You first need to be logged in to a Google account on your smartphone. You could obviously access most Google services directly on the phone, but sometimes you may want more screen estate, especially if a computer is available. That’s not a issue if you are working on your own computer, but what if you are on a public terminal or a friend’s house? You probably do not want to enter your log in information on the computer as a number of things can happen.

This includes a keylogger running on the PC, someone looking over your shoulders while entering your sign in details, forgetting to log out after you finish your session or configuring the sign in information to be saved on the computer.

If you have your smartphone at hand, you can perform the following steps instead. Visit http://goto.google.com/login. All you should see is a QR code on the page.

Scan the code with the camera of your smartphone. You should see the following screen on your phone.

Tap on Start with Google Mail or Start with iGoogle to load those pages in the web browser you have just scanned the QR code in. You can alternatively stop here to end the process without logging in, no harm done then.

Google Mail or iGoogle will be opened with the connected account, and without you having to enter your account username or password into the web browser or on the computer.

It needs to be noted that you will access data from the same account that you are logged in on the smartphone. There is no option, other than signing in into another account on the phone, to access a different account on the PC.

It is also important to log out of the service on the computer after you have finished using it. If you do not, the next user may be able to access your data.

Google Sesame can be quite useful in situations where you want to log in to your Google account on a computer that is not your own. Instead of having to enter your user data, you can simply use your smartphone to log in.

What’s your take on Google Sesame? Let me know in the comments? (via Caschy)

Update: Seems as if Google has pulled the plug on the new feature again. When you now visit the site where the QR code was initially displayed, you get the following message:

Hi there – thanks for your interest in our phone-based login experiment.

While we have concluded this particular experiment, we constantly experiment with new and more secure authentication mechanisms.

Stay tuned for something even better!

Dirk Balfanz, Google Security Team.

It is not clear why it has been removed by Google or whether it will be back at a later point in time.

If you are like me, you’d probably want to know if a program that can virtually access all data on the phone is running on it and with which server and companies it communicates.

Bitdefender Carrier IQ Finder is a new program for Android mobile phones by Bitdefender that can be used to find out if the technology is running on a phone.

Android users need to download the application from Android Market where it is available for free. The app has been designed to detect Carrier IQ on Android phones. It cannot remove the technology nor detect or remove malicious software from the phone.

Android users can point their browsers to the Bitdefender carrier IQ Finder market place listing to install the program directly from there. It is necessary to be logged in a Google account to install the app.

The app will search for traces of Carrier IQ on the phone on start up.

A red screen after the scan indicates that Carrier IQ has been found running on the system, a green screen that the technology has not been found on the smartphone.

What can you do if Carrier IQ has been found on your phone? It may be virtually impossible to remove the technology completely from the phone. You could contact your carrier for additional information about the technology. (via)

Now, the Syrian government, which has been coming under increasing political pressure from around the world has banned the import of iPhones to the country.

In a statement reportedly issued by the Syrian Finance Ministry, and reported by the BBC, the authorities “warn anyone against using the iPhone in Syria.”

Currently, other types of smartphone are not affected by the ban but problems arise when states find they cannot readily contorl the flow and freedom of information on the Internet in their country.  North Korea is even going so far as to build a country-wide Intranet service instead.

Since March the UN believes that 4000 people have been killed in Syria though this is difficult to confirm because the world’s media are banned from the country.  The information about the ban in iPhones came from Syrian opposition sources who confirmed the ban to the German Press Agency (DPA).

It is unsurprising that a state such as Syria, with it’s current problems, would try and stop the free flow of information between its citizens that are opposed to the state.  It is very unlikely however that such a move would be successful.  People find ways of getting prohibited goods across borders in countries such as this as their borders are usually so difficult for the state to police.  While people may not use their iPhones blatantly and in public areas, we can be sure that they will continue to be used by protestors.

This move doesn’t prevent the free flow of information in other ways.  Almost all mobile phones these days are capable of accessing services such as Facebook and Twitter and the Syrian government would have to shut off all access to the Internet or all the mobile phone networks to get their way.  An action such as this would cause significant damage to the Syrian economy at a time when the country is already under enormous financial pressure and facing international sanctions.

The attempts by the state to control information getting out of the country also seem to be failing.  It will be interesting to see what tactics the Syrian government try next.  Will they ban other brands or types of smartphone or will they try to curtail Internet access or block websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The protestors want President Assad to stand down and for the government to be disbanded so that free and fair elections can be held instead.  The political struggles in Syria and in particular the capital city Damascus have been some of the most bloody and violent of any seen in the middle-east this year.  Despite the best efforts of the state however, and presumably with some help from outside, the anti-government protestors are refusing to stand down and give in.

Do you have family or friends in Syria or are you from Syria?  What is your opinion of the country banning the iPhone?

Carrier IQ is a software that runs on more than 140 million mobile phones (according to information on the Carrier IQ website). It is a monitoring software that can track user activities and data, including their personal information, locations, network communications, phone calls, messages and a lot more.

A few aspects make the software especially suspicious from a consumer perspective. Carrier IQ is not listed as a running application on the phone. The software furthermore cannot be stopped or deactivated on standard phones.

The Carrier IQ company stated that the Carrier IQ software “delivers Mobile Intelligence on the performance of mobile devices and networks to assist operators and device manufacturers in delivering high quality products and services to their customers”.

