I was lucky enough to get a unit some time back to review. Yes, it was almost a few weeks back that I got the pair of easyKey dongle; but because I wanted to make sure that what I am getting is the real McCoy, I tested it inside out, outside in, and flip it around a few times for good measure. My data was secure, it was virtually hack-proof (virtually because if you have all the computer power needed and all the time, then yes, you can probably hack it - but I am not sure if you’d still be around to see it).

While I will go through the installation at the bottom of the post, I would like to highlight some mechanisms on how I thought it worked. When you first install the software, you will be prompted to create a drive. This drive that you are creating doesn’t really exist, but is really a .sdf file on your hard disk. The .sdf file is something like a .zip file except that it’s not really compressed although it is really encrypted.

When you plug in the easyKey dongle on on another occasion, it will prompt you for a PIN, following which the .sdf file will be "opened" up as a drive on your computer. Needless to say, deleting the .sdf file means that you will lose all data that you stored in this virtual drive. It is also noteworthy to mention that the dongle itself is not a thumb drive and the size of the virtual drive you create during or after installation is really taking up space on your hard disk.

What if your hard disk runs out of space - can you still create an encrypted virtual drive to store all your confidential stuffs? The good news is, you can. When you run the easySafe application, it will prompt you for your PIN; following which, it will prompt you for your easyDrive Name (which is like a volume name - for the techies), an easyDrive Size (which is the size of the virtual drive which is really the size of the .sdf file) and an easyDrive Location. Now, this location does not have to always be at C: or D:. In fact, if you have a USB drive, you can plug your USB drive in (assuming that you have at least 2 USB ports) and store the encrypted .sdf file on the thumb drive instead. Of course, doing so means that you’d have to insert both the thumb drive and the easyKey dongle everything you like to access your encrypted data.

In a nutshell, the easyKey dongle provides a 2-prong approach to data security. It is firstly a physical dongle - without which, there’s no way anyone can gain access to your data; and even if someone does manage to get hold of it, it has a second-level security by asking for a PIN. Without either, your encrypted data is safe even in the hands of others.

Many have also asked about why there are 2 easyKey dongles. The reason is quite simple. If you lose one dongle, there’s always another one. If you lose both… hmm… I hope you have a back up somewhere.

FAST easySafe is really the only hardware cryptography product available in the market with unique features. It protects all sensitive information in your computer, external hard disk, USB flash drive, SD card and other removable media.

And now, if you had been dying for the step through, here you go. (Click more to continue)

Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, I find myself yet again, in another unique position of having both the Starhub MaxMobile service as well as the M1 Broadband service running from the same computer. Not at the same time of course, since the active connection can only come from either source. However, because my laptop has an internal SIM card slot and I have the M1 Broadband dongle as well, I save the trouble of having to replace SIM cards when I want to test either connection.

Prior to connecting my Starhub MaxMobile for the first time, I experience bad connection problems with my M1 Broadband. Not only was the connection slow, but the graphics seemed distorted as well. Initially, I thought I needed a new driver for the display, but in an unusual twist of events, I realised that it was a graphic degradation due to slow downstream speed. Of course, it’s easy to push the blame to M1.

To me, 99.98% coverage means nothing to me if I am having problems getting a connection. To me, it was 0% coverage. Probability doesn’t work here. It’s not as if I am getting 99.98% uptime from my 0% coverage location. Don’t you just hate statistics?

So, here’s the golden question. Which is the better choice? To some people, it might be even a platinum question, but I digress.

One of the better ways to compare is to do a speed test - upload/download and ping from a particular site. On 29th April 2008 at 19:17, this test was done - but it seemed like a particularly bad day for testing because all the speeds were down - way down from being optimal. Perhaps it’s the feng shui.

Date: 29th April 2008

Time: From 19:17

*The upload for Wireless@SG was not successfully completed on multiple tries.

There’s a caveat to this test though. The M1 Broadband is subscribed under the lowest band, which is up to 1.8 Mpbs while Starhub’s MaxMobile is under the 7.2 Mbps plan - since they only have a single plan. For a rare moment, Wireless@SG outperformed both mobile broadband services. Of course, I didn’t mention about frequent dropping of connections.

However, it is also known that different areas have difference coverage. For me, the place where I spend 10 hours a day at has 0% coverage from M1 Broadband, and barely GPRS speed at home; while Starhub MaxMobile provided better coverage in the day and night for me. For me, it’s quite a clear cut choice.

