London iPhone theft victims have reported threats, AirTag catches a burglar in Pittsburgh, and California prisoners did not receive iPads, all in this week’s Apple Crime Blotter.

The latest in an occasional AppleInsider series, looking at the world of Apple-related crime.

Chicago man arrested in $31,000 iPhone theft

A 34-year-old temporary employee at a logistics facility in Illinois has been charged with stealing $31,000 worth of iPhones from the building.

According to Fox 32 Chicago, the man was caught on security footage entering a trailer, and later concealing the approximately 40 stolen iPhones in a sweater.

The man, who lives in Chicago, was charged with a felony count of theft.

London iPhone theft victims report threats

The city of London has, in recent years, suffered a massive wave of iPhone thefts, with 81,000 reported stolen in 2024 and 71,000 in 2025.

The New York Times reported on May 23 that many of those victimized by such thefts have subsequently received threatening phone calls and text messages from the thieves.

“I know who you are and where you live,” was the message received by a Chicago resident whose iPhone was stolen in London. “I’ve killed or far less than a phone before.”

The threats, the newspaper said, have often been tied to the thieves’ desire to have the victims unlink their IDs from the stolen devices.

AirTag helps catch man accused of multiple crimes in Pittsburgh

A man accused of both sexual assault and burglary has been caught after he stole an AirTag from the victim’s home.

According to CBS News Pittsburgh, the AirTag and $2 in cash were both taken from the victim’s home. Police followed the ping to a nearby location where the man was arrested, while fingerprints left at the scene also pointed to that particular suspect.

He confessed to the assault, but not to the theft of the AirTag. He has been charged with burglary, aggravated indecent assault, and indecent assault.

No, California prisoners were not given free iPads

A report by City Journal in mid-May alleged that state prisoners in California, including some on death row, were given tablet computers. The report states that these tablets have been used by prisoners to watch pornography and for other controversial purposes.

However, multiple aggregations of that report by other media outlets, including one by Fox LA, have erroneously referred to the tablets in question as “iPads.”

They are not, as the original contract for the tablets was with Viapath/Global Tel Link. A recent bidding process led to a change in vendor to Securus Technologies.

Securus provides Android tablets under the EVOTAB brand. The tablets are not iPads, and there are no reports that Apple has ever been involved in the program.

In addition, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer (R-SC) called the tablets “iPads” in announcing plans for Congress to investigate the program.

Gov. Gavin Newsom may not have authorized iPads, but he did, earlier in May, preside over the release of California’s American Innovation Coin honoring Steve Jobs.

Information about “city-managed Apple accounts” was part of a report on Minneapolis Police Chief’s ouster

Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis Police Chief and a prominent figure during the recent ICE siege in that city, resigned on May 26.

According to The New York Times, O’Hara stepped down following “a personnel investigation into his conduct,” and that “O’Hara had likely deleted a contact from his phone last year while facing a previous internal investigation into allegations that he had sexual relationships with city workers.” However, the report found no evidence that such relationships occurred.

KSTP published the report itself, which found that among the evidence in the “Original Investigation” was “Information from the City’s IT department about a transfer to City-managed Apple accounts on March 20, 2025.”

Man arrested in Florida iPhone theft, fraudulent charges

A man in Florida was arrested on May 17 and charged with stealing an iPhone and perpetrating a subsequent “wave of fraudulent credit card charges.”

CBS 12 reports a victim had approached the Stuart Police Department in December 2025 and reported that his iCloud account was compromised. Over the course of a month, the report said, the fraudulent purchases continued, which included gift cards and other items.

The man was arrested on five counts of fraudulent use of identification, petit theft, and theft of a credit card.

Customer service scam costs Californians $15,000

A resident of Folsom, Calif., told police that they were contacted by phone by a bogus Apple customer service representative.

According to The Folsom Times, the fake rep told the victim about false transactions, and later met the victim and “collected $15,000 in cash.”

Police are looking for a “porch pirate” who took an Apple Watch

Police in Rye, N.Y., put out a call in April to see if anyone recognized a “porch pirate” who was caught on camera stealing a “freshly delivered Apple Watch off the front porch of a residence in a neighborhood in close proximity to the Playland Parkway.”

The suspect, the police department said, “arrived on a motorized scooter 45 minutes after the package was delivered by UPS.”

Bangladeshi actress’ iPhone is stolen

An iPhone belonging to Bangladeshi actress Tanha Tasnia Islam was stolen in mid-May, reportedly by a man falsely posing as the driver for a different actor, Joy Chowdhury.

