According to the report published at HardMac (conveniently translated into adorable French-English for the non-French-speaking reader), Apple has taken “many options in France, primarily in shopping malls in construction, such as the Odysseum in Montpellier,” and declared “2009 should be the year of Apple Stores in France.”

Here’s a gallery of the space Apple may be converting at the Louvre complex, and sure enough, you can almost see an Apple store in it, can’t you?

Fans of comics’ “Golden Age” now have a great way to feed that jones on the iPhone and iPod Touch with Comic Zeal from Bitolithic.

The $1.99 app lets you download an unlimited number of classic comics from the 1930s and 1940s, a period that saw the arrival of the comic book as a mainstream art form, when the medium’s artistic vocabulary and creative conventions were defined by its first generation of writers, artists, and editors.

The app downloads full comics to store locally on your device for easy access offline, and takes full advantage of the iPhone platform’s pinch-zoom and fingertip scrolling so you can move around pages quickly and zoom in to detail as you wish. A recent update makes turning pages with the swipe gesture a breeze and counts as an excellent improvement to the original released version.

“I had been itching to do some development for the Mac but when we learned the iPhone and iPod contained most of OS X I knew I had to do SOMETHING on the device,” Melbourne-based developer Emiliano Molina told Cult of Mac. “During that time, a colleague let me borrow some of his most precious comic books. The most leisure time I had was on the train but I couldn’t risk damaging them,” he says, “eventually I realized that what I needed was a digital version of those comics on the iPod.”

The Comic Zeal library contains an eclectic mix of titles that have fallen out of copyright, such as Romantic Adventures, Strange Worlds, Racket Squad and a personal favorite of this reviewer, Eerie.

Molina is also developing what he calls the Comic Zeal Creator, which allows you to convert the CBR/CBZ files of comics you find on the internet into Comic Zeal’s CBI format, so you can upload your own favorites to the iPhone for storage and later access. The Creator remains in Beta and can be downloaded from the Bitolithic website.

Apple released a significant update for 4th generation iPod Nano Tuesday night. Software Version 1.0.3 includes a number of fixes to cover art and photo distortion issues that some users had been experiencing, and delivers support for the eagerly awaited Apple in-ear headphones with mic and remote.

Although the headphones were announced in September when the iPod Nano line was refreshed, they have remained as yet unavailable.

Nano users can obtain the new software by connecting the digital media player to their computer and launching iTunes. Follow the prompts for downloading and installing the software.

Love this clear stand for the Mac Mini to make it look like a PowerMac G4 Cube. The only slight flaw in handiwork of Trademarklaser is the upside down Apple logo (due to the position of the optical reader) but an etched and painted acrylic cover that would set things straight is on its way. No word on price, but they are for sale.

Via Make

Flickr user Mickphoto has put up a couple of extensive photosets showing how he hacked an MSI Wind to turn it into an Apple “netbook” he calls the MacBook Nano.

Many have expressed a desire for a small, super-portable Apple notebook and Mickphoto’s creation has a certain je ne sais quoi that’s sure to get the notice of Apple enthusiasts – if not the Apple legal department – and keep the netbook conversation going.

Click on a few shots in the gallery below and visit Mickphoto’s Flickr pages for more. Is this Apple evangelism, a labor of love, or is it over-the-top? Let us know your thoughts about the MacBook Nano in comments.

Apple faces “recessionary headwinds” through 2010, RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky told investors Wednesday. Abramsky now predicts 27.8 million iPhones will ship in 2010, down from 31.8 million. The analyst also believed Apple will report $46 billion in 2010, slipping slightly from the $46.6 billion previously expected.

Abramsky, however, still expects Apple will sell 21 million iPhones in 2009 and kept his target price for Apple at $125. Last month, the analyst cut his target price for Apple shares from $140.

When the office manager says your new laptop will be a PC for “cost cutting purposes,” there’s only one way to prove you’re still a Mac.

Via Apple News

What with all the talk about how hard it is to manage large numbers of apps with the iPhones swipey-sidey interface, I wondered what people are doing when it comes to visualizing the things. A computer’s screenshot is one large image (maybe two or three with multiple monitors). You could argue that an iPhone’s screenshot isn’t complete without all its screens – up to 10 of them – lined up side-by-side.

