iPhone News Updated

Supreme Court says police must get search warrant to use GPS tracking devices

The US Supreme Court ruled today that police must first obtain a search warrant before using GPS devices to track a suspect’s vehicle, agreeing with an earlier appeals court ruling on the case, but rejecting the Obama administration’s position on the case.

In delivering the decision, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the court holds “that the government’s installation of a GPS device on a target’s vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a ’search.’” The case itself concerned a Washington DC nightclub owner and suspected drug dealer, Antoine Jones, who had his car’s movements monitored for a month and was eventually sentenced to life in prison, only to see that conviction overturned by the aforementioned appeals court on the grounds that the police did not have a search warrant when they place the GPS tracking device on his vehicle.

[Thanks: http://www.engadget.com/]

Lost Hiker Saved by iPhone Flashlight

The iPhone can often help you in a pinch when you’re looking for directions or need to be reminded about an upcoming meeting. But for a Maryland man, it was a lifeline when he and his dog got lost during a New Year’s Eve hike.

“Having a charged phone made a world of difference,” Christopher Tkacik told My Fox DC. “If I didn’t have a phone, I would have been stuck really bad.”

Tkacik and Boo were hiking in Gambrill State Park, just northwest of Frederick, Md. After they crossed the same creek four times, he realized they were lost and called police. The sheriff then dispatched a helicopter, Fox said.

But it wasn’t his phone’s GPS that was instrumental in Tkacik’s rescue. The 42-year-old lawyer said the Maps app kept telling him he was in a location he knew to be incorrect. However, his iPhone was able to work like his own personal distress flare.

Once he heard the helicopter hovering above, Tkacik turned on the iPhone’s flashlight, so they could see where he was.

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