Cellular Phones

Uber App Gets Thumbs Up to Hail Yellow Cabs

On Friday, New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission approved the savvy, San Francisco-based Uber as the first app New Yorkers can use to hail yellow medallion taxi cabs. After nearly a year of delays, the announcement marks the start of a year-long pilot program, during which the TLC will be ab ... More >>

SEASONS CHANGE

Max Richter calls up Vivaldi

FYI: Don't Steal An iPhone From An Undercover Cop

We've reported on iPhone thefts too many times: a few weeks back, we covered the runaway smartphone fugitive who thwarted his captors in a subway turnstile, which rides off the coattail of a Daily News report that these thefts have risen 44% in the past year. Another week, another blog post wit ... More >>

One In Five People Spend More Money On Cell Phones Than Food

[See More Edible News: New York City Health Board Passes Bloomberg's Soda Ban Proposal | Sushi Costs More In New York Than Los Angeles Because, Well, Of Course It Does] Would you rather spend money on food or your cell phone bills? According to a recent survey sponsored by CouponCabin.com, one in ... More >>

Live: Third Coast Percussion Celebrates John Cage's 100th Birthday At MoMA

Third Coast Percussion MoMA Sculpture Garden Thursday, August 9 Better than: Watching almost any contemporary DJ, since Cage was mixing vinyl and live radio with live performance before World War II. Some 69 years ago in 1943 (more than a decade before the first issue of the Village Voice was pub ... More >>

There's an App for Reporting Crime in Brooklyn

Welcome to the age of smartphone civilian authority.At the City Council Hall on 250 Broadway this afternoon, State Senator Eric Adams, a Democrat from Brooklyn, will announce a little app that he helped create called "Brooklyn Way of Life." It's a downloadable "crime fighting mobile app," in his own ... More >>

INSTANT HIT

A picture is worth a thousand words

Andrew Cuomo Sics State Police On "Distracted Drivers"

Put down the cell phone and get ready for a lullaby -- Governor Andrew Cuomo's nanny-state is targeting "distracted drivers" this week.The governor's office announced yesterday that New York State Police this week will be conducting "Operation Hang Up" -- a ticketing campaign that will target people ... More >>

TLC Seeks Proposals For Taxi Payment App

The days of having to carry around cash in order to take cabs are so long gone. Now, in addition to taxi's ubiquitous credit card machines, the Taxi & Limousine Commission is soliciting proposals for an app that will allow people to pay for their ride on their smartphone. It's just the next step in ... More >>

"Your" vs. "You're"! Listen Up, Kids!

The most irritating mistake in grammar that I notice on blogs, social networks, and even in press releases is the confusion between 'your" and "you're." The second I see someone fall into that terrible trap, I think "Moron!" But then I calm down and realize that perhaps they just weren't listening ... More >>

Happy National Condom Day! Find Free Condoms With a Phone App

It's Feb. 14 -- the best day of the year! No, of course we don't mean Valentine's Day (ew.) It's National Condom Awareness Day -- and 2012's holiday has gotten even more special for you and your special lady or man-friend: New York City's Department of Public Health and Mental Hygiene is releasin ... More >>

Santa Is Real, Track His Location Around The World All Day

​If you're alone this Christmas Eve and you have a bit of an obsessive streak, then it's time to plant yourself behind your computer with a gallon of eggnog and study the NORAD Santa Tracker. Wondering where Santa is right now? He's hovering around the Philippines and steadily moving westward. ... More >>

American Airlines Responds to Alec Baldwin Situation on Facebook

​Alec Baldwin -- closer, formerly prolific tweeter, and fake future mayoral candidate -- had a little incident with American Airlines yesterday because of his refusal to stop playing Words With Friends. Baldwin wouldn't shut off his phone when the flight attendant asked him to and says he was ... More >>

Busta Rhymes Drags "The Little Drummer Boy" Into The Twitter Age

​"Drummer Boy," another song from the forthcoming Justin Bieber Yuletide album Under The Mistletoe, has made its way online; a rework of the classic hymn "The Little Drummer Boy," it's been retrofitted with sharper drums and rap verses to make it sound like it could be dropped into top-40 stat ... More >>

YOUNG AT HEART

Jonathan Richman returns to the Bell House

Play the Cellphone Restaurant Autocorrect Text Messaging Game

​My smart phone is much funnier than I am. Recently, a friend asked where he could throw a birthday party for himself. After mulling the question over, taking into account his preferences in location, cuisine, and price level, I texted back Del Posto. The phone's auto-correct function sprung ... More >>

Stanley Patz, Father of Etan, Says Kids Should Have 'Leiby Phones' in Light of Kletzy Case

Etan Patz in 1978​Stanley Patz is the father of 6-year-old Etan, who disappeared from a lower Manhattan street in 1979, making him, arguably, the most well-known missing child in New York City, as well as the first to appear on the side of a milk carton. Until last week brought another missing ... More >>

MACHINES ARE OUR FRIENDS

So long as they don't turn into Hal

Barack Obama's Bomb-Proof Car Has Embarrassing Moment at U.S. Embassy

Here is a sort of adorable video of President Obama's car getting stuck as he leaves the U.S. Embassy in Ireland today. First he's dropping his Blackberry all over the tarmac, then he falls prey to a stealthy driveway slope? Such a regular guy, except for that leader of the free world/killing Osama ... More >>

THEY LIVE

Hipsters. Zombies. Same thing.

La Daily Musto The Video

It was only a matter of time, kids. This esteemed, prize-winning blog has now become a gala video, courtesy of the New York Film Academy's Geoffray Barbier.

