The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET!

By Brad Molen posted Sep 23rd 2011 3:58PM This week, we're back to the normal bat time and bat channel, with no crazy late-night shenanigans. We're also happy to have on another special guest, Christopher Trout, as he makes his Mobcast debut. Listen in as he joins Myriam Joire and Brad Molen to wax poetic about another wacky week in wireless. Catch us at the Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET (2PM PT, 9PM UK)!

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New York City braces for Tuesday's arrival of mobile service on subway platforms

By Zachary Lutz posted Sep 23rd 2011 1:06AM It's hardly a natural disaster, but the landscape of Manhattan is about to change once again with the arrival of cellular signal to a handful of the borough's subway platforms. Both AT&T and T-Mobile are taking part in the pilot program, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority expects the service to begin rolling on Tuesday at several stations along the 14th Street corridor, including A, C, E, F, L and M, along with stops 1, 2 and 3. The 23rd Street line will also see part of the action, as coverage is expected for the C and E stations. Of course, straphangers are unlikely to receive signal once on-board the trains, as the tunnels themselves aren't included in this rollout. Currently, the MTA expects all 277 underground platforms to be equipped for mobile chatter by 2016. Transit Wireless, the company responsible for the expansion, is said to be in talks with Sprint and Verizon for a similar introduction, although its customers must be content to listen in on the conversations other commuters for the time being.

[Image from SeanPavonePhoto/Shutterstock]

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Schuler’s “Pivoting to monetize mobile hyperlocal social gamification by going viral in the cloud”: BUZZWORD OVERLOAD

Schuyler Erle's FOSSLC presentation, "Pivoting to monetize mobile hyperlocal social gamification by going viral in the cloud," bridges the important gap between marketing and free/open source developers. A real public service.

Pivoting to monetize mobile hyperlocal social gamification by going viral in the cloud (via O'Reilly Radar)

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“Cinematic journalism” for mobile devices, from Chris Colin and others

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The Atavist is a platform for publishing and selling short nonfiction, what they call "cinematic journalism," for mobile devices. The full pieces are $2.99/each for iOS devices (with Android coming soon) and stripped-down versions for the Kindle are $1.99. It'll be interesting to see how this model plays out as a way to support longform feature writing on subjects that the writers are passionate about. Right now, there are around ten original stories available on The Atavist. The most recent is Chris Colin's "Blindsight." I just read an excerpt over at The Atlantic and I am hooked. Here's how Chris describes it:

The story takes place in Hollywood, and it starts out simple and movie-like: A producer is driving to dinner with his wife, one evening in 1994. She mentions something about her boss, and these turn out to be her last words. Without giving anything away, the story involves horrific tragedy, a Rip Van Winkle-like hibernation, impossible turns of fate, a killer at large. Miraculous medical oddness. Otherworldly powers. Time itself rearranged.

"Blindsight" by Chris Colin

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FBI deploys fingerprint system for mobile devices

Federal Computer Week reports on a new mobile system deployed throughout the United States that allows police officers to check fingerprints of someone, say, pulled over for a traffic stop or arrested for some reason, against a database of fingerprints belonging to high-risk offenders and terror suspects. The system is now available to thousands of state and local police nationwide.

The new Repository for Individuals of Special Concern (RISC) is part of the FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) system. RISC has been tested in Texas, Florida and several other states for two years and is now being implemented nationwide, FBI officials said in a statement. (...) The NGI system compares the fingerprints against a registry of 2.5 million sets of fingerprints of wanted persons, known or “appropriately suspected” terrorists, Sex Offender Registry subjects and others, said Kevin Reid, program manager for NGI.

The database is designed to include individuals who are repeat offenders of the most serious crimes, considered the nation's "worst of the worst," he said.

The automated matching process sends a response to the officer in about 10 seconds, Reid added.

Although many states and communities have deployed mobile devices for fingerprint checks, those devices were only capable of checking local and state databases. RISC uses a national database, which can help identify individuals wanted for serious crimes in other states.

More: FBI deploys fingerprint system for mobile devices -- Federal Computer Week.

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