In yr phone, sendin you the wrong location. (Photo: Biz Journal)

As anyone who has used a map app recently will tell you, GPS location is still a pretty imperfect science. Sadly, we don't think that will be any comfort to Wayne Dobson, a 59-year-old Las Vegas man who has fallen victim to a glitch with Sprint Wireless's GPS technology. The problem has dispatched scores of people who lost their cell phones to his front door demanding he give them their phones back.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Sprint can track the location of a lost or stolen cell phone within 50 to 300 meters and send that information to law enforcement. But a glitch with Sprint is pinpointing Mr. Dobson's house as the epicenter of tons of stolen phones, even though he's had nothing to do with them. To make matters worse, when police triangulate 911 calls made from cell phones near his home, the glitch frequently makes it seem as if the call came from Mr. Dobson's house.

"Lucky me, huh," he told the Review-Journal, sounding kiiiind of like Eeyore. "I couldn't be the multimillion-dollar winner. No. I'd rather have that problem."

Mr. Dobson has resorted to putting a sign outside his house that reads, "NO LOST CELL PHONES!!" Dude doesn't have your phone, okay?

This is the kind of thing that would be really novel at first--an interesting story to tell your friends over dinner, perhaps--but get old realllly quickly. Mr. Dobson has resorted to sleeping by his door so he can shoo away angry people in search of their phones at all hours of the night.

Sprint says it is investigating the glitch, so it should be fixed in the next 10-20 years.

Lights went out below much of 30th. (@aarmita, via Instagram)

As New York awakens to the structural devastation wrought by the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, many--especially in lower Manhattan--are waking to power and Internet outages. Some cell phone carriers also appear to be experiencing issues, making it difficult to place phone calls or send text messages.

After seeing many complaints of Sprint outages on Twitter, Quartz journalist Christopher Mims confirmed with Sprint that there are widespread outages across New York City. "As of now NYC is down; engineers are working on this as we type," a Sprint rep told him.

Twitter users are also reporting that AT&T cell towers are experiencing service interruptions. We've reached out to AT&T to confirm and will update when we hear back.

UPDATE: This Betabeat reporter (DUMBO-based) is having trouble with her Verizon service. Here's a screenshot:

Out of luck.

A fellow Observer reporter and Verizon customer has experienced similar problems in Gowanus, Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO, and we're getting another report from Twitter.

The resident T-Mobile subscriber still has service, though it's hard to say whether that's thanks to her carrier or to the fact she lives in Astoria.

(Photo: Instagram/dewalt)

The hordes began lining up along Fifth Avenue eight days ago. Earlier this week, from inside their glass house, Apple store employees in familiar blue shirts (and the occasional derby cap) looked out towards the queue of customers eager to peel open the wrapping on their iPhone 5. But for employees at the flagship location, the yearly event is trading in its pomp for a more perfunctory feel.

Hushed by corporate mandates, Apple employees weren't forthcoming about the launch. Betabeat approached several staffers the Fifth Avenue and Grand Central locations, but only one would speak to us on background. Sealed lips smiled calmly, despite the intensity of the reality distortion field outside the store.

There's no bonus for working the overnight shift on launch night, given that the flagship store is open 24/7. But Keenen Thompson, 22, a former Apple store clerk--and the fourth person in line on Fifth Avenue--told us his old 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. shift did come with one bonus: “We do get to get the iPhone. We can’t buy it before it goes on sale, but we do get to go outside on our lunch break and buy the phone."

Mr. Thompson said these days launches are treated as de rigueur. “Everyone looks forward to a new device but it's nothing really different. It's kind of like you’re ready for your next day at work and to sell some phones.” Mr. Thompson was sponsored by iPhone repurchasing company Gazelle to sit in line.

The ninth man lined up, programmer Roger Chinchilla of Queens, showed us his solar powered Apple battery charger and said, “I have two different Wifi connections in my bag if need be.”

Carriers AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint are also selling the phone to the masses this morning. Dennis, a Sprint store employee who only offered a first name and asked that we not mention the location, was less calm about today's launch, saying that all his fellow staffers were called in because, “We like to be fully prepared for the onslaught.” He added that managing the growing line outside is, “Something we do so there’s no chair flipping outside … over a phone.” To that end, Sprint keeps the line partially pacified with bottled water.

