iPad 2 with Smart Cover running iMovie. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Huffington Post has launched a new iPad app in the iTunes App Store. Mobile Insider writer Steve Smith says that the new version is completely re-engineered for touch screens. The new interface makes it easier for users to bookmark, personalize, share, and comment on articles.

The new app also integrates video and slideshow content better with live feeds. There is also a separate app for the digital video channel. Publisher Janet Balis said that the new app is a representation of the way that the social experience around news has shifted. The app also increases the range of marketing opportunities for advertisers because AOL will sell adds as part of cross-platform execution.

MediaPost

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As part of it’s battle against Apple, Inc.,  Samsung will open an accelerator in Chelsea in June, Crains New York reports. The space will be dedicated to entrepreneurs who want to help Samsung develops products and services that can join together their different devices, from smart phones, to televisions, to laptops.

This Chelsea location will be part of a new division at Samsung called Open Innovation Center, which will have a second location in Palo Alto, California. It will be one part in a four-part strategy that will also include bringing in startups through mergers and acquisitions,having a venture arm to seed startups, and having a team to connect with possible partner startups.

Crains New York

iphone  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The NYPD is continuing efforts to prevent iPhone thefts, a major problem in New York City, according to Metro US.  Police Commissioner Ray Kelley and Mayor Michael Bloomberg claim that the overall increase in citywide crime in 2012 was because of Apple product theft. Between January 1 and September 23 of 2012, the NYPD reported 11,446 thefts of Apple products, a 40 percent increase from 2011.

If an item is stolen or lost and is registered  through NYPD Operation I.D., officers are able to return the item to it’s owner. With this program  officers register electronics with a serial number and phone number. They also encourage people to use the “Find my iPhone” application and the PIN lock function.

Although these solutions can help when a phone is lost, the NYPD said that NYers should be alert and keep their valuables relatively hidden at all times.

Metro New York

Bobo Explores Light

The New York Post

Video Game Cleanup. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Online games for children just got safer after NY State purged the gaming accounts of more than 2,100 registered sex offenders. NBC News reports that this is Operation: Game Over‘s second initiative and the first time that NY’s Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators (e-STOP) has been applied to online gaming.

The law mandates that sex offenders register all of their online identities with the state. The accounts are then cross-referenced with databases from private Internet companies. Microsoft, Apple, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Disney Interactive, Warner Brothers and Sony all participated in the attorney general’s initiative and removed accounts belonging to convicted sex offenders. “The Internet is the crime scene of the 21st century, and we must ensure that online video game platforms do not become a digital playground for dangerous predators, ” NY State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said. “That means doing everything possible to block sex offenders from using gaming systems as a vehicle to prey on underage victims.”

NBC News

(Photo credit: Florin Hatmanu)

Mobile device thefts are so prevalent they’ve pushed up NY’s crime rate. NYPD data reveals that more than 15,600 iPads, iPhones and other devices were stolen in 2012—an increase of 33 percent from the previous year. The New York Post reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged NYers to hide devices from pick pockets.

In discussing the overall increase in crime, Bloomberg noted that iDevices are thieves’ favorite. “It’s up a touch,” Mayor Bloomberg. “But if you took out thefts of Apple products — not Galaxies, Samsungs — just Apple products, our total crime rate would be lower than it was last year.”

New York Post

News Corporation, New York (Photo credit: robjewitt)

In an effort to survive a rapidly transforming industry, NY-based publishers are using both mergers and lawsuits to compete with Amazon and Apple. According to Highbrow Magazine, at least two of the Big Seven publishers are in merger talks. News Corp., which owns HarperCollins is considering a merger with Simon & Schuster. Penguin (which had been in talks with NewsCorp) and Random House recently announced a merger.

Publishers also are suing both Amazon and Apple, alleging they violated the Sherman Act’s antitrust regulations. The DOJ complaint claims the two companies “conspired to raise retail e-book price and to otherwise limit completion in the sale of e-books.” Three publishers have settled out of court, but Apple, MacMillan and Penguin are continuing. The case will head to court on June 2013. Barnes & Noble said that the case might ultimately lead to higher e-book and hardcover prices and less choices for the consumer.

Author Scott Turow commented on his blog that “The irony bites hard: Our government may be on the verge of killing real competition in order to save the appearance of real competition.”

Highbrow Magazine

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The recently released Google Maps app for iOS devices features Zagat restaurant reviews. This feature competes squarely with Apple’s map app, which uses Yelp. Both integrate restaurant reviews, but according to Crain’s New York Business, the move is a boon for Zagat (which was bought by Google last year.) Unlike Apple, Google incorporates public transportation data in its app, making it easier for NY residents to plan trips, find restaurants—and read Zagat reviews. Since its release last week, Google Maps is the top ranked free download in the iPhone App Store.

