5 Top Travel Apps for New York Urban Adventure

A visit to Manhattan isn't something you should take lightly. Some people may want to just thrust themselves into the city lights and let the push and bustle of the crowd take them where it may. My adventure was a more planned affair, with lists of sights to see, places to eat, and department stores to shop.

I used my iPhone for tracking and planning my movements around Manhattan and also downloaded a number of applications before leaving. Each app offered its own insight, covering planning, navigation and even historical perspective.

1. TimeOut (Free)

If you want to act like a local without permanently shifting zip codes, this is your app. Timeout is a print and web resource for people who live in major urban areas, ranging from New York to London, Dubai and beyond. Its New York app provides great insight into the city's cultural events, nightlife, and eateries through its simple menu, which asks: What, When, Where? It can help you plan a trip by revealing what is taking place during your visit, or share random insights with your traveling companions.

2. Fodor's City Guides - New York (Free)

When planning a trip, Foder's City Guides offers more tourist-oriented information. Its New York guide packages everything offered in the city's various neighborhoods, allowing users to switch between sights, restaurants, shopping, performing arts, nightlife, and hotels. The lists are by no means exhaustive. However, they prioritize highlights so visitors on a quick trip won't miss what's happening right around the corner.

3. New York - Offline Map (Free - $4.99 for premium)

To be honest, I used offline maps of New York before the trip more often than while I was on the ground. I installed them on my iPad, but found it a little too large so I tended to consult Apple's Maps or Google Maps on the iPhone in the heat of the moment. These apps, however, were very helpful in planning the trip and creating the itinerary of what to visit which day.

New York Offline Map product provides some basics, but its lack of detail is frustrating. Most notably, when zoomed in you won't see street names for anything but major thoroughfares, and the names may be placed somewhere other than where you're looking. The app does overlay the subway system onto the street maps, but it is very hard to read and not very informative about what to do based on where you are. However, if your cellular network and Wi-Fi both abandon you, this may be the only map you have unless you're carrying around something on paper (heaven forbid!)

4. New York Subway Map - (Free)

If you are looking for a subway map, this app does the job. Not only does it include the entire system, it offers guided instructions of how to get from point A to point B. If however, you don't know which station is nearest your destination - as we experienced looking for a boat tour around the Statue of Liberty - then it isn't much more helpful than its paper counterpart.  If you have absorbed the language of New York and its subway system, then this app will prove a credible companion.

5. MapMatcher New York (Free)

MapMatcher offers the unique ability to compare a current map of New York with a historic or other representation of the city (like a tourist map).  I found this a fun, if buggy, way to get some historical perspective of New York. Sometimes the maps I tapped on revealed only a white screen, but when it did work, it demonstrated how the city has changed overtime and how much more detailed our lives are now than they were in the past.

New York tends to just happen to you. Adventures in New York force choices, and as in life, those choices have consequences of distance and the sights seen along the way. Had we arrived at the Statue of Liberty tour with great expeditiousness then we would have missed the rather beautiful, if cold and breezy, walk along the Hudson River through Battery Park City and the Financial District. By not knowing the best path, we saw things that those on more constrained tourist leashes would never see.

iLine Mobile Music Cables Review

 

Most audiophiles and budding musicians can recall a panic-ridden episode with a missing audio cable, ending in a speed run to the local music store to find a cable or adaptor to connect to their amplifier or mixing board. IK Multimedia's iLine Mobile Music Cables ($59.99) intend to make those situations a thing of the past. iLine is a package of mobile music cables designed to hook your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or standard jack audio device into a variety of audio input and output devices. 

The package comes with six different connectors, including a mono output adapter, an input output extension, a standard stereo aux cable, a 3.5mm stereo headphone splitter, an RCA output adapter, and a mono output splitter.

The cables can be used separately or strung together to traverse a particularly gnarly setup, are color-coded, and hold up extremely well in even rugged stage conditions.

All the plugs are plated in 24K gold to prevent oxidization and to maintain solid connectivity. Each cable's high-density shielding protects the low-capacitance insulation that protects the high-purity copper conductors within.