And that’s what some people are doing, in the process creating gorgeous little personalized maps of portable computing. This one by thepatrick on Flickr (used under Creative Commons license – thanks thepatrick), is labeled with descriptive notes that explain each geopolitical region.

There’s lots more, of course. iPhone Home Screens is what you’d expect (and includes some nice ‘shots by Lee Bennett, manning999, and my favorite from foxbert.

If yoo fink Cheezburger haz a flavr, yoo gonna wuv dis iFone app which make da lolcatz go woop-wwop-ffloop in yor pocketz. It down-woads da lolcatz wivvout da web stuffs which crashy yr Safarie. Srsly.

(Alternatively, if you are an intelligent human being who hates lolcats and thinks this post would have been better suited to the Cult of Lolcats blog (coming soon), the Cult apologizes for wasting your time and suggests you move on to the next post. Thank you.)

Blake Patterson has the kind of monitor set up that makes some of us drool. It’s even sweeter when three monitors, plus Spaces.app, plus Exposé, produces an image like this; the symmetry and balance turns it into a work of art.

(Photo of Expose+Spaces used under Creative Commons license. Thanks Blake!)

Third party iPhone app developers may be able to update and execute arbitrary code from their applications at will, circumventing Apple’s App Store approval process, according to a report at TechCrunch.

The exploit stems from a trick documented by developer/blogger Partick Collison, who figured out a workaround to allow for the display of dynamic default.png images that load when an app is opened on the phone.

Jason Kincaid, who writes for TechCrunch, believes this security flaw makes it possible that “using the same technique with arbitrary code would likely allow a developer to update and execute whatever code they’d like at will.”

Kincaid notes that this is only an issue insofar as Apple purports to retain control of everything that appears on the AppStore. Developers enjoy the capability of running malicious code in just about every Windows or Mac desktop application you can buy without a screening process similar to the one Apple maintains before allowing iPhone and iPod touch applications to be distributed through the AppStore.

It’s also worth noting that no developer or application has been found to have used this particular exploit to run malicious code to date, and that Apple could act to close the loophole before anyone’s phone is put at risk.

Google’s Android-based G1 cell phone cost $143.89 to build, less than Apple’s iPhone 3G, according to iSuppli Corp.

A teardown of the 8GB iPhone 3G’s discovered the bill of materials for the Apple handset was $172, iSuppi analyst Tina Teng told Cult of Mac.

Nearly 20 percent ($28.49) of the G1 hardware costs are in the ARM processors used for multimedia and modem, iSuppli announced Tuesday. In October, Intel blamed the ARM for speed problems with the iPhone 3G.

iPhone developer and model rocket enthusiast Michael Koppelman performed a hobby mash-up by launching an iPhone rocket.

He used the packaging the iPhone came in to develop a cradle that fit inside the rocket. The iPhone had its own parachute, just to be on the safe side.

Koppelman developed an iPhone app to monitor the iPhone’s GPS and accelerometers, logging them to a file and sending GPS data over the Web so that the unit could be easily located if it became lost.

The airborne iPhone didn’t break or go missing.

Check out his site for the data or the video of the launch and an interview at Make…

The trailer for Nim’s Island, a Jodie Foster movie about a house-bound adventure writer, starts off with her character Alex Rover dancing a jig in front of a Mac and shows her computer about five more times in the space of a minute or so.

Apparently, the movie is Product Placement a go-go for 12 companies, so much so that at least one pundit complained. The Mac count? Three different computers show up a total of 10 times. Still, if you’re going to be a bogus travel writer, better do it with a Mac.

If you’re the kind of person who loves iChat so much that you want to snuggle up to it on the couch, these pillows from Throwboy are likely to be just your cup of tea.

You can choose from Finder, Dashboard, iTunes, iPhoto, iChat, and Photo Booth. Each one is hand-made with fleece and filled with polyester fiber.

You can nerd up your living room for just $30 per pillow, or $149 for the set. I don’t think they do special requests for niche apps (Camino users, let’s hear a weak cheer from you – ahh that’s lovely). But there’d be no harm in asking them to expand the set would there? What might they add next? Is a BBEdit pillow going too far, do you think?

