As the dust settles on yesterday evening's revelation that the U.S. government has been mining data from most of Silicon Valley's largest companies in a program called "PRISM," one question stands out: How did the NSA get access?

Senate investigators have found that Apple avoided paying taxes on "tens of billions" of dollars over the past four years by taking advantage of U.S. and Irish tax loopholes.

Apple's iCloud email service has a neat trick: instead of relegating emails that contains phrases like "barely legal teens" to your spam folder, it simply doesn't deliver your message. Macworld, which might have been tipped off by someone who would like to remain anonymous, has found that emails containing that phrase simply disappear:

Remember how thew new Apple Maps app for the iPhone — the one that replaced the old, Google-based default — is a horrible piece of software that Apple was forced to publicly apologize for? Ha ha, of course you do, because you are reading this blog post in the middle of the Australian bush, where Apple Maps directed you when you were trying to get to Filene's Basement.

If you are waiting in line outside of a motherfucking Apple store in Manhattan to buy an iPad Mini right now, it's time to reevaluate your priorities in life.

Maybe it's his youthful open-mindedness, maybe it's because he's related to a hipster, but no matter the explanation, there's no doubt that very cool things are happening for North Korea under the leadership of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.

It's time to panic: iMessage is down across North America and Europe. You'll never hear from anyone you love ever again.

We've known for a while now that Foxconn, the Chinese mega-plant where Apple and other technology companies have their gadgets manufactured, has struggled with suicides and rampant worker dissatisfaction. But today comes confirmation that Foxconn's labor force is involved in yet another ugly scandal: child labor.

Late Sunday night, a riot involving 2,000 workers broke out at a Foxconn plant in northern China that manufactures the iPhone 5, reportedly sparked by a fight between workers and security guards. Like the parade of horror stories out of Chinese factories, the riots once again underscored the notoriously dismal labor conditions of the young workers who make our gadgets. But it also highlighted a growing level of worker unrest in China. More than ever, Chinese workers are struggling to help themselves, which could improve labor conditions more than a thousand tearjerking This American Life exposes.

Anonymous leaked 1 million Apple device IDs last week, claiming they were found on an FBI laptop. This had the unexpected result of me wearing a tutu and putting a shoe on my head in order to elicit more information from the hacktivist group. But an NBC report has revealed the leak actually came from a boring app developer. Anonymous is full of shit—but at least everyone on the internet got to see my legs.

Remember the "There's an app for that commercial?" Well, that's still mostly true, I guess, unless, say, you wanted instant updates for the number of people killed by U.S. drones. Earlier this week, Apple rejected NYU student Josh Begley's "Drone+" app, which keeps track of drone strikes, including the approximate location and number of people killed. There was even an option for push notifications.

Ever wonder what happened to Kyle McDonald, the artist who had the Secret Service sicced on him last year for installing spy cam software on computers in New York City Apple Stores that took pictures of unsuspecting Apple customers? He's written a long, fascinating account of his ordeal for Wired. Turns out it all ended for the best.

We did not expect Mike Daisey to disappear after his non-fiction monologue about Apple was revealed to be full of fabrications, as feverently as we may have wished it. Mike Daisey is a serial liar, but he is a talented, famous liar, which in no way precludes him from participating in American public life and actually makes him a pretty good candidate for political office.

Like most 17-year-olds his age, Wang wanted to keep up with the latest technology and impress his friends. Unlike most 17-year-olds his age, Wang decided that the best way to do that was to sell his kidney for an iPad and an iPhone.

Monologuist Mike Daisey, we've all learned, is an excellent liar. Now, let's see what else Daisey has lied about in his decades-long career, besides many of the facts in his story about investigating Foxconn. Here's one.

As we speak, Gawker Media gadget site Gizmodo is liveblogging writing about the forthcoming release of Apple's iPad 3. Will the new device have a screen? Will it have a blade for stabbing Nook users? Will Steve Jobs descend from the heavens with a chorus of angels? Will the angels be clothed, or will there be "naked private parts"?

Tomorrow is the big day when Apple announces its new "iPad 3." Or will it be called the "iPad HD?" Who gives a shit, really? Same gadget either way. Get a hobby.

The FBI has released, and posted on its web site, Steve Jobs' 191-page FBI file. Read it here. The file consists of a 1991 background investigation conducted when Jobs was being considered for an appointment to the President's Export Council in the Bush I White House, and records of a 1985 bomb threat against him.

Stephen Fry, the British actor and vocal Apple admirer, defended the company on Twitter against accounts of brutal working conditions in its contract factories. This did not sit well, at all, with Mike Daisey, creator of a critically-acclaimed one-man show about those very factories, and, now, of a blog post in which he says Fry "is being a total idiot" and calls him a "fanboy," "apologist" and "pathetic."

This whole video of teens dancing at a Hong Kong Apple store is entertaining. But go to around 1:06 and check out the moves of the girl in white. Her face is like the face someone would make while carving an ice block into a statue of a machine gun, with a chainsaw.