These cables are not your cheesy spare parts bin throwaways, but rather are high-quality connectors you'd be bummed to accidentally leave behind at a gig or mix party. Also included in the package is a vinyl carrying case that is more like a sleeve with pockets to fit each wrapped cable. 

In addition to the iLine cable bundle, IK Multimedia also sells the cables individually. But given the variability of speakers, amplifiers, and other audio devices, I suggest spending the money for the full package. If you use your iOS device for party mixes, performances, or jamming with friends, you will undoubtedly use each of the included cables at least once in your sonic engagements.

IK Multimedia manufactured this product seriously. The high-quality construction combined with the thoughtful combination of mono and stereo adapters shows how in tune the company is with its customer base. If you're already using other IK Multimedia iOS hardware products like iRig KEYS, and iRig MIX, iLine is a perfect compliment.

The only thing not included I'd have liked to see is a 3.5mm stereo splitter with male ends versus the female ends in the headphone splitter. While it's not a deal breaker (simply pair the headphone splitter cable with two stereo aux cables), I've run into a need for such a cable several times.

So if you're looking for a high-quality audio cable collection with decent variety and thoughtful design, I recommend taking a closer look at IK Multimedia's iLine Mobile Music Cables.

 

Product & Manufacturer:  iLine Mobile Music Cables by IK Multimedia

Price: $59.99

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Obama gun control agenda helps fuel 'explosive' rise in extremist groups

Southern Poverty Law Center writes to government officials warning of serious potential for domestic terrorism in the US

The number of anti-government, far-right extremist groups has soared to record levels since 2008 and they are becoming increasingly militant, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

It says the number of groups in the "Patriot" movement stood at 1,360 in 2012, up from 149 in 2008 when Barack Obama was first elected president, an increase of 813%. The report said the rise was driven by opposition to Obama and the "spluttering rage" over federal attempts at gun control.

Those who were identified as "militia" groups or the paramilitary wing of the Patriot movement, numbered 321, up from 42 in 2008, the SPLC said in its report.

Concern over a "truly explosive growth" of groups on the radical right, along with a rise in domestic terrorist plots, has prompted the SPLC to write to US attorney general Eric Holder and Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano, warning of the potential for domestic terrorism and urging them create a new, inter-agency task force to assess whether it has adequate resources to deal with it.

The report says that the numbers far exceed the "high-water mark" of 820 groups in 1990s when the rise in militias was fuelled by the Waco siege, the Brady Bill and the 1994 assault weapons ban.

Richard Cohen, the SPLC president and a member of the Department of Homeland Security's group to counter violent extremism, wrote in the letter: "On October 25, 1994, six months before the Oklahoma City bombing, we wrote attorney general Janet Reno about the growing threat of domestic extremism. Today we write to express similar concerns.

"As in the period before the Oklahoma City bombing, we now are seeing ominous threats from those who believe that the government is poised to take their guns."

Timothy McVeigh drove a truck full of explosives into a federal building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, killing 168 people, 19 of them children under six, and injured hundreds more.

"We are seeing a real and rising threat of domestic terrorism as the number of far-right anti-government groups continues to grow at an astounding pace," said Mark Potok, SPLC senior fellow and author of the report. "It is critically important that the country take this threat seriously. The potential for deadly violence is real, and clearly rising."

Potok said that the demographic factors driving the rise in such groups began before Obama became president - the census bureau predicts that whites will become a minority group in the US by 2043 - but have been fuelled by the changes in America he represents. The growth in extremism has been helped by the "successful exploitation over illegal immigration" and by anger over the gun control debate, he said.

Law enforcement officials have uncovered numerous terrorism conspiracies born in the militia subculture, including plots to spread poisonous ricin powder, to attack federal installations, and to murder federal judges and other government officials, the report says.

Potok cited a study by the Combating Terrorism Center at the West Point military academy, which found that right-wing violence in 2000-2011 surpassed that of the 1990s by a factor of four. He expected extremism to rise, as anger over gun control had become a "grassroots rebellion". He said that 20 states are considering laws that would aim to nullify federal gun control measures and 500 sheriffs mainly in western US, who say they will not enforce any such measures.