Crain’s New York Business

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Apple is in discussions to incorporate NY-based Foursquare’s local data into its mapping app. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is in talks with several companies, including Yelp, to improve the map service, which had a flawed release in September. Speculation about a deal grew after Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president, reportedly posted a check-in on Twitter.

The Journal writes that these talks are a strategic shift for Apple as it builds up its own direct local information base and bypasses Google. A deal would also benefit Foursquare. The company’s growth has slowed as other social media companies—including Facebook—have created similar apps.

The Wall Street Journal

Forbes

Etsy’s Android app

Brooklyn-based Etsy launched a new Android app allowing buyers to purchase items on mobile devices. According to VentureBeat, the app lets customers peruse over 17 million products from 800,000 sellers worldwide–in multiple languages. The Android release follows Etsy’s iPad and iPhone apps.

VentureBeat

Clear Channel

At age 15, Bob Pittman was a radio announcer. Not long after, he had a hand in creating MTV and in 1996, he joined AOL and stayed after the Time Warner merger. Now, as CEO of Clear Channel, he presides over a mega media conglomerate. In an interview with The Verge, Pittman said of Apple and Google that, “History is littered with companies that tried to do the controlled ecosystem.” Instead, consumers are more interested in shows they like and will mix and match platforms.

According to Pittman, network TV made a big mistake when they declined to create  content for cable because it would be cannibalizing. Pittman also said if the landscape is changing, Clear Channel better cannibalize itself. That’s why their app, iHeartRadio, is on phones, tablets and the web. In the end, he said people don’t think about how the signal gets there, it’s content they care about.

The Verge

View of Knicks game at Madison Square Garden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Madison Square Garden will be participating in a corporate giveaway that will provide about 5,000 Knicks fans with specially designed smartphone cases. The cases allow users to charge their iPhones wirelessly from 550 charging spots in the arena’s corporate suites and eighth-floor viewing area, according to Business Week.

Duracell Powermat paid the hardware costs for Madison Square Garden’s wireless charging systems. “We are making investments in marketing and retail infrastructure at the level of hundreds of millions of dollars,” says Ron Rabinowitz, CEO of Duracell Powermat.

Businessweek

NY – South West view (Photo credit: mat.c)

A lengthy piece in The Real Deal (TRD) recently examined the NY real estate market’s current tech boom. The market is having a difficult time defining a tech company in a world where almost everyone has a tech focus. Tech companies have brought expansion to real estate, but they still only represent a small part of the market. Colliers International reported that 6.4 percent of Manhattan office space leased so far this year went to “computer science and technology” companies and 14 percent went to “information and new media companies.”

Jack Petrie, president of brokerage Office Lease Center, noted that younger customers, such as in the tech industry, are more open-minded about their brokers. This creates an intensely competitive atmosphere for real estate brokers in the tech sector. Despite billions invested in tech by VCs and others, the industry is facing issues– funding over the last year was down 22 percent from the previous year. Google and Apple stocks have not been as strong as expected, and tech leasing in San Francisco is starting to recede.

Some of Manhattan’s largest tech leasing deals in the past two years:

• Google (75 Ninth Ave. 2.9 million square feet for $1.8 billion): Last month Google also leased 94,000 square feet of space at the Chelsea Market.
• Microsoft (641 Sixth Ave. 22,000 square feet): Currently considering a move from its Headquarters at 1290 Sixth Ave. to 11 Times Square.
• LBi (11 W 19th Street. 26,000 square feet): This space gives LBi, an Amsterdam-based global tech company, a total of 78,000 square feet in the building. The firm has two other Manhattan locations.
• Salesforce (685 Third Ave. 74,349 square feet): This new space is four-and-a-half times the size of their previous office. The lease is for ten years.
• Spotify (620 Sixth ave. 63,285 square feet): Spotify signed this lease in September after leaving its space in Google’s building.
• Meebo (641 Sixth Ave. 22,047 square feet): CA-based Meebo signed this five-year lease in August 2011. After being bought by Google, the space was sold to Microsoft.
• Cafemom (417 Fifth Ave. 35,000 square feet): This website for moms signed a seven year lease on this space, previously occupied by Atari.
• 100-104 Fifth Ave (55,000 square feet): Apple added 45,000 square feet to this space in 2011. This space is mostly for Apple’s ad division.
• Ebay (625 Sixth Ave. 35,156 square feet): This lease was signed for ten years and is intended to house the employees for the company’s Tech Center for Excellence.

Brokers are trying to take advantage of the growth of Manhattan’s Internet companies. But they have yet to develop a reliable system for how to classify these leases. TRD broke down and analyzed the different brokers and firms representing tech companies in Manhattan. They found that the city’s top commercial leasing companies are not at the top of the list. Michael Rouzenrouch, president of the small SoHo-based Miyad Realty said, “[A broker] with extensive knowledge is more key than the brand of the real estate company.”

