iphone

Did iPhone's 'Find My Friends' Just Break Up Its First Marriage?

Seth Abramovitch · 10/16/11 08:15PM

If you set aside the five or so hours it took to download Apple's iOS 5 this weekend, you were richly rewarded with a suite of new functions for your favorite brain-cancer-hastening communications device. And none were niftier than "Find My Friends" — appointed in the finest iNaugahyde, it's an app that allows you to plot your friends on a map as if they were enemy ships on a blinking radar screen.

Did the New iPhone Break the Internet?

Adrian Chen · 10/05/11 10:26AM

When Gawker started experiencing technical issues yesterday, we thought Anonymous might have snuck into our server room and poured Doritos into all the machines. Well, it turns out lots of big websites had outages yesterday.

The iPhone 5 Failboard: How Everyone Got It Wrong

Ryan Tate · 10/04/11 04:25PM

A great many Apple fans are hot and bothered that no iPhone 5 emerged today to fill the void in their souls. But you know who should really feel dejected? All the tech bloggers who wasted time typing bold proclamations about new features, designs and phones that never came.

Now You Can Use an iPhone to Conduct Your Own Levitating Orchestra

Matt Cherette · 09/22/11 03:08AM

Poietic Studio is a London firm that describes itself as "a multidisciplinary practice with backgrounds in interactive & spatial design, art & engineering." But after seeing this video of its new Floating Orchestra product—which lets you use your iPhone to conduct 19 levitating spheres, each its own instrument that increases in volume as it physically rises—I'm more inclined to say it's one hell of a badass invention company and just leave it at that. [via BuzzFeed]

Hotels Want to Wean You Off Your Gadget Addiction

Seth Abramovitch · 07/05/11 02:13AM

For vacationing tech addicts who simply can't relax without plunging a Twitter-feed mainline between their toes, a new trend in the travel business: digital detox. The Wall Street Journal reports that several hotels and resorts are offering enticements to visitors willing to abandon the grid during their stay. They target these junkies in the social media crack dens where they tend to lurk, offering discounts if the travelers promise to surrender their gadgets and computers at check-in.

This Woman Feels Very Strongly About Her Right to Play Music on the Bus

Seth Abramovitch · 06/26/11 10:26PM

This might provide some clues as to why no one in New York is riding the bus anymore. Asked by a driver to not use her iPhone's speakers to play her music, the woman unleashed an extremely loud, hateful, and profanity-filled tirade ("You need to shut the f*ck up and drive your bus, you miserable old f*cking man!...You f*cking honky!"), which was captured on video by another, pissed-off rider. iPhones fighting iPhones!

Apple Kills an App on Behalf of Israel

Ryan Tate · 06/23/11 04:31PM

Apple is becoming a major diplomatic player. The company agreed to remove an iPhone app devoted to Palestinian insurrection, eliciting praise for "swift action" from Israel's public diplomacy minister. This sort of app removal is going to get tricky.

Your iPhone May Soon Suggest Creepy Dates

Ryan Tate · 06/16/11 03:36PM

It turns out there's a reason your iPhone has been stalking you: It might use your private data to hook you up with nearby iPhone owners. And you thought your mom was an awkward matchmaker.

Your iPhone Should Not Use These Passwords

Ryan Tate · 06/14/11 03:41PM

If you lock your iPhone behind a passcode, there's a good chance you've chosen from one of just 10 extremely common combinations. It's time to switch to something that actually protects your data.

Chinese Teen Allegedly Sells His Kidney For an iPad

Seth Abramovitch · 06/02/11 09:47PM

The Telegraph reports on a teenager in China who allegedly sold his own kidney to afford an iPad 2 and iPhone. He told reporters that he had found an advertisement online that offered 20,000 yuan ($3000 US) for a kidney. So he made the journey to the city of Chenzhou in Hunan Province where, he says, a hospital cut him open, plucked out the organ, and paid him for his time.

Marlboro's 'Bump a Smoke' App Makes Smoking Fairer

Lauri Apple · 05/30/11 01:53PM

In an attempt to restore justice within the smoking community, Marlboro has released a student has invented a smartphone app called Bump a Smoke that enables people to trade virtual cigarettes for real ones. Based on bump technology, the app seems to "work" like this:

Why Did Apple Fib To Congress About the iPhone?

Ryan Tate · 05/12/11 06:23PM

When you're in a hole, stop digging. Apple, with its enviable PR, shouldn't need to learn that lesson, but apparently it does—if only to prevent the sort of inaccurate, overreaching Congressional testimony Bud Tribble delivered Tuesday.