Daryl Johnson, a former Department of Homeland Security official, said in a press call that SPLC's numbers were likely to be a "on the conservative end" because they did not include clandestine and underground groups which did not have a presence on the internet.

Johnson, who was a member of the now-disbanded non-Islamic terrorism unit at the Department of Homeland Security, authored a report in 2009 warning about the increasing dangers of right-wing extremism which created a political firestorm, and was later withdrawn. He said it was "quite unsettling" that nothing had changed at the DHS in the last four years despite the rise in extremism.

Although only a small pool of individuals associated with such groups were potentially violent, and radicalisation was difficult to analyse, Johnson said: "This pool of potentially violent extremists should raise a red flag of concern."

He urged FBI and local law enforcement officials to assess the threat, and said more analysis was needed.

The SPLC's report on hate and extremism, contained in its quarterly intelligence report, also found that hate groups remained at a near-record level of 1,007 groups in 2012, a slight drop from the 1,018 groups documented in 2011.

SLPC defined "Patriot" groups as those who believe that the federal government is engaged in a conspiracy, is prepared to engage in martial law, would take away guns and would force the US into some kind of so-called "One World Nation".

The hate groups listed in this report include neo-Nazis, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, Klansmen and black separatists. Other hate groups on the list target gay people, Muslims or immigrants, and some specialise in producing racist music or propaganda denying the Holocaust.

Dow pushed to record high as markets shrug off slow US growth figures

Dow breaks previous record set in October 2007 as investors absorb signs of recovery in US and better figures in Europe

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Tuesday surged to its highest closing level ever, erasing the index's loses during the financial crisis even as Washington's fights over its debts and Main Street seem far from mended.

The Dow closed at 14,254, passing its previous high of 14,164.52 in
October 2007.

Better-than-expected news from the service sector bolstered the rally that had begun even before the market opened. Dow futures, a somewhat unreliable indication of the direction the market is likely to take, pushed the index higher before the opening bell as investors absorbed better-than-expected retail figures from Europe.

On Monday, the Dow closed at 14,127.82, up 38.16 points, or 0.27%, a 52-week high. The index has risen for four of the past five trading days.

The Dow has not touched these levels since before Barack Obama's first election victory. Global stock markets went into freefall shortly after, as the implosion of housing market and Europe's woes dragged the world into the worst financial crisis in living memory.

Massive issues remain, however. Unemployment, especially among the young, remains high, and in Washington politicians are still at loggerhead over America's $16tn debt. Last Friday the government started making $85bn of cuts - known as the sequester - in a move Obama and others predicted would cause widespread chaos and financial hardship. In Europe, major US companies including GM and Ford are being hit by the region's continuing economic crisis.

But these are old debates now - and Wall Street doesn't seem to be worried.

The latest figures from the Institute of Supply Management (ISM), released Tuesday morning, showed positive growth in the service sector. The ISM index stood at 56 in February. Anything above 50 indicates growth, and the number was ahead of analysts' forecasts. US markets were also buoyed by rallies in Europe and Asia. In London the FTSE closed up 86.32 points.

The Dow Jones index has now more than doubled since a low point in March 2009, stunning many market watchers and coming against a still lacklustre economic recovery. Corporate profits hit record highs last year, fuelled largely by cost cuts. Economists and market watchers said the Federal Reserve's massive bond-buying programme has fueled the market but that beneath that there were concrete signs of improvement.

Gus Faucher, a senior economist for PNC Financial Services Group, said Washington still mattered and warned that if the sequester drags on, the Dow's gains could be at risk. "That said, the fundamentals are better. Profits are at an all-time high, business balance sheets have improved, interest rates are low. The markets are expecting more growth through 2013."

Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Bank, said investors fed up with low yields from the bond markets were looking for better returns in equities. Bonds were also being issued in order to buy shares, he said. He said the wider economy looked like it was steadily improving, but warned there could be problems ahead.

"Investors are embracing progress. They weren't shaken by the tax hikes at the end of the year and not by the sequester either," he said. "The Dow looks fairly priced now."

But he warned that the Federal Reserve's massive bond-buying policy could drive more people into equities. "If you want to see a swift end to monetary easing, another 10-20% hike in the Dow will probably do that," he said.