The huge churn rate in the tech lease industry creates an interesting atmosphere for brokers. There is a lot of opportunity for poaching accounts from other brokers. Adding to this pressure is the overall slowdown in the market. The tech industry still has the most leasing potential. However, big leasing brokerages still tend to lease to big tech firms. CBRE did more tenant deals than any of the other firms examined by TRD. CBRE brokered 12 deals totaling 448,329 square feet. Jones Lang LaSalle was next, with 10 deals totaling 287,329 square feet.

TRD also took a close look at powerful techies and where they choose to live–and found they favor downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn.

• Sean Parker: Parker’s Greenwich Village bachelor pad, Bacchus House, hasn’t helped this Napster and Facebook co-founder shed his party boy image. The townhouse, located on 10th St, was bought in 2010 for $20 million.
• Christopher Hughs: Facebook co-founder and media expert, Hughs recently purchased a majority stake in the New Republic magazine and became publisher and editor-in-chief. He also bought a downtown 4,164 square foot apartment for $4.8 million in 2010.
• Alexis Ohanian: Co-founder of Reddit. In 2011, he bought a 1,385 square foot Brooklyn Heights apartment on Furman Street for $1.24 million.
• Dennis Crowley: Founder of Dodgeball and Foursquare. He purchased a SoHo two bedroom co-op on E. 8th St. in 2007 for $1.15 million.

The Real Deal

iPad mini

Burglars stole $1.5 million worth of iPad minis from a cargo building at JFK International Airport. The New York Post reported that that the incident probably happened a little before midnight on Monday, and that the crooks used an airports forklift to load two pallets of the tablets on a truck. Though the group could have grabbed more, they were scared off by an airport worker coming back from dinner.

Investigators suspect the act may have been an inside job and are questioning airport workers. The truck used to steal the Apple products was a white tractor trailer with the name CEVA on the side. They pulled up to the side of the building with looser security to steal the items. It’s believed that someone let them into the area and then let them back out after the heist. About 3,600 minis, meant to be shipped by Cargo Airport Services, were stolen. The iPads had just arrived from China and were supposed to be distributed to different Apple stores throughout the country.

NY Post

ipad-mini (Photo credit: methodshop.com)

Wall Street & Tech wrote recently about the effect that the release that the iPad Mini may have on Wall Street. The new Apple product has a smaller screen and a better camera and video recording– all of which may be beneficial to those in the financial industry. Reporter Melanie Rodier wrote that despite a lack of software upgrades from the iPad to the iPad mini, there is a question of whether or not the newer models will have an impact.

The largest differences between the two models are size of the tablet and the smaller connector plugs. Rodier wrote, “The iPad Mini, like the iPhone 5 probably doesn’t have a sufficient number of new features to push most owners of older iPad models or iPhones to upgrade. While the iPad Mini will be even easier to carry due to its smaller size, one of the major selling points of the iPad for Wall Street professionals has been the tablet’s large ‘real estate.’ Many simply don’t want a smaller screen.”

Wall Street & Tech

ipad-mini (Photo credit: methodshop.com)

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, there were fewer places for customers to buy Apple‘s iPad mini. According to Bloomberg News, the iPad mini sold out at Apple’s flagship fifth avenue store. White and silver models were gone within thirty minutes. Apple and other high demand retailers are struggling with the transportation issues caused by Hurricane Sandy. Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffrey Cos. noted that up to 1.5 million iPad minis were expected to be sold during the launch weekend.

Bloomberg News

Apple Store da Fifth Ave (Photo credit: Daniel Bonatto)

Hurricane Sandy forced businesses to close, even Apple’s 24-hour flagship store on Fifth Ave. Jonathan Wald, producer of CNN’s Piers Morgan show, tweeted pictures of the store surrounded by sandbags, noting it was closed and merchandise was covered in plastic. He tweeted another photo of the giant glass cube saying, “Ok geniuses, start taping.”

Business Insider

Mad Magazine

English: iPod touch 2G Français : iPod touch, seconde génération (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Viggle is trying to surge ahead in the second screen app market with free giveaways. The NY based startup is handing out gift cards, music downloads and iPods to users who stay with their product.  The app awards “watchpoints” to users who can redeem them for credits with Best Buy, Sephora, Starbucks , iTunes and Hulu Plus.

Since its January launch, Viggle boasts more than one million users, but only about 660,000 are active. Chris Stephenson, president and CEO, said that the company needs about five million active users a day to gain traction.

Multichannel

Lining up early at AT&T Astor Place. (Photo Credit: Brittany VanBibber NY Convergence)

As the new iPhone 5 goes on sale today, New York’s Finest will patrol NY Apple stores, preventing what they call “Apple picking.” The iPhone is thieves’ favorite device—with more than 4,100 reported stolen in August alone.