According to Daily New Nation, “discussions have begun,” in relation to the theft at Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC), as it took place while the actress was dubbing dialogue.

iPhone “snatched” from candidate for Miss International Queen Philippines

A woman competing in the Miss International Queen Philippines pageant had her silver iPhone 17 Pro Max stolen in mid-May.

The Daily Tribune wrote that the iPhone belonging to Mikay Bautista was “stolen by riding-in-tandem suspects” when she was in Quezon City.

Bautista was first runner-up in the competition, which took place two days after the theft.

Photograph: Pete Cottell

M-Audio has packaged everything this person would need in a tidy little box with its M Track Duo HD producer pack. It includes a two-channel class-compliant audio interface, an M100 condenser mic, a pair of HD41 headphones, a mic clip, a USB-C cable to connect the interface to your computer or mobile device, and an XLR cable to connect the mic to the interface—all for the low price of $200. Aside from a mic stand (we love this desk clamp boom arm stand from Innogear) and the unearned confidence necessary to speak into a mic for hours about a wide variety of esoteric topics, you need nothing else than what’s in this box to get started. Plug a few things in, fire up OBS or your favorite DAW, adjust the gain on the mic preamp, and get to work.

The interface is a lightweight box of plastic that’s about the size of a VHS tape or a self-help book you’d buy at an airport bookstore. The front panel has two combo XLR quarter-inch input jacks, both of which have separate line and instrument level impedance selectors. A 48-volt switch enables phantom power for both inputs at once, which is essential to power the included condenser mic or a Cloudlifter if you decide to go full-on PodBro and upgrade to a dynamic mic. There’s also a single quarter-inch TRS headphone jack and a three-way selector that dictates whether a direct mono, direct stereo, or USB signal feeds the dual-mono quarter-inch tip-sleeve output jacks on the back of the box.

Each channel has its own gain knob on the top of the unit, with an indicator light below that flashes white when a signal is present and red when the signal is clipping. Each preamp has 55 dB of gain on tap, which is more than enough to turn even the meekest of Teams meeting NPCs into audible, active participants. The motion of the knob is smooth and jitter-free until you hit the last 10 percent of its sweep, at which point some ambient digital noise seemingly clicks on and off as if it were triggered with a switch. This is way too much gain for any practical application due to the amount of clipping it’s likely to cause, so this is not a major concern for anyone who’s spent 30 minutes or so dialing in their levels and getting a feel for the thing.

A Mic for the Masses

The included condenser mic pairs well with the preamp in the interface. It’s a unipolar large-diaphragm condenser mic, which in normie language means the metal grate that covers the front of the mic is where you’ll want to point your voice, instead of the back. Condenser mics are much more sensitive to ambient noise than a dynamic mic, which is both an upside and a downside. A condenser mic works well a bit farther from your face than a dynamic mic, but you’ll need to boost the gain to pick up your voice at a greater distance. This picks up more background noise as well, which can lead to some embarrassing moments on Zoom calls when, say, the small flock of fowl your neighbor is illegally housing in their garage starts clucking nervously when a garbage truck rattles down the block. Luckily, Zoom has decent built-in noise suppression tools, so this was easy to address without any extra plugins or hardware.

The mic handles a standard male speaking voice quite well. I’m not fully trained on pensive NPR-speak just yet, but my standard tech-guy patter broadcast as clear as a bell with the mic 6 inches from my face, and the gain knob turned up to around 3 o’clock. The mic does not have a high-pass filter switch to roll off low-end rumble from accidental bumps into the stand or the mic itself, so you’ll need to take care to avoid fumbles that cause loud thumping noises if you prefer higher gain and a bit more distance from your mouth to the mic.

The Fitbit Air has entered the chat.

Fitbit Air

Cherlynn Low for Engadget

Garmin vívosmart 5

Garmin

Samsung Galaxy Ring

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Apple Watch Series 11

Cherlynn Low for Engadget

Xiaomi Smart Band 10

Xiaomi

Twenty Snap alumni have launched Ghost Angels, an angel fund backing the next generation of social media and consumer AI startups. The fund has invested in at least five companies and plans to deploy remaining capital into at least 15 more within the next year. It declined to disclose total fund size.

Max Rivera, who led global partnerships at Snap, started the fund in 2025 to formalise an already growing alumni angel community. He currently works at Microsoft’s AI division. The roughly 20 founder members include Alexandra Levitt, who ran Snap’s corporate accelerator, and Will Wu, a founding member of Snap’s product and design team.

“We were intentional about the mix,” Rivera told TechCrunch. “That diversity of thought and experience is core to how we evaluate deals and support founders.” The membership includes former senior executives alongside people earlier in their careers, plus a small number who still work at Snap.