How can you find out if Carrier IQ is running on your phone?

It’s almost impossible for users to find off switches, user interfaces, policies, or references to IQRD anywhere on the phone. Using standard functionality, the only place you can see that the application is installed on the phone is in Menu -> Settings -> Manage Applications -> All, then scroll down to IQRD. This application has a non-descript icon and offers no information about itself. Even on old devices, IQRD runs continuously because it’s set to start automatically at boot. The only option you have to stop the application is to select “force stop”—which does nothing. The application continues to run.

The only option to remove Carrier IQ is to root the phone:

The only choice we have to “opt out” of this data collection is to root our devices because every part of the multi-headed CIQ application is embedded into low-level, locked regions of the phones. Even if you unlock your device and remove the base application with a sophisticated removal method, neutered, leftover code called from other applications will likely throw an error each time an old action is triggered.

It’s almost impossible to fully remove Carrier IQ. The browser is modified to send to Carrier IQ daemon, as is almost everything else. The application is so deeply embedded in our devices that a user must rebuild the whole device (system.img and boot.img) directly from source code to remove every part of CIQ.

Eckhart only looked at Android devices, but it is likely that other phone manufacturers are also making use of Carrier IQ.

I suggest you take a look at the YouTube video that is a live demonstration of the Carrier IQ software by the security researcher himself.

I suggest you read the two detailed articles (What is Carrier IQ? and CarrierIQ Part 2 for a deeper understanding of the situation.

My opinion? I’d stop using a phone immediately if it would run the software and would not give me an option to opt-out of it. What’s your take?

Update: Carrier IQ has also be confirmed running on Apple’s iOS. Read the blog post here for detailed information.

I received the Samsung GT-S8500 when I renewed my contract with T-Mobile. That was about a year ago and I never bothered to connect the phone to the Internet or see if Samsung has released a newer firmware for the device.

That changed today when I decided to find out how to update the phone’s firmware. And since I’m probably not the only one who cannot figure it out in a matter of seconds, I have decided to write a tutorial on how its done.

You need the following equipment to check for and install updates: The Samsung Android phone, the USB cable to connect the phone to the computer, and the Samsung Kies software [here] which handles the updating and other things.

Install Samsung Kies first. This may take a while. The program installs mobile phone drivers and may restart your computer without warning. Next thing that you need to do is to close all open applications on your phone. This is done by holding down the center button on the phone’s front until a new screen pops up with an option to close all running applications.

Use the USB cable to connect your mobile device to the computer and select Samsung Kies as the USB connection method. Start the software, the mobile phone should be recognized immediately.

Samsung Kies will search for updates automatically if the computer it is running on is connected to the Internet.

I’d advise anyone to stop the process at that time to export the phone’s settings and data to the PC first. Firmware updates may alter or remove data on the phone and it is always a good idea to make sure you can restore your data if that is the case.

Click Import/Export in Kies, switch to Export and use the Export buttons to backup the phone’s data to your computer. You can backup contacts, photos, music, videos, schedule, or to-dos.

Go back to the basic information tab in the Samsung Kies software after you have backed up your phone’s data. Click on the Firmware Update button to start the upgrade.

An informational page is displayed next. Samsung offers tips on how to make sure that the firmware update will complete without errors. The company suggests to connect the phone to a power supply, to back up data before the process, to not use the phone during the upgrade and to not connect other devices to the computer in that time.

The process may take up to 30 minutes, but is usually faster. My phone’s firmware upgrade took about five minutes.

If everything went fine you will receive a success message in the end. The device needs to be restarted (happened automatically in my case). You should now check if the data that you have stored on your phone is still available. If it is not, use the import feature of the Samsung Kies software to upload the data again to your phone.

Have you ever updated your smartphone? If so, how would you describe the process?

BlueStacks offers a solution for Windows based computer systems. It was first only compatible with Windows 7, the latest version released a few days ago added support for XP and Vista as well.

When you install BlueStacks on your computer an icon is added to the upper right screen of the operating system. This icon acts as the central hub. Here you can start Android applications, open the help file or the BlueStacks website to load additional apps on the computer.

The free version ships with ten preinstalled apps. It offers room for additional apps (The (changing) start page states the free version is limited to 26 additional apps) that can be installed from a list of featured apps on the BlueStacks homepage or by installing a BlueStacks client on the Android mobile which can then be used to push Android apps directly to the Windows PC. These apps appear in the hub listing after a short period of time.

Available preinstalled are mostly game apps like Aporkalypse or Drag Racing. The featured apps section on the BlueStacks homepage, only accessible after connecting a Facebook account with the service, lists more games and some news related apps.

More interesting that the featured or preinstalled apps is the ability to push existing Android apps from your phone to your PC to access them on Windows. The developers say that not all apps may work at the current point in time.

Apps that work are launched in fullscreen. Take a look at the following videos to get a better expression.

The developers are continuing to work on the application. It will eventually reach beta and then final status. The plan of the company from what I can see is to keep offering the free version of the software with limited app storage space, and a professional version with unlimited space that is likely going to cost either a flat sum of money or a subscription fee.

Windows users can download the latest version of BlueStacks from the project website. Windows XP users should take a look at the prerequisite page before they install the software to make sure they have all the software installed on their system that is required to run BlueStacks.

Android users, have you tried the BlueStacks App Player yet? If so, what’s your opinion?

