Guardian :Anti-theft system for mobiles

Guardian is an anti-theft application which enables you to get notified whenever someone changes the sim card on your cell phone. Every time the phone is switched on, Guardian checks the sim and if the authentication fails it sends an sms to a previously set number. If the sim is unauthorized it hides itself and so the new user will not be aware that an sms has actually been sent. The sms sent contains essential details which help track down the phone easily.

The application is also protected from unauthorized uninstallation. A special procedure needs to be followed in order to uninstall the application. The application can also be password protected. It is recommended to install the application to the phone as it has hard reset protection (which actually means that its very difficult to delete the application even by resetting the phone back to default settings)

It also has a remote control feature whereby one can delete the messages/video/photos simply by sending an sms. However this feature is activated only on donation.

Download Guardian for free.

Opera Mini- the Best of all Mobile Browsers:

Opera Mini 2.0 released by Opera Software is an excellent mobile browser supporting lots of different mobiles (check your phone here). In spite of the small screen limitation, Opera renders most sites beautifully using its “Small Screen Rendering” technology.

It supports downloading mp3, images etc directly to the phone. Lots of shortcuts are provided to navigate quickly. The web pages are pre-processed on a remote server in order to optimize content for your phone. With support for bookmarks, skins and browsing history it is a must have freeware for you phone.

Alternatives to Opera Mini do exist but as of now most have fairly limited support or a really dull look. Minimo from the guys who came up with firefox currently supports only the Windows Mobile phones. Hopefully they will come up with better support soon.

UPDATE: Opera has released a newer version Opera Mini 3.0 which supports RSS Feeds, Photo blogging, Content folding , secure browsing and more.

floAt’s Mobile Agent

floAt’s Mobile Agent is one of those software which might make you switch to a Sony Ericsson phone almost instantly. All you need is a Bluetooth (preferred) or cable connection, a PC and a SE phone.

Once a connection is established it gives you detailed information about your phone’s battery power, firmware version, signal strength, missed calls details etc. All your phone’s content (inclusive of messages, games, themes, and images) are available easily in a familiar explorer like interface.

Transferring data to and from the phone is very easy too. You can talk to your callers using your computer headphones and microphone. It also allows you to send sms from your PC.

On your phone you are provided with a menu based interface with which you can control your PC. It allows you to control a wide range of applications such as Winamp, PowerPoint, Explorer, etc. And if all this isn’t enough, you can write your own scripts too! And this quality software comes for free!

Bluetooth provides an additional advantage over a cable connection as you can easily control you power point presentations from your phone , or control your music playlist from wherever you are (you should be within Bluetooth range of course :) )

All these features gives the SE phones a huge lead … at least in the low end category where Nokia phones come with hardly any good quality PC based software support.

Backing your mobile content

Being someone who installs a lot of mobile applications, it is very important for me to maintain a backup of all my important mobile messages, phone contacts and calendar appointments.

Most phones these days provide support for Bluetooth or alternately a cable connection. While a cable connection is usually much faster, a Bluetooth connection allows you to use your mobile freely within a range of 30mts or so. To backup your phone details it is important that you have at least one of the options mentioned above. The phone usually has a software CD bundled with it. Alternately if you do not have one, you could check out the site for the latest version of the software. A lot of other alternatives such as Oxygen Phone Manager and Float’s Mobile Agent are also available. Nokia has its own PC suite with which the entire phone backup can be easily taken.

This option is usually available though the Nokia Content Copier.

1) Select “Make a backup of the phone contents to the PC”

2) Select your phone

3) Select the content you want to backup. In case of a full backup see that the “Copy also memory card contents” checkbox is checked.

This process can also be followed if you want to transfer all your phone settings to a new memory card. The best part is that it also takes a backup of the installed applications.

Essential free Symbian software

Once you have purchased a Symbian based phone, its time to exploit its features to the max. Here is a list of utilities which are available freely.

1) FExplorer: Handy file explorer to browse the content saved on your phone, has lots of features. Check the link for more details.
2) S60Zip: Freeware utility to compress files into zip format. Useful if you tend to store a lot of doc format e-books on your mobile.
3) Forward: A very simple utility to transfer the installation files from the inbox to any folder on your mobile.
4) SymbtChat: Chat with your friends using this application. Works over Bluetooth, the recipient need not have this software installed.
5) Ogg play: Great freeware audio player for the series 60 phone. Supports several formats and skins.
6) Calcium: A nice freeware calculator which moves most of the operations to the joystick hence making it a lot faster.
7) ReadM: e-book reading software with lots of features.
8) JJLKeyLock : For some strange reason most Nokia Series 60 phones do not support auto keypad locking.
9) XXL Screen Saver : Tired of the default screen saver? Install this and get a bigger clock as the screen saver. Also supports skins.
10) Message Saver: Allows the user to save all/selected messages as notes which can be later transferred to the PC.
11) Google Maps: Now you have Google Earth on your mobile too!
12) Yahoo Go : A collection of Yahoo related stuff (messenger, mail, photos etc) right on your mobile.
13) Agile Messenger: Supports AOL, Yahoo, MSN and ICQ.
14) S60Dict: Free offline dictionary.
15) TaskSpy: More like the task manager on windows.
16)MobiPocket Reader: Read ebooks on your mobile. Lots of ebooks available in MobiPocket format.

Lots of other utilities are avaiable for your cellphone, so keep checking this blog :)

The Quest for a perfect mobile

The quest for the perfect mobile...and so it goes...every day someone or the other enters into a crowded shop searching for the ever elusive perfect mobile. With the huge range of mobile handsets available today, almost everyone is easily overwhelmed. Choosing the right mobile is pretty much like asking the question "Will you marry me?" One wrong move and you would probably repent it for the rest of your life (or rather your mobile's life). With mobiles coming up with new features each day, anything that one buys tends to be obsolete in a short span of a few months.

This blog serves more as a guide to being happy with your own mobile and manage with the huge range of software available for your mobile.