iPhone-related thefts are up 44 percent this year, but that doesn't really seem to bother Mayor Bloomberg. At his budget announcement yesterday Hizzoner was asked about the spike in crime and replied nonchalantly that, "If the worst problem we have is iPhone stealing..." Then he turned to the police commissioner added, "Ray, you’d better get on this iPhone right away. This is serious!" Somehow we suspect the parents of the chef killed for his iPhone, or the teen stabbed in the face for his, or the 81-year-old pushed in the subway tracks for his, wouldn't appreciate the mayor's tone. more ›

A 19-year-old Bronx teen is in critical condition after he was stabbed repeatedly during a subway fight over an iPhone early yesterday morning. Police have now arrested 22-year-old Victor Montalvo and 21-year-old Maritza Lopez in the stabbing of teen Alexander Herald; both have been charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, harassment and disorderly conduct. Below, you can see a surveillance video of the suspects. more ›

A 19-year-old Bronx teen is in critical condition after he was stabbed repeatedly during a subway fight over an iPhone early this morning. According to police, the incident happened at the Fordham train station just after 4 a.m. today—the victim is currently in critical but stable condition at St. Barnabas hospital after suffering multiple stab wounds in the face and body during the scuffle. more ›

Last week, a 26-year-old Bronx man on his way home from work was fatally shot by a robber who was after his iPhone. Now police have arrested two men in the death of chef Hwangbum Yang—and police got the break in the case either after someone tried to register the stolen phone, or actually used the phone. more ›

On the heels of yet another person killed for their iPhone, the Daily News learns that thefts of the devices (along with iPads) have risen 44% from last year. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and Senator Charles Schumer announced an initiative last week that would build a database of ID numbers for phones so that they can be tracked, as currently all criminals have to do is remove the SIM card to resell them. But whether it's through a popular app or transit stings, police are fighting back: just yesterday cops arrested a man for stealing people's phones while they slept. more ›

Just after midnight on Thursday, a 26-year-old Bronx man on his way home from work was fatally shot by a robber who was after his iPhone. Hwangbum Yang, a culinary-school graduate who taught Sunday school, had just started working at The Modern (the Danny Meyer restaurant at MoMA) in February. “He dreamed of becoming a famous chef here in New York so that he could go back to Korea and be very successful,” his mother, Hyun Sub Yang, told the Post through a translator. more ›

A 26-year-old Bronx man on his way home from work was fatally shot early this morning by a robber who was after his iPhone. Police say Hwang Yang was held at gunpoint by the suspect at the corner of Cambridge Avenue and West 232 Street around 12:30 a.m.—it's unclear what exactly happened, but the suspect shot Yang once at close range. According to the News, one witness heard the shot and "saw the thug walk up to Yang’s body, kick him over, rifle through his pockets and snatch his iPhone." more ›

Writing apps for phones is not actually easy—and it is a lot harder with a billionaire breathing down your neck. That's what some city tech developers learned, at least, after Mayor Bloomberg reportedly tried to use the city's NYC 311 iOS app last February—and was so put off by the experience that, according to the Daily News's Juan Gonzalez, he lost it on his staff. more ›

The NYPD and the MTA constantly remind New Yorkers to stay alert when wandering around in a daze wearing headphones listening to music on their iPhones and other devices. But it's hard to hear such warnings when when you're kicking a wicked air drum solo to Rush's "Tom Sawyer" cranking full blast on your iPod. Even more seductive are the lush orchestral indie rock stylings of Andrew Bird, as one area fan learned after getting relieved of his iPhone Tuesday morning. more ›

We know how much New Yorkers love their iPhones (and how much thieves love New Yorkers' iPhones)—the only subset of people who seem to love iPhones even more are teenagers. And if you take their iPhones away, they may very well choke you: a Long Island high schooler was arrested for allegedly choking a teacher after the instructor confiscated his iPhone. more ›

It was fun while it lasted! For the last few months the NYPD has been doing quite well for itself recovering stolen iPhones using Apple's Find My iPhone feature. Cops even got training to use the software. But—and this isn't surprising since the NYPD (and we in the media) kept harping on the news—apparently the crooks have started to catch on. "Whatever surprise we had, that surprise is out the window now," one Manhattan police source cried to the Post. more ›

We all know how much thieves love iPhones—but it seems we may have encountered the king of all iPhone thieves on the Upper East Side. Police are searching for a bike-riding thief who they believe has stolen 18 iPhones this year on the UES—and all but one of the victims were women. Below, check out video of him moments before his latest robbery on March 20th. more ›

The police are looking for two suspects in connection with two robberies in Manhattan. Both incidents, which occurred on Tuesday, involved the suspects punching people in order to take their smartphones. more ›

