On the iPhone or iPad:
* Tap Settings
* Tap iCloud
* make sure the iCloud Account is your regular AppleID (iCloud/iTunes/AppleID/MobileMe/Mac.com accounts are all the same thing), it should be a full email address format account name
* scroll down and turn on Find My iPhone or iPad (or make sure it is already turned on)

On any computer:
* point a web browser at https://icloud.com
* log in with your AppleID (same one you just used on the iPhone or iPad)
* Set your Language and TimeZone
* Click the Find my iPhone Button

It should list your devices (iPhone, iPad, etc) by name if you have named them.
* It can find the one you select, and show it’s location on a map.
* You can send a sound alert (finds the devices when they get lost under laundry or between sofa cushions).
* You can remote lock or remote wipe them (if you think they are in the hands of bad guys).
* You can report location to the police too in that event.
* You can send a message that will appear on screen.

Trust me – you want to do this as soon as you get the device, just in case…. and Murphy’s law says that if you are prepared to lose your iPhone or iPad you will never lose either.

http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20028154-85.html

Of course they are not mentioning that 3G on AT&T is much faster than CDMA on Verizon, but phone coverage is much better on Verizon CDMA than it is on AT&T 3G.

It comes down to mobile hot-spot vs data during a call; unless you can’t stand one of the two carriers.

Apple has released iOS 4.0.2 update for iPhone and 3.2.2 for iPad.

These updates fix the gaping security hole identified by the JailBreakMe tools, which may frustrate people who want to “Jailbreak” their phones, but the security patch is crucial; the odds are very good that someone more malicious would abuse the same holes soon (if they have not already).

Recommend upgrade as soon as possible, and refrain from using mobile Safari until the upgrade is accomplished.iOS 4.0.2 Update, strongly recommended

It great news is that the new iPhone OS will finally have several features it should already have:

• finally support cut and paste both within an application and between applications
• finally support synchronizing notes between the iPhone and a Mac desktop via iTunes (probably PC too)
• finally support search, globally through the core applications (Mail/Notes/iPod/Calendar) using spotlight

There are also some pleasant surprises:

• CalDAV support for any CalDAV server, not just MobileMe; could be useful for some SOHO operations with shared calendars
• stereo bluetooth; very useful for ballroom dancers, one partner wears iPod/iPhone and wired headset, 2nd partner wears bluetooth headset and both can dance to music and ignore the other music sharing the studio floor
• landscape keyboard now available in all main applications, was already in Safari, it will be nice having it in email, notes, etc; this is a big deal for those of us with big fat fingers
• support for MMS messages, I think this lets you “text” a photo directly to someone’s phone (that also supports MMS), or a voicemail, or a sound file

Update: Wow – how could I have missed the addition of peer to peer connectivity via Bluetooth!? Potential for security lapse here, but also potential for lots of new applications. Very interesting.

I am sad that there is no apparent change on the “please allow my Apple bluetooth keyboard to work with my Apple iPhone” front; not sure why this would continue to be blocked.

I am unsurprised there is still no Flash and no tethering; for Flash is a security nightmare, and I am glad we don’t allow flash on the iPhone; and tethering is a problem with the carriers (AT&T and others) who want to collect more money for tethering because they are greedy bastards and don’t understand that data is data regardless of wether it lives on your phone or your TV or your tethered laptop.

I gotta say, if they are considering releasing a new major revision (iPhone OS 3.0) without global search, cut and paste, the ability to synchronize notes between iPhone and Mac desktop; they need to delay.

Network tethering (allowing a connected laptop to use the AT&T dataplan for mobile networking) is important too, but that can be a separate application pretty easily.

My very, very old Palm devices all have global search, cut & paste, and the ability to synchronize text notes between desktop and PDA. Nearly every smart phone can do these things… it is shameful that this otherwise amazing ultra-portable computing platform we call the iPhone cannot do these basic things.

Yes, I have installed PhoneView (commercial application) to sync my notes between Mac and iPhone (and it works pretty well). Yes there is a hack that lets cut & paste work in a few applications; but these are essential to any PDA and should be part of the platform and universally implemented. The absence of global search is downright crippling; it means I can only afford to put so few notes on my phone that I know exactly where to find them. It also means that I continue to carry my Palm Tungsten C.

The iPhone 3G is a fantastic mobile phone (perhaps the best I have ever used), and it is spectacular at a couple of traditional PDA applications (Contacts, Safari, Email), but it’s Calendar is not quite as good as the old Palm Calendar yet (though it comes very, very close), and as for Notes – well, that is the main reason I continue to carry my Tungsten C. The iPhone 3G simply sucks as a notepad. No cut and paste feature, no global search feature, and though typing on the touch screen is acceptable for a quick text message or short note, it is painfully frustrating for any serious note taking. The iPhone really should simply allow Bluetooth keyboards to connect to it; they could even start with Apple’s own Bluetooth keyboards for Macs and expand to 3rd party ones later… sigh.

So – as all portable devices have a limited life span due to wear and tear and natural use, I am very interested in what Palm is doing next and hope that Nova is good enough, though I am not holding my breath.

I also hope Apple, or a 3rd party, develops a secure method for cutting and pasting from one application to another on the iPhone, and that global search for text strings gets deployed soon.

As a phone the iPhone is simply awesome. Best sound quality of any mobile phone I have ever used.

As a camera, the iPhone is surprisingly good as a cheap point and shoot with tiny lens (it certainly will not replace a real camera, but it’s decent in a pinch).

As an MP3 player it lacks sufficient storage to do more than my routine podcasts and some music.

As a PDA or ultra-portable computer is where the iPhone has been shockingly lacking.

• Calendar/Datebook: the iPhone comes with excellent Calendar/Datebook/iCal software that syncs with either MobileMe or iCal on your Mac (which can in turn be synced with Google Calendars).
• AddressBook/Contacts: the iPhone comes with excellent Contacts that can be synced with AddressBook on your Mac or MobileMe.
• Notes: here, the iPhone falls down; big time… first of all, out of the box the notes do not sync with the computer desktop (ouch). That was a show-stopper for me. Second, the absence of cut&paste buffer is very limiting. I am very happy to say that finally, through the use of ECamm’s PhoneView software, it looks like Notes can be synced with computer just fine (though rebooting the phone to sync is annoying). I am reviewing the demo, if it stands up – this solves the notes problem for me.
• Reading documents, grabbed websites, books: looks like the iPhone has this stuff a plenty.

Interesting use of technology. I wonder if those same features can be made available to volunteers who do not have an iPhone (which I suspect is most of them).