Ghost Angels invests at pre-seed to seed stage in AI startups building in social media and consumer. Rivera said the biggest trend he has noticed is that “social” and “media” have actually split into two distinct categories.

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

What consumers know as social media today is a platform that relies on ads, with algorithms driving content and recommendations. “A lot of people are disillusioned with that relative to the original promise of connecting people in your life,” Rivera said. The next generation is moving away from generalised platforms and toward niche communities.

Ghost Angels is backing both sides of the split. On the social side, founders are applying AI to deliver on the original promise of human connection. On the media side, AI-native formats and generative creative tools are lowering the barrier to creation and distribution across music, gaming, sports, and fashion.

Rivera has noticed that today’s founders operate differently from when he joined Snap nearly a decade ago. Teams are leaner. Founders launch fast and iterate in public. Monetisation is diversifying beyond ads into subscriptions, token-based models, usage-based pricing, and outcome-based revenue.

Meta’s launch of Forum this week underscores how the incumbents are also sensing the split. Forum, a standalone app built from Facebook Groups, is designed to capture the community discussion use case that Reddit currently dominates. The fact that Meta is unbundling Groups into a separate app validates Ghost Angels’ thesis that niche community tools are the next category.

Molly DeWolf Swenson, co-founder and CEO of portfolio company Mozi, said the “Snap alumni network is full of brilliant, influential people who inherently understand the problem space I’m playing in.” The fund’s value proposition to founders is not just capital but domain expertise from people who helped build one of the defining social platforms of the last decade.

The broader startup landscape is rewarding AI-native approaches that build for new categories rather than optimising existing ones. Peec AI hit $10 million ARR in six months by building for generative engine optimisation, a category that barely existed before ChatGPT changed how people search. Ghost Angels is betting that the same dynamic applies to social: the platforms that win will be built for AI-native interaction, not retrofitted with AI features.

The Snap alumni network is one of the most active in consumer tech. Snapchat’s culture of experimentation, its bet on ephemeral content, its early investment in AR, and its willingness to build products that looked strange before they looked obvious produced a generation of product thinkers who now see the next cycle forming. Ghost Angels is the vehicle for putting that conviction to work.

With ever-increasing RAM and SSD price hikes dominating headlines – and even Apple worried about how it’ll impact prices, I’ve spotted big discounts on two MacBook Air laptops right now. Right now, you can save $200 on the 15-inch MacBook Air M5 with 16GB RAM, paying $1099. And for an even more portable pick, the 13-inch MacBook Air M4 gets a $300 discount, also now $1099, which comes with 24GB RAM and 512GB SSD.

● Get the MacBook Air 15-inch (M5) for $1099 (was $1299) at Amazon

● Get the MacBook Air 13-inch (M4) for $1099 (was $1399) at Best Buy

These deals caught my eye because not long ago, CEO Tim Cook warned that significant changes in the memory market could lead to an “increasing impact” on Apple’s products.

Who knows what means – but I suspect it could translate into a mix of product shortages in high-memory SKUs and higher base costs for MacBooks, making it an excellent time to upgrade. Both slimline laptops feature the vibrant and beautiful Liquid Retina display, and come in a range of colors to suit your style. I’ve also seen the MacBook Air (M5) with 24GB RAM and 1TB SSD down to $1499 (was $1699) at Amazon, if you want a performance boost.

Today’s best MacBook Air deals

A better deal than an entry-level MacBook Neo?

Is the MacBook Neo the better budget pick? That depends on your use, with the MacBook Air being the power powerful, portable option.

The Neo uses the considerably slower Apple A18 Pro CPU versus the M4 and M5 CPUs that higher-end MacBooks above offer.

The deals, as they stand, are unlikely to be beaten any time soon. For a larger display and a slightly beefier CPU, go with the M5 route. The more compact M4-based model’s additional 8GB of RAM is handy for memory-intensive workloads or even some light localized AI use cases.

Reviewing the MacBook Air (M4), we called it “best ultraportable”. Then the M5 model was released, and testing the 13-inch version, we hailed it as “still the best ultraportable” we’ve ever used.

Apple’s next-generation Pro iPhone could arrive with one of the biggest camera upgrades the company has introduced in years. But according to new analyst reports quoted by Forbes, that improvement may also come with a significant increase in manufacturing costs – raising fresh questions about whether future iPhone prices could climb even higher.

The focus of the latest leak is the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, which are expected to debut a new variable aperture camera system. Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims the upgraded camera module could cost Apple roughly 50 percent more than the camera hardware currently used in its Pro models.

That may not sound dramatic at first, but camera systems have increasingly become one of the most expensive and important components inside modern flagship smartphones.