Yesterday, beloved public radio institution This American Life said it was retracting its popular segment about the horrid working conditions at Apple factories in China producing various iProduct. The program was centered around the work of monologuist Mike Daisey, whose latest piece, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, "illuminates how the CEO of Apple and his obsessions shape our lives, while sharing stories of his own travels to China to investigate the factories where millions toil to make iPhones and iPods." But TAL executive producer and host Ira Glass explained that Daisey lied to him and the TAL staff, about small and big things (like meeting a 13-year-old worker, showing a worker a completed iPad for the first time). Still, in the edition of This American Life that aired yesterday, Glass ended the program by discussing the labor issues at the factories with NY Times reporter Charles Duhigg, who says, "What has happened today is that rather than exporting that standard of life, which is within our capacity to do, we have exported harsh working conditions to another nation." more ›

Police say a Queens man choked his wife during a fight in their Woodside apartment last night and then took off with their 1-year-old daughter. 30-year-old Alexis Torres, who is employed by the Department of Education, spent the next several hours driving around with the girl before he was finally apprehended on East 15th Street around 9:15. In the end, it was his iPhone that brought him down. more ›

Apple's Find My iPhone feature has caught a fair number of iPhone-snatchers since it was introduced—cops are now being trained to use it—so we shouldn't be surprised that it has now helped catch a counterfeit iPhone seller in Queens. more ›

In the last year crime on the subway—especially fancy gadget thefts—has been a serious concern for both the MTA and the NYPD. And so the NYPD has been pushing more Transit cops onto platforms and trains. And—with notable exceptions—it is starting to do something. Which is to say, more people are getting arrested. more ›

The two teens who were arrested for allegedly shoving an 81-year-old man into the subway tracks after stealing his iPhone were charged with attempted murder. The Daily News reports, "Jaqua Sowells, 17, and Taheen Herkul, 15, who live in the same building at Borinquen Plaza in Williamsburg, were also hit with robbery and felony assault charges for attacking Andrew Wong at the J-M-Z stop" at Lorimer last Friday. more ›

The 81-year-old man whose iPhone was stolen and then was shoved into Brooklyn subway tracks says that he's thankful to the subway riders in the station who helped him. Andrew Wang, who spent three days in the hospital after the incident at the Lorimer Street J train station, told the Daily News, "Other people came and helped me. It was God who helped. Thank God, I’m all right." more ›

What the hell is wrong with our world: The Daily News reports, "Two heartless teens shoved an octogenarian onto the train tracks in a Brooklyn subway station when he chased them for swiping his iPhone, police said." more ›

Tonight Nightline will broadcast a segment on Foxconn's massive factories in Shenzhen, which has a population of workers greater than NYC. That they toil for low pay in exploitative conditions to make our shiny Apple products is an open secret the mainstream media is finally covering. But monologuist Mike Daisey shining on a spotlight on Foxconn factories for years, particularly with his electrifying play The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Having read a transcript of the Nightline segment, Daisey says it "does a lot for actually helping to give a human face to people who have been ignored forever." However, "context is everything." On his blog, he writes: more ›

iPhones are iRresistible: Police released surveillance photos of three people suspected of terrorizing subway riders on the N and R lines by stealing iPhones. Apparently the trio are believed to be behind at least nine robberies since December, with the most recent being on February 8. more ›

While cops are being trained on how to use Find My iPhone to find stolen iPhones, sometimes it's just easiest to have some good Samaritans nearby to stop a smartphone robbery. That's what happened to one woman in Midtown earlier this month. more ›

Would-be criminals don't seem to be learning their lesson: if you steal an iPhone, cops will use the Find My iPhone app to track you down. And if you're really dumb, you may get caught in an embarrassing manner. Case in point: according to CBS, two cops found a stolen iPhone after they heard it ringing inside the pants of a 14-year-old suspect. more ›

An iPhone-wielding cop used his Find My iPhone app to track down a thief in Midtown in under 30 minutes on Thursday. After a cashier at Tuci Italia was robbed of her phone around 7 p.m., officer Robert Garland, who the Times describes as "an avid Apple consumer—he and his wife own iPhones, iPads and Macintosh computers," put her Apple ID into his Find My iPhone app and saw the victim's phone was a few blocks away. "I told her when I walked in, 'I'm going to find your iPhone,' " Garland says, in what will surely be a line in a Liam Neeson movie next year. more ›

iPhones are super-popular with consumers and thieves, so it's nice to know that not all iThefts include bloodshed. Some actually include happy endings—especially thanks to Apple's built-in tracking software. In the latest "Find My Phone" success story, a 24-year-old woman helped by a clever officer in midtown was able to get hers back within hours. more ›