Today at F8, the Facebook conference, the social networking übersite announced the next big change, and, OMFG!, you thought you were pissed yesterday when they effed up your news feed. more ›

The Angels kick off a 10-game road trip today but when the team returns in August, Angel Stadium will have some gadgets available to help fans ward off the potential boredom of nine innings of American League baseball. T-Mobile on Friday announced a partnership with the Angels to provide fans with a tablet rental program, allowing fans to watch TV, read magazines, chat with friends and hopefully not get hit in the face by a foul ball. more ›

The Los Angeles Public Library’s Silver Lake Branch is one of--if not the--innovative of the system's branches, and now they are getting ready to launch a mobile app that will allow patrons to use their own smartphone to check out materials from anywhere within the library. more ›

While we can leave the future of foreskin up to city government (thanks San Francisco and Santa Monica), it appears that what our children can and cannot do with their mobile devices while in class will be determined not on a case-by-case basis or by school principals but in Sacramento -- by the California State Legislature. more ›

It's 6:20 on a Thursday evening, and you're supposed to meet a friend for a drink at one of the restaurants on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. So, uh...where is there a free parking spot? As of today, iPhone and Android users can tap into vacant spaces in Studio City with Parker, the real-time parking app. The launch of the app in Studio City was marked at an event featuring the participation of City Councilman Paul Krekorian, along with city officials and tech leaders. 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 ›

One day out of the year should be set aside so we can live life as if we weren't spoiled by all of this wonderful technology. That's the mission of a non-profit called Reboot, which has appropriated the concept of the Sabbath Manifesto to disengage us all in a National Day of Unplugging. more ›

L.A.'s homegrown conference, expo, and party for web startups, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists takes tonight and Thursday at the Skirball Cultural Center. Twiistup 8 will feature demos from ten hot startups on the verge of breaking out, panels and sessions geared toward L.A.'s unique media & technology landscape and the Twiistup afterparty. more ›

Thanks to local blog LA Taco, we were pointed to Wired's "Taco Truck of the Future." The publication runs monthly calls for submissions that respond to a future need. more ›

Last month Google CEO Eric Schmidt hinted towards a big announcement they made Saturday: “Your car should drive itself. It just makes sense,” he said at a conference. “It’s a bug that cars were invented before computers." more ›

RIP Google Wave. It's time to say farewell, though many of us hardly knew ye. Google has announced they're pulling the plug onthe internet giant's attempt to turn your inbox into something as loud and theoretically interactive as a college dorm's bulletin board. more ›

Going green got a whole lot more chic recently in the city of Lynwood, where iPads have been brought in for the City Manager and City Council to replace all the paper once used to print out "their bi-weekly meeting agendas, staff reports, city contracts and other information," reports The Wave. more ›

LA Times technology writer Mark Milian today published a fascinating article on what could be the next big thing: using cell phones to pay for goods and how it could change things in the streets and beyond: more ›

A FCC decision today approved a request to allow first-run movies to be seen on home TVs, even while films are still in theatres, according to The Wrap. "Approving a request by the Motion Picture Association of America, the FCC rejected objections from the National Association of Theater Owners and the Independent Film and Television Alliance... more ›

Heading to Coachella this weekend? Have an iPhone? Make sure you get the updated 2010 Coachella iPhone app, designed by Angeleno Dave Bullock, downloaded before you go. The app, updated since its launch last year, includes new features like a Forum Browser (message board), parking spot map marking function, simplified friend finder function, offline interactive map cacheing, and more. The Coachooser enables you to plot your own schedule based on the lineup. You can also upload photos to the app to share with friends. And since you spent enough on those 3-day-passes, this app is free! Just make sure you aren't tipsy enough to drop your iPhone into a porta-potty. more ›

At a L.A. City Council committee meeting last Friday, city budget officials announced that Los Angeles has received around $591 million from 84 grants in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. That's out of 150 applications put forth so far, asking for a total of $1.5 billion in the three-year federal program. And applications aren't over yet. A low-income weatherization grant was submitted by LADWP last week and two more are expected to be turned in this week. Those two are both tech-related. One program would allow people without computer and internet access to checkout laptops for a couple weeks at a time and another would upgrade the city's website to become a customer service powerhouse and social network. more ›

Crime Mapping is a website that "automatically retrieves data from a records management system," and tracks and maps the information for the public to view, explains KTLA. The San Gabriel Police Department has joined with about two dozen California law enforcement agencies to make use of the Google-powered mapping site so that are residents "can now track crime trends in their neighborhoods." The service for San Gabriel launched today, and marks the first time a police department within Los Angeles County is making use of the service, which "requires no man-hours from police." more ›