A camera upgrade Apple has been chasing for years

Variable aperture technology has been rumored for iPhones for several years, and reports now suggest the feature has finally entered production for the iPhone 18 Pro lineup. Unlike current iPhone Pro models, which use a fixed aperture lens, the new system would allow the camera to physically adjust how much light enters the sensor. In practical terms, that means improved exposure control, more flexibility in challenging lighting conditions, and potentially more natural background blur effects without relying entirely on software processing.

Apple has largely relied on computational photography to improve image quality over the years, but a variable aperture would represent a more traditional camera hardware upgrade similar to features already seen on some premium Android phones.

According to Kuo, the new lens assembly is substantially more expensive than the seven-element plastic lens system Apple currently uses. Chinese supplier Sunny Optical is expected to handle a significant portion of production for the upgraded component.

Why this matters

The bigger story may not be the camera itself, but what it could mean for future iPhone pricing.

Apple has so far avoided major flagship price increases despite rising memory costs, more advanced chips, and growing manufacturing expenses. However, reports suggest the iPhone 18 Pro lineup is accumulating several expensive upgrades at once, including new camera technology, next-generation silicon, and additional connectivity features.

That has led to growing speculation that Apple may eventually need to pass some of those costs onto buyers.

Online reactions have already been mixed. Some users see variable aperture as a meaningful photography upgrade, while others argue that most everyday users may never notice the difference enough to justify higher prices.

What happens next

Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro series in late 2026, and current reports suggest the devices could arrive alongside Apple’s first foldable iPhone.

For now, it remains unclear whether the higher camera costs will directly affect retail pricing. Apple has historically absorbed some component increases to maintain pricing stability, particularly in highly competitive markets.

Still, if the leaks prove accurate, the iPhone 18 Pro could become a test of how much consumers are willing to pay for advanced camera hardware. Apple clearly believes better photography remains one of the strongest reasons people upgrade their phones. The question is whether buyers will feel the same if the improvements arrive with a heavier price tag attached.

“Unlimited” is a funny term. Unlimited cell phone plans often come with a long list of footnotes, terms, conditions, and exceptions. Mercifully, all of the Big Three cell companies have, by now, ditched throttling on their most expensive plans and include 5G data access in all their unlimited plans. Yet there are still many differences in the services they offer, and there are many differences between each carrier’s various tiers.

Cheaper “unlimited” tiers do offer unlimited talk and text. But they still have rules on how much data you get before they start throttling your speed, and some “unlimited” plans may throttle your data at any given time. It’s been a fixture of cell service plans for years.

It can be overwhelming, which is why I’ve broken it down. Below, I’ve highlighted what each of the three major carriers offers for “unlimited” individual and family plans to help you figure out which unlimited plan is best for you and your budget.

If you absolutely want to avoid slower data speeds at peak times, you’ll likely be choosing among the plans here. But look to our guide to the Best Prepaid Phone Plans for lower costs at the expense of some limitations. Also check out WIRED’s guides to the Best Android Phones, Best iPhones, and Best Cheap Phones.

Update February 2026: We updated prices and plans for all three major carriers. We added T-Mobile’s Essentials Saver Plan and rebranded Better Value Plan as well as AT&T’s rebranded Premium PL, Extra EL, Saver SL, and Value Plus VL plans.

The Best Unlimited Plan Right Now: T-Mobile Experience More/Better Value Plans

The Essentials plan (with autopay, taxes/fees not included): 1 Line for $60/month | 2 Lines $90 | 3 Lines $90 | 4 Lines $100 | 5 Lines $125.

Essentials Saver plan (with autopay, taxes/fees not included): 1 Line for $50/month | 2 Lines $80 | 3 Lines $140

Experience More/Better Value (with autopay, taxes/fees not included): 1 Line for $85/month | 2 Lines $140 | 3 Lines $140 | 4 Lines $170 | 5 Lines $200

Experience Beyond (with autopay, taxes/fees not included): 1 Line for $100/month | 2 Lines $170 | 3 Lines $170 | 4 Lines $215 | 5 Lines $260

T-Mobile has the best 5G coverage among the big three, the highest 5G speeds, the fastest downloads and the best overall reliability, according to analysis from OpenSignal and Ookla. The carrier also makes claims to winning on value, when you take into account perks that include entertainment bundles, airplane WiFi, and access to satellite data in emergencies.

T-Mobile has rebranded its unlimited offerings this year but still offers three (or kinda four) main unlimited talk and text plans: Essentials, Experience More, and Experience Beyond. Only the two Experience plans offer true unlimited 5G data without any throttling or deprioritizing (i.e., making your phone stand in line for data behind other, more important, phones during peak demand.)

