How do I protect my Privacy on Mobile?

I have been looking for a cool application to protect my privacy for my Nokia N97 since quite a few days now. I tried couple of applications, in fact bought some from the application stores - to try it out. I would be sharing my experience in this post today.

My basic requirement was basically to hide SMS messages from specific contacts and make them viewable privately. Well, this simple requirement was very difficult in most of the applications available in the Ovi Store.

The first application I bought was a cheap one and that is what lured me to buy it - Mr. SMS - 3 Euros. This application claims to block, schedule and protect SMS. Well, it didn't do any of these well - My phone always rang when I got a SMS which was blocked or protected. Other important thing is it didn't filter sent SMS, which is what I wanted. Also, it does not clear the SMS entries from the Logs. Seems I wasted my 3 Euros.

Time to buy another application - searching- found one more cheap one - Advanced Communication Manager - 3 Euros. Hell! - I didn't read the application description carefully before buying. "Advanced Communications Manager is a comprehensive manager for all the incoming communication on your phone – voice and text messages." As, it states it only handles incoming SMS, well they said voice but the application in real does't handle calls. Seems its a bad day for me. Wasted 6 Euros without much luck :-(

Moral - never get lured by very cheap apps on Ovi store, they are useless.

Now, I wanted to be very careful before buying - and carefully chose - Best PrivateConversation - This application has a very COMPLEX user interface, I should say. Though it handles SMS well - as they don't ring when incoming. The bad thing is Logs are not cleared and it can't be considered complete privacy. The application does not handle outgoing SMS, instead the SMS needs to be sent from the application, which is bad - when I want to forward SMS or write a long SMS - the application crashed!

Moral - read reviews before buying application - I found many people shouting about such problems when I used google. Seems I am not the only one looking for Privacy :D

I found another application that clearly mentioned the specifications in the application description - It also said, that Logs would be cleared for private SMS and calls! I bought the application - MobiPrivacy. This application just seemed to be made for me - straight forward user interface, Filters incoming and outgoing SMS, Filters private Logs for messages and calls, too (what more, I can view this private log in the application). Seems finally, I found the right application.

Just to explain the simplicity and versatility of the application, here is a screenshot of its User Interface.

Well, if you are looking for protecting your privacy on your phone, I would recommend you to try this app - MobiPrivacy. My guarantee, you won't be disappointed!

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Symbian takes the heart rather than the mind

Last week Symbian Foundation - announced the heart symbol (above) as their logo.

Well, why the heart and not the mind? After-all mind is where all the innovations take birth.

I think they took to an indian way of thinking and support the thought that all good things are perishable unless they come from the heart. So how many Indians do you have in your team SF? I bet this was suggested by an Indian fella.

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E71X.... So that was the reason?

In my very first post, Why was E71 flight to US delayed? I asked for a reason. Quite obviously the reasons for delaying the launch of Nokia E71 in the states.
Seems they answered my question today.

The much rumored and even more hotly anticipated AT&T version of
the Nokia E71 on Symbian OS, the E71x, has now been officially announced. The E71x features an
elegant black design and comes with an equally attractive price tag of
$99.99, with a two-year contract and after discounts and rebates.

So they have an E71X model that would cause excitment. Well, lets see how it goes.

Here are some specifications for the E71X model.

Nokia E71x, the thinnest smartphone, helps you combine your personal and
business life. With a seamless user interface, mobile email, and personal
information management features, the powerful Nokia E71x lets you effortlessly
organize your life. Built-in aGPS with AT&T Navigator,2 instant messaging,
Video Share, Wi-Fi,3 and Internet access keep you connected to the things that
are important so you can do more while on the go. Combine your pocket devices
into one thanks to the music player, 3.2 MP camera, video, notes, calendar, and
office tools.

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Nokia Photo Browser is in Beta labs!

Just saw the Nokia Photo browser is in the Beta lasbs now.

The Nokia Photo Browser is photo browsing application as name suggest. It’s
designed to be easy to use application, when ever you want quickly browse
through your images. User interface is designed to give fast access to all you
images. Photo browsing should be fun! That is why Photo Browser introduces new
ways to do photo viewing like; “Face browsing” which uses face detection
technology to find people faces from pictures and just by finger flick you can
browse people faces in image. Other cool feature is “MagGlass” magnifier, which
makes image zooming to feel and look more real and analog.

The application behaves well enough on my Nokia N97 proto, however I feel the time - imaging time can be reduced to obtain far better level of usability. Imagine this application's functionality with the multiple core processors that are being proposed for the future mobile models.

Although the application is still in beta and available for only 5th edition devices, I see a lot of potential from this Nokia's step further. "Design" is the keyword that Nokia should be focussing on in the forthcoming months, if I guess correct.