By Monday, AT&T had already released a statement saying that the new version had become “the fastest-selling iPhone the company has ever offered.” JPMorgan chief economist Michael Feroli also chimed in, noting that the iPhone launch could significantly boost GDP--in addition to the number of artisanal lunches being Instagrammed.

Marta Rosado, manager of the flagship AT&T store in Times Square who has seen launches since the 3GS, said of relatives often asking for hookups with the new model. "People ask, but it's really first come, first serve. Even us as employees we will wait."

One AT&T employee said she switched her hours to go get the device. “Lines are going to be horrible and the phones are going to be first come, first serve, it's not going to be a privilege for employees or anything. I’m going to another store early in the morning … Even though I have friends in many AT&T stores, I’ll have to line up.”

Ms. Rosado said that despite the stress of the day, the store gets an influx of sales from buyers who have already flexed their consumer impulses. "They’ll spend the money on new cases, new chargers," she said. "We do pretty good."

We were immediately intrigued by AllThingsD's story about enterprising NYU senior John Mardini's new startup, Voyager Mobile. For one, Mr. Mardini wants to open cheap cellphone services to the public via the suddenly-popular process of reselling service on another carrier's network.

For $19 a month, reported CNET, Voyager would give users unlimited text and calling on last year's models of prepaid mobile phones. For $39 a month, you could get unlimited data, talk and text. As a mobile virtual network operator or MVNO, Voyager does this by spreading "its service across Sprint's wireless backbone."

And then there was the quote Mr.Mardini, who hails from Knoxville, gave AllThingsD:

“It was just one of those things,” Mardini said in a telephone interview. “I pay so much for my cell phone. I was thinking there has to be a better way to make it cheaper for everyone.”

And here we thought NYU's spendthrift student body had never even saw the inside of their cellphone bill!

Earlier reports promised more details at 6am today via the Voyager Mobile website, which even featured a countdown clock.

Unfortunately, a visit to the site this morning yielded some bad news:

During its Tuesday, May 15 launch, Voyager Mobile experienced a malicious network attack to its primary website: voyagermobile.com. Due to the network outage, Voyager Mobile is postponing its launch to a time and date in the very near future.

Our goal of low cost wireless service for all will not be undermined and we strive to continue the voyage for a better wireless world.

We've reached out to Mr. Mardini for more information. But think about it this way: If it was worth it for some troll to mess with your launch, you're probably onto something.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (Getty)

Sprint, the company your Dad uses for his holstered Nextel walkie talkie, apparently thought they could get away with not paying taxes. As it turns out, the reason Sprint contracts have been so cheap in recent years is because the company has been committing tax fraud, at least according to a new lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The suit alleges that Sprint failed to bill wireless customers for more than $100 million in taxes over the last seven years. Mr. Schneiderman claims that it was all part of Sprint's ploy to lure customers over to its side from Verizon and AT&T.

Hey, Sprint: That was really awesome of you to try to make cell phone bills cheaper for your customers, but maybe you could have done it in a legal, not evil way? Because now all those customers who are super happy with their slightly less expensive bills will probably desert you once their bills inevitably go up.

What was all that about being the heroic underdog of the wireless business?

Has anyone seen my iPhone?

The Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit today to block AT&T's $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile, attempting to abort the marriage of the first and fourth largest mobile carriers in the nation, respectively. AT&T was hoping to acquire T-Mobile's spectrum (i.e. the bandwidth that mobile data travels on), which would help AT&T improve its notoriously spotty network.

Bloomberg broke the news: "AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market," wrote the DOJ.

AT&T feigned surprise: "We have met repeatedly with the Department of Justice and there was no indication from the DOJ that this action was being contemplated," Wayne Watts, AT&T’s general counsel, said in a statement. “We plan to ask for an expedited hearing so the enormous benefits of this merger can be fully reviewed.”

Number three player Sprint, meanwhile, applauded the move. “The DOJ today delivered a decisive victory for consumers, competition and our country. By filing suit to block AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile, the DOJ has put consumers’ interests first. Sprint applauds the DOJ for conducting a careful and thorough review and for reaching a just decision – one which will ensure that consumers continue to reap the benefits of a competitive U.S. wireless industry. Contrary to AT&T’s assertions, today’s action will preserve American jobs, strengthen the American economy, and encourage innovation.”

A win for consumers, ironically, is also a loss for consumers. More competition might mean cheaper prices, but also worse service, for the tens of million of Americans on AT&T.