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Find My iPhone App Helps Police Track Down Thief In Singapore

We have heard stories like this one before, and it looks like Apple’s Find My iPhone service keeps on helping police and iPhone owners track down thieves. The latest story comes from Singapore, where the Straits Times is reporting a 18-year-old Malaysian man was tracked down by the police thanks to Find My iPhone in less than 48 hours.

Early on Sunday morning, the 36-year-old victim was walking along Lim Liak Street when an unknown man approached her from behind and snatched away her iPhone which she was holding.

After the victim lodged a report, the ‘Find My iPhone’ application was used to help the police track down the suspect.

With the release of iOS 4.2 in November, Apple made Find my iPhone free. The service officially supports only last generation devices, but it’s quite easy to set up on older units.

Rise Alarm Wakes You Up In Style - Review & Giveaway

iOS bugs aside, I’ve been using Apple’s default clock app for years to set my alarms, quick reminders and check on world’s time zones. Rise Alarm by Ken Yarmosh, though, is a nicer alternative to the Clock app, which comes with both an iPhone and iPad version and lots of options to choose from.

Rise Alarm sports a great design, a variety of sounds to customize the alarm clock experience and an intuitive user interface based on gestures. Can it replace the default Clock app? Read more

iPad 2 Coming in February 2011?

According to a new report from Digitimes, the iPad 2 may ship as early as February 2011 – in less than 100 days now. Foxconn’s plants in Shenzen have been recently notified that initial shipments, due in February, will reach 400,000 - 600,000 units:

The sources pointed out that the iPad 2 will ship as soon as the end of February in 2011. Apple originally planned to start mass production in January, but because the device’s firmware is currently still in testing, Apple has been postponing the schedule. Since Foxconn’s new plants in Chengdu are still in pilot production, iPad 2 will be mainly supplied by its Shenzhen plants, while the company’s upstream component partners have all been notified of the shipments schedule.

Rumors surfaced in November suggested that Apple would include a FaceTime camera in the next iPad, USB ports, Retina Display and a gyroscope. It is also believed that Largan Precision has been selected to be the camera lens maker of the next generation iPad.

Foxconn, of course, declined to comment on the new rumors.

Andy Rubin, Android Creator: “Everybody Is Embracing The iPhone”→

Andy Rubin, Android Creator: “Everybody Is Embracing The iPhone”

Andy Rubin, speaking at the D: Dive into Mobile event:

Rubin has some relatively nice things to say about the iPhone. “I think everybody is embracing the iPhone. They are pretty open.” Rubin said that most developers actually are having a pretty easy time getting their apps approved by Apple.

Kara: How do you consider Apple as a competitor?

Certainly they make great products, Rubin says–robust, solid, good user experiences. A lot of consistency across applications. More recently I see them getting involved in the other end of the spectrum–services like a bookstore, the app store.

Consistency across applications and devices. Something Google is perhaps underestimating? I’m excited for the changes introduced in today’s Android update, anyway. Gingerbread looks like a solid OS with lots of refinements, and the Nexus S might be the first Android phone I’m going to use on a regular basis. Problem is, I’ll have to find an unlocked one here.

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You Can Design Project Magazine’s Cover

Richard Branson’s Project magazine for iPad came out last week and it quickly climbed the charts of free and top grossing apps in Apple’s App Store. Fair enough, even if the app doesn’t revolutionize digital magazines on tablet it still features neat graphics and animations to appeal the average App Store user.

Branson may not know why the team decided to build it for the iPad and not the web – we think designers and magazine publishers will need to come up with something better than an animated cover to reinvent the publishing industry on Apple’s device.

If you feel like you can do something better, though, here’s your chance to design Project Mag’s next cover. As reported by Mashable, there’s a contest going on that allows designers from around the globe to submit their ideas for a new cover of Project Mag. Virgin apparently held a scavenger hunt both in NYC and San Francisco, hiding four paper mannequins containing the coordinates to USB keys with the details of the contest. Sounds pretty complex.

If you missed the hunt, Mashable uploaded the .zip file with all the details to Dropbox. Entries due by Dec. 15th, no money – just the glory and the chance to meet Branson someday. Or maybe a free ride on the Virgin Galactic. We’d choose the space thing.

Swarm Light: iPhone-Controlled LED Chandelier [Video]

This falls under the category of neat installations powered by an iOS device we have covered so many times here on MacStories. The Swam Light is a $180,000 LED chandelier based on an algorithm originally meant to analyze the behavior of bees. The LED that power the chandelier, in fact, are organized in a series of grids and lit up to display “simulated collective movement” – or, the movement of groups of insects.

What’s cool is that the creators of the installation, rAndom International, developed an iPhone controller in-house to handle operations remotely. The iPhone app can dim lights and switch between the various modes implemented in the Swarm Light.

Check out the video below. [via TUAW] Read more

Reeder for Mac Vs. Fitts’s Law→

Reeder for Mac Vs. Fitts’s Law

It’s finally happened. Someone came out with a Mac OS application that’s clearly a touch UI crowbarred into a point-and-click universe.

And it doesn’t work.

The application in question is Reeder, a Google Reader client for Mac OS X. Yes, it looks pretty, and I feel kind of bad for making an example of it, especially since it’s in early beta.

The whole analysis is basically about the “misplacement” or “small size” of Reeder’s sharing and feed management buttons. Honestly, I haven’t really ever clicked on the wrong button because of this use of the laws, nor do I know of other users complaining about this very specific problem.

But hey, it’s in early beta. Perhaps Silvio Rizzi will follow Fitts’s Law come the final version. You know, just to prove that with the correct adjustments, apps coming from iOS can work on the Mac. [via Daring Fireball]

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Osfoora HD for iPad Is Now iOS 4.2 Compatible

A few days after a sneak peek at the Mac version, popular Twitter client Osfoora for iPad has been updated to include support for iOS 4.2. The update took longer than expected, as Osfoora users have been asking for multitasking support for several weeks now. The app now runs smoothly on iOS 4.2 and can correctly save your position when switching to other apps.

The 1.2 version also brings improved scrolling in the timeline, a variety of bug fixes and updated image sharing services. For those who missed our review of Osfoora HD for iPad:

Osfoora for iPad comes with a couple of original and interesting ideas, combines them with tons of features geared towards the average Twitter power user and offers a good-looking, polished package which gets a very few things wrong, but surely deservers your attention.

Osfoora HD for iPad is available at $3.99 in the App Store.

Color Splash Gives A “Dramatic Look” To Your Photos

I downloaded this app last week, but it turns out it’s been around for quite some months in the App Store. Color Splash by Pocket Pixels is a simple iPhone app (iPad version is available, too) that allows you to highlight areas of a photo to make them black & white, or make the entire photo black & white and only set certain areas to be colored.

It’s a very cool effect that it’s made easy by iOS multi-touch technology and would otherwise be a rather difficult task for the average user on Adobe’s Photoshop. Read more