By Patrick Clark 1/24 8:21am

Linkages

jobs_ashton_kutcher

Booting Up: Ashton Kutcher Helps Beat Off Winter Doldrums With Release Date for jOBS

Feeling blue about missing Sundance? Cheer up. Ashton Kutcher’s Steve Jobs biopic is slated to arrive April 19 at a theater near you. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Apple set a company record for iPhone sales last quarter, but it wasn’t enough to placate investors, who sent shares falling in late trading after Apple announced its quarterly results. [AllThingsD]

It wasn’t all bad for tech stocks. Netflix soared after the company announced better-than-expected profit on the strength of new subscribers. [Bloomberg]

Careful. The NYPD has a new device that detects the energy emitted by the rocket in your pocket. [NYDN]

“While I haven’t seen hard data on how this plays out across the industry, my personal experience has been that women in tech are primarily found in these emotional labor-heavy departments, even in the tiniest companies.” [Quartz]

Raaaaaaandi! [Fast Company]

By Jessica Roy 11/27/12 8:56am

Privacy Police

(Photo: Getty)

The NYPD Could Be Reading and Saving Your Call Logs Without a Court Order

Perhaps it’s time for a burner phone? The New York Times reports that the NYPD has begun quietly and methodically accumulating heaps of call logs and putting them into a searchable database called the Enterprise Case Management System.

It works like this: When someone has their cell phone stolen, the NYPD frequently subpoenas the call logs for that phone, hoping that if the thief used the phone, the recordings will provide evidence that can help track him or her down. But instead of deleting the logs after closing the case, they continue to exist in the NYPD’s database, and could “conceivably be used for any investigative purpose.” Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 9/25/12 5:34pm

No Thanks!

Just take whatever you want, okay? (Photo: flickr.com/wstryder)

Rash of Apple Thefts Said to Include Hypodermic Needle-Wielding Bronx Bandit

The NYPD warned us that our precious iPhones were in danger, and they’re quickly being proven right in the most alarming manner possible. The Daily News reports that a man seems to be jacking Apple devices in the Bronx–at hypodermic-needle-point.

This isn’t even the first hypodermic needle-related crime of the week. Yesterday a bus driver got stabbed by a passenger with one. This of course poses the question of what is wrong with people?

The Daily News says the biohazardous offender has “accosted eight Bronx victims since mid-August, stealing iPhones and other electronic gadget, police say.” The neighbors sound worried, because duh:  Read More

By Steve Huff 9/24/12 11:24pm

True Crime

Apple iPhone 5. (Photo: twitter.com/DiarioLaPrensa)

NYPD: Your Shiny New iPhone 5 is a Crime Magnet

The New York Police Department has good reason to be concerned about consumers’ Apple products: theft of Apple hardware has risen 40 percent in the last year. Compare that to an overall four percent rise in crime and you have what almost sounds like a crime wave focused on iPods, iPhones and iPads.

Plenty of iThefts occur in the street, but NBC New York reports your beloved cuddle phone is in even more danger on the subway: Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 9/24/12 7:00am

Linkages

Serial numbers, plz. (Photo: flickr.com/lynxman)

Booting Up: Be Smartphone Smart Edition

Apple is reportedly attempting to poach members of the Google Maps team. You know what they say: If you can’t beat ‘em, steal ‘em. [TechCrunch]

The latest boat lifted by the rising tide of the New York tech boom: accounting firms. [Crain's New York]

Apparently NYPD officers were stationed outside Apple’s Fifth Avenue flagship, asking new iPhone 5 owners to register their serial numbers in case of theft. [Yahoo]

Meanwhile, in New Zealand: A court has ordered an investigation into whether Kim Dotcom was the victim of “unlawful spying.” [BBC News]

By Jessica Roy 9/12/12 1:47pm

Privacy Police

(Photo: Inquisitr)

New NYPD Social Media Guidelines Say It’s O.K. to Use Fake Facebook Profiles to Monitor Citizens

If you received a new friend request recently, and it wasn’t from a foreign spammer or a Taliban official posing as a hot chick, there’s now a chance that it’s an NYPD officer. According to the New York Daily News, the NYPD recently instituted its first official guidelines for using social media to benefit investigations, and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has decided that spying on people using fake Facebook profiles is a-O.K. Consider it the online version of stop-and-frisk. Amurica! Read More

By Jessica Roy 8/09/12 10:43am

XXX in Tech

(Photo: Facebook)

No-Fun NYPD Squashes Trojan Vibrator Giveaway

First they came for smoking in parks, but we didn’t speak out because we don’t like to subject other people to our own waltz with death; then they came for the soda, but we didn’t speak out because we’re kind of impartial about sugary beverages. But when they came for the vibrators? That’s when shit got real.

The NYPD put the kibosh on Trojan’s vibrator giveaway yesterday, lamely claiming that the crowd had grown too large and Trojan needed a city permit.

“I’m 57 years old. I should be able to get a vibrator!” one outraged New York citizen told the New York Post, which could barely contain its glee at the overflowing opportunity for incredible puns. Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 8/08/12 2:20pm

15 Minutes Into the Future

"Wait, can't I just Google the address?"

NYPD Unveils Creepy New Surveillance System Developed with Microsoft

Just last week, news broke that the NYPD would soon begin rolling out new tech that brings together information streams like CCTV footage and criminal databases. Developed in partnership with Microsoft, it’s dubbed (with disturbing blandness) the “Domain Awareness System.”

Today, Mayor Bloomberg makes it official with an announcement. However, there’s a little detail that’s new: New York gets a 30 percent cut of any future sales to other cities, which’ll go to counter-terrorism and crime-prevention programs. (That sounds to us like a whole lot of surveillance cameras.)

The official announcement explains the system like so:  Read More