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 ›

Mark your calendars for May 20th, when a group of Jewish Rabbis and their acolytes will bring an end to the evil Internet once and for all! Tens of thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jews are planning a massive rally at Citi Field "against the scourge of Technology," as one announcement describes it. The Jewish Press reports that the gathering is intended to "combat the evils of the Internet and the damages caused by advanced electronic devices." We guess the stadium's Jumbotron technicians are going to get the day off! more ›

Mike Daisey's stirring monologue The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs was performed at the Public Theater for what will likely be the final time on Sunday. In the wake of a nasty backlash against the show's veracity, Daisey prefaced the monologue by informing the audience that This American Life was retracting a segment about his show, which concerns the mistreatment of workers who make Apple products in Chinese Foxconn factories. 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 ›

The new iPad—the third generation—is officially on sale today and, like clockwork, there are lines outside stores. This is the first product release for the new Apple Store at Grand Central, and it seems like the terminal's cavernous halls are perfect for waiting during this miserable day, some of the lines are inside long hallways. 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 ›

If advertisers and benevolent social media giants already know how many times we play Ke$ha and search for "weird back mole" on our phones, we might as well turn over the approximate locations where we embarrass ourselves sexually. Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest has distributed 55,000 condoms to college students in Washington State that have QR codes, and encouraged them to scan them whenever they practice safe sex. We have nothing against Planned Parenthood (Honest! We love it!) But maybe America's coeds need a refresher on how a condom works first. more ›

The Pentagon's budget is being trimmed for the first time since 1998, but that hasn't stopped the Air Force from placing a request for as many as 18,000 iPad 2s. According to Bloomberg News, the devices would "lighten the load of flight crews," who have to lug navigation charts and paper-bound manuals that can weigh as much as 40 pounds. Will we finally see pilots playing Fruit Ninja in those Air Force promos? more ›

Tonight Bill Murray will appear on David Letterman's show, on the eve of Dave's 30th anniversary as a late night host. Murray's been known to go all out on Letterman's show, and to get warmed up, please to enjoy this vintage video of Bill Murray riffing on the foolishness of all this "high tech stuff" way back in 1982: more ›

Add another headache to NYPD spin doctor Paul Browne's plate. Yesterday a 39-year-old police officer was arrested for stealing iPads from a perp he was arresting. Anthony Rivera of the 123rd Precinct now faces charges of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and official misconduct. more ›

Connecticut police say that a man used a computer tablet to take photographs up a woman's skirt at the Target store in South Windsor. Creepily bold! more ›

Drunk driving is no laughing matter, but you know what is? iPhone apps that claim they they can tell you if you're too drunk to drive. Here's a much simpler test: if you're even considering using your phone to calculate your BAC, you're too drunk to drive. Not convinced? Fine, read about how it "works." more ›

Poor guys, thieves breaking into apartments have another thing to worry about now. In addition to hoping that they don't run into anyone or trip any alarms, now they've got to watch out for folks who set up motion-detecting cameras that send pictures of them red-handed to homeowners. The future! more ›

The Bloomberg administration has spent millions of dollars installing custom-designed GPS tracking units in fire and sanitation trucks over the past several years, but the system is rife with malfunctions, according to audits by city Comptroller John Liu. The GPS system has repeatedly shown fire trucks and sanitation trucks to be in the middle of New York Harbor or sinking in Long Island Sound, when in fact they were still safely on land. The city has spent as much as $56,000 for a single unit in a sanitation truck, and will continue to spend money on what Liu calls "wasted on technology that falls short of what’s promised, raising questions about the oversight of expensive outside consultants." more ›

Hey, America, are you too busy watching Dancing With The Stars reruns to be bothered to pick up the phone and order a meat-lovers burrito for yourself? Great! Just hop on your remote and order away, without all the fuss of pausing the TV and actually speaking to a real human being. more ›

Tired of tracking down each and every food truck on their own individual Twitter account? Yeah, it's hard to keep track of all the Korean tacos and cupcakes and fancy grilled cheeses cruising around out there. That's why Tweat.it was invented, and now, you can finally get it on the go. more ›

In perhaps the greatest innovation in cat fancying technology since the giant Cat Boat in Amsterdam, the Bideawee animal shelter in Midtown East has installed a system whereby people can play with pound kitties from the comfort of their home. For free. more ›

It appears we spoke too soon when we declared the streets of New York City safe at last. The man who was allegedly caught stealing an iPhone 4 thanks to a nifty app called iGotYa, is denying that the photo is of him, and his family has produced photos to prove it. "This is embarassing," Brian Chattoo's mother tells the Daily News, which provides a photo of Chattoo. "That's not my son." Might as well go whole-hog with this Orwellian technology and hook iGotYa up with the NYPD's facial recognition technology. more ›

Police say they are looking for this iPhone thief who took a photograph of himself. The theft occurred on Monday night, when a 31-year-old woman was walking in Ozone Park around 8 p.m.: According to the Daily News, "A man bumped into her, snatched her black iPhone from her pocket and ran away, cops said. But when he later tried unsuccessfully to unlock the phone, it automatically took a picture of him and emailed it to her, thanks to an application called iGotYa." more ›

Apple announced that Steve Jobs, one of its co-founders and the man most closely associated with its innovative products, died today at age 56. On its website, Apple says, "Steve Jobs, Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and as inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple." more ›

Are you self-reliant or do you demand a more human touch? A study conducted by the Food Marketing Institute determined that customers are ditching the self-check-out machines at grocery stores in favor of flesh and blood. Only 16% of transactions were completed at the kiosks in 2010, down from 22% three years ago. "It's just more interactive," one shopper tells the AP, "You get someone who says hello; you get a person to talk to if there's a problem." While computers don't judge you when you stroll up with six cartons of Chubby Hubby and a case of Genesee, conversing with grocery store cashiers DOES count as human contact. more ›

According to the Post, a 27-year-old man was killed over an iPhone: "The victim, whose name was withheld pending family notification, was shot in the back at about 9 p.m. in the lobby of a Sheepshead Bay apartment building on Ocean Avenue near Avenue W... Cops said the victim was arguing with two men shortly before he died. Two friends of the victim said the fight was over an iPhone." more ›

Our long national nightmare may soon be over! AllThingsD is reporting that Apple will be holding its next big media event—presumably to announce the highly-anticipated iPhone 5—on Tuesday, October 4. Beyond giving us a new gizmo to lust after, the event will also be an important chance for the company to show off its new CEO, Tim Cook, in the wake of Steve Jobs recent departure. more ›

In their continuing effort to make commuters less angry about frequent disruptions to their service, the MTA is following up last weekend's new "Weekender" web interface by rolling out giant iPads for straphangers to play with while they wait for their trains. Sort of. more ›

We occasionally see the iPad utilized as a way around the pricy credit-card/cash register combo (Asia Dog rang us up on one recently) but West Village eatery De Santos has gone a step further…into the FUTURE. All of the restaurant's waiters carry iPads to take orders, allowing them to forego the additional stop at the computer terminal and give "them more face time with customers, a factor that's been shown to increase sales," the Post reports. Even better, waiters using iPads don't look nearly as much like pompous jackasses as normal iPad users do, because they actually need them. more ›