Garry Knight/Flickr

Some 34 percent of American adults have a tablet computer, such as an iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus or Kindle Fire, according to a report released by Pew Research Center.

The number has shot up sharply, almost doubling since last year. It's all about how old you are (or aren't). There's also yet more evidence of the Digital Divide between the affluent and the poor:

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Corey Miller / LA Weekly Flickr pool

Technology is just amazing.

Besides providing new ways for you be embarrassed by your mom (Facebook), called out by your peers (Twitter) and dumped by your lesser half (texting), smartphones can now give you a whole new way to be ignored by your taxpayer-funded representatives at City Hall:

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Art or commerce? Somebody may be the judge.

The Internet is about to radically change, and hardly anyone knows it.

Think about it like a phone system: The Internet operates on just a handful of top-level domains (TLDs) -- like .com and .org -- that function like area codes. Right now, the internet needs more of them. And pretty soon it's going to thousands of them: .law, .house, .gay, .soccer, pretty much anything you can think of. But that's not the radical part. See, unlike area codes, TLDs need someone to run them -- and the saga of .art is a microcosm of what that might mean for the artistic community, and for the Internet itself.

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You could let your conscience be your guide, but that doesn't sound like very much fun at all. Plus L.A. Weekly's new and improved smartphone app is going to do a much better job, especially since it's just been technologically bedazzled and is now ready for your downloading and upgrading pleasure.

Wherever you are and whatever you're into, you'll find something within the app that you can use right now. With just a few thumb swipes, you can:

• See up-to-the-minute content from all our blogs (which include news, arts, music and food)
• Instantly find restaurants and bars near you, searchable by cuisine type and neighborhood
• Check out event listings and concert calendars searchable by date, artist, neighborhood, venue or genre
• See editors' picks of the best things to do, and reviews from our writers
• Peep slideshows of local nightlife, concerts and events
• Get access to our money-saving Daily Deals.

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Lyft

For anyone who has ever fretted about what driving long distances without passengers during rush hour is doing to the environment and to your wallet, there's Lyft.

Launched in San Francisco in 2012, the mobile-app based ride-sharing program allows members to find drivers in their areas who will shuttle them and others nearby for a fee that's reportedly cheaper than most cab rides.

The program hit the Santa Monica area last week.

Not surprisingly, traditional taxi and limo companies are not pleased. The California Public Utilities Commission -- which regulates the state's transportation systems -- has issued fines against the company and even sent it a cease-and-desist.

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LSchinto / Flickr

Microsoft is coming to Venice.

The company confirmed to the Weekly that it's leasing space in the beachside community, which is already home to Google offices and those of other tech companies.

Here's what Microsoft's director of consumer communications told us:

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Eric Demarcq

While teachers in some inner-city schools struggle to get supplies for their students, sometimes buying books, paper and pens themselves, the pupils at tony Manhattan Beach Middle School will each get an iPad as part of the educational experience there this fall.

About 75 percent of the kids will bring their own Apple tablets to class as part of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District's expanding "1:1 iPad Program" that suggests all kids at the school, as well as all the district's fifth graders, obtain the devices for learning starting in fall.

Why?

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A~

Updated at the bottom: One tech czar says maybe all of Southern California's tech-biz scene should be called "Silicon Beach." First posted at 8:07 a.m.

We get mad at New York for trying to surf, claiming that it invented graffiti art despite the fact that Latino gangs have been doing it here for nearly a century, and having an overall superior attitude about all things L.A.

Well, look in the mirror, Los Angeles. Because we're kicking sand in San Diego's face. No, we didn't end up stealing the Chargers back.

But Angelenos have been co-opting a name, Silicon Beach, that has been used in that city to the south for two decades:

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@byandreachang

You have to love Microsoft for complicating the uncomplicated and making the computer experience a nightmare for going on two generations now.

The behemoth unveiled its Surface tablet in Hollywood today, and in typical Microsuck fashion, the thing "crashed badly," according to News Photos LA. A replacement demo unit was quickly brought on-stage, apparently. Way to reveal your iPad beater.

Lulz, right? Not only that, but ...

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eigi

Five of the nation's biggest cable companies today announced they're rolling out free wi-fi hotspots for customers.

