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There’s enough left over bits of iPhone-specific functions diffused through the iPad SDK to be skeptical of any claims of unannounced telephony “features” in Apple’s forthcoming tablet, but this one’s getting a bit of bit of press: enable passcode lock on your iPad, enter your code wrong five times in a row, and you suddenly have the functionality to slide for an emergency call, just like on the iPhone.

It seems just like residual iPhone functionality crawling around the iPad SDK, but 9to5Mac thinks it could be something more: they point out that FCC regulations mandate that all cellphones must be able to place emergency calls even without a contract.

I seriously doubt that’s what is going on here. 3G is not the same as voice, and the FCC doesn’t enforce the “emergency call” functionality on 3G-only devices. If they did, your 3G netbook or Kindle would have to be able to make emergency 911 calls. This is just residual code… but hey, it makes for a good headline.

Axiotron, makers of the thing that was closest to being an iPad before the iPad was announced – the Modbook – are not going to give in without a fight. No sir.

They’ve sent out a press release today, announcing a new promotion for buyers of all new Modbooks. Something they hope will make customers think twice before buying an iPad.

You need not risk $20 million in alimony to find deleting compromising text messages from your cell phone useful.

That’s the premise behind Tiger app, a nod to philandering putter Tiger Woods, an iPhone application that erases indiscreet SMS messages, forever, right after you’ve read them. You can set a text “life span,” then those texts are deleted from both user’s phones,  living up to its slogan “to cover your tracks.”

A boon for star-crossed lovers, double dealers, anyone needing a bit of privacy in a world of oversharing, this is certainly a more elegant solution than the double SIM card, a favorite in amore-happy Italy from where I write — where the number of SIMS outnumber inhabitants.

It also provides a much-needed buffer in the dating world, since it offers a tigertext ID you can give to out and then figure out if beer goggles are 20/20 or not.

As one of the app reviewers, JJH13 says: “I was out at a party last night and met someone and wasn’t sure I wanted him to have my number. I noticed he had an iPhone and just gave him my tigertext user name. Later I can decide whether to give him my number. I love the fact what I say via text is pretty much going to stay that way. I work as an attorney in family law and can see some great uses for this professionally.”

However, even the yawningly monogamous may find a use for this: who doesn’t have a few friends or co-workers whose SMS messages are just about always worth automatically deleting?

Are you looking for an inexpensive notebook for a child? This may be the perfect answer: a G4 iBook running at 1.33GHz for just $300. After you find that deal, you may want a congratulatory bit of gruesomeness while at the same time saving a few bucks. We suggest “Zombie Cannon Carnage,” just one of the iPhone and iPod touch apps included in the latest batch of App Store price drops. Finally, for students, what better way to study than with your Mac? We have a deal of “Cram for Mac,” study aid software befitting the Apple fan.

As always, details on those deals along with many other bargains, are available from CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the following jump.

Boston is one of the first US cities — along with Pittsburgh and San Jose — to let angry citizens file complaints about potholes, graffitti and missed trash pick-ups via iPhone.

Boston’s Citizens Connect, which city officials say has been downloaded 5,000 times since it’s October 2009 debut, won’t be the only way people can let city government know what’s awry in their fair city.

The Cradle of Liberty aims to be the city of smartphone apps thanks to a new one called Boston Urban Mechanic Profiler, or BUMP.

It’s still under development, but the general idea is that instead of using bumping to exchange your phone number with that cute denizen of the coffee table adjacent, by bumping fists with their phones drivers or bicyclists can quickly and easily report road conditions to city officials.

To bridge the iPhone divide — wealthy areas get bumped a lot, poorer areas not at all — officials are considering equipping city workers who live in less affluent neighborhoods with iPhones so they can boost the bumps.

Via Boston Globe

There’s reason enough to arch a wry eyebrow at yet another classic platformer with a virtual control overlay ported to the App Store, and Gameloft’s newest iPhone gaming release, Rayman 2: The Great Escape is no exception, even at $6.99.

We start the week with a deal on a MacBook Pro laptop. The MacBook Pro is powered by a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo for $1,049. Also on tap is a new crop of freebies from the App Store, including “BlaBlaBla,” a sound-sensitive application for the iPhone or iPod touch. Lastly, there is a deal on Assassin’s Creed II for the iPhone or iPod touch.

As always, details on these deals or other bargains (such as the iPod starter kit from Belkin) are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Even before Apple unveiled the iPad, I was curious if their tablet-device would be able to function as a small secondary display to desktop Macs. I’ve long liked the idea Mimo’s miniature displays: a ten-inch secondary display isn’t enough screen real estate to add to productivity, but they are great places to corral widgets, contact lists and the like. I would never buy one specifically for that functionality, though, which is what made the notion of the iPad doubling as one so appealing.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the iPad will functionally work as a secondary desktop display out of the box, but David Klein over at The Apple Blog still thinks that the iPad could function as a peripheral, widget-based display through App Store offerings.

Over at Ars Technica, Jon Stokes ponders why a company as prone to chest-thumping as Apple has been so curiously mum about the iPad’s A4 processor and ultimately comes to an interesting conclusion: Apple hasn’t talked much about the A4 CPU because it’s not really anything special.

In fact, according to Stokes’ sources, Apple’s A4 appears to be nothing fancier than a single core ARM Cortex A8 CPU clocked at 1GHz coupled with a PowerVR SGX GPU. The iPad gets its performance gains largely from stripping away the I/O hardware from the jack-of-all-trades A8 that it doesn’t need.

The best point of the piece, though, is that Apple’s never really been about the hardware: they’ve been about the total experience. As Stokes points out:

[T]he iPad is actually a lot like the Mac. The Mac combines commodity hardware with great industrial design and a superior user experience. The iPad aims to do the same, but under a new compute paradigm that replaces the venerable keyboard-and-monitor combo with a slate form factor, and the decades-old WIMP-based UI (Windows Icons Menus Pointer) with multitouch.

In other words, the iPad is no different than any other Apple product: a fusion of existing hardware, perfectly realized software and world-class design. Getting hung up on the CPU is beside the point.

Amazon’s Kindle e-reader could cost less than $150 after the device’s chipmaker, Freescale, said it will produce a more efficient design streamlined for the gadgets. The new chip should take about six months to reach its two largest users: Amazon and Sony, reports say Monday.

“We do see the price of e-readers coming down this year, and Freescale is trying to facilitate that. That’s a lot of what this chip is doing,” Freescale’s marketing head Glen Burchers told Bloomberg. The Kindle currently costs between $259 and $489 while Sony’s devices costs between $199.99 and $399.99. Apple’s iPad, unveiled last month, is priced at $499-$699 and use Apple’s own chip design.