Best "Best of" app: Village Voice Media (we're awesome...admit it).

​We're not typically in the business of shameless self-promotion here at New Times, but we'll make an exception to toot our own horn over recent accolades for our "Best of" smartphone app, which apparently is pretty friggin' awesome.

In fact, our new app has been listed in the iTunes' year-end "Rewind" list as one of the five best travel apps of the year.

The techies over at Wired.com found our new app equally fetching, describing it as "What Yelp would be if only the cool kids could post reviews."

The app's pretty rad -- it compiles the "Best of" issues from New Times and other Village Voice Media publications across the country. Open her up in most major cities and it'll give you the best restaurants, bars, clubs, and everything else that's nearby.

The best part: it's free -- click here for the free download.

Tommy Reed was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder.

​Tommy McKey Reed was in a Maricopa County Superior Court this morning where Judge Paul McMurdie sentenced him to life in prison for the 2010 murder of a man he met through a gay social networking app for his iPhone.

Reed pleaded guilty earlier this year to first-degree murder in the death of 54-year-old Mark G. Woodland, a man he met, as we mentioned, through a gay social networking iPhone app.

Woodland was found dead at his apartment in the 3800 block of East Greenway Road in Phoenix on April 24, 2010.

Police say Woodland's roommate returned home to the apartment the men shared about 11 p.m. on the night of the murder and noticed that the place had been ransacked.

More >>

www.designtaxi.com

​Over the past several weeks, the Tempe Police Department says at least two groups of thieves have stolen iPhones and other electronic devices from at least eight Arizona State University students on or near the university's Tempe campus.

The most recent heist happened Monday night.

According to the Tempe P.D., the thefts have all been fairly similar -- one or more suspects will approach a person with an iPhone and snatch it out of the victim's hand. In other robberies, one suspect will provide a distraction, like asking for directions, as another thief swipes the phone.

In at least one incident, force was used to steal the device, although, no weapons have been used, police say.

More >>

www.fairfax.cc

​Complaining to the city about mundane crap like potholes and graffiti isn't just for geriatrics with rotary phones anymore.

The city of Avondale has unveiled a new smart phone application that allows residents to alert city officials to municipal eyesores like graffiti, weeds, and potholes.

It's very hip.


More >>

www.thepreppyprincess.com

​At last, an iPhone application that does something a little more useful than finding the closest Applebee's.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale are conducting clinical trials on a new iPhone app that would allow doctors to view brain scans with their iPhones.

The new app was designed by Ross Mitchell, a radiology professor at the University of Calgary, in conjunction with his students and his private firm, Calgary Scientific Inc.

The app, called Resolution MD Mobile Software, allows doctors to check out three-dimensional medical images in high definition on a standard iPhone.

More >>

​Murder? Apparently there's an app for that, too.

That's according to Phoenix police who say a local guy was murdered by a 19-year-old fellow he met using a social networking iPhone app often used by gay men to hook up.

Mark G. Woodland, 54, was found dead at his apartment in the 3800 block of East Greenway Road.

Police say Woodland's roommate returned home to the apartment the men shared about 11 p.m. on Saturday and noticed that the place had been ransacked.

The roommate called police, who, after searching the apartment, found Woodland's body beaten and stabbed in a downstairs bathroom.

The roommate told police that Woodland had sent him a text message at 5 p.m. saying he was going to pick up a male date. He sent a second text at about 6 p.m. to make sure the roommate had left the apartment. 

After finding his body, and his ransacked apartment, police tracked down a friend of Woodland's in California, who told them Woodland had met the man by using a social networking application used by gay men to meet each other.

More >>

​A brand-new cell phone app., developed by a professor at U.C. San Diego, is supposed to help guide illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border similar to how a GPS system works in a car.

UCSD visual arts Professor Ricardo Dominguez created the app., which he is calling the Transborder Immigrant Tool, to give people crossing the border "a way not to die.

More >>