Minutes of the Fed's last meeting revealed a split in the central bank's rate setting committee. While the Federal Open Markets Committee's members were still worried about unemployment, "many participants also expressed some concerns about potential costs and risks arising from further asset purchases", according to the minutes.

Friday may prove the next test for the markets, and the Fed, when the latest nonfarm payroll figures are released. The US added 157,000 new jobs in January. Average job creation for 2012 was around 181,000, a number just above the benchmark economists calculate is enough for the unemployment rate to stabilise, but not fall.

Google employee creates ‘memorable’ Googleplex rap video

Google likes to let us all know that it is a fun place to work. The company, and its employees, do it all the time. There is even a company policy which states that its employees only have to work 80% of the time, and can spend the rest of the 20% doing whatever they want. Well, we hope this rap by Google employee Andrew Fink is what they do with that 20% of free time over there, because it is both the best and worst thing we have seen (and heard) in a long while.

Andrew Fink works out of the New York City Google office, and we guess this is how the employees spend their time. It’d be amusing if this rap was part of their 80% and not their 20%, and that this kind of thing is officially sanctioned work integral to the Google business model, but that’s unfortunately probably not the case.

Perhaps the most amusing part of the song is that it takes a cue from actual current popular rap trends. Namely, some traits of cloud rap — such as the deep voice synthesizer, and the slow, trippy background music. Granted, there weren’t any lyrics involving various types of “drank,” but there was this guy dressed up as Popeye, so that makes up for most things. The Android mascot also got down and funky, so you can now tick seeing that happen off your bucket list.

If your gym playlist really needs some Google-based rap, you can head on over to Fink’s website and toss the song on your phone.

Cree’s LED bulb looks like an incandescent and lights like one, for under $10

Today Cree, the North Carolina-based LED manufacturer, is making a move that will have major implications for the LED lighting industry. The company, which is known for its high-quality LEDs and its lighting fixtures, has announced a line of LED bulbs, marking the first time it will offer the A-style replacement bulb that lights most homes. This will put Cree in competition against giants like Philips and GE, as well as directly up against companies that buy Cree LEDs, like Best Buy.

While Cree offering bulbs is big news for LED insiders, today’s announcement is notable for consumers as well. This is because Cree will be extremely competitive with its pricing. The line of Cree LED bulbs (that’s actually the name) will include three models: a warm white 60W-equivalent at $12.97, a daylight 60W-equivalent at $13.97, and a warm white 40W-equivalent at $9.97. In other words, Cree isn’t only coming out with a line of bulbs they are also breaking the $10 mark, something which competitors are not going to be able to ignore. All three of the bulbs will be available from HomeDepot.com today and in Home Depots by the end of the month.

If it’s not clear yet, Cree is striking at the heart of the consumer LED lighting segment. The company is doing this with a three-pronged approach…

The first point of attack is price. Breaking the $15 and $10 marks is big but, importantly, Cree is doing it with a quality lamp. Buyers have been able to pick up a 40W-equivalent Ecosmart LEDs at Home Depot for $9.97 for some time now, but it’s not a great bulb.

The second point of attack is confidence. Consumers may not know the Cree name, but the company will soon have Energy Star compliance for each model making for a meaningful seal of approval. Moreover, each bulb is backed by a 10-year warranty. 3-5 years is typical in the 25,000-hour-lifetime market, so Cree is putting some weight behind their claims.

Finally, the Cree LED bulb looks like an incandescent bulb. LED lighting may be getting more popular, but consumers still care how a bulb looks when it’s off. And when the average buyer needs to replace an incandescent they want something that’s as close as possible to that design. Cree recognized this and delivered LEDs encased in frosted glass with a true bulb shape.

The mainstay bulb in the series will be the $13 warm white (2700K) 60W-replacement. This $14 bulb will produce 800 lumens at 9.5W (84.2 lumens-per-watt). Cree is going for an incandescent-like experience so they opted for 2700K instead of 3000K, which has efficiency benefits but offers a cooler tone. Like the other two bulbs in the series, this model is dimmable, has a CRI of 80, and is rated for 25,000 hours of use.

