Two years ago, Apple launched its Find My iPhone service, which provided MobileMe subscribers with lost device location functionality. Apple expanded its Find My iPhone (and Find My iPad) service to all customers in November, including those who didn’t fork over $99 annually for MobileMe. Earlier today, Research in Motion (RIM) launched an open beta of BlackBerry Protect — a free service which duplicates some of Apple’s Find My iPhone and MobileMe sync functionality, providing BlackBerry users with remote backup and restore, lost device tracking and wipe, and the ability to remotely activate loud ringer mode, so you can annoy the hell out of your friends for hours after losing your BlackBerry in their couch. BlackBerry users can download Protect through App World.

Apple just announced a new line of MacBook Pro notebook computers, with three major improvements: incredibly fast processors, new graphics, and Intel’s brand-new Thunderbolt interface. What does that mean for you? Well, if you just bought a brand new MacBook Pro before today, you’re gonna want to jump in your car right now and return it to Apple.

Kept under wraps by Intel until just a few minutes ago, Thunderbolt technology enables you to connect a huge variety of devices — from high resolution displays to external hard drives — to a computer through a single port. Because up to six devices can be daisy-chained, one port is really all you need. Thunderbolt supports 10 Gbps of throughput, making it 20 times faster than USB 2.0, and twice as fast as USB 3.0 — a technology which has yet to become mainstream, and is less likely to now, after Thunderbolt’s release. According to Apple, “Thunderbolt allows you to access multiple streams of uncompressed HD video — from your notebook — at speeds that let you edit an HD feature film in real time.” That’s pretty incredible.

Working in the tech industry, it’s reasonable to say that my colleagues and I have overlooked the fact that outside of the bubble — OK, FAR outside of the bubble — Jim Jones iPhone owner might not realize that each of the over-350,000 iPhone apps was not actually developed by an Apple employee. After hearing a CNN reporter declare on a live broadcast today that Apple recently “developed” a Catholic ‘Confession’ iPhone app, I’ve decided to launch a one-part series, titled “Where do Apps Come From?“

Sure, iPhones were flying off shelves in 2007 when the only apps available were the standard “widgets” still pre-installed by Apple, including Phone, Mail, Safari, iPod, Stocks and Weather, among others, but the creation of the App Store — and subsequent third-party app development — has added significant value to Apple’s flagship mobile product.

By definition, third-party apps are developed by a third-party (i.e. not the phone’s manufacturer), which means that the now hundreds of thousands of apps that now populate the app store were created by tens of thousands of individual developers — from a 13-year-old kid in his parents’ basement to multi-billion-dollar giants like Google and Microsoft — even The White House developed an app. So there you have it; all but a tiny fraction of the apps available today were not developed by Apple.

According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, Apple is considering offering its (currently $99/yr) MobileMe service for free. A complete revamp of the MobileMe service is expected to launch this summer, along with possible online music and social networking components. The new free service could act as a cloud-based server for each user’s email, calendar, documents, photos, movies and music, allowing seamless access from any web-connected Apple device. This seems like a logical move for Apple, and it’s possible that the launch is even behind schedule, as the company may have originally intended to launch the free service with its streaming-only Apple TV, which hit the market in September.

If Google CEO Eric Schmidt hadn’t already resigned from Apple’s board, I imagine his days would be numbered — a free MobileMe offering would position the company to compete even more directly with Google, which currently offers free cloud-based email, calendar, and document services.

Do you have a mobile phone on AT&T? You can get 1,000 free rollover minutes simply by texting “Yes” to 11113020. AT&T doesn’t offer an explanation for this generous bonus, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with the iPhone’s launch on Verizon. Either way, free minutes are free minutes, so enjoy!

Via Engadget.

True, a post about banking might be a stretch for a travel, technology and food blog, but China (and its currency, the Yuan) is one of the hottest topics of the week, and investors considering investments with Chinese companies (or just holding the Yuan) are likely to take advantage. Beginning a few weeks ago, Bank of China (yes, it’s state-owned) began allowing non-Chinese citizens to open Chinese bank accounts through one of its three U.S. branches — two in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. Most agree that holding cash in RMB is as solid an investment as any. Though the value of the currency is expected to climb significantly against the dollar, it’s incredibly unlikely to decline. Today, 1 Yuan buys about 15 cents. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect 1 Yuan to trade at 25 cents, 30 cents, or even higher in the future. An article published last week in the Wall Street Journal does a fairly good job of explaining the pros and cons of holding the Yuan, but my experience while opening an account today was slightly different than what the author explains, so I want to clarify a few points here.

1. You’ll need more forms of identification than you’d need when establishing an account at a U.S. bank. Though I arrived with three government issued ID cards — a driver’s license, broker’s license, and pilot’s license — the banker and her manager insisted that I also fax a copy of my passport before they could open my account. According to the banker, you don’t need more than three documents, assuming one is a passport. You also need to present either your Social Security card or an official document that contains your SSN, such as a W-2 or 1099.

2. You’ll need to open two bank accounts — one in USD and one in RMB — each with a minimum of $500. There’s a catch here too, though: you can open only a USD account during your first visit. Three weeks after funding your account, you must return to the same branch to open a second account, converting funds from your USD account to RMB. You’ll also need to maintain a $500 balance in the USD account, even after converting funds.

