Mobile App

Synergy may be one of the more overexposed buzzwords of our era. But it's an inescapable theme in the story behind Workstream, the online-tutoring app that won first-place honors - and $5,000 in seed money - for a team of high schoolers at Tuesday's Switch Philly. First, put six students in a Saturday program at Temple University designed to stir their interest in math, science, and engineering. Then invite them to brainstorm for a "hackathon" focused on developing apps or other products addressing problems in our educational system.

Soon Philadelphians will be able to report problem potholes, trashy blocks and broken streetlights on their smart phones with the city's new, free 311 mobile application. Managing Director Richard Negrin said yesterday that the city's nonemergency call center, which handles a million calls a year, could roll out a mobile app by summer. The announcement followed a question posed by City Councilman Bill Green during Tuesday's budget hearing. "We're absolutely going to have one," Negrin said.

Got a minute? I've got 10 people you should meet. Exactly a minute. Six seconds for each. You can do it on Vine, Twitter's mobile app that lets people make and share six-second video loops known as "vines. " You could get a superfast introduction to the glories of this video-looping app via some of its budding auteurs, people like: Pete Heacock, proprietor of First Capital Pictures in North Philadelphia. His vines are suspense stories, jokes, self-portraits in the windows of passing trains . Three of his vines were nominated for awards at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

ALTHOUGH they both aim to give Philadelphians a quick, mobile way to send reports of neighborhood problems to the city department that can best address them, the Nutter administration's Philly 311 mobile app and City Councilman Bobby Henon's CityHall App aren't the same animal. Like the blue-collar, plain-speaking councilman himself, Henon's CityHall App is the one you'd most like to have a beer with. It's a simple, user-friendly way to take a photo, write a comment, send it off and get a quick response.

KIM ADAMS, an employee of the city's 3-1-1 call center, spent five days and five nights at work through Hurricane Sandy, and although she was more than ready for the weekend by the time the storm moved out, she wasn't complaining. "It was not bad," said Adams, who handles social media and knowledge-based support for 3-1-1 and was one of dozens of 3-1-1 employees who worked 'round-the-clock during Sandy's wrath. "We are charged with making sure the public gets the right information.

Q: People say Mac computers are more secure than PCs. Does that also apply to iOS iPhones versus other smartphones? A: Not according to a new report from mobile app security firm Appthority, which examined the behavior of the top 50 free mobile apps at Apple's App Store and Google Play. A whopping 79 percent of the top apps on both platforms raised a red flag for risky behavior in: sending and receiving data without encryption, tracking your location with the phone's GPS, and sharing data with advertising or analytics networks.

Undergraduate students at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine, have built an Android app to help students through social awkwardness. The app, called AwkTalk, was developed by students for AppJam, a competition to build the best mobile app in one week. The theme for the competition was self-improvement and the team "Socially Awkward Anteaters" won the $1,000 first prize in the competition with the app. "We were all aware that many of our colleagues in the fields of computer science and engineering (ourselves included)

1 THE UP BAND: This is your life, as tracked on a sleek little bracelet from JawBone. Exercise, steps per day, sleep patterns, meals, even mood swings. How healthy can you be? Find out for $129.99, with supporting app. 2 HAPIFORK: Electronic utensil vibrates and lights up, reminding you to eat more slowly. Upload your stats via USB; track progress on phone or computer. Waterproof, comes in colors. Preorder for $99 at hapilabs.com. 3 FITBIT: Activity-tracking wristband, wireless motion detector, scale - this family of products, plus website and mobile app, offer multiple options to help meet your health and fitness goals.

Appy, appy, joy, joy. The eco-friendly Eagles cheerleading squad is going high-tech with a mobile app for its annual calendar. The usual spring trek to a steamy locale for the calendar shoot got wiped by the lockout of the National Football League. So next week, the 38-member squad will be bikini modeling at Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia on Tuesday, and at Sweetwater Farms in Glen Mills on Wednesday, according to Barbara Zaun, director of cheerleading. Sorry, fans, the sessions are closed to the public.

THE Pennsylvania Department of State on Monday ramped up its voter-outreach efforts by enhancing VotesPA.com and launching it on Facebook and Twitter. The effort is part of an ongoing marketing campaign by state officials to inform people about the new voter-ID law that requires voters to show an unexpired photo ID at the polls if they want to cast their ballots in the Nov. 6 general election. VotesPA.com features a new layout to help voters find information about which photo IDs are acceptable and how to obtain a valid ID. The website also has a "resource center" where voters can link to frequently asked questions about the voter-ID law, voter registration, absentee and alternative ballots, and locations of polling places.