The $14 60W-equivalent model runs at 5000K and produces 800 lumens at 9.0W (88.9 lpw). The $10 40W-equivalent bulb will produce 450 lumens at 6W (75 lpw) with a color temperature of 2700K.

On the hardware front, the Cree LED bulb has what appears to be a very conventional design. The interesting thing is that the design is conventional for an incandescent, which is hard to pull off with LEDs. The exterior is a glass dome and is the first sign that something unique is going on. The majority of LED bulbs, aside from Switch’s, use plastic because it’s cheap and durable. Cree opted instead for glass, but they coated the glass with a tacky rubber in order to make it shatter-resistant. The glass and bulb shape give the Cree bulb a true omnidirectional light pattern, though it seems like dust and grime could build up on the sticky rubber material.

I haven’t opened up the Cree bulbs I’m testing, but the available art of the interior shows another homage to the incandescent. Cree calls this their “LED Filament Tower”. The design features pairs of XP-E LEDs in a ring around a central tower, inside of which is the driver circuitry. This design is modeled after an incandescent’s filament, but also is reminiscent of the out-dated “corncob” style LED bulbs. Corncob bulbs were somewhat popular but provided poor light quality, so have since been replaced with better technology. Cree modified this design and replaced the long columns of cheap LEDs with 10 pairs of high-voltage ones. Cooling the LEDs and fitting a driver inside the tower, all while keeping costs down, must have been a challenge for the engineering team.

I’ve only used the 60W-equivalent 2700K Cree bulb for a few hours, so it’s too early to deliver a verdict, but so far all the news is good. The bulb is lightweight, starts up quickly, is responsible about power (my meter put it at 8W), and it runs at a cozy, incandescent-like 2700K. The light pattern seems right on target for an omnidirectional design. The bulb, which is able to run in an enclosure and in any orientation — just like an incandescent — remains cool to the touch (very much unlike an incandescent).

With this series of LED bulbs Cree wants to make a convincing case to buyers who are tempted to switch from their incandescents and CFLs. Mike Watson, Cree’s VP of Marketing, told me the company will avoid niche markets and produce bulbs that move the world towards 100% LED adoption. While that’s certainly an optimistic goal, this release is a step in that direction. It remains to be seen if the $10 point is the barrier to rapid adoption that LED light manufacturers are now claiming it is — just a year ago most would have put the mark at $15 — but the availability of high-quality, affordable LED bulbs is one thing that is sure to boost LED sales.

Cree’s LED bulbs will be available through Home Depot online on March 5th and in all US Home Depot stores on March 21st.

Now read: Philips Hue is where gadgets, apps, and lighting meet

Report: Apple’s iWatch Will Run iOS

Hot on the heels of Bloomberg’s report that claims that Apple may launch the iWatch as soon as this year, The Verge has also chimed in with more details.

The Verge claims that according to their source, Apple’s smartwatch will run a full version of iOS and the watch project is being led by Jony Ive, Apple’s Design Chief and who also provides leadership and direction for Human Interface software teams across the company.

The Verge reports:

Interestingly, we’re also told that Apple’s chosen to rework the full iOS to run on the watch instead of building up the iPod nano’s proprietary touch operating system - although the previous nano was already watch-sized and seemed like a great starting point for a wrist-sized device, Apple’s betting on iOS across product lines.

The report also points out that Apple’s decision to use iOS is resulting in battery life issues on the iWatch prototypes.

[T]he goal is to last at least 4-5 days between charges, but the current watch prototypes are apparently only going for a couple days max. We’re also told Apple has some work to do with iOS on the iPhone, which currently has several hooks for supporting a watch-like device but lacks the appropriate interface or settings to make it work properly.

So I really hope that the iWatch runs a full version of iOS as opposed to a barebones OS that relies on the smartphone like iPhone for its “smartness” as it would have to depend on the reliability of the connection between the two devices.

I have been using the Pebble smartwatch for the last two weeks, which connects to my iPhone 5 over Bluetooth and based on my brief experience, the reliability of the Bluetooth connection is probably the most annoying thing about it.

Via: The Verge