How to catch an iPhone predator. (ABC News)

With apps like Find My iPhone now built into most Mac products--and the NYPD is on it!--it's still difficult to, well, find one's iPhone, especially if it's been stolen. That's why one canny victim, Nadal Nirenberg, found a new way to find his phone, lost on New Year's Eve ... by posing as a woman on a online dating site.

When he saw his OKCupid profile being used by the suspect through his former iPhone 4, Mr. Nirenberg played his own game of To Catch a Predator, by hitting on his online avatar, pretending to be a sexy woman.

Martin Scorsese in the new iPhone ad (YouTube)

Zooey Deschanel orders tomato soup. John Malkovich demands a joke. Samuel L. Jackson makes his own tomato soup (Hot-spacho!)

The iPhone 4S ads have drawn some A-list names to promote its new feature: indentured robotic servant Siri. Because Apple won't rest until the singularity is here and everything Isaac Asimov predicted comes true.

The latest spot, released yesterday, stars director Martin Scorsese in the back of a taxi cab. In 1976's Taxi Driver, it was Mr. Scorsese himself who made the cameo as a creepy backseat passenger. Now, he's returning the favor.

See if you can spot the Taxi Driver shout-out in the iconic director's commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z714Fnylf5s&feature=player_embedded#!

Did you see it? As Redditors pointed out, Mr. Scorsese is apparently still riding in Travis Bickle's cab: the car has the same license plate as the one in the DeNiro film.

Even though the Tribeca area has been gentrified since Taxi Driver was first released (thanks in large part to Mr. DeNiro himself), it's still nice to know that the city is still be kept safe by vigilante cab drivers...at least those willing to sell out for a phone commercial.

Two images from the Alexandre Herchcovitch show. (left: Jennifer Branken, right: Jessie Adler/Milk Studios)

As sartorialists make their biannual pilgrimage from New York to London to Milan to Paris, some veteran tent-dwellers still have a pebble stuck in their Louboutins from Lincoln Center.

The glossy editor’s anxiety over being edged out of the front row, it seems, has migrated over to the media riser and down to the pit. What was once the province of professional photogs, to hear them tell it, has been overrun by iPhone and iPad wielding bloggers who wouldn’t know a bounce flash from a zoom lens. And they’re hogging up the press passes for backstage beauty shots!

Shortly after they turned off the stage lights and sopped up the champagne, a handful of disgruntled photographers reached out to The Observer to kvetch. Slights ranged from being turned away from shows, to an errant iPhone interrupting their runway image, to discovering that the insolent photo-bloggers never learned the etiquette about getting your shot and moving on.

One accredited photographer, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of being “black-listed,” is even in the process of drafting a “letter of grievance,” calling it “my sort of manifesto, to explain to them what it is to be a photographer, if they choose to separate the bacon from the pig, so to speak.” (We wonder how well the fashion crowd will relate to a pork metaphor, however.)

Those who make their money through licensed images that go out to newswires and magazines, insist that it hurts designers to have Google Images flooded with subpar photographs that, literally, show their garments in a poor light.

What’s worse, experienced photographers moan, these bloggers do it all in “front-of-house” attire, with an attitude to match. “They’re dressed to the hilt and pull a point-and-shoot out of their Louis Vuitton,” said Jennifer Polixenni Brankin, a fashion and editorial photographer who has shot twelve seasons around the globe. “They’re just really kids who want to get into Fashion Week. We tapped one of the girls and was like, ‘Where is your camera?’ and she was unbelievably rude.”

Three years ago, the fashion press began noting, through gritted, gleaming teeth, how quickly an online following earned Tavi Gevinson and BryanBoy a seat beside Anna. Now, trained photographers, already circling the lower rungs of the Fashion Week ladder, find themselves competing with a contingent of kids who’ve never heard of color correction.

“I can’t speak for the brands but I hope they would care. They spend a lot of money to put out a fabulous show and that’s a significant investment and I hope they would want the very best photography and the very best pictures coming out,” said Fern Mallis, the renowned former senior vice president of IMG Fashion, best known for running New York Fashion Week for more than a decade. “Like I say, everyone who has an iPhone or an iPad isn’t a photographer. Nor is every blogger, a writer or a critic who has the knowledge and the history to edit, digest and communicate what the collections are about...”

But brands, given the choice between online eyeballs on the cheap and a beautiful glossy magazine shot want, well, both. “I had to take camera phone photos while I was taking actual photos for some of the shows I was at just because they wanted to put them on Instagram,” Los Angeles-based photographer Mark Luebbers said of the client who sent him to New York.

“We love, we love, we love glossy magazines. But the bloggers are reaching a different demographic, and it really is helping the reach of these designers,” said Flint Beamon, an expert in “back of house” management for PR Consulting. “It’s in the best interest that everybody tries to get along. Obviously this is not the case.”

