The guy who made up that rap about the Whole Foods parking lot has a new message for you: just put down the phone. He doesn't want to hear about your clean bill of health from the STD clinic or get stuck behind you texting in line at Huckleberry when all he wants is a friggin maple bacon biscuit. more ›

I'll have the Apple iPhone 4S with a side of Samsung Galaxy Nexus, please. It's the end of dining etiquette as we know it. Prompt check-ins on Foursquare and Facebook are obviously imperative to an enjoyable, fulfilling dining experience. And at least one restaurant in Los Angeles has surrendered to the smartphone and is catering to connected customers in an unbelievable way. more ›

Put down that chicken nugget and cast aside your mascara -- CHP is cracking down on all forms of distracted driving this weekend. KTLA reports that officers will be patrolling streets and freeways from 6 a.m. today till 6 a.m. tomorrow, and they'll be in both marked and unmarked cars. more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that cell phone use while driving should be banned while driving. The NY Times reports, "The recommended ban applies to hands-free devices, a recommendation that goes further than any state law to date." more ›

Not that we'd ever do this, but it's official: you can't use your cell phone while driving, even if you're stopped at a light. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a state judge ruled against Richmond, CA motorist Carl Nelson, who was issued a $103 citation in December of 2009 for placing a call while waiting for a light to turn green. more ›

We love our smart phones. This is a no-brainer. HackCollege zeroed in on students and released an infographic detailing just how smitten they are by their mobile devices. The "Generation Mobile" infographic pairs stylish design with intriguing facts and reveals just how often students are texting, calling, cuddling with and paying for their phones. more ›

BlackBerry users were outraged over a recent service outage that left customers out of touch for three days, and now consumers in the U.S. and Canada are filing class action lawsuits against Research in Motion, the telecommunications company that makes the popular smartphones. Are you among the deeply inconvenienced who want their money back? more ›

While it's quite typical for AT&T customers to complain of missed, failed and dropped calls, this weekend's hardware failure sent L.A. area users into a grumbling frenzy. The exact number of AT&T customers affected has not been specified, but the total reaches into the thousands. more ›

A woman is claiming in a lawsuit that a Huntington Beach Police officer hit her while she was crossing the street last May — allegations that the police department vehemently denies, according to the Huntington Beach Independent. The woman Catherine Sanchez, 47, says her son Christopher Sanchez saw a police car speeding and pulled her out of the way. The lawsuit says that the police stopped but yelled at them to get out of the way instead of offering any help. more ›

Our state laws regarding cellphone use while at the wheel of our cars, and while we're riding on two wheels, are staying status quo. Tuesday, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed State Bill 28, which would have seen fines for illegal cellphone use while driving double. The bill also included new legislation that would have applied to bicyclists' use of cellphones. more ›

Miguel Ruiz Fabian, a 24-year-old Santa Ana public works intern, faces his arraignment today for charges of creatively using his cell phone to record video of men in the City Hall bathroom. more ›

A warning to all those for whom the temptation to let their fingers do the talking while driving is impossible to resist: If Governor Jerry Brown signs SB 28 into law, failing to go hands free while you're at the wheel could soon cost you more than twice as much in fines. Bonus: The bill extends the ban on illegal cellphone use while you're in charge of two wheels. more ›

Hold on to your cell phones, Angelenos. Los Angeles ranks third in the top ten cities experiencing cell phone loss or theft, as detailed in his handy infographic, courtesy of Lookout, a San Francisco mobile security company. Almost half of L.A. residents, 44% to be exact, have lost or had their phones stolen. more ›

There are 29,398 fewer state-issued cellphones in use today thanks to a massive cut implemented by Governor Jerry Brown. The removal of the state employees' state-funded phones is part of cost-cutting plan to save the taxpayers at least $13 million. more ›

If you're reading this on your cellphone and you happen to be driving, well, clearly the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and California Highway Patrol (CHP) did not get their message out to you last month during the nation's first and most ambitious statewide campaign against distracted driving. However, 52,664 motorists were busted in April for using their phone without the aid of a handsfree device to talk, or to text, while behind the wheel. more ›

