Arutz Sheva reports:

New Zealand’s first kosher restaurant will open by the end of this year, according to the island-country’s Chabad Rabbi Mendy Goldstein. It is being built on the first floor of Chabad offices in the city of Christchurch.

I’m really happy to hear this news. Honestly.

Remembering the reticence of Chabad representatives to use the word “Santa” in my hometown of Santa Monica (known by the Lubavitcher hasidim as “S. Monica”, in company with S. Barbara and many other California towns boasting Chabad branches), is it disrespectful for me to wonder how they are coping with the name of this Chabad branch in New Zealand?

I would like to note that I’ve been the recipient of so much gracious hospitality, food and personal referrals from Chabad representatives in Orlando, Helsinki, Tokyo, Barcelona (where they spell it, endearingly, Jabad), Bangkok and other locations that my gratitude is endless (even if my path in Torah is not the same).

Phone charging stations are fairly new in the United States.

Seen in Los Angeles International Airport:

Free phone charging station, provided by Samsung. Note the added advertisement for the high-end Blackjack device. BYOC (Bring Your Own Charger).

Seen in SEA-TAC International Airport:

This one demands payment. I like ChargeCarte’s expansion into this market, though. It works well with a company providing luggage cart rentals (although I resent having to pay for a luggage cart, and preferentially choose to fly into airports where they are provided free). Also note that the ChargeCarte station doesn’t require that you have your own charger with you; you can look for a charge plug that fits your device. (What was said here about lack of standardization in the mobile industry still applies.)

Here’s a charging station designed to include little lockers, so that you can leave the phone while you go do something else. Provided as a freebie (tokens distributed at the booth desk) at Mobile World Congress last month.

Seen in Barcelona:

Seen at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona:

Well, we’re back from Barcelona, and what a wonderful trip it was. The panel discussion in which I participated was standing room only, attended by over 300 people. What a pity that the report upon which most blogs are relying was so determined to find us panelists confounded. Ah, well.

We were five panelists, representing different segments of the mobile industry: Lucia Predolin of Buongiorno (content provider), Mike Yonker of Texas Instruments (chipset manufacturer), Anup Murarka of Adobe Systems (interface environment), Marc Steen of TNO (ethnographic and user research), and moi. Bruno Bensaid of MobileMonday Shanghai ably moderated (venture capital).

Despite coming from very different directions, we all agreed that User Experience is going to be the prime driver of the mobile industry going forward. That alone should highlight the importance of all things usability. Each of us offered insight and direction for improving User Experience at the level of our influence, which (to me) painted a powerful picture of how much room there really is for truly great interface to be designed. I hope that others enjoyed the session and learned as much from it as I did.

Attending the Mobile World Congress (the conference formerly known as 3GSM) was great. The Fira de Barcelona convention site is fabulously beautiful, especially when the fountains are playing. The halls are very large, but less overwhelming somehow than those at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The atmosphere is both relaxed and very businesslike. Seeing the newest models of cell phones, smartphones, software, hardware, UMPCs and all was admittedly a geek’s delight, but also a wonderful opportunity to compare, contrast and consider the possibilities, UX and otherwise.

MWC is the perfect place to people watch, especially if your interest is in how people interact with their mobile devices. Notable were the use of many more styluses than is typical in the United States or Israel, and also the body language revealing data use (as opposed to voice calls) above the average.

Then, of course, there’s the sheer exhaustion:

I’ll be in Barcelona attending the Mobile World Congress next week. If you’re planning to be there and want to get together, be in touch with me at Sarah <at> reallysarahsyndication <dot> com. You can also find me in the panel of the “It’s the User Experience, Stupid!” session on Tuesday afternoon.