Accredited photographers insist they just want more vetting—and their rightful place back. “I will not waste my company’s time if I’m on second or third row or in a back position on a riser, then I can’t give my agency a marketable image. My image is preset at a price based on what my agency’s expenses are including my salary. So they can’t give it away. I’m in jeopardy. We’re all in jeopardy,” said the photographer drafting the memo. (Paging 2007, says everyone in media.)

In prior seasons, explained Ms. Mallis, the media riser is typically filled with “Photographers who shoot for credible places” and people who are “grandfathered in because everybody knows who they are and they've been shooting for years.” The pecking order of the riser can be every bit as hierarchical as those rows of white chairs, with photogs using tape to indicate their spot—something bloggers may not have picked up on. “They have their own system and they figure out who sits where and who does what and that's part of the mix of the photographers’s pit. The conflict and energy you get with these gruff men and women on the media riser juxtaposed against the well-heeled audience is part of the experience of a fashion show,” said one PR insider, adding, “Ultimately these photographers from the agencies, most of whom are freelancers that get paid only when their images are used-I don't want to say have less reach-but they have a different kind of relevance than they used to in the past."

PR Consulting, the firm where Mr. Beamon works, represents MADE Fashion Week, an alternate to the IMG-run affair that was launched to support young designers in 2009. In a statement to The Observer, Made explained that bloggers are essential to reach what they claim is 11 million viewers through its digital platforms, noting, “Made does not grant access to any shows for specific bloggers, but rather representatives who capture content that is then aggregated to specific sites such as Tumblr, Milkmade.com, or the MADE Fashion Week app.” Ms. Brankin had a different theory, “It seems they’re in bed with Tumblr for Fashion Week,” she said

IMG, which runs the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, offered the following statement about its vetting process, “IMG takes the process of registering and credentialing of media seriously and continually updates these processes to be in line with current technology as well as best practices. We review the credentials of hundreds of new outlets each season and attempt to only credential those that are most relevant.”

Organizers from both camps also point out that PR firms for the designers themselves get to decide whom to invite backstage. Besides, the PR insider noted, failing to credential lower tier outlets just prompts them to get around the process by getting a badge from a B or C list designer, “So all of a sudden they're running around with just the backstage credential and we don't really have any sort of influence over their movements.”

Add to that the fact that old guard may not be as well-behaved as they think. “They hang out until the very last moment, until I kick them out normally. It’s not that they get their photography and they leave. That never happens. And if it does, it’s because they have another show to go to,” said Mr. Beamon

“It's clear that bloggers are a significant presence, but I'm not sure all of them are justified in their presence and their sense of entitlement and when they belong and how important they are,” noted Ms. Mallis, who recently discussed this issue with BryanBoy on her Sirius XM radio show.

Of course, she’s been proven wrong before. BryanBoy once tweeted out a link to his 233,000 Twitter followers, “Remember how Fern Mallis said "twitter won't bring orders for a designer"? well, check this wsj article out.” That was 2009.

-ntiku@observer.com

Kim Kardashian hates Christmas! (Getty Images)

Kim Kardashian, back from Australia and on the West  Coast, kept up her style of tweeting things the rest of the world is dying to know this Christmas. As in:

"Stephen, did you know that despite receiving a new iPhone for Christmas, Kim Kardashian finds people with two phones 'shady'?"

"No, Robert, I had no idea!"

"Well, me neither!"

But she does.

During her family's annual Kardashian-Jenner Christmas bash (including its own Santa, probably the real version imported from the North Pole in the hopes of making it onto the inevitable A Very Kardashian Christmas special for E!) the formerly married socialite received a second phone. Because celebrities are always losing their phones, you know?

But Kim was dubious of the Apple product, tweeting:

"Santa sent me an iPhone! I'm just gonna keep it as my 2nd phone bc I don't know if I'm gonna like this touch screen stuff! I'm excited 2 try. I do think people with 2 phones are kinda shady & annoying LOL soooo we will see how this goes!"

Who is this lady??

It's quite impressive, really. In a post titled "Too Tired to Name-Drop,"  XOJane editor in chief Jane Pratt liveblogged on her iPhone yesterday during a conversation she was having in a tea shop.

Which seems kind of...rude? Liveblogging during a conversation? Especially since Ms. Pratt could have used the phone to look up the name of the very famous actress she was talking to. Instead, she just gave readers clues and asked them to solve the mystery for her.

What is the world coming to? That nice cool woman from the Sopranos and Nurse Betty -- the fantastic actress and fellow single mom I know from years ago -- is talking to me in the tea place and I can't use her name in conversation, even though she is using mine, because I can't remember it. Something with an E? Don't you dislike when that happens? I wind up saying "honey" way too much in these instances. As in, "Bye Jane!" "Bye honey!!" Ugh.