Recovery mode is indicated by appearance of iTunes and USB icons on the screen of the iOS device. By whatever cause, and there can be a few, the device is unable to access its operating system. So, it displays these icons to prompt the user to recover the operating system. Usually this is no big deal.

Whichever machine you use for syncing the device to iTunes, make sure its version of iTunes is the most current. Ensure that all iTunes updates are installed. If you are in doubt, launch the Apple Software Update manager. Once it checks with Apple’s servers and is certain that iTunes does not need an update, you should be ready to get started.

This image indicates the user has an update pending and it should be installed before restoring the iOS device.)

Completely power-down the iOS device. This is done by holding the home button (front, center-bottom, in default portrait mode) AND the sleep button (corner, top edge opposite the home button) at the same time until the power-off slider appears. Use the slider to completely shutdown the device.

Before connecting the iOS device to the computer, hold the home button in place. This lets the firmware know you are about to do more than the usual sync. Once iTunes recognizes the device, which can take one-to-several seconds, depending on the speed of your computer, it will prompt you to restore the device. If you have a backup from your last sync of the device, you will be given an option to use this during the syncing process. This is most likely the option you will want. iTunes should prompt you to select which backup you want to use as your source. Make your choice and the restore may take between five and ten minutes to complete from that point.

If you happen to have the sudden urge for a clean configuration, set up as a new iOS device. iTunes will return your device to factory-default setup. Even iOS can get relatively cluttered – apps, notes, photos, music, etc. While generally organized very well according to the native management scheme of the system itself, sometimes a device can seem less pleasant to operate after heavy use. Starting fresh from factory defaults not only allows you to clear up some of the unnecessary stuff your system accumulates, but lets you to start out with the level of understanding you now possess, with your current usage patterns, and to re-encounter the system with a different set of eyes than you had when you first started using it. Experience is a great thing. Experience combined with a lean setup is even better than that.

Note: In iOS 5 or later, restoring the device wirelessly is an option with or without a cable connection to a computer, provided the device is functioning properly prior to starting the restore process. There are a lot of improvements in iOS 5 that allow for updates, restores and other functions to be managed without requiring use of another computer with iTunes. This guide is intended for circumstances when the iOS device has locked into recovery mode and cannot access a wireless connection or the device itself is running an earlier version of iOS.

iOS was designed to be one of the least fussy, most responsive operating systems around. It was also designed to be stable and secure. A lot of people dislike the absence of a visible file system on the largest of that family of devices, the iPad. This is a simplification over other navigation models and it is beneficial in that it prevents the user from accidentally doing something to the file system which might result in device instability. While it shouldn’t be necessary to be an expert to use most devices, it is a good idea to learn some of the little tricks available to you. Although many people still find technology to be intimidating, the more you learn, the more fun tech can be for you.

And now Google Music with its big announcement on November 16. Google Music gets rid of the beta status and remains a free service for all users (from the United States, and those who know how to use a proxy). Users can store up to 20,000 songs on Google servers.

The Google Music store offers a library of 13 million songs which can be purchased on the Android Market. Songs cost 99 cent and are provided in 320 Kbit quality. Users can download songs or stream them to other devices. Google Music users who make purchases can share their purchases on Google+. This allows others to listen to the song once on Google’s social networking platform.

Payments are currently limited to T-Mobile US customers which benefit from carrier billing support. This basically means that Google Music purchases will appear on the monthly cellphone bill which improves the buying experience significantly. T-Mobile customers will get exclusive contents for free until the end of the year as part of the promotion to establish the service in the United States.

Artists can create their own space on Google Music where they can sell their music directly. The initial fee to setup an artist page is $25 US Dollars. It is likely – but not confirmed – that artists will have to share their earnings with Google.

When you look at both Google Music and iTunes Match, you will notice that they are both US-only at this point in time. Google Music is even more limited as the store is currently only available to T-Mobile USA customers.

What’s your take on the recent development? If you are living in the US, will you be using one of the services?

A side effect of this is that most advertisements and other script driven objects and elements will be blocked as well by the extension.

NoScript offers more than just script blocking and whitelisting though. It comes with additional modules to enforce HTTPS usage, Cross-Site Scripting filters, Clickjacking protection and a firewall like component that the developer calls Application Boundaries Enforcer.

The developer of NoScript has been working for quite some time on a Firefox Mobile port of the extension. The recently released NoScript 3 Alpha 9 version is the first feature-complete version of the security add-on for Firefox Mobile on Android and Maemo devices.

NoScript Mobile in particular offers the following major security features that the desktop version of the add-on offers:

• A domain based content permission management for scripts
• Anti-XSS (cross-site scripting) filtering options
• Clickjacking protection called ClearClick
• The web application firewall App Boundaries Enforcer

NoScript Mobile furthermore introduces permission presets that can be configured after installation and later on in the extension’s options.

The developer has added four different permission presets to the add-on.

• Easy Blacklist – The user picks the sites where JavaScript and plugins are blocked on
• Click to Play – Plugins are automatically blocked until activated with a click by the user
• Classic Whitelist – The standard setting on NoScript for desktop Firefox versions. Blocks all scripts automatically and will only run whitelisted scripts.
• Fortress – Like the Classic Whitelist setting but all contents are blocked even on whitelist sites until clicked on.

Another interesting feature that will be implemented eventually is the ability to synchronize NoScript settings between desktop and mobile versions.

