Police
What are you going to believe, Apple Maps or your lying eyes?
December 10, 2012: 1:39 PM ETAustralian police warn drivers that relying on the iPhone's app can be "life threatening"
Purple pin shows Mildura's actual location
FORTUNE -- Driving to the rural city of Mildura (pop. 30,000) from downtown Melbourne is a long trek in the best of circumstances -- six or seven hours depending on traffic.
But the trip can be a nightmare for travelers using the Map app that comes installed in Apple's (AAPL) newest iPhones.
The app shows Mildura about 70 km (45 miles) southwest of its actual location -- placing it in the middle of the Murray-Sunset National Park, where temperature can reach as high as 46 C (115 F) and cellular phone coverage is nil.
Local police have already had to rescue at least four motorists, one of whom was stranded for up to 24 hours without food or water. Others had walked long distances through dangerous terrain to find phone reception, according to police.
Australian authorities are calling the situation "potentially life threatening" and warning drivers with iPhones to rely on some other form of navigation -- Google Maps, for example -- until Apple does something about the problem.
UPDATE: By Monday afternoon, the error had been corrected, according to The Guardian. Apple's Map app now points to the center of Mildura.
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A new life for Taser, this time with less controversy
The maker of the handy defense weapon is putting a focus on its new video-surveillance system for police officers.
By Daniel Roberts, reporter
FORTUNE -- "Don't tase me, bro!" The phrase is familiar to pretty much anyone that was alive and consuming news in 2007: Andrew Meyer, a senior at the University of Florida at the time, shouted it before campus police shot him with a Taser ECD (electronic control device). A MORE
Sep 6, 2011 12:17 PM ET -
10 things to love about the story of the iPhone 5 that walked out of a tequila lounge
Another Apple employee loses an iPhone prototype in a bar. I smell a movie script.
The tech press is never happier than when it's in hot pursuit of the next Apple (AAPL) iPhone. Almost any clue will do -- a purloined case design, a blurry factory photo, a leaked production estimate from a sketchy Asian news source.
That's what made last year's saga of the prototype iPhone 4 -- lost in a MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 3, 2011 11:37 AM ET -
Fighting bad guys with good tech
As more crimes are committed online, or with the help of online data, police departments are banding together to share tech tips and catch wrongdoing wherever it occurs.
There are times when the invasion of privacy is a good thing -- like when you're fighting bad guys. After all, criminals have also benefited from all of those new technologies that we enjoy, using digital tools for everything from defrauding credit cards MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Dec 16, 2010 10:39 AM ET -
Police raid Google's South Korean HQ over Streetview data
Another country loses it over Streetview data.
Korean Googlers today received an unexpected visit in the form of a raid by police this morning. The cops were after that Steetview data that Google had admitted to erroneously collecting many months ago and any information they could find related to its spying on Korean citizens.
"(The police) have been investigating Google (GOOG) Korea LLC on suspicion of unauthorized collection and storage of data on unspecified MORE
Seth Weintraub - Aug 10, 2010 8:55 AM ET -
Police raid Gizmodo editor's home
Cops break open front door and seize computers in investigation of lost iPhone prototype
It looks like the police are taking this pretty seriously.
Armed with a search warrant, members of California's Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team broke into a private home Friday night and seized computers and other electronic equipment, according to a report posted Monday on Gizmodo.
The home belonged to Jason Chen, the Gizmodo editor who published photographs and videos MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 26, 2010 5:37 PM ET