The markets covered including Los Angeles, New York, Tampa, Orlando, and Philadelphia. The participating companies include Comcast and Time Warner Cable in L.A. and Cox Communications in Orange and San Diego counties.

Good news? Well, sort of:

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hotgirlswithiphones.com

On the eve of Cinco de Mayo, a smartphone app maker wants you to know before you go:

Bars are the second most likely place to lose your beloved iPhone (or, if your a dork, something Androidy). Yep. You get drunk, put it on the bar, turn to annoy that hottie next to you and, faster that you can say, Dos mas, por favor, it's gone.

Not only that, but ...

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eigi

Strange days in the world of technology: You're afraid your information is being ripped off by big internet companies. But you support the much-maligned SOPA legislation. And you trust Apple, in recent times the most valuable corporation on the planet.

Huh?

Those are some of the contradictory results from the latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll:

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Massimo Valiani

If it weren't for geeks keeping tech companies honest we'd still be using Windows 95 and paying AOL for dial-up.

Two L.A. men, Dodd Harris and Stephen Sabatino, are seeking class-action status for a suit against Google. Their issue?

The duo claims that some Google Android phone apps don't work, and that the tech giant will do little to give you your money back after you've purchased such programs.

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Driving Mr. Padilla.

Behold! Google's creepy new robotic car driving Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Los Angeles) to his press conference... on Google's creepy new robotic car.

How convenient.

Google cleared a huge hurdle to filling California's highways with its robo fleet yesterday, when Padilla introduced Senate Bill 1298 on the front steps of the State Capitol. The bill legalizes everyday use of autonomous vehicles, and...

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Paris-approved.

California drivers should be able to store proof of insurance and vehicle registration on their smartphones, says Mike Gatto, a state assemblyman for Los Angeles, in his proposed Assembly Bill 1708.

Which really makes us think: How does this not exist already?

Gatto feels the same way. "It only makes sense for the state where the iPad was designed to remain on the technological forefront" ...

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ubergizmo.com

The downside.

Did you know that a little over 90 percent of Generation Y does the smartphone while sitting on the toilet?

This survey says so! (We realize we're like two weeks late on this, but our favorite AM station just mentioned it this morning, and it's way too newsworthy and hard-hitting and relevant to pass over cold-turkey.)

The survey also says other stuff we always really wanted to know but never knew we did, like...

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Jason Swaby

See our piece on how Anonymous attacked Hollywood here.

Get ready guys. Jan. 18 might become known in the future as the day the Internet went dark.

Several websites, including L.A.'s own Boing Boing, are vowing to go offline Wednesday to protest Congress' consideration of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would require websites to sever ties and links to those known to have violated copyright laws.

Even Facebook and Google are rumored to be taking part in "Stop SOPA Day," but ...

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Apple

A girl's best friend?

Ashton Kutcher, you definitely don't want to get the new iPhone.

Reports indicate that the iPhone 4S' voice-activated assistant, Siri, can still take commands when your phone is otherwise passcode locked. Meaning that your wife -- Demi Moore, for example -- can ask it to redial the last number called or otherwise embark on any number of intrusive inquiries that will having you packing for the nearest Hard Rock Hotel.

Siri seems like girlfiend's best friend. The Washington Post today warns:

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Matt McGrath

The idea that the LAPD is going to store some of its sensitive information -- perhaps background on criminals and investigations, for example -- in "the cloud" has cops balking at the level of Google's email security.

The city of L.A. decided last year to drop Novell's email service in favor of Google's otherwise free Gmail -- at a cost of as much as $2 million more than it was spending! (Yeah, only L.A. City Hall could find a way to make "free" cost you, the taxpayer, an extra $2 mil).

Anyway, that cost might be going up as the LAPD drags its feet, fearful of putting all its data eggs in the cloud's basket:

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The iPhone 4S. Or maybe the iPhone 4. We can't really tell.

Update: Sure enough! In the 24 hours since it's been available for pre-order, the iPhone 4S has almost doubled all previous iPhone records in that period. Apple reports that one million phones have been sold. Stock, naturally, is up as well. Lesson: Grief sells.

Originally posted October 6 at 1 p.m.

Apple fanboys and -girls were bummin' after new CEO Tim Cook's first product launch earlier this week, at which he unveiled the iPhone 4S instead of the much-wished-upon iPhone 5.

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