APPLE ACCUSED OF IMPERSONATING POLICE DURING SEARCH FOR MISSING iPHONE PROTOTYPE

According to SF Weekly, six investigators claiming to be members of the San Francisco police department descended upon one Bernal Heights, San Francisco man’s home in search of a lost iPhone 5 prototype that CNEToriginally reported had been left in a bar. The scary part? The SFPD confirmed the investigators weren’t police officers at all. Instead, it appears as though they may have actually been members of Apple’s security team allegedly impersonating police officers. The officers in question claimed that they had traced the iPhone 5 to the man’s house using the device’s GPS feature. “They threatened me,” Sergio Calderon, the 22 year old man whose house was searched, said. “We don’t know anything about it, still, to this day,” he toldSF Weekly. “They made it seem like they were on the phone with the owner of the phone, and they said ‘The person’s not pressing charges, they just want it back. They’ll give you $300,” he added. Reportedly, the police force that did investigate Calderon offered him a number to call if he found any more information on the device. SF Weekly called the number and Anthony Colon, an Apple employee answered the call. Colon is currently employed by Apple as a “senior investigator,” and he once worked for the San Jose police department. Earlier on Friday, it was reported that San Francisco’s police department did not currently have an open investigation into a lost iPhone prototype, despite CNET’sclaims to the contrary. ”This is something that’s going to need to be investigated now,” Lieutenant Troy Dangerfield of the San Francisco police department told SF Weekly. “If this guy is saying that the people said they were SFPD, that’s a big deal.” It’s unclear where the story will turn from here, but it sounds like Apple certainly played a role in the incident. The San Francisco Police Department stated that it would only launch an investigation into the matter if Calderon decides to speak with them directly. UPDATE: The SFPD is now saying they did "assist" Apple in the search, however it is still no clear if the Apple investigators portrayed themselves as police officers.

FCC PROBING SAN FRANCISCO BLOCKING OF WIRELESS IN BART STATIONS

The Federal Communications Commission is investigating actions last week by the transportation authority in San Francisco which interrupted wireless service in commuter stations in an effort to foil protesters who had planned demonstrations.

FCC spokesman Neil Grace said in a statement on Monday that the agency is "continuing to collect information" about the actions by the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and "and will be taking [steps] to hear from stakeholders about the important issues those actions raised."

In particular, Grace alluded to potential public safety problems that could arise when the authorities interrupted service, an action that has caused a national outcry over whether BART exceeded its authority.

SAN FRANCISCO SUBWAY SHUTS DOWN CELL SERVICE DURING PROTESTS

The operators of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway system temporarily shut down cell service last night in four downtown San Francisco stations to interfere with a protest over a shooting by a BART police officer, a spokesman for the system said today. "BART staff or contractors shut down power to the nodes and alerted the cell carriers," James Allison, deputy chief communications officer for BART, told CNET. The move was "one of many tactics to ensure the safety of everyone on the platform," he said in an initial statement provided to CNET earlier this afternoon.

Activists had planned to protest the fatal shooting of Charles Blair Hill, who BART police said went after them with a knife before an officer shot him on July 3. "Organizers planning to disrupt BART service...stated they would use mobile devices to coordinate their disruptive activities and communicate about the location and number of BART police," said the original BART statement. "A civil disturbance during commute times at busy downtown San Francisco stations could lead to platform overcrowding and unsafe conditions for BART customers, employees, and demonstrators."

The initial statement from BART said the subway system had asked the wireless carriers to suspend the service in the stations, but Allison later said BART itself pulled the plug and notified the providers after the fact.

SAN FRANCISCO HALTS CELL PHONE RADIATION LAW

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that The City's law requiring cellphone retailers to label each device's SAR level as tested by the FCC has been put on indefinite hold, with a watered-down version likely taking its place. The law used SAR values to determine radiation levels.

As Joel Moskowitz, director at the IC Berkeley Center for Family and Community Health, and even the FCC will tell you, the SAR value is a poor measurement of radiation intake for consumers:

"The specific absorption rate isn't a very useful measure because it's the peak reading on a variety of tests conducted on cell phones to measure their radiation, but doesn't indicate the average amount of radiation a user would generally be exposed to. You could buy a lower SAR phone, but on average it could produce more radiation than a higher SAR phone."

Although changes to the law have not yet been formally introduced, they'll likely result in retailers handing out "tip sheets" to customers that explain how to minimize radiation exposure from their new handsets.