Locate and Recover a Stolen iPhone or iPod Touch

I recently lost my iPod touch, but later recovered it thanks to the honesty of an individual who returned it to the lost and found. When I discovered it was missing, I found myself wishing that there was some way I could trace the location of my iPod. It looks like this feature will soon be available in the next version of the iPhone/iPod touch OS 3.0 due later this year. A feature called "Find My iPhone" appears in early versions of the new iPhone OS 3.0 as part of the MobileMe service. It might actually justify the purchase of a MobileMe subscription. (Source: MacNN)

iPhone/iPod Touch Cut, Copy and Paste

The big news making the headlines today is Apple's announcement of a slew of new features for the iPhone OS 3.0. Among those features is the ability to cut, copy and paste, which has been noticeably absent ever since the iPhone's release. Other new iPhone OS 3.0 features include a push service where third parties will push information to Apple's servers that will then push it to the iPhone.

An interesting article on Forbes mentions the explosive potential of the iPhone/iPod touch with its ability to control other devices and become an even more functional Swiss Army gadget. (Sources: Apple, Engadget)

Blogger Feeds Not Working

For those using Blogger, there appears to be a widespread problem with the RSS/Atom feeds not updating properly, especially when an FTP-hosted Blogger blog is being used. I noticed the problem this morning when I tried to update my Blogger feed in Facebook. The rss.xml or atom.xml file is empty (0 bytes) and the following message comes up when you try to view it:

XML Parsing Error: no element found
Location: http://www.sitename.com/atom.xml
Line Number 1, Column 1:
^

The There are several users in the Blogger help groups that are reporting this issue. Doh! The Blogger Help Group Something is Broken has many of the same posts. As of the time of this post, there is no official acknowledgment on the Blogger Status page. Hopefully they fix it soon.

UPDATE: As a workaround, you can access your Blogger feed at http://www.blogger.com/feeds/XXXXXX/posts/default, where XXXXXX is the unique Blogger ID number for your blog. To find the unique blogger ID, click to create a new post and note the URL (usually something like http://www2.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=12345678). The last string of numbers is your Blogger ID. If you are using FeedBurner, simply enter the URL http://www.blogger.com/feeds/XXXXXX/posts/default under Original Feed (with the correct Blogger ID), and you should be back in business.

Dell's New Studio One 19 More like iMac

Dell announced recently that they will be releasing a new all-in-one desktop called the Studio One 19 this Spring. The Studio One 19 is a redesigned, more iMac-like follow-up to the existing XPS One all-in-one desktop. According to Electronista, it will support multi-touch, webcam, Blu-ray, Wi-Fi, either a GeForce 9200 or 9400 graphics processor, up to 4GB of RAM, up to 750GB hard drive, and processors from a lowly Celeron all the way up to a Core 2 Quad. The current XPS One features a built-in digital TV tuner, which will hopefully make its way to the new Studio One 19. We have an old, homebrewed desktop that I built over 5 years ago that I'd like to replace this year with either an iMac or the Studio One. I'm looking forward to doing the comparison shopping for a new all-in-one desktop. (Source: Electronista)

Ice Cream-Stealing Birds

Check out these hilarious pictures of aggressive seagulls stealing ice cream cones from unsuspecting people. Seagulls haven't always been an annoyance, as history has shown.

The Best Shirt Ever

Communication and Poor Translation

I'm currently enrolled in a Global Management course as part of my MBA curriculum. We are learning about the importance of communication across cultures. I found the following excerpt from an assigned reading entertaining:

...Remember that grammar is complex and the seemingly slight misuse (or even placement) of a word can change the meaning of an utterance substantially. All of the following, each originally composed to assist English-speaking guests, have appeared on signs in hotels around the world:

FRANCE: “Please leave your values at the desk.”
MEXICO (to assure guests about the safety of drinking water): “The manager has
personally passed all the water served here.”
JAPAN: “You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.”
NORWAY: “Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.”
SWITZERLAND: “Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.”
GREECE (at check-in line): “We will execute customers in strict rotation.”

(International Business Environments and Operations, 12th Edition (2009), Daniels, Radebaugh, and Sullivan, p. 73)