Users interested in running NoScript on mobile devices can download the latest version from the NoScript Anywhere project website.

The riots in London, which were at first triggered by the shooting of a 29 year old man by Police last Thursday in circumstances which have not yet become clear, quickly escalated with opportunistic thugs and criminals burning cars and buildings, destroying homes and businesses and robbing and looting.  In scenes seen last night in the capitol, one youth was seen robbing another of all his clothes in the street, while an injured and dazed individual was robbed of his possessions while he tried to regain his balance.  These riots last night spread to other parts of England including Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham where copycat looting, destruction and violence towards the police was again seen.

Blackberry made a statement last night saying that it would cooperate with the British Police and release all messages sent by these criminal gangs to the authorities.  This will take time however which is causing frustration on the streets of Britain.

Unlike Twitter, which was commonly and very effectively used in some Arab countries recently and which helped bring the people of Egypt onto the streets to overthrow their president, Blackberry messenger allows users to send secure and encrypted messages to other Blackberry users.  This means the messages cannot be intercepted in real time.  The Metropolitan Police in London said they believe that criminal gangs were using this to co-ordinate the riots and chaos across the city, and to inform each other of the next targets to hit.

Twitter has also been used by the youths responsible for a string of violent attacks against police and property, though these messages are open and have been tracked in real time by the authorities and the press.

Blackberry Messenger needs the Blackberry Internet Service to function, rather than using a normal unencrypted web connection.  It offers facilities including chat groups and dedicated discussions while also allowing users to share pictures, audio recordings and files.  Perhaps more importantly it allows maps to be shared.  The network is only accessible by Blackberry devices and cannot be seen by people on other devices or desktop computers.  Blackberrys have long been favourites in business because of the security and encryption they offer.

How the information share from RIM will happen is as yet unclear.  So far over 400 young people have been arrested in London and it is highly likely that those with Blackberry’s will have their mobile records released.  However there may be a wider claim made by the police for all mobile phones within certain cell areas during the times of the rioting.

So far there are no reports of any fatalities in the UK, though the eyes of the world will be on the country ahead of London hosting the Olympic games next summer.  There will be a reported 16,000 police from various forces around the UK on the streets of London tonight to try to bring the violence to an end.

UPDATE —–

In just the few minutes since this article was published, one man has been reported killed after being shot during the violence last night.  There are no further details as of this time.

The first consideration is probably the price. While iPhones are likely to be the more expensive, it’s not certain which phones offer the best value for money. The tens of thousands of apps that can be downloaded to extend its usefulness for example enhance the iPhone, making it an even more useful device. While the Blackberry has a similar scheme, its app store is lightly stocked compared to the iPhone. So although you may consider a Blackberry to save a few bucks, this might actually be through serious compromise to functionality.

We should also consider the Blackberry OS7 operating system that the new RIM handsets will run on. This is a definite improvement over previous operating systems, but it’s actually not that much different to OS6 found in last year’s original Blackberry Torch phone. The new operating system was originally called OS6.1, but RIM revised this to the OS7 with claims that the upgrade was so big it deserved to be labelled as a brand new operating system. Whether this is true or not, RIM could be accused of using marketing techniques to sell it’s devices based on inflated software advances.

Regardless of whether RIM actually did create a new operating system, or merely upgraded an existing one – it really doesn’t matter that much, because it won’t be around when RIM move to their new “next-generation” OS called QNX. This software is already in use on the Blackberry PlayBook tablet computer, so it won’t be long before it replaces OS6, OS6.1 or OS7, whatever they want to call it. So, buying a Blackberry today may seem almost like buying old technology.

Meanwhile the Apple iPhone seems to just gain in popularity, despite blunders from Apple. A few years ago, when boarding a train or a bus, every other person had a Blackberry. It was the in thing to have for a businessperson. But now, the roles have reversed and now everyone is sporting a new iPhone 4, complete with its seemingly easy to use interface and multiple exchange server connections. No longer is the Blackberry a work phone and the iPhone a mere plaything. The iPhone has become a full-blown need to have device for many executives.

So has RIM fallen behind the times with its Blackberry phones? Have they failed to move ahead with technology quick enough? Some seem to think so, and even the die-hard Blackberry fans of old are seriously considering whether they are planning to be true to their faith, or whether they are willing to jump ship and sail off to new frontiers.

While built-into the company’s own Windows Phone operating system, iOS is the next smartphone operating system to get this great piece of software and for a limited time it’s completely free.

The app isn’t just about storing notes on your mobile, just as with OneNote on Windows Phone it will upload your notes to Microsoft’s cloud storage service SkyDrive (you’ll need a Windows Live ID) so that you can share your notes with your PC and open notes created on the desktop when on the move.  Microsoft say of the new product.  OneNote users will also be able to view and edit their notes in the OneNote cloud app, that can be accessed through Microsoft’s Office Live service, or SkyDrive.

Microsoft OneNote Mobile is an easy-to-use note-taking application for capturing all of your ideas and to-dos on the go, brought to you by Microsoft Office.  With OneNote Mobile, create searchable notes with text, pictures, bullets, and checkboxes. Then keep your notes in sync using free Windows Live SkyDrive cloud storage to access, edit and manage them from virtually anywhere, from your PC or almost any web browser.

