In the past, police officers in San Francisco have primarily targeted the sellers of stolen iPhones, now they are changing things up a bit. Now officers are going after just the buyers in order to discourage people from buying the devices.

Of course this tactic is much easier than going after experienced crooks. Undercover cops are going around selling iPhones, which are presented as stolen, in areas (such as the corner of 7th and Market Streets) they know are famous for selling of stolen stuff.

But according to the law, the arrest can only be made if the would-be customer names a price rather than the police officer naming one. Huffington Post says that buyers are suggesting prices ranging from $25 to $200.

Their plan is to reduce the market for stolen iPhones by scaring buyers away, in turn reducing iPhone theft. According to the police, fifty percent of all thefts in San Francisco are that of smartphones, and women are targeted most of the time. It’s uncertain whether their new iDea will work, as the bad guys will still be around finding new places and ways to sell their goods.

What do you think of the plan, should the police target the sellers or the buyers if they wish to stop the spread of stolen smartphone sells?

[Source]

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Sprint has also started to roll out more 4G LTE coverage in other cities across the United States too, including New York City and Washington, DC, as well as some parts of the state of New York, plus select cities in Florida like Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa. The San Francisco coverage has been spotty at best, so hopefully this added rollout will help. That said, Sprint isn’t ready for a full commercial launch until they can get “a density of sites to indicate that our customers should consistently have a great 4G LTE experience,” according to company spokesperson Kelly Schlageter.

You can check the Sprint website directly for coverage maps to see if you’ve got any 4G LTE happening in your area. As this coverage expands, the secondary hope is that FreedomPop–which uses the Sprint network–can make the leap from WiMAX to LTE too. Sprint has indicated that it is slightly behind its original goal of “near nationwide” LTE by the end of 2013, but they should have coverage for 250 million Americans by early next year.

[Source]

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Those of you who rely so heavily on the iPhone, so much so that it is is the key to outside world, you’ll be amazed to see it’s also the key to an electric scooter. But not just any electric scooter, we are talking about the Scoot from San Francisco-based startup Scoot Networks. The company plans to rent out Scoots as a cheap and eco-friendly way to get around, and all you need is your iPhone to start the vehicle.

The company owns 20 scooters so far and is conducting a test service in San Francisco. The service is expected to be available in late 2012 or early 2013 to people 21 and older in the city. The scooters feature a plastic-covered smartphone dock, and to rent it you have to dock your iPhone (needs to have the Scoot Networks’ app) which will then act as both the scooter key and dashboard (Android phone docking will eventually arrive).

After docking, the handset will ping a server to check whether the vehicle is available and if it is, and if you are an approved rider, the server sends a code to the phone that will unlock the scooter. At present, you have to press a virtual “start” button on the device to turn the scooter on. While riding, the phone will show you your speed and range based on the battery life of the vehicle, and there will also be an on-screen map.

The Scoot will be available for $5 per hour or you can take one at 5 p.m. and return it at 9 a.m. the next day for the same price. It can reach up to 30 miles per hour and will go 25 miles on a single charge (recharging takes 6 to 8 hours).

According to the company’s founder Michael Keating, “We really do want folks to make this a big part of how they get around town. If they do, we think they’ll really like it. It’ll save them time, it’ll save them money, and it will make the whole city work better“.  And since these are small vehicles and won’t be allowed to be rented for more than 2 days, it is expected that the service will be allowed in most states.

But a few analysts believe that the business won’t become big as it will most likely become popular only in areas like university campuses and also because many would prefer a bicycle if the destination is not too far away. What do you think?  Would you scoot?

The post Scoot: iPhone Enhanced Electric Scooter Rentals appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

First, the invite itself is for March 7th at 10am PST. The Apple event is scheduled to take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and it’s pretty safe to assume that this is for the new iPad. In the invite, we are clearly shown an iPad and the caption tells us that they’ll have something for us to see “and touch.”

If you look a little closer, though, you’ll notice that there is no home button beneath that finger, which we can only assume is toward the bottom of the iPad where the home button is normally located. Based on the spacing of the dock icons, we can assume that the displayed iPad is oriented in portrait rather than landscape. That doesn’t mean that the home button has been ditched necessarily, because it could mean that they’ve simply moved it. It’s also possible that the home button has been replaced by a touch-sensitive bezel, not unlike the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Now we just have to wait for the event itself. Then, we can lay all this Retina Display, quad core, 8MP camera, 128GB version, higher price, and now no home button business to rest.

The post Apple March 7 iPad 3 Event Invite Confirms No Home Button? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

San Francisco will offer free EV charging at 19 city-owned parking garages and at the San Francisco International Airport until the end of 2013 . Next month, the city will install more than 80 plug-ins to encourage the purchase of EVs. As well, officials hope the chargers will reduce fears of not having enough juice to get from point A to point B.

Besides parking garages, the city is looking at locations like public libraries as potential charging spots. City officials claim that three hours of charging time could return 80 per cent of battery power to a Nissan Leaf; the battery would be full in about six hours.

The first of the charging stations will be installed in June 2011. The stations will offer both 120 volt and 240 volt charging in order to serve the widest range of vehicles. The free chargers are part of the city’s plan to reduce greenhouse gases 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012, and to see EVs as instrumental to the plan. The transportation sector generates more than a third of all greenhouse gas emissions in San Francisco, and private cars and trucks make up over 90 per cent of those emissions.

Officials hope that within five years, 10 per cent of cars sold in San Francisco will be electric. With EV owners having access to home garages as well as city-owned parking garages, it will become substantially easier to own one.

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