3. You cannot deposit or withdrawal cash in RMB. Even in China. To withdrawal funds, you’ll need to convert RMB in your RMB account to USD, wait three days, then convert USD back to RMB cash at the current rate. The bank charges a percentage fee for each transaction. You can request a debit card that you can use to withdrawal RMB cash in China, but this card is linked to your USD account, as bizarre as that may sound. In summary, you cannot make deposits or withdrawals from your RMB account — even at Bank of China branches in China — you can only conduct transactions with your USD account, unless you’re moving (and converting) funds between your USD account and RMB account.

4. The banker I spoke with claims that there is no daily or annual limit for deposits or conversion, though the WSJ article lists the daily limit at $4,000 per day and $20,000 per year, unless you open a business account.

A Chinese bank account is clearly not for everyone, but if you’re holding cash and looking to make a safe, liquid investment, it certainly makes more sense to convert USD to RMB than to leave your Dollars in a U.S. bank account, earning less than 1% interest.

Each day, I receive dozens of emails about novelty products, cruise “deals,” and hotel restaurants in the middle of nowhere — all with offers for “more information and high-resolution images upon request.” Well, today I decided to take one PR rep up on her offer.

Just three or four months from now (OK, sometime in Q2), you’ll be able to walk into a Hot Topic store (those still exist?) and pick up a pair of these totally awesome and equally practical “Gummy Bear Earbuds,” seen in the high-resolution image above. At $9.99, I’m going to assume they sound as great as they look. For those investors out there, don’t go running out to buy up $BEAR just yet — these little guys are actually manufactured by electronics giant “Sakar.com,” with licensing fees going to HARIBO (yes, spelled in all CAPS) *Correction: Street Players Holding Corporation. Oh, and a word of warning from the manufacturer: “I wouldn’t recommend consumption.” If anybody decides to pick these up, please let me know how they sound (and taste, if that’s your thing). And just in case you landed on this page after scouring the Web for reviews, I’m gonna give these gummy dummies a rating of 4.5. Yes, 4.5. Out of 4.5.

Are you a Gummy Bear collector? Accessorize your earbuds with officially-licensed Gummy Bear iPod cases and a Gummy Bear mp3 player (yes, these do exist, and I’ll update you with pricing and availability just as soon as that hits my inbox).

For as long as I can remember (OK, fine, it’s only been two years), I’ve spent the first full week of January in Las Vegas, covering the massive Consumer Electronics Show for PC Magazine. Nearly every major consumer electronics company has a significant presence at CES (with Apple as a notable exception), announcing new products in every established electronics category, including home theater, computers, cell phones, e-book readers — even LED lightbulbs. This year, as manufacturers release countless Android tablets and even more 3D HDTVs (consumers are definitely going to eat them up this year — right???), I’ll be heading to Hawaii for some travel writing and R&R. I plan to be back in the game at CES 2012, but in the meantime, here are just a few of the people and sites I’m following at the show:

PCMag.com: @saschasegan, @lanceulanoff, @dancosta, @wwwendyyy

Blogs: @engadget, @gearlog, @gizmodo

Bloggers: @joannastern, @joshuatopolsky, @ryan, @fruhlinger

And, if you want to follow everyone at CES (myself included, for some reason), head over to @NBCUCES’s CES 2011 list.

With an incredible array of websites participating, today’s Cyber Monday is expected to exceed the day’s records in 2009. But — as nearly every family member has asked since Thanksgiving — what exactly is Cyber Monday? If you’ve ever lined up in a parking lot before 4 a.m. on the Friday after Thanksgiving, then you’ve survived the hell that is Black Friday — the day that troubled retailers begin making profits, due to an increase in sales volume during the holiday season. Cyber Monday is to the Internet as Black Friday is to brick and mortar retailers, with shoppers browsing the aisles from the comfort of their homes (or offices), rather than risking their lives to score bargain electronics at Best Buy. And, unlike Black Friday, the sales extend far beyond electronics and clothing stores — you can save big on travel as well — Starwood is offering incredible rates at many its hotels and resorts, which I’m taking advantage of for a January trip to Waikiki, for example.

Anyone with a television, computer, or access to a newspaper has probably heard about today’s General Motors IPO (initial public offering) — said to be the world’s largest IPO to date. The stock (NYSE: GM) is already up 6% from its initial public offering price of $33. So why am I writing about an IPO on TTT? Well, one of GM’s newest vehicles is the Chevrolet Volt, which happens to be loaded with tech, from a dual-LCD dashboard to a USB-enabled audio system, allowing you to control your iPod through car’s standard controls. Oh, and it also runs entirely on battery power, costing an average of $1.50 per daily commute, according to GM. General Motors CEO Dan Akerson was on hand to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, and I happened to be walking by as he was walking out (that’s Akerson climbing into the driver’s seat of a 2011 Camaro). I apologize for the quality of the photos — I may have been in the right place at the right time, but I didn’t bring my camera to the gym, so I shot all of these (more below, and on the next page) with my BlackBerry.

Visiting executives typically load into cars parked within the secure area of the NYSE, but GM chose to use that space to display their vehicles, so Akerson had to walk out the front gate and around the corner to Broadway on his way out of the Financial District.

Click the “read more” link for more photos!

The all-electric Chevy Volt.

GM CEO Dan Akerson climbs into a Chevy Suburban on Broadway a few minutes after greeting media in front of the New York Stock Exchange.