OneNote was first introduced in Office 2003 but wasn’t really popularly used until touch screen computers became commonplace.  Now with Office 2010 running on many tablet PCs, it’s considered a stable of the Office system.  The extension of the software into the iPhone will only help professionals who need access to notes, and the ability to create notes on the move that they can then use and work with on their PC.

What is curious about this however is the release of OneNote for the iPhone at a time when the program itself still isn’t part of the Office 2011 suite for the Mac.  Microsoft have not commented on this but it would most likely be down to the current lack of touchscreen support in Mac OS.  Now that Apple are addressing this we can expect to see the next generation iMacs and MacBooks coming with touch screens.  Thus the next version of Office Mac, due sometime around 2013, should include OneNote.

With this omission it remains to be seen how useful people will consider OneNote on the iPhone.  Many iPhone users, probably most in fact, still use a PC and this will help uptake.  The lack of OneNote support on the Mac could damage the apps chances of picking up serious traction on Apple’s smartphone platform though.

There is also no word currently on a version of OneNote for the iPad or for Google’s Android operating system.  We can be reasonably certain that the former is already in development.  The future of OneNote, and indeed other Microsoft Office services, on Android is less certain however.  Microsoft haven’t made any announcement as regards this and could decide to avoid Android development altogether.

On the flipside, Microsoft have a long history of developing Office products for the Mac, and so this was only to be expected.  Microsoft have also announced that they will be bringing their new Lync communications platform to the iPhone later this year.

The app needs iOS 4.2 or higher to run and can be downloaded from the iTunes store.  There is no word yet on how long Microsoft will be making OneNote for the iPhone free to download, though it will probably be for 30 days or less.  If you are interested in trying OneNote on your iPhone or iPod Touch I wouldn’t leave it too long before you add it to your download basket.

Scientists and researchers have been saying for several years now that we’re getting too much email.  They began saying this when the Blackberry was gaining popularity and more and more people suddenly began using email on the move.  The complaint then was that we were all expected to be able to answer work email outside of work hours.  This wasn’t giving people adequate time to switch off from their daily lives and relax in their own private time.

The Blackberry soon became known as the ‘Crackberry’ as people became addicted to the email facility on the handsets.  Now though the situation has spread like an epidemic, not only to smartphones, but also to other connected devices such as tablets and netbooks.  Questions will need to be asked again though if we’re not spending too much time addicted to email (and other forms of messaging) and if it isn’t having a negative effect on our lives, and on society, that could begin to cause real social problems if left unchecked.

I was down the pub the other evening with a friend.  We sat down with our drinks and he spent a few minutes checking Facebook on his smartphone, and sending a few messages.  With nobody to talk to for a while I dived into my email.  Here we were, probably looking like two incredibly unfortunate individuals, not talking to each other or anyone else but instead locked to our phones, heads down and concentrating.  This only lasted for a few minutes fortunately and then we put them away.

It’s not an unusual experience though by any stretch of the imagination.  Wherever you go in modern daily life you’ll see exactly the same thing.  Everywhere there will be people checking their smartphones, as if the world has moved on considerably in the five minutes since they last checked it.

I will admit to being an email twitcher on my phone.  I’ll go and visit a friend but the phone will be out and all too all too often I’ll flick it on and do a quick email check.  This is despite the facts that the phone is set to automatically check for email every fifteen minutes and I don’t get that many exciting or interesting work or social emails every day anyway.  It’s a problem, and I know it.  I find myself feeling embarrassed that I clearly have a stronger connection to my email than I do to the person I’m visiting.

But what are the emails we’re all receiving and are they really that important anyway?  If I examine my own emails, I’ll wake up every day to a few Google alerts (for my work here) and emails from Groupon and perhaps some shopping websites telling me about offers.  I’ve long since switched off from the barrage of social networking emails inviting me to play this, or join that on Facebook and telling me that @person mentioned me on Twitter.

I’m lucky then, as a great many people will still be receiving five or six emails a day from Facebook.  Every one of them reminding them that they haven’t logged into their Facebook account and interacted with their friends in, oh, must have been at least half an hour.  That’s all the shopping emails are like too.  I’m hardly likely to forget that Debenhams exist on the high street and only really want to know when they’ve got a sale going on that’s relevant to me.  Alas this means I have to sign up for a barrage of emails that aren’t relevant to me in the slightest.

In recent days I’ve finally had enough and have been undergoing a cull, hitting unsubscribe on many of these emails.  I know though that it’s only a matter of time before more companies tempt me to sign up for email alerts, or that I wake up one morning and don’t feel there are enough emails there (an odd feeling that one) so I’ll go and sign up for another.

It should come as no surprise to you then that all of these companies hire psychologists to advise them on things exactly like this.  Email is becoming a major social problem, especially since they started playing with our heads to get our attention and to get us hooked.

It would be interesting to hear how many emails you receive every day, let us know in the comments.  Of that total try to answer these if you can.  How many are from companies marketing themselves, how many are from social networks, how many are from work (and outside of work hours) and, crucially, how many of them are actually relevant or important?

Modern smartphones have lock screens that swipe in one way or another.  Sometimes too they will have a pin unlock.  Now these pin unlock screens by law have to include a button to allow you to make an emergency call, 999, 911 or 112, without physically having to unlock the handset.  But what about people who don’t have a pin code on their phone?

