An App To Police The Cops

The Economist: How three teenagers invented an app to police the cops

The high-school students want citizens to rate their interactions with officers

THE Christian siblings were doing their homework when the police arrived. Two officers entered the house, guns drawn, pursuing what was evidently a prank tip-off about a captive being held at their address. The guns stayed out even when the mistake became apparent; they ran the details of the children’s father—who, like them, is black—through the police system on the off chance of turning something up.

The family was traumatised. The incident (in 2013) brought home to Ima Christian, now 18, that Americans could be vulnerable to rough policing “no matter where you live, or who you are”; her sister Asha, who is 16, says it is “not until you are face to face with an officer that you realise what the deal is.” The sisters—from Stone Mountain, just outside Atlanta—didn’t get even, exactly. Instead, with their brother Caleb (now 15), they developed an app, called Five-O, intended to help improve police behaviour and community relations. It lets citizens rate their experiences with officers, record both parties’ race and sex and the purpose of the interaction, and find aggregate scores for county forces.

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CSN Editor: Police departments should embrace this .... but I suspect that many will not.

The Optical Illusion App That Makes You Hallucinate

The Optical Illusion App That Makes You HALLUCINATE: Mind-Bending Moving Illusion Makes Everything Around You MELT -- Daily Mail

* DO NOT watch if you suffer from epilepsy or are sensitive to flashing lights
* Watch videos in full screen mode for 30 seconds while focusing on centre
* Look away and watch the world deform. Effect can last for up to 20 secs
* Illusion created when brain cells detecting motion become tired
* After the eyes look away, the cells that detect motion in the other direction are more active and a stationary object appears to be moving

For a drug-free mind-bending hallucination, take a look at some of these incredible optical illusions.

Open the illusion up in a full-screen window as they will work best if they fill your entire field of vision.

Focus your eyes on the centre of the illusion for around 30 seconds before gently looking away into the distance.

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My Comment: OMG!!! It works.

No Aple App For Syria

There's No App For Syria -- Michael Peck

Why did Apple ban a game on the Syrian civil war?

The idea seemed laudable. Create a computer game app on the Syrian civil war that is simple enough for the general public to learn a bit about a complex conflict. Thus was born Endgame: Syria -- which puts the player in command of the Syrian rebels as they battle to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's regime. It runs on Android tablets, and it will soon be available on the Apple app store, promises British publisher Auroch Digital.  

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My Comment: A surprising ruling from Apple .... especially since there are scores of violent games in their app store. I guess the issue of Syria is too sensitive for some in Apple, and prefer it to be swept under the table. On a side note ..... Steve Job's biological father was Syrian.

An App For Curbing Wine Habits

 Photo: prayitno/Flickr

Curbing The Wine Habits Of Scotland’s Women: Yes, There’s An App For That -- Wired 

Scottish health officials are banking on an Android app and the human tendency toward vanity to help reduce the incidence of alcohol-related illnesses and deaths among Scottish women. On Tuesday the office of the Scottish health secretary launched a free Android app, called Drinking Mirror, which shows women just how much older they’ll look in 10 years if they toss back 10 glasses of wine per week.

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My Comment: An app that illustrates wine making you age .... I am skeptical.

Korea Militarizes Samsung's Smartphone Apps

Korea Militarizes Samsung Smartphone Apps -- Tech Eye

Invade the North? There's an app for that

South Korea has been developing battlefield applications for Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S and other Android-based smartphones.

According to the Korea Times, nine apps have been completed with more coming.

The big idea is that the Koreans want to use smartphones in military operations and since it has a big smartphone maker close it thought it would use it.

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My Comment: Expect even more apps with a military concept in the near future.

Are Apps The Future of Book Publishing?

(Photo credit: John Blyberg)

Are Apps The Future of Book Publishing? -- Forbes

We’re at the dawn of the tablet era now. Earlier this month, Apple sold 3 million of its new iPad during the opening weekend, with some analysts expecting over 60 million of the tablets to be sold worldwide. What’s more, e-book readers are selling even more briskly than tablets. People are using those e-readers, too. On Amazon.com, books for its Kindle outsell its paper books.

What’s more, the explosion of e-books is putting pressure on publishers between demands for price cuts on one hand, and competition from independent authors like Amanda Hocking, who earned over $2 million selling e-books on her own before signing with a major publisher.

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My Comment: Are apps the future of book publishing .... well .... readers are using them so I would have to assume that the answer is yes.

Top 50 Android Phone Apps

Android is interesting, because it attracts two very different kinds of people.

The Top 50 Android Phone Apps -- The Guardian

Android has overtaken iOS as the UK's most popular smartphone platform. We pick the best of its 450,000 apps, for music fans, children, gamers, shoppers… There's even an antidote for app addiction

There is far more to smartphone life than Apple's iPhone. Google launched its Android software in 2008 and has since sold more than 300m of its smartphones; currently, more than 850,000 are added to that number every day.

More than 450,000 apps are available on Google Play, which is generating more than 1bn app downloads every month. The latest Android smartphones are also viable competitors to the iPhone (stylish and powerful phones from companies such as Samsung, HTC and Sony Ericsson have been flying off the shelves in the UK), but Android apps haven't always had a great press. Android has been criticised on security grounds, with accusations that there are more viruses and malware apps on Google's store than on Apple's App Store. However, Android apps have to ask for explicit permission to access your personal data and phone features, so familiarise yourself with these permissions requests when installing apps and you'll be less at risk.

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The World Belongs To Apps

How Apps Have Taken Over The World -- The Guardian

Steve Jobs initially resisted apps, fearing sabotage. But when the late Apple chief relented in 2007, the floodgates opened

A ticker on the front of Apple's website rolls over relentlessly, increasing by about 500 a second as it moves relentlessly towards 25bn.

It is counting the number of units of application software downloaded from the company's App Store – and the rise of a business that barely existed five years ago, but which now dominates daily conversation so much that the phrase, "There's an app for that", has become both an offer of help and a joke.

The counter is expected to hit the target by early March. By then, users will have spent about £3.6bn buying apps through the store, of which Apple will have passed on £2.5bn and retained £1.1bn.

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My Comment: And this is all just starting.

Apple Buys Chomp

Apple Said To Pay About $50 Million For Application-Search Startup Chomp -- Bloomberg

Apple Inc. (AAPL), the world’s most valuable company, acquired San Francisco-based Chomp Inc., which helps users sort through the widening array of software applications for mobile devices.

The Cupertino, California-based company paid about $50 million for Chomp, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the specifics are private. Apple confirmed the deal yesterday, without disclosing the purchase price.

“We buy smaller technology companies from time to time and generally don’t comment on our purposes or plans,” said Amy Bessette, a spokeswoman for Apple.

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My Comment: It's about time.