NYPD officers will be stationed in 21 locations around the city—including Apple stores, Verizon and AT&T outlets as part of “Operation ID.”  Police will also engrave devices with a special serial number beginning with “NYC” so phones will be instantly recognized if lost or stolen.  The NYPD is offering the service for free, even on devices other than the iPhone 5.

New York Post

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NY’s Fox 5 misinterpreted the iPhone 5′s recent feature list. According to Tuaw, the coverage featured interviews with people waiting in line at the 5th Avenue Apple Store. The reporter on the scene mentioned of a laser keyboard and holographic images, the coverage then cuts to a video clip showing these new features. However, the clip was a concept video created by Aatma Studio and displays a “misshapen iPhone 5 and several hypothetical new things it could do.”

Tuaw

The Wall Street Journal

Fishbowl NY

English: A ridiculous line of people waiting for the iPhone 3G outside of the Apple Store on 5th Ave. between 58th St. and 59th St., NYC, July 12, 2008. I was not in the line. pictured: the Apple Store entrance (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some New Yorkers have already started to camp outside of Apple’s flagship store on fifth Avenue to get their hands on the new iPhone 5. “I don’t have to shower or change clothes,” said software developer Hazem Sayed, who has been camping outside since Wednesday. Pre-orders for the new phone sold out in 60 minutes, according to the NY Post.

The online demand for the iPhone 5 was so great that it will now take Apple atleast two weeks to ship new orders, instead of the promised Sept. 21 arrival date.

NY Post

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The conflux of the new iPhone 5 release, Wall Street’s renunciation of Blackberrys and one million leaked Apple ID numbers means hackers are watching. According to Shirley Inscoe, senior analyst for Aite Group, most people don’t realize how much data smartphones have—and how compromising it is if their device is hacked

Inscoe predicts more attacks against Apple products and mobile apps are an easy way to introduce malware. “90 out of the top 100 free applications that are downloaded have malware,” she told Wall Street & Technology. She said it’s important for Wall Street firms to test smartphones connected to corporate networks for malware and maintain a list of approved apps.

Wall Street & Technology

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The Associated Press will begin running advertising aimed at consumers, according to The New York Times. The ads are intended to promote the A.P.’s mobile news app, called A.P. Mobile, which is available on Apple, Android, Blackberry and Windows phones. Though the A.P. has run ads before aimed at journalists, the goal of this campaign is to build usage of the app, which has existed since 2008. The A.P. app is ad-supported, with the ads sold by a company named Verve Wireless, and recent advertisers have included Fidelity and Porsche. The ads for A.P. Mobile were created internally. In keeping with the just-the-facts reputation of the news service, the ads are straightforward and free of glitz.

NY Times

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Amazon‘s NY-based publishing group has made a deal with Ingram to make its ebooks available to competitors such as Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Kobo. Currently content from Amazon’s West Coast imprints are not included in the deal with Ingram’s digital distribution arm, CoreSource. Amazon NY will be publishing its first list this fall, including books such as Timothy Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Chef, Penny Marshall’s My Mother Was Nuts and Jessica Valenti’s Why Have Kids? Amazon had previously made a limited number of its ebooks available through other retailers.

paidContent

English: IBM’s Watson computer, Yorktown Heights, NY (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Researchers at Armonk-based IBM are working to develop the company’s Watson AI technology (the computer that competed on Jeopardy) for mobile devices. They expect to generate billions in sales by putting it to work in finance, healthcare, telecommunications and other areas. Currently the computer version is the company’s most high-profile product, after being sold to Lenovo Group Ltd. in 2005.

The company’s next challenge is to make it mobile. Even though most of the computations occur at the data center in Yorktown Heights, NY, a Watson smart phone application would still consume too much power for it to be practical today. The next hurdle is the time it takes Watson to do the “machine learning” – it can take years to master a field.

Researchers also need to add voice and image recognition to the service so that it can respond to real-world input. Unlike Apple’s Siri, IBM is focused on corporate customers and aims to tackle more complex questions such as explaining symptoms and Watson suggesting what the ailment might be.

Bloomberg

Image via CrunchBase

The number of stolen Apple devices in the city already surpassed last year’s total by more than 50%, with still four months left in the year. The city’s total grand larcenies — driven by the iPhone and iPad thefts — have risen to more than 25,000 incidents. Apple products account for nearly 17% of these crimes.

Through a process called “jailbreaking” or “unlocking,” rogue techies can clear the device of all current data, preparing them for a lucrative resale. After the “cleanup,” devices are funneled into bodegas throughout the city, sold over the Internet or shipped overseas, sources told the NY Post. Up until 2 weeks ago, thieves could clean up the devices themselves and sell them directly to customers. However AT&T started tracking serial numbers of phones reported stolen and blocking them from being reactivated on the network. Now thieves resort to using phone-repair shops who take the cash but do not report the thefts.

NY Post