Modern smartphones are quite complex, and easily customisable.  After you’ve used a smartphone for a period you’ll be completely comfortable with where things are and how you access them.  For people who have recently bought their phone, or just got an upgrade on their contract, this isn’t always the case though.  A friend of mine only yesterday had to make an emergency call, fortunately not a critical one, and found he had to swipe up the lock screen on his brand new Windows Phone, go into the People hub and then find the small icon that would bring up the call pad to allow him to make the call.  This took valuable time.  He wasn’t familiar with the handset though as he’d only had it for a day.

Then there are problems with ICE numbers.  For those of you who don’t know it’s useful to mark one of the contacts in your phone as ICE (In Case of Emergency).  This is an idea piloted by a UK Police force and it gives the emergency services a valuable contact to call in the case you are incapacitated, and it’s something that the emergency services will specifically look for on a handset.

With a traditional mobile phone you would just have a phone book of the people you like to call and who call you.  On a smartphone though there can be contacts from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more in your list, and finding the appropriate person to call can prove difficult or even sometimes impossible.

Modern smartphones are set up in such a way as the lock screen will provide you with useful information such as the time, date and any forthcoming appointments you may have.  They’re not set up to show you ICE numbers though.  What’s more PIN screens, while allowing you access to make emergency calls, won’t allow you to call a next of kin, spouse or housemate in the event that you are hospitalised.

This all brings me back to traditional mobile phones.  These too came with optional pin codes that would have prevented you from accessing the contacts list, though many would have given the option to bring up owner information.  Here you could put a valuable second contact number for the emergency services.

I’ve spoken before about smartphone security, and how it needs to be brought front and centre of the smartphone experience to keep our data and personal information safe.  However there also needs to exist a way to keep us safe and protected in the event that a disaster occurs.

This is something that the main mobile OS manufacturers, Apple, Google, RIM and Microsoft need to consider more as they build more and more security into our handsets by default.  These updates, which are pretty much inevitable, will make it even harder for the emergency services to access our contacts information, or for strangers who may not have a phone of their own or be unfamiliar with your phone’s operating system, to use yours to make an emergency call.

Overall I’d like to think that my phone is set up to allow this, I use a Windows Phone.  As things stand though, there is no way at all for me to provide an ICE contact to people without leaving the handset permanently unlocked.  So it seems that I’m damned if I do, and doomed if I don’t!

Here you can update and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents you have stored in the cloud and it’s the one feature I’ve been looking forward to the most.  I have for many years had spreadsheets that I want to use on the move and used this facility as far back at the late 90′s with handheld computers like the Psion Series 3.  Needless to say then I found that the omission of this feature from Windows Phone at launch, and the inability to be able to transfer and sync documents with PCs made the Office hub almost completely unusable for me, and a waste of time.

Now though I have full access to these spreadsheets.  I’ve stored them on SkyDrive ever since I first installed Office 2010 on my PCs.  The main reason for doing this was security, with the files not actually residing on my computers and hidden behind a password and encryption there, the theft of anything from my home wouldn’t reveal personal and critical financial data to others.  How could anyone resist the opportunity to make their financial data so secure!?  There was also the added benefit of having access to these spreadsheets on any device and from anywhere in the world.  This is something I have also found extremely useful when on trips and holidays.

What I really wanted though was to be able to carry these files around with me too, on my smartphone.  After all, this is what a smartphone is for isn’t it?

You would imagine then that now I have achieved spreadsheet nirvana I would be ecstatic and as happy as happy can be.  You might be surprised then to hear that I’m feeling quite the contrary.  In fact I’m now deeply concerned about the security of these files, and it all comes down the lack of adequate security features in the smartphone OS itself.

Now I won’t speak about iOS or Android here, though all smartphone and tablet operating systems have got some faults in this area.  I’ll concentrate here on Windows Phone.  With this operating system you have a simple choice between ease of use and secure and safe, but sadly it’s very difficult to have both together.

What upsets me so much is that true spreadsheet nirvana for me would be an incredibly simple thing to achieve, if only Microsoft would put in one or two tiny little features to the main lock screen on the OS and one more feature to their Office Live platform.

At the moment the way things stand is like this.  You have a choice of either a lock screen that you swipe up to unlock the phone, or a lock screen that swipes up to reveal a numeric keypad onto which you have to type a code.  The latter of these two options is fully secure but the former will just allow anybody access to all your files and data.

You would imagine then that I would have my phone behind a password, to be safe and secure.  I don’t do this though as I use my smartphone an lot, an awful lot in fact and for a great many different things.  The process of having to swipe the lock screen up and then type in a password is annoying, cumbersome and frankly too much to ask people to do.

This makes me think of Android phones I have used where unlocking the phone involves swiping your finger across the screen to make a pattern that you yourself can set.  This is what I would call secure and with this I would be very happy.  A very similar feature to this is being added to Windows 8, or so it appears, but so far (and we should remember that Mango is still in beta, though Microsoft have a history of only releasing ‘near final’ betas these days) there’s no similar feature in Mango at all.

What Mango does bring to the table is the option to only ask for the password after X minutes of inactivity.  The options only go up to 30 minutes however, which may seem fair enough.  It is at least a huge improvement over what we had before.  It’s not configurable enough for many people though and will need to be looked at.

Then there’s the problem that the phone will automatically show, on it’s Office hub main page, links to every file and document I store in Microsoft’s cloud services.  There’s no option to hide any or just show some.  It’s all or nothing with this OS!