City of Los Angeles employees managed to waste about $1M on cellphones, says City Controller Wendy Greuel in an audit released yesterday aimed at uncovering the spending habits of seven departments when it comes to cellular technology. Said Greuel of her findings: "My audit demonstrates that our technology policies need to keep pace with technology. Cellular phone service contracts are constantly evolving and we should not pay a penny more than we have to - ever." more ›

If you're among the many Angeleno transit users who have paced anxiously curbside, waiting for that damn bus to get there and hating that there was no real way of knowing when your ride was going to pull up, you might want to get on board Nextrip. Metro began testing this real-time bus arrival system yesterday, reports The Source. All you need is a cellphone. more ›

All hail the OC's Spam King! A Huntington Beach man and his spamming "business" are the focus of a Federal Trade Commission's request to a federal judge to have the operation shut down. Phillip A. Flora allegedly sent millions of illegal spam text messages, of which many "deceptively advertised a mortgage modification website called Loanmod-gov.net," according to the OC Register. more ›

10% of drivers in Glendale engage in distracting and illegal activities according to a survey conducted by the Glendale Police Department, reports the News-Press. Posting a plainclothes police officer at the corner of Brand Boulevard and California Avenue this past Wednesday, Glendale officials found as many as a dozen motorists improperly using their cell phones in the span of just one minute. more ›

Female students at Riverside City College have been warned today about a bathroom lurker who is using his cellphone camera to do some under-stall peeping, according to KTLA. One student describes her de-briefed encounter in the campus's Quadrangle ladies' room to police, indicating that all but one toilet seat in the facility were "covered in urine," forcing her choice of stalls. more ›

Today in privacy news: If you get arrested in California, the police can search your phone without a warrant. "The California Supreme Court allowed police Monday to search arrestees' cell phones without a warrant, saying defendants lose their privacy rights for any items they're carrying when taken into custody," reports the San Francisco Chronicle. In a 5-2 ruling the state court decreed that police are permitted to seize, open and examine anything of importance they find on the arrestee. more ›

Theft of electronic devices in downtown L.A. increases dramatically during the holidays and the LAPD is enlisting your favorite servers and bartenders to help you keep your cell safe, according to the LA Times. Police Lt. Paul Vernon is asking that servers at downtown eateries, bars and clubs keep a close eye on stray cell phones, cameras and other mobile devices that patrons may leave unattended while enjoying dinner and drinks out. more ›

One of the state's most notorious criminals, Charles Manson is making headlines again from behind bars. The mastermind of multiple slayings in the 1960s, Manson has been keeping in touch with the outside world with a modern device: A cellphone. more ›

We've seen the billboards all over town: an oversized phone slathered with the words "first" and "4G." But those of us who don't accept "sometime later this year" for an answer have been left to ask: "So?" "When?" Sprint today announced plans to "officially" launch 4G WiMax mobile internet service across L.A. December 1. Sprint users have been reporting more and more 4G coverage across the metro area since the HTC EVO was released in early June. more ›

Can't part with your cellphone while having a meal in a restaurant? Using cellphones for conversation, texting, or engaging in social media while at the table has become what Zagat co-founder Tim Zagat calls "part of the changing culture of restaurants," according to CBS. more ›

For the second year in a row, national statistics show that distracted driving had led to 5,474 deaths and 448,000 injuries on U.S. roads in 2009. That represents 16% of traffic fatalities across the country, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced today (.pdf). more ›

So as it turns out, it's a crime to send yourself hundreds of threatening text messages--that is, if you claim they're coming from other people. The OC's Jeanne Mundango Manunga "told police her former boyfriend and his sister-in-law were behind the threats. They were arrested on false charges and required to post thousands of dollars in bail," reports cbs2. But it was Manunga who started sending the messages to herself after she and her boyfriend broke up in 2008. Friday she was sentenced in Santa Ana to spend a year in jail, where, luckily for her, she'll have to surrender her cellphone. more ›

California's hands-free cell phone went into effect two years ago, but the latest statistics from the California Highway Patrol show that there is much room for improvement. In the last two years, there have been 1,200 collisions statewide where "a contributing factor was inattention by the driver due to cell phone usage," said the department. more ›

He might not have to worry about himself, but Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to make sure Angelenos don't break the law when it comes to their cellphones. Yesterday at a news conference, Villaraigosa voiced his support for the movement to make sure drivers don't send text messages while they're behind the wheel, reports the Daily News. more ›