For merely occasional jet-setters and those who want consistent phone upgrades, Experience More is the best affordable phone plan among all services. This adds WiFi during flights, 4K video, 60 gigs of high-speed mobile hot-spotting, a modicum of international data, a AA membership, free ad-supported Netflix, and cheap ($3) Apple TV. It’ll also let you upgrade your phone every two years so random children don’t make fun of your ancient iPhone at a rest stop (yes, this has happened to me.)

If you want 3 lines or more and you’re a new T-Mobile customer (or a 5-year T-Mobile customer), you have access to an even better deal. The limited-time-only Better Value plan is in fact., possibly the best deal in phonedom at the moment. For the same price as the 3-to-5 line Experience More plans, you add free ad-supported Hulu, access to the T-Satellite emergency network, unlimited mobile hot-spotting, 30 gigs of international data in hundreds of countries, plus additional watch and tablet lines for just $5 a line. With the exception of phone upgrades every two years instead on every year, the perks are actually better than T-Mobile’s highest price plan, at a much lower price. This sale price is also locked in for 5 years.

Snapchat is already packed with little symbols that can be weirdly hard to decode. You have streaks, emojis, badges, scores, Best Friends, and if you use Snapchat Plus, a tiny solar system that shows where you sit in someone’s closest-friends list.

The feature is called Friend Solar System, though most people just call it Snapchat Planets. It takes your position in a friend’s Snapchat orbit and turns it into a planet. From Mercury to Neptune, these celestial bodies signify how close a person is to you.

The important thing to know is that Snapchat Planets is a Snapchat Plus feature, and it is now off by default for first-time subscribers. To use it, you’ll need to subscribe to Snapchat Plus and manually turn on Friend Solar System from the Snapchat Plus feature management page. Snapchat says the feature can be toggled on or off at any time.

What are Snapchat Planets?

Snapchat Planets are part of Snapchat’s Friend Solar System feature. When it’s enabled, Snapchat turns a friend’s Best Friends list into a solar system, with that friend as the sun and you as one of the planets around them.

In simple terms, the planet shows where you rank in that friend’s Best Friends list. If you appear as Mercury, you’re their closest Snapchat friend. If you appear as Venus, you’re second. If you appear as Earth, you’re third, and so on.

You can find this by opening someone’s Friendship Profile and tapping the Best Friends or Friends badge with a gold ring. Snapchat says tapping that badge shows which planet you are in their Solar System.

The planet you see is about your place in their solar system. It does not automatically mean they have the same position as yours.

Snapchat Planets order and meaning

The Snapchat Planets order follows the real solar system, minus Pluto. Mercury is the closest planet, while Neptune is the farthest.

As such, the planets of your friends in order from closest to furthest are as follows:

• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune

And yes, Pluto gets left out again.

So, if you tap a badge on someone’s profile and see Earth, that means you are third in their Snapchat Friend Solar System. If you see Neptune, you are still in their top eight, just farther out in the ranking.

Best Friends vs Friends: What’s the difference?

Snapchat Planets can appear through two badges: Best Friends and Friends. A Best Friends badge means both of you are in each other’s closest-friends circle. In other words, you are in their top group, and they are in yours too. Meanwhile, a friend’s badge means you are in their Friend Solar System, but the relationship may not be mutual in the same way. You might be one of their top friends, even if they do not appear in the same position on your side.

Either way, tapping the badge is what reveals your planet, provided you have Snapchat Plus and the feature is turned on.

How to see your Snapchat Planet

To check your Snapchat Planet, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Open Snapchat.
• Step 2: Go to a friend’s Friendship Profile.
• Step 3: Look for a Best Friends or Friends badge with a gold ring around it.
• Step 4: Tap the badge.
• Step 5: Snapchat will show which planet you are in that friend’s Solar System.

If you do not see a badge, it usually means you either do not have Snapchat Plus, Friend Solar System is not enabled, or you are not in that person’s visible friend ranking.

How to turn on Snapchat Planets

Before you can use Snapchat Planets, you need Snapchat Plus. Pricing can vary by region and plan, so the safest way to check the current cost is inside the Snapchat app or through Snapchat’s subscription page. Snapchat also offers multiple Plus-related plans in some regions, and availability can vary.

Once you have Snapchat Plus, you may still need to turn on Friend Solar System manually.

• Step 1: Open Snapchat and go to your profile.
• Step 2: Tap your Snapchat Plus membership card or banner.
• Step 3: Open the Snapchat Plus feature management page.
• Step 4: Find Solar System or Friend Solar System.
• Step 5: Toggle it on.