The other problem resides with Microsoft’s Office Live service.  This service is still failing to support passwords on documents.  This would make the problem go away for me (though it still wouldn’t sort out everything else on my phone being easily accessible to a thief).  This means that anyone clicking a link to a file on my phone will find that the file just opens for them, straight away and without worry.

It amazes me then that security on Smartphones is still not being given the importance by many companies that it truly deserves.  We’re all doing more and more with our smartphones these days and many people are literally carrying their entire lives around in their pockets, unsecured and open to theft and abuse by anyone that finds or steals the handset.

This situation has simply got to change, and change quickly.  If Microsoft, Apple and Google are ever going to convince the world, especially business, that their smartphone platforms are ‘the way forward’ then they need to bring security front and centre.  Unless and until this happens we’re all in trouble.

At the event held in New York, Google executives also demonstrated their newly invented technology and made transactions with it using a Google Nexus smart phone. They also introduced the e-coupons and executives were hopeful that one day you would be able to stop carrying cards altogether and carry everything from your driver’s license to your insurance card on your smartphone.
The Smartphones that can be used as eWallet are equipped with NFC technology, which is based on NXP PN65 chip from NXP Semiconductors.

Google’s representatives claimed that eWallet is completely secure and that there is an exceedingly small chance that your credit card information can be compromised. The NFC chip can only be turned on when the consumers wants it to be. This means that hackers won’t be able to sniff the personal information associated with your eWallet.

Google is partnering with CitiBank, Mastercard, Subway, Macy’s, American Eagle and Sprint for their new NFC Technology. Google also called upon other big guns in the industry to partner with them in order to provide this service to a wider array of consumers.

Trials of Google eWallet began Thursday in New York and San Francisco initially, but according to sources they will be expanded to other cities soon.

Mark Beccue, senior analyst at ABI Research, said that the groundbreaking part of this announcement is that Google’s committed to moving NFC forward, but there’s no single NFC standard yet.

Initially, it works on Samsung Nexus phones with Android OS and can only be used with a MasterCard credit card. Some sources claim that Google is trying to get other Credit Card companies to come on board as well, to extend the services and also as an effort to serve a larger consumer base.

Google eWallet is compatible with MasterCard PayPass as well, which is widely accepted throughout the world. To be a part of Google’s venture, the retailer must have a MasterCard PayPass hand held device as well, and there are about 120,000 which retailers have it in US.
To pay their bills, the Google eWallet users would just have to tap their phone when the cashier asks for payment. For any purchase above $100, you will have to enter a confirmation code which would be sent to you via text message or email. The reason for this security check is to prevent unauthorized usage of your eWallet in case the original owner loses it.

On Thursday, Google also announced Google Offers, e-coupons for shopping. eWallet is expected to enter into full fledge service by 2013.

What do you think of this newest technology? Is it just a natural extension of the smart phone, or is it an opportunity for more and more invasion of our privacy from the big names?

The main function of the host is to act as a bus master which controls the data input and output channels and decide its use at varied times. The host also acts as the powered bus to provide power. In the computer world the laptop or the desktop acts as the host which performs as the bus master as well as providing power to the bus. While the other accessories such as the mouse, printer, webcam etc. act as the USB devices. Similarly in the smart phones the phone device acts as the host whereas its accessories act as the USB devices. But since very few Android powered devices support host mode to successfully connect the accessories as the USB devices, the Android developers turned the normal relationship on its head. Instead of using the phone or tablets as hosts, they act as USB Devices and the accessories acts as the USB Host. This means that the accessories act as the bus master and a powered bus.

The Open Accessory will consist of a USB host and a system to provide power to the Android Device such as a phone or tablet. Once the accessory is connected to the device the device will identify itself on the basis of its VID/PID (significant IDs which are unique to the Device model and manufacturer). Once the device is detected the accessory asks the device to switch to accessory mode by sending a series of control transactions to the device. While switching to accessory mode the device will reappear with the new VID/PID corresponding to the accessory mode. The above protocol will help the device to start in the accessory mode after the appropriate application is initiated. If the specific application is not found, the protocol will suggest a relevant URL for the application.

How to start Android device in accessory mode?

Step 1: Send a 51 control (“get protocol”) request to detect if the device supports Android Accessory Protocol. If the device supports the protocol, a non-zero number is returned. This number represents the version of the protocol. The following are the characteristics of the request control.

Step 2: After the appropriate protocol version is returned by the device, send a string information to the device, this information will select the appropriate application for the accessory attached, if the application is not found in the device it will suggest the user with a URL. The characteristics of this request are as follows:

The following string IDs are supported with maximum size of 256 bytes for each string.

Step 3: Once the application has been chosen, send the request to start device in accessory mode. This request is a control request on endpoint 0 having characteristics as follows:

After the final control request has been sent, the device will reappear in the accessory mode and the accessory will be able to identify the device and establish communication with the device. Thus the Android seems to have created a pathway for configuring the accessories with the devices.

So why do I have this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that whatever Microsoft deliver next year won’t be good enough?  Microsoft tout the features of Windows 7, its stability and reliability almost to excess.  Certainly it’s the most stable, reliable and dependable operating system the company has ever produced.

