I am, of course, talking about the tale of Katy McCaffrey, as reported on by WTSP, a lady who has now cemented herself in my mind as a prime specimen of awesomeness. Y’see, she went on a Disney Wonder cruise, and was having a whale of a time when… oh noes, someone stole her iPhone! But then, brilliantly, the story took a turn for the absurd (and the brilliant)…

Y’see, the moronic, thieving scumbag who stole her phone forgot to check whether the iPhone in question was connected to its real owner’s iCloud account, and promptly started taking photos with the phone in question (there’s no word on whether it’s an iPhone 4S or an earlier model). Said photos then synced themselves with McCaffrey’s iCloud account, giving her a photo record of everything that was being done with the phone.

Now, everything that I’ve written, so far, falls under the heading of ‘moronic criminal scum’. It’s the next bit where it transmutes into awesomeness…

‘Cos what McCaffrey did next is made the thief’s phones into an album, and posted the whole thing, publicly, on Facebook, as the ‘Stolen iPhone Adventure‘. Congratulations, Mr. Thieving-Scumbag (who’s named ‘Nelson’ in the photos, although it’s worth pointing out that he might not be the man who actually stole it… he could’ve been fleeced, too, by the actual guy who stole it, and passed it off as new), you’re now infamous round the entire world!

For their part, Disney are clearly taking this very seriously, ‘cos the employee in question is now on administrative leave, and will be dealt with when the cruise gets back home (‘cos presumably they don’t have a brig, and keelhauling the offender would likely be frowned upon, as would making him walk the plank). Hopefully Ms. McCaffrey has been reunited with her phone, now, and this story has had a happy ending, too.

So, basically, what I’m saying is that Katy McCaffrey is basically my new crimefighting hero. She’s like a more modern Jessica Fletcher out Murder, She Wrote. Or possibly The Punisher, only a nicer version, ‘cos she didn’t hunt the guy down and make him eat the phone (which is what I’d be inclined to do if someone nicked my HTC One X).

And I’ll finish with a personal message to Ms. McCaffrey: who’s awesome? You’re awesome…

More news as it happens! And be sure to subscribe now to get all the latest action from the world of mobile phones!

If you’re a BlackBerry user and looking to update your “out of date” device, starting today RIM (Research In Motion) is giving away a BlackBerry Bold 9900 a day until May 31st.

In a bizarre twist there is only two ways to enter the contest you either need to own a BlackBerry with data service and BBM or break out that pen and paper and mail in an entry. I am guessing RIM figures anyone who already owns a device other than a BlackBerry is never coming back so why waste the effort.

If you are so inclined to enter the contest you can get full details via this link.

BlackBerry World 2012 and BlackBerry 10 Jam have taken off today in Orlando, Florida. RIM wasted no time showing off what they have in store for us as the company unveiled its vision for the BlackBerry 10 platform and released the initial developer toolkit for the native QNX based operating system and HTML5 software development.

Focusing on RIM’s vision of the BlackBerry 10 platform the company showed off the BlackBerry 10 developer alpha device, which will be RIM’s first handset to run the same OS as the BlackBerry PlayBook. The device has a 4.2-inch display with 1280 x 768 resolution, 16 GB of storage, 1 GB of RAM, an HSPA+ radio, a mini HDMI port and microSD card slot.

RIM even showcased the functionality of the basic controls, were gestures / swiping reveal notifications and allow users to move easily through applications. We also got a look at the touch keyboard that provides word prediction as well alternate keys. While the developer unit is total touchscreen RIM tried to preserve the look and feel of the famous BlackBerry keyboard by spacing the keys the same as current physical keyboard models.

Users will be able to look forward to some game playing as RIM announced that they would be including 11 games with the BlackBerry 10 platform with many developers preparing games to help you through boring meetings. RIM is also working with PixelMags to give users the ability to read online magazines.

“BlackBerry 10 builds upon the core values and exceptional users experience that have attracted more than 77 million BlackBerry customers around the world,” said Alec Saunders, Vice President, Developer Relations and Ecosystems Development.

