Gone are the days of the technology and currency-free oasis of drugs, dust and art both whimsical and questionable.

In a development sure to be heralded by many as the final shark to be jumped in a long line of previous shark-jumps, there will allegedly be cell phone service on the playa at this year's Burning Man. Lest you imagine a legion of feather-boa'd and goggled douchebags twittering their every move and uploading pics galore to Facebook, NewsPunkSF wagers that this is in fact just new cell coverage provided by Verizon or whomever for the town of Gerlach, NV (Pop. 499) and won't likely have the bandwidth to handle actual phone calls by tens of thousands. But it will probably handle the blessed texting, so you won't be able to shake off those girlfriends/boyfriends quite as easily this year without receiving many a saddy-faced emoticon in return.

TEXTERS BEWARE: True to the punk-ish roots of the event, there have allegedly already been cell-phone swiping bandits on the loose among the playa's early arrivers.