Windows 8, when it finally arrives, will no doubt be even more reliable, stable and dependable than even Windows 7 is capable of being.  Then there’s been all the tablet talk in the last year or so.  Google rushed a new version of its Android OS out of the door, Steve Ballmer has said that the next version of Windows will be tablet friendly and the world is looking forward to all that.

If we look at the, now mature, smartphone market though what do we see?  Probably the biggest and most popular smartphone OS out there at the moment, Google’s Android, is still based around a desktop with widgets on it.  Indeed its handsets still come with a cursor you can move around.  This is a good example I feel that no matter how good this particular smartphone OS might be, its still a step behind its users.

If you look back historically for instance to the days of MS DOS and Windows 1.  By the time Windows and Mac OS were first released, users had already been clamoring for a GUI OS with alternatives such as DesqView and GEM rising to fill the temporary gap.  With almost every OS the world has seen it’s been a step behind its users.

But surely this is the problem, as new technology comes along we find more and more innovative uses for it and so the technology keeps getting left behind.  Operating systems suffer from this problem even more.  Look at Windows.  The current version is leagues behind where its users want it to be.  Only now are Microsoft taking features such as tablet functionality and System on a Chip seriously.  All the companies responsible for hardware and operating systems are staying one step behind their users.  There’s one exception to this however and that’s Apple.

Apple are the only technology company that’s being proactive and trying to anticipate what its users will want to do in the coming years.  It’s this forward-thinking attitude that have put the company firmly in the lead, and that will keep it there until anybody else is brave enough to catch up.  Nintendo and Microsoft have both achieved this to a lesser degree in recent years with innovative new ways to interact with their games consoles.  These innovations aside though there’s very little that’s staying ahead of the users of modern technology.

So where does this leave any OS?  If you look at any of the desktop operating systems, OS X, GNU/Linux and Windows, they’re all currently playing catch up with their users.  Now smartphone and tablet operating systems are doing the same with Google and Microsoft rushing to finish products they should really have brought to market a couple of years ago.

That was the time when people wanted these features, right back at the beginning.  Unfortunately unless and until the big technology and software companies realise that the consumer is now ahead of them, no operating system will ever be good enough.

Many employees didn’t like this announcement though, primarily the 1,500 workers employed on the Symbian side of the company who are now worried about their own futures. Many of these workers all took advantage of flexi-time to leave work early yesterday, apparently in protest at the wholesale move to Windows Phone.

Bloomberg reported that shares in the company fell 14% today, which is the largest drop for the company since last summer.

 It’s not all bad news though, as the first concept image of a Nokia Windows Phone have leaked to Engadget, you can see it below.  I think you’ll agree that if Nokia release handsets that look this good then the fortumes of both Nokia and Microsoft can be turned around.

Nokia has had mixed fortunes in recent years and its CEO was forced to admit they’d fallen years behind their rivals.  While the company was working on a new smartphone OS, MeeGo, it could never have had it market-ready in time to get back in the race.

Nokia is still the world’s largest phone manufacturer and needs to maintain this position.  So far uptake of Windows Phone has been lukewarm.  This is due to a combination of factors that include smartphone fatigue, Android’s current dominance and a poor set of enterprise features.  Nokia is the partner Microsoft need to make Windows Phone trendy.  It looks very much from this image that Nokia will not be letting them down.

That is where Calibre comes in. This amazing ebook tool is a cross-platform ebook manager that not only allows you to manage your ebook library, it also allows you to convert your own books (papers, documents, etc) into a format that your ebook reader will read. No matter if you have a Kindle, NOOK, Sony eReader, or whatever…you can convert those documents into useable forms for your device. Let’s take a look at just how this process is done with Calibre.

Formats in, formats out

Calibre can format into and out of the following formats:

• Input Formats: CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC**, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT
• Output Formats: EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, SNB, TCR, TX

You will notice the input format does not include .doc. That is intentional as the .doc format is fairly inconsistent with it’s standards. It has been my experience that the .rtf and .pdf formats are the best for input.

Preparing for formatting

I won’t go into detail about managing your books in Calibre. But I did want to mention how metadata is edited. By editing the meta data of your books you can change/add the following:

• Cover image
• Title
• Title sort
• Author name
• Author sort
• Rating
• Publisher
• Tags
• Series
• ISBN
• Comments
• Date
• Published date

Figure 1

In order to edit the metadata of your book simply right-click your book and select Edit Metadata > Edit Metadata Individually. When you click that the metadata editor will open (see Figure 1).

You can also do a bulk edit of metadata. When you are editing in bulk you will edit the metadata of one book and then click the Next button. If you are editing only a single button, edit the data and then click OK.

Once you have edited the metadata, you are ready to convert.

Converting

Figure 2

To convert your file into an eReader-friendly format go back to the main screen, right-click your book, and select Convert Books > Convert Individually. Of course you can convert in bulk as well. When the conversion window opens (see Figure 2) you will notice numerous tabs in the left pane.

The most important of these tabs is the Page Setup tab. From that tab you can choose the page format for the document. As a general rule, when you select the Output format (from the top-right drop down) the correct page setup will be configured for that output. But if you have very device-specific formatting you would  need to visit that tab and configure the output document correctly.

You can convert your file from any of the tabs. All you do is select the output format type (upper right drop down), edit the metadata (if you haven’t already haven’t done so). And then click OK. Depending upon the input and output type, the process can take some time. But in the end your newly converted file will be in the ~/Calibre Library directory and ready to transfer to your device.