Nokia is currently working on the 3rd edition version of this application - yes, they do focus more on 5th edition these days - 3rd edition devices should be down marketted after a year (same fate as 2nd edition devices) when newly proposed 5th edition devices make their place.
Oh and here is a video demo for you to enjoy,

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Using Google Analytics!

I enter the blogosphere recently since I started that I needed to pour out my thought somewhere (irrespective where someone can read it or not). Writing a diary is what came to my mind before starting blogging. But then I thought - one day the civilization is bounded to perish - giving the next one to live upon the researches. I bet if the next civilization can get internet in undestructed format - they wouldn't have to do as much research as Indians did for Harappa civilization.

Well, then I started blogging. Once I started blogging I came across the word statistics for blogs. Working with mobile phone giants in the past years, I have been well familiar with the word - statistics and the corresponding word that often goes with it - Google analytics - and most of you (if anyone reads this) might be aware of the word.

I just registered for the service needing to know who else, from which part of the world read my posts and who follows me. The bad thing about blogging is that one can follow others annonymously - I guess blogger does not support spell checks. It would be interesting to see who watches me - still unknowing my name but only thoughts.

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S60 Twitter is here now!

Last time we talked about twitter and this post is about twitter as well. No I am not going to start tweeting - I would remain confined to what I have said - I would never use twitter. Life is too busy to use twitter.

But for those of you who use twitter, a nokia S60 phone and even tweet what you dream and feel, here is some news for you. Twitter S60 client is here now.

Gravity v1.00 by Mobileways is now released, the first fully-featured and native Twitter client for the S60 platform (3rd Edition and 5th Edition). It supports multiple accounts, Twitter Search, Laconica, TwitPic and wraps everything into a gorgeous looking interface. Screens and more info below, while Ewan will be having a more detailed look at the app later this week.

The feature list for the application goes as follows - just incase you want to quit twitter-deck

• Compatible with Twitter and Laconica
• All functions available on your S60 phone: tweet, reply, DM, follow & unfollow, create favourites, search, auto-update and many more …
• Tabbed view of your Timeline, Replies, Messages, Friends, etc.
• Setup and use as many accounts as you want at the same time
• Twitter-Search section with multiple search tabs and Twitter Trends
• Post pictures via TwitPic
• Open URLs from any Tweet
• Kinetic scrolling on S60v5 ( Nokia 5800 and Nokia N97 )
• Theme support on S60v3 ( fixed dark and bright theme )

Well, just to mention - many members of the open community - you know which - are tweeting as a part of thier job I guess - to indicate openness and the client comes in to fulfill their requirements.

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Symbian foundation- Movement is the correct word!

They are taking things to seriously - like thinking about vocabulary using. I am impressed.
I am quoting few lines here -

To address these worries, let me briefly tell a tale of four different
words: community, ecosystem, economy, and movement.
“Community” is the word with the oldest heritage to describe the partners, developers and end-users who develop and use Symbian software. “Community” means people with something in common - such as a shared geographical location, a shared environment, or (as astutely described by Etienne Wenger) a shared set of practices. Symbian Software’s second CEO, David Levin, observed ahead of one of the annual Symbian gatherings that the words “community” and “ecosystem” were both used to describe the gathering. He asked the Symbian Leadership Team if one was more appropriate than the other: “Community” seemed to imply a feeling of being in a club - we are all in this together, and we will all look after each other; there are no real losers and no real winners; “Ecosystem” reflected a business reality that there are winners and losers; members of the ecosystem frequently compete with each other (and even sometimes eat each other) as well as often collaborating with each other. So the biological term won favour - we spoke more and more about “the Symbian ecosystem” and less and less about “the Symbian community”. (Moreover, there was a nice “pun”: Symbian consisted of Symbian OS plus Symbian ES - that is, operating system plus ecosystem.)

Over the years, I often wondered whether “economy” might have been a better choice. Symbian’s rival PalmSource had been talking about a “Palm Economy” since at least February 2001. Arguably, the difference between an ecosystem and an economy is that the former is entirely self-managed, whereas the latter can in principle benefit from a measure of intelligent central steering. With the formation of the Symbian Foundation and the adoption of open source, it is time to rethink vocabulary. Just because such-and-such terminology has been used in the past, is no reason for using that same terminology in the future. This brings us to the word “movement”. Movement seems to me to add some concepts that are missing from each of the words “community”, “ecosystem”, and “economy”: A clear sense of direction and purpose An expression of passion. Of course, there will be Symbian developers who take part in shared community activities, without having a sense of shared direction and purpose. That’s fine. But I envisage that, over time, more and more participants will want to: Not just use the software, but collaborate in creating and developing the software; Not just use the devices and applications, but seek to tell other people how good these devices and applications are; Develop software, not just because their boss pays them to do so, but because of the excitement and pleasure they derive from this software system; See the bigger picture of what can be accomplished as the platform and the associated services improve - and start to root for these improvements. That’s why I like the term “movement”, to describe what the Symbian Foundation is creating.

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