POSTMODERN PLAYING

A free interactive, technology-generated performance comes downtown

GO GREEN

The place to be for avocado groupies

Second Times Square Screen-Jacker Tells Us How He Did It

On Tuesday night, Toronto entrepreneur Adi Isakovic projected images from his smartphone onto a giant advertising screen in Times Square. This is the multimedia stunt de jour; a marketing team gained virility (that's the term for when your video goes viral, right?) when they performed a hoax with th ... More >>

Snow, Snow, Snow, Etc.; Beloved Twitter Apps Return; Man Finds Wallet After 40 Years

​• Happy Presidents Day! In case you haven't noticed yet, it snowed. Central Park was reporting 2.5 inches as of this morning. There's a chance of more snow over the afternoon, and again tonight. [Weather, NY1] • Protests in Libya against Muammar Qaddafi's totalitarian rule are spreading, ... More >>

NYC Health Department Launches App for Free Condoms; Also, Reminds You How to Use a Condom

​As we mentioned earlier, today is not just the special day of snuggles and commitment that everybody's all moony about, it's also the day of safe sexual encounters. And it's our own Mayor Bloomberg's birthday, to boot. In honor of this fortuitous triumvirate of occasions, the New York City He ... More >>

Small Trees May Be Hiding Spots for Robbers, and Other Helpful Anti-Crime Tips

This is a reenactment. Do not hide behind trees, and definitely don't shoot anyone.​Hm. The U.S. Forest Service has discovered that neighborhoods with big trees in the yards and on the streets (trees on the streets?) experienced less crime than homes with smaller trees. This study was done at ... More >>

SCAVENGER HUNT

Visit the artists of Bushwick

Art Stunts: Urban Speaker Allows You To Scream at Random New Yorkers, Remotely

​Have you ever just wanted to scream, rant, and rave at complete strangers? Or even better, your fellow New Yorkers, and/or tourists who visit? Now, you can!

Live: Drake Brings Out Jay-Z, Trey Songz, Birdman, and Fabolous at Radio City Music Hall

Drake Radio City Music Hall Wednesday, September 29 Better Than: Pitbull. (And Curren$y!) Drake isn't the best at arena-swallowing mega-hop, as evidenced by a guest appearance from Jay-Z, who casually uncorked Radio City with his verses from advice rap touchstone "Light Up" and ... More >>

Half of American Women Would Give Up Sex to Avoid Gaining 10 Lbs.

​A survey by Nutrisystem reiterated what we already know -- that many Americans are unhealthy and unhappy with their weight -- and upped the ante with what's essentially a weight-related game of "Would You Rather" transferred into a study. They found some surprising and downright horrifying sacrif ... More >>

WALK THIS WAY

Exploring Brighton Beach

Video: Tokyo Police Club, "Breakneck Speed"

Our favorite (or should we say, as these Canadians do, favourite) type of video: tour/friend footage, shot on flip cams and cell phones and whatever else is at hand, repurposed as scrolling nostalgia for a song that pretty much simulates the same. This record, Champ, is a total delight, by the way ... More >>

A Tweet, a Twat, a Twit

​Addicted to your smart phone? Unable to stop your thumbs from twitching involuntarily? Then check out our Twitter page at ForkintheRoadVV, where you'll be able to follow our updates, gluttonous musings, and assorted ephemera. As well as photos of frightening avian cakes.

iPad Arrives.

​The first release of the Apple iPad went on sale at 9 this morning to the long lines of customers who were camped out in front of Apple Stores and Best Buys waiting to buy them. The hand-held 9.5" touchscreen computers, which can access WiFi but not yet 3G (those go on sale later this month) ... More >>

Apple's iPhone Porn Purge Deletes Thousands of Apps: Reports

​The rumored removal of sexy apps for iPhones seems to have come to pass. The first shot in the war on porn apps came, per CNET, when "Apple notified developer Chillifresh that its Wobble iBoobs application was being removed from the App Store." Now it is reported that thousands of other apps ... More >>

Booze as Art: BevShots Offer Drinks, Close Up

bevshots​ Love drinks? So much so that you wish you could immerse yourself in one? Well, now you can come as close as possible to that experience with BevShots, prints of beer, wine, cocktails, and sake (pictured above) photographed under a microscope. These beautiful abstract images, brought ... More >>

Finally, an iPhone App for Your Tongue!

Yes, yes, it's probably a hoax. But, just in case it's not, get excited for a new iPhone game you play with your tongue. With iLickit, you have to lick clean your plate of food by actually applying your tongue to your LCD screen. Not for the germaphobic. [TUAW via Eat Me Daily]

IT'S OH-SO-QUIET

Listen to the city—it's trying to tell you something

Lily Allen

New Raekwon: "Staten (Go Hard)"

Method Man yesterday, Raekwon today. Definitely the best "Brooklyn Go Hard" remix so far: "Sellin' nose candy, blackberry brandy, turtlenecks, 40 belows/Flow dandy," Raekwon doing his signature free associative thing alongside some credibly-fake Santogold imitator, and everybody's repping for Stat ... More >>

New Yankee Stadium Will Make It Easier to Ignore the Game

Shine, Mister? Pete Hamill Solves The Economic Crisis

Cooking with Stephanie Izard

Holy Fuck at the Music Hall of Williamsburg Tonight

SHORT CIRCUIT

The Bent Festival––where hacking is encouraged

Etiquette Lesson: The LIRR Cellphone Guy

Backseat

Off-brand bottle rockets

BARGAIN SHOPPER

Free speech has a price

Afterwork Bar Fills the Void for the Garment District's Aspiring Hedge Funders