Saunders continued, “Developers building for BlackBerry 10 will be able to easily create the kind of cutting-edge and other apps like BBM or by leveraging the new signature design elements of this new and powerful mobile computing platform.”

We are hoping for a BlackBerry 10 release this summer.

Here is a “Sneak Peek” video presented at the BlackBerry World Keynote

CrackBerry got their hands on some nice photos of a BlackBerry 10 device being used by developers to test their apps on RIM’s next to be released device.

As CrackBerry has stated and we will reiterate this is an alpha device meaning it is not of the build quality or potentially even the design to be released. If you take a close look at the photos you can see a very rough, rubberized material. This could be in place to hide the actual BlackBerry design from prying cameras.

As it stands now this looks like a standard issue 2012 full touch screen device. Lets hope RIM has made huge improvements to the OS and processor to make this device the one that starts a turn around for the company.

[Via CrackBerry]

The updated OS resolves a few issues with previously-missing elements and includes a long list of enhancements and additional features that include

– An integrated email Inbox that supports multiple personal or business email messages in a central location. The feature also includes SN messages from such sites as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
– Social Integration with your Contacts and Calendar apps. Each contact entry is automatically updated with new information posted on the contacts’ social network sites.
– An updated BlackBerry Bridge app that connects your BlackBerry PlayBook with your core apps on your BlackBerry smartphone, including your Contacts, BlackBerry Messenger, Email, Browser and Calendar. The Bridge app provides a larger tablet view of those entries that make you squint on your smartphone. The app provides all the app functions incorporated into your smartphone, which includes document and image viewing and editing, reading emails, profiles, web pages and more.
– The new Print To Go app and an improved BlackBerry Balance that optimises your business data.
– More apps and content, including a new BlackBerry Video Store that opens today, as well as elevated web browsing experiences.

In addition to the BlackBerry 2.0 OS, RIM has made available a first-run release of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion that enable joint management of your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and your BlackBerry mobile phone. The initial run does have limited capabilities, but the full version with maximized features and capabilities is expected out in late March 2012.

In additional BlackBerry news today, RIM released the BlackBerry Bold 9790 in Hong Kong. The Bold 9790 utilizes the BlackBerry 7 browser that provides a smoother surfing experience and HTML5 smoothness for brilliant video and gaming enjoyment.

Well then, isn’t this just both interesting and stupid all at the same time. Consumer electronics recycler and reseller Gazelle, posted some ridiculous findings of a survey they conducted at CES 2012. Ladies and gentlemen, what you are about to read will have you wondering if the Gazelle staff are intelligence enough to be compared to an actual Gazelle in the wild.

Gazelle sought out to find what are folks outlook on life relative to the mobile phone they carry around. According to the company, Android and iOS users all have a better outlook on life than BlackBerry users, and they came to this conclusion from asking persons on the show floor some random stupid questions.

Here is what Gazelle came up with. “52% of iPhone users and 58% of iPad users are always optimistic about their future while 28% of Android smartphone users and 36% of Android tablet users share the same outlook.” Good news right there for iOS and Android users, but it doesn’t end there unfortunately. “29% of iPhone users and 60% of iPad users expect the best in uncertain times and 31% of Android smartphone users and 55% of Android tablet users expect good things to happen more often than bad. 25% of iPhone users and 26% of iPad users don’t get upset very easily, and neither do 18% of Android smartphone users or 27% of Android tablet users.”

What do you make of all this nonsense? Heh heh! Now, this is where thing begin to get nasty.

“33% of BlackBerry users subscriber to Murphy’s Law, holding the belief that if something can go wrong for them, it will. 16% of BlackBerry users hardly ever expect things to go their way and 33% of BlackBerry users rarely count on good things happening to them. 0% of BlackBerry users usually expect the best.”

So apparently, Android and iOS users are very optimistic about life and always expecting the best, while BlackBerry users are all doom and gloom, some bullshit this is. What can you expect though if you use a BlackBerry? I mean, no successful phones in years, RIM constantly losing market share, talks about other companies making plans to acquire RIM, which fanboy wouldn’t lose their top over this, heh heh!

Via: BGR