We’ve just received a notice from Dean Terry Martinez concerning an attempted robbery on November 12, 2011 at about 7:30 pm in a brownstone lobby on W 114th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam. Note that the security alert came from NYPD, and so was not necessarily a Columbia building.

The suspect, pictured after the jump, followed the victim into the hallway, displayed a gun, and demanded his iPhone. He demonstrated the same behavior when approaching the second victim. While the wording of these cases is somewhat unclear, it appears that upon receiving the surrendered phones of the two victims, the suspect returned the phones to them when he realized that they were not actual iPhones.

The suspect, described by the NYPD as “Male/Black/30 yrs/5’8”/160 lbs/ black hat/green waist length jacket/ blue jeans,” then fled the building and ran away down Amsterdam Avenue.

Read more for the full message from Dean Martinez

Soon the world’s population will hit 7 billion! (New Yorker)
The new iPhone already ended at least one marriage. (HuffPo)
Unexpectedly large numbers of Americans believe that marijuana should be legal. (NYMag)
Dark matter is even more puzzling than we thought. (Wired)
Young eyes needed washing after porn was posted on Sesame Street’s YouTube channel. (Slate)

Upwards of two-thirds of New Yorkers support the OWS protestors. (Bloomberg)
Professor James Shapiro says Hollywood dissed Shakespeare. (NYTimes)

Wikimedia Commons“>

Books, go hit 'em

 The reading you never realized you were so behind on via Wikimedia Commons

So many apps, so little time!

At one time, students arrived at Columbia with nothing in their backpacks but textbooks, notebooks, and a Macbook Pro. Such halcyon days are long gone now, and we’re sure that many members of the Class of 2015 have iPhones and Droids. Bwog’s own app aficionado Peter Sterne identifies the perfect app for…

Navigating the City

Hopstop (iPhone/Android) is the gold standard of subway and bus directions. Google Maps will work in a pinch, but Hopstop will get you from A to Brooklyn the best way possible—whether you want the cheapest route, the fastest route, or the route that involves the most walking. If you want to cut down on walking, make sure to check out Exit Strategy ($3.99, iPhone), an app developed by Columbia alums that tells you where to stand on the subway platform so you’re right in front of the door that will open right in front of the stairs at your destination. The developers didn’t get that info from the MTA; they had to figure it out through trial and error.

Speaking of the MTA, they like to randomly shut down and reroute subways on the weekends. iTrans ($3.99, iPhone) includes the latest service changes, but you can also just view them for free by bookmarking the MTA’s mobile website.

Banking

Remember the time you went out to dinner and couldn’t afford the bill because you didn’t have enough money on your debit card? You could constantly go to the ATM every time you go out, but it’s much easier to download an app from your bank to check your balance on the go. Citibank (iPhone/Android), Chase (iPhone/Android), and Bank of America (iPhone/Android) all offer mobile apps. These apps can also find nearby ATMs and even let you make payments from your phone.
(Note: The only way to get the Citibank Android app is to go to citi.com/mobileapp on your Droid)

Finding New Music

Frats usually play whatever’s most popular on iTunes, but at least once over the next four years, you’ll find yourself at a party with no idea what song is playing. That’s where Shazam Encore ($5.99, iPhone/Android) comes in. Just turn it on, hold out your phone, and in a minute, the song and artist will be identified for you. It’s like magic!

Soundhound ∞ ($6.99, iPhone/Android) is similar, but identifies songs more quickly and less accurately. If you want to try before you buy, download the free trial versions of Shazam (iPhone/Android) and Soundhound (iPhone/Android). And on those rare nights you’re not invited to parties, you can discover new music on your own by creating custom radio stations on Pandora (iPhone/Android).

After the jump, apps for finding a place to eat, stargazing, wasting time, and more!

I wonder if they moor it near memory lane.

Fashions change, but tradition lives on. New Yorkers sported interesting Easter attire as they galavanted about yesterday. (AP, Examiner, Gothamist)

Recent findings that the iPhone stores a log of its user’s location for the past ten months in an unencrypted file leaves some longing for cellphones past. A Latvian man has wedded the OED’s “twitter” with the Internet’s definition by making real birds post on twitter using a carefully arranged bits pork fat. (Wired, Mashable)

While memories of home slowly fade, sometimes old homes go out with a bang. (NYPost)

A genuine, freewheelin’ drifter passed through Manhattan recently. This “real character and artifact out of our American experience” presents a tempting alternative to these Butler-rooted pre-finals days. (NYTimes)

On a more serious note, yesterday, Wikileaks began releasing numerous documents from Guantanamo Bay. Several News agencies offer their insight. (Wikileaks, NYTimes, Washington Post, Al Jazeera).

Floating abstraction via Wikimedia.

I-Bankers have all the fun, and get all the H1N1 flu vaccine!  At least their profession isn’t lucrative. (NY Mag)

New York never got its pneumatic subway system… at least we’ve got our iPhones. (Spec)

National unemployment has risen to 10.2%, the highest since 1983; at least we can blog about it. (Gothamist)

How about them Yankees…?  Downtown Broadway is about to be consumed by a Series-victory ticker tape parade… at least it’s eco-friendly confetti. (NY Post, Gothamist)

Duke University erupts in scandal over a behavioral economics study on sex toys… (News & Observer)

…at least no one was injured when a renegade three-by-four foot airplane part landed on a Long Island front lawn. (1010 Wins)

It’s two of the best-known rites-of-passage for any Columbian: the first time that you forgot to switch to the 1 train at 96th, and the first time someone who was staying with you forgot to switch. The latter, of course, is the funnier, especially if you tell your visitor the wrong directions back, but the former is annoying, and could even cost you a full two dollars $2.25 (still a full hot dog at some local stands!) if you don’t realize your mistake until you’re outside.

Yes, subways can be deceiving. Fear not, though, subway novices, for if you have enough money to spend on an iPhone/Blackberry/Android/Kindle, then you can buy the new iPhone subway app from an start-up company called Exit Strategy NYC. While it admittedly won’t prevent such boneheadedness as missing your stop, it will save you time: the app – created by ten weeks of riding the entire subway system – tells users which car will be the closest to another line or an exit.

Still, this is just an smartphone app – why mention it here? Because the app, which was blurbed in CityRoom and amNY, was conceived/programmed by two former Columbia students – Jonathan Wegener, CC ’07 and Benny Wong, SEAS ’07. Though CityRoom says Wegener had no experience in developing a mobile application, neither alum was a web neophyte while on campus – Wong’s LinkedIn profile says he worked for CUIT (and is now at Morgan Stanley), while Wegener used to run the original Columbia-specific website, CULPA. That’s using your education.

UPDATE: Wegener got in touch with us to stress that the application does not have a map of the subway system, an impression the first version of this post mistakenly gave (Google’s handled much of the actual mapping). He also provided us with a sample image, and said the program will be getting some TV coverage soon.

Just in case you haven’t been keeping up with your favorite tech blogs as of late or compulsively checking your Twitter on your new Blackberry or whatever, Bwog’s resident techies are here to fill you in on some exciting news in the tech world courtesy of some Columbia entrepreneurs.  Buzzable.com, the LaunchboxDigital brainchild of Columbia seniors Satjot Sawhney and Ashish Kundra (You might remember them from their LionCard days), has officially launched. 

Basically, this thing is Twitter’s doppelganger, in that it’s another way to stay in touch with friends, on-the-go and throughout the day.  Oh, except unlike Twitter, Buzzable is open only to Columbia students.

Bwog has a profile on Buzzable too, so Tweet or Buzz or IM or telegraph us and we’ll do the same for you.