On the agenda today for the City Council is consideration of a proposal that will "replace the city government's crash-prone e-mail system with a Google-based application," according to the Daily News. The impetus behind what some view as a costly or belated upgrade is the fact that the system they currently use, GroupWise, is often down and unreliable. more ›

William Bratton, the soon-to-be retired Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, was in Washington D.C. today, urging members of congress to make a wireless public safety broadband network a reality nationwide. In his testimony to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, he talks how such a network could help the development of predictive policing: more ›

As new media consumption goes mainstream, so goes the geekfest; this week's Twiistup includes panels featuring the likes of Brooke Burke (of Wild on E! and Dancing with the Stars fame) discussing her new-found success as an online entrepreneur and Chamillionaire (he of the many mixtapes and much Patron) talking digital music. Since 2007, Twiistup, has served as both a memorable party for the entrepreneurs and media savants and a matchmaking event for select SoCal startups and wide-eyed venture capitalists. But this week Twiistup, now in it's sixth version, is expanding to add a day-and-a-half conference with top speakers to complement a night of open bar mingling. more ›

After much pushing and prodding by the public and media, Metro finally succumbed, quietly launching Google Transit this past weekend. Go ahead and play, it's like we're in a real big city now, catching up with most other major ones. more ›

For a guy as lazy as I am, there’s only a certain number of phrases that will really get me off the couch. I mean, I can get a cheeseburger delivered to my apartment if I really want, and anything not in arm’s reach can either be gotten by stick, or isn’t worth your trouble in the first place. I’m not exactly what you’d call ‘motivated’. However, words like ‘tech’ and ‘Kogi BBQ’ will get my ears to perk up. By the time you add ‘free booze’ to that string, I’m almost done putting on a pair of pants for the first time in weeks. And if you can manage to wheeze out ‘secret airplane hangar in Santa Monica’ before I put a gun to your head and make you drive me there, you certainly are one fast talker. more ›

As the iPhone commercial says, "there's an app for just about anything." Want to get bruised up by security guards in a dark room behind a casino for counting cards? Yup there's an app for that. Las Vegas Review-Journal reports, "California gaming authorities tipped off their Nevada counterparts to a blackjack card-counting program that can be used on either the Apple iPhone or the Apple iPod Touch portable music player." Counting cards is not illegal in Nevada casinos (just ask these guys) but using a device like an iPhone app to help count cards is considered a felony. The cleverly titled "Blackjack Card Counter" app is still available in the iPhone App store for $3.99. more ›

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa yesterday told the Daily News editorial board that a large unseen number of layoffs are coming to city employees. "We can't continue to operate the way we have in the past," he said. more ›

Good news for geeks and the unemployed alike: The internet is the place to work this year. Per a poll conducted by Twiistup ahead of their upcoming meetup event:

Fifty-seven percent of the Southern California start-ups surveyed said the health of the Internet industry in Los Angeles in 2009 will be better than 2008. A significant proportion of respondents, 71%, also said that LA is a better place to build a startup in the Web 2.0 and / or digital media space over the San Francisco / San Jose Bay area.

It seems these days you can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone whose glassy eyes are fixated on the tantalizing business card-sized screen of their beloved iPhone. Techies, Apple enthusiasts, and gadget junkies alike, take heed: There are rumors swirling around that hint that a new iPhone could hit stores come summertime, based on some clever 'decoding' by techies of iPhone software update numbering. more ›

On Thursday night, close to a thousand LA Tech scenesters are expected to join together for the first Digital Family Reunion at the Skirball Center. It's an important event that recognizes that Los Angeles, just like Silicon Valley, is a technology and internet hub. "The event will bring together a wide variety of voices who have helped carve the path for Los Angeles’ emergence as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship," explains co-host Jennifer Fader. more ›

A report released this week said that 70% of technology sector companies are not using RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, to communicate with website visitors. But if you, like said tech companies, are not using RSS, it's likely you a) don't really understand RSS or b) haven't taken a leap of faith into the wonderful world of RSS. more ›

Turn to page 56 in the just-released issue of Wired Magazine (Nov., 2008) and you'll see kind face (usually smiling if you meet him in person) of Brian Humphrey at the Los Angeles Fire Department. The one-page blurb talks about the department's tech initiatives such as the much talked about LAFD Twitter, but also some technologies Humphrey is currently working on. For example, at some point, you may be able to type in your home address and get a text alert when it's on fire (eek!). LAist interviewed Humphrey last year about the use of social networking and emergencies. ALSO: Both USA Today and Daily News penned articles about the LAFD's widgets. more ›