Got a minute? I've got 10 people you should meet. Exactly a minute. Six seconds for each. You can do it on Vine, Twitter's mobile app that lets people make and share six-second video loops known as "vines. " You could get a superfast introduction to the glories of this video-looping app via some of its budding auteurs, people like: Pete Heacock, proprietor of First Capital Pictures in North Philadelphia. His vines are suspense stories, jokes, self-portraits in the windows of passing trains . Three of his vines were nominated for awards at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

Synergy may be one of the more overexposed buzzwords of our era. But it's an inescapable theme in the story behind Workstream, the online-tutoring app that won first-place honors - and $5,000 in seed money - for a team of high schoolers at Tuesday's Switch Philly. First, put six students in a Saturday program at Temple University designed to stir their interest in math, science, and engineering. Then invite them to brainstorm for a "hackathon" focused on developing apps or other products addressing problems in our educational system.

Q: People say Mac computers are more secure than PCs. Does that also apply to iOS iPhones versus other smartphones? A: Not according to a new report from mobile app security firm Appthority, which examined the behavior of the top 50 free mobile apps at Apple's App Store and Google Play. A whopping 79 percent of the top apps on both platforms raised a red flag for risky behavior in: sending and receiving data without encryption, tracking your location with the phone's GPS, and sharing data with advertising or analytics networks.

1 THE UP BAND: This is your life, as tracked on a sleek little bracelet from JawBone. Exercise, steps per day, sleep patterns, meals, even mood swings. How healthy can you be? Find out for $129.99, with supporting app. 2 HAPIFORK: Electronic utensil vibrates and lights up, reminding you to eat more slowly. Upload your stats via USB; track progress on phone or computer. Waterproof, comes in colors. Preorder for $99 at hapilabs.com. 3 FITBIT: Activity-tracking wristband, wireless motion detector, scale - this family of products, plus website and mobile app, offer multiple options to help meet your health and fitness goals.

T ED MANN, 35, of Haddonfield, is founder and CEO of start-up SnipSnap, which has four employees and operates from an old industrial building on 8th Street near Callowhill, just north of Chinatown. With financial backers including Sixers co-owner Michael Rubin, a mobile app was launched in May. It lets people clip and use coupons on their iPhones. Mann, a Penn grad, has raised $1 million for his company. Q: So how did you come up with the idea for SnipSnap? A: I was working for Gannett in Web and mobile strategy and got enamored of mobile coupons.

KIM ADAMS, an employee of the city's 3-1-1 call center, spent five days and five nights at work through Hurricane Sandy, and although she was more than ready for the weekend by the time the storm moved out, she wasn't complaining. "It was not bad," said Adams, who handles social media and knowledge-based support for 3-1-1 and was one of dozens of 3-1-1 employees who worked 'round-the-clock during Sandy's wrath. "We are charged with making sure the public gets the right information.

ALTHOUGH they both aim to give Philadelphians a quick, mobile way to send reports of neighborhood problems to the city department that can best address them, the Nutter administration's Philly 311 mobile app and City Councilman Bobby Henon's CityHall App aren't the same animal. Like the blue-collar, plain-speaking councilman himself, Henon's CityHall App is the one you'd most like to have a beer with. It's a simple, user-friendly way to take a photo, write a comment, send it off and get a quick response.

A new mobile app allows Philadelphia residents to send complaints about potholes, graffiti, and other issues - complete with photographs and location - directly into the city's maintenance work flow. The Philly311 app, released by the Mayor's Office Thursday, also tracks service requests and notifies the user when the issue is resolved. It is available on iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. Councilman Bobby Henon released a similar program, the CityHall App for iPhone, in April.

Rabbis: Don't sell anti-Semitic app LONDON - European rabbis said Tuesday that they were lobbying Apple Inc. to pull a mobile app version of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a notorious anti-Semitic forgery. The Conference of European Rabbis, which represents Orthodox Jewish congregations across the continent, says it wants the iPhone manufacturer to stop selling an Arabic-language version of "The Protocols" being offered through its iTunes service. The group says carrying "The Protocols" in app form made it much more likely that it would be used by bigots and conspiracy theorists.