More on the Throwboy blog. They do pumpkins too, you know.

Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16Ms, recently unveiled in all their Batmobile-meets-James Bond glory, will have an optional iPod built in to the dashboard.
The 16GB touch, black with the prancing horse logo, will come loaded with Ferrari images and sounds — the famous engine purr, maybe?

This is the kind of kit Ferrari owners will love, since the detachable iPod allows them to take the brand with them in places (like the gym, shopping) where it wouldn’t be obvious otherwise that they were Ferrari owners. (I once worked briefly on the Ferrari owners’ site. As a person who let their driver’s license lapse and uses a bicycle to get to work, it was a challenge). And the iPod can keep you company when the car is kept safely in the garage for more practical transport or serve as a memento when you sell it.

The base price for the limited-edition car is $277,000, no word on the extra cost for the iPod upgrade.

Via iPod Nation

Though we’re still several months away from the launch of either Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Microsoft’s Windows 7, America’s Finest News Source The Onion has already decoded the coming OS war in a handy chart, which you can read after the jump.

I have to say, I’m really impressed that MS is getting close to getting the spontaneous combustion thing under control. Dare to dream!

First made available through the iTunes Store on April 28, 2003, the timeless power ballad “Don’t Stop Believin'” has become the top-selling catalog track in iTunes history and the sole catalog track to have crossed the 2million (double platinum) threshold.

Following its original release in 1981, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” the second single from Journey’s groundbreaking chart-topping “Escape” album, peaked at #8 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and at #9 on the Pop Singles chart. Propelled by what the All Music Guide has called “one of the
best opening keyboard riffs in rock,” “Don’t Stop Believin'” quickly established itself as one of Journey’s signature songs while helping to spawn the “arena rock” genre.

“Don’t Stop Believin'” hit a grand slam in 2005 when it became the unofficial theme song for the Chicago White Sox, World Series Champions. Journey frontman Steve Perry performed the song at the World Series Championship celebration in Chicago.

The song enjoyed a massive resurgence in popularity in June 2007 after serving as the soundtrack to the climactic final set-piece of HBO’s hit mafia family television series, “The Sopranos.” Download sales
of the song on iTunes rocketed an incredible 482% for the period from Saturday, June 9th (the night before “The Sopranos” finale) through Tuesday, June 12th, of that year, at which time Hillary Clinton also chose it as her presidential campaign theme song.

Brian Hines has made a little video that sums up almost everything you might ever want to say to potential switchers from Windows to Mac OS X. They might be asking themselves what makes the Mac experience so much better, and if it’s worth the investment of time and money to get started on a new system that might be alien to them.

Thing is, says Brian (and most of you reading this know it already — but maybe you know people like Brian, or the people he made the video for, and you might want to make the point to them) the Mac is simply a superior machine with a superior operating system.

The Mac is “pretty slick”, he says. The PC is “much cruder”. The software supplied with the Mac provides almost everything you might need (although he would appear to have invested in iWork, and added Firefox alongside Safari).

Brian concludes with this: “If you want to believe that the Mac is a much more pleasant machine to use, that’s absolutely the truth.”

Exactly.

Proving that Macs are the computers of kings, here’s a shot of
Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud with an impressive 30-inch cinema display. It makes Medvedev’s laptop look a little modest.

Via TUAW

Apple may report $11.29 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2009, more than $1 billion better than Wall Street experts are projecting, blogger-analyst Andy Zaky wrote Monday.

The blogger, who beat analysts in his prediction of Apple’s fourth quarter numbers, wrote experts have been “absurdly bearish” with revenue estimates that “no longer reflect even a scintilla of financial reality.”

“The analysts have been consistently wrong in predicting Apple’s earnings results and this time they’re going to get their ‘hats handed to them,'” Zaky wrote on his blog Bullish Cross.

In October, Apple’s Chief Financial Officer, Peter Oppenheimer forecast revenue of $9 billion to $10 billion for the December quarter. The Wall Street consensus is a slightly higher $10.08 billion.

Forget about what they manage to crank out of Cupertino. What is it about Apple that drives such innovation all over the rest of the globe?