Ms. Pratt knew the person she was talking to was a famous actress who was on the Sopranos and Nurse Jackie. Ms. Pratt knew the woman's name began with the letter "E." She also knew that the woman was a single mother and a friend of hers from a while back. But she just couldn't think of the lady's name, because the former Sassy editor was too tired (and too busy using her phone to blog), because she doesn't drink caffeine except for kombucha and she spent all last night at Courtney Love's house (whose name she can definitely remember). Oh well.

Anyway, what do you do when you can't remember someone's name? (And who is this cool lady I'm talking to?) Good morning, y'all!

This is like a kid's TV show, where Dora the Explorer waits a beat so we can yell out the answer. It's EDIE FALCO! Yay!

We admit, we are a little obsessed by Jane Pratt's creative use of phone-blogging. It's so informal! Now, someone show her how to use Google on this damn thing.

Bloomberg reports that Apple is working on an iPhone that's cheaper and smaller than those currently available (are they making iPhones for small children? babies?), and the company is trying to develop technology that ports the phone across networks.

The idea, according to Bloomberg, is to combat Google's Android, which is grabbing a rapidly expanding share of the global smartphone market. 

The new Apple device is expected to sell for around $200, and it'll be two-thirds the size of the iPhone 4, or about the size of six books of matches, or three and a half cigarette lighters.

The question now is whether Apple will experience declining profit margins as it lowers the price of its phones. Such an event would surely disappoint people who had previously thought this company would always make the coolest, most unique products, forever.

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor

Verizon has uploaded its first self-congratulatory iPhone commercial to YouTube, and it's just about the opposite of the ridiculous robot-themed campaigns it's been running to promote Android phones.

The Android ads were dark and scary, with evil-looking machines poking at touchscreens with their creepy metallic fingers.

By contrast, the iPhone ad shows people! Smiling!

The spot opens with a montage of ticking clocks, tapping feet, wringing hands, doodles in a notebook, as Verizon's customers wait for the mythical iPhone. Then a vintage clock flips to 12:00 and a girl smiles. The iPhone logo flashes, followed by the Verizon logo, followed by the logo for Verizon's "Rule the Air" campaign, followed by the words "It Begins."

A little melodramatic, but at least it'll give us a break from the Droids and their doings.

Watch the ad below.

ajeffries [at] observer.com | @adrjeffries

Mobile research firm Zokum released the results of a new study today which found iPhone users are 84% more loyal to their product than consumers who have Android smartphones. 

Interestingly, however, Android users are more likely to repurchase an Android phone that iPhone users.

How to explain this discrepancy? Well, the loyalty score given to the iPhone is based on a single question - "How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?" 

So iPhone users are the type of people who would sing the praises of the device they own--even if when push comes to shove, they might not buy it again. 

IPhone users are also more likely to pay for apps, while Android users prefer the free ad-supported variety. 

Gluttons for punishment is the only way to describe it. 

bpopper at observer dot com - @benpopper

But few expected the announcement that the Verizon iPhone would support tethering, acting as a mobile hotspot for up to five other devices. 

For AT&T users, who have trouble getting a reliable phone signal for just that one device, this has got to sting. 

Twitter is ablaze with speculation over how AT&T will respond, but the real speculation is now focused on the data/pricing plans Verizon will offer. 

Word of unlimited data has been swirling for days, but nothing official was announced at the presser. 

It will all be sorted out before Feb. 3, when the iPhone 4 goes on sale for Verizon. 

Apple fanboy and iPhone lover MG Siegler was in town for the launch and tested the two networks side by side - results of his preliminary test via Twitter -

• The Verizon 3G speeds versus the AT&T 3G speeds in this room are quite humorous. 
• As in, one is very fast. The other switches between dog slow and not working. I'll let you fill in which is which. 
• Okay, a hint. #attsucks. 

bpopper at observer dot com - @benpopper

These two telco giants share the same mother, Ma Bell that is, but apparently broadband runs thicker than blood. Jenna Wortham breaks it down for The New York Times:

“I’m not sure iPhone users are ready for life in the slow lane,” Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman, said in a company statement.

Say what!

“AT&T is known for a lot of things, but network quality is not one of them,” said Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless. “Typically companies try to call attention to their strongest suit. It must be backwards day at AT&T.”

Oh snap, backwards day. 

AT&T may be treading in dangerous territory. For the last several years, Verizon has ranked in the top tier of customer satisfaction, while AT&T has sunk to the bottom, according to Consumer Reports. In a head-to-head insult war, Verizon is going to have way more firepower. 

Luckily for AT&T, most of their customers aren't going anywhere. Eighty percent of iPhone users are on a family plan, and 75 percent still have one year left on their contracts. 

bpopper at observer dot com - @benpopper