One thing’s for sure. Ever since M1 went unlimited with their M1 Broadband, it was all down the drain.

In a closed invitation preview, a group of bloggers were given a first-hand view of the HP 2133 Mini Note PC. Weighing no more than 1.3kg, which is probably half the weight of your phone book, and a size smaller than your foolscap pad, this new baby is probably beginning to win hearts over. When I laid hands on it, I was amazed by the sleekness of the notebook. I would have expected some features to be compromised, but I was so wrong.

By now, the HP Mini Note would have been widely reviewed by many bloggers, so I’d just highlight some things that amazed me… that you should also look out for.

The first thing that capture my eyes was how nicely the 8.9" LCD screen was nicely flushed with its awesome speakers. It fitted so nicely that it seems that I will no longer have to worry about dust getting stuck between the LCD screen and the plastic panel. In fact, the LCD is over fitted with a scratch resistant acrylic that will minimize any heartaches with that close brush with my house keys.

L-R: An overview of the HP Mini Note, The Right Profile of the notebook - here’s where you find one of the USB port as well as other network ports, The Left Profile of the notebook - here’s where you find the audio ports as well as the other USB port, The cover of the notebook - this is fitted with a Garskin, The front of the notebook - the blue light is the slider for power while the orange is the slider for Wifi radio

Still, I think I’d still get a screen protector for it.

The next thing that captured my attention was how feature packed the HP Mini Note is. Given it’s smaller than A4 size, it surprising how they managed to squeeze 9 ports and slots - including 2 USB 2.0 ports and 1 Express Card slot into the machine. The HP Mini Note comes with 2 types of batteries - the 3 cell and 6 cell batteries, with the larger one purportedly to run for 4 hours. While the 3-cell battery lies flushed into the curves of the notebook, the 6-cell version comes with a protruding section that seems to fit nicely to raise the back of the notebook such that the keyboard is comfortably slanted to relief strain on your wrists from typing too long in a cramped and enclosed space.

If you think that a notebook lacking in this size is going to whine, you are so wrong. The 2 speakers aligned by the sides of its crystal clear LCD screen boasts audio of high-fidelity quality for a notebook of its size. Instead of stereo speakers that you have to strain your ears to listen to, it speaks right in front of you, in your face. In fact, given the noisiness of the surroundings of the bloggers’ preview, it’s surprising that I can still hear music playing from it. Imagine what i can do in a quieter environment.

Aesthetically, the HP Mini Note is pleasantly presented in a nice, plain top that gives the sleek and sophisticated feeling. If plain isn’t your cup of tea, HP has tied up with Garskins for customized skins that fit your HP Mini Note snuggly. They come in various designs and styles to fit your personality. Indeed, the HP Mini Note is not just a mobile work station. It’s about defining you.

L-R: Skin fitted onto the demo HP Mini Note PC, Difference skins from Garskins, Denim Jeans skin!

The power and wifi buttons are conveniently located at the front of the notebook and comes in the form of sliders. A slight push turns on the notebook as well as the Wifi radio. The HP Mini Note also has also moved away from convention by place the left and right mouse buttons on the left and right sides of the mousepad. While it is quite intuitive for me, it might take some getting used to for some people.

For a notebook of such specifications, one would expect to pay close to S$2000 to S$3000 for it. However, it comes at an extremely affordable price of $999 for it’s SuSE linux version and just about S$200 more and above for its Windows Vista cousins. The optional DVD writer comes at about S$400. One would start wondering if it’s competing for the same share of the market as the Asus Eee PC, but given it’s configuration, it really belongs to an entirely different market.

For the features packed into the HP Mini Note, it’s worth that S$999 for the SuSE version. It’s reported to come with 2.5G (GPRS), but this feature wasn’t brought to my attention during the launch. For more information, do drop by at http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF25a/321957-321957-64295-321838-306995-3687084.html (note that prices are in US dollars).

Simply Jean was invited to the showroom of the BMW Hydrogen 7 which is being showcased in Singapore since March 7. The exhibition is located in a futuristic, glass-and-steel pavilion located at the corner of Beach and Ophir Roads and opens daily from 9am to 5pm till March 23, when they will move on to other parts of Asia.

First impression of the BMW Hydrogen 7 was that it was similar to any other BMW 7 series in that it matches the aesthetics of the latter that gives the same feel and look of the superior sleekness of a BMW. However, beneath the metallic body unveils an entirely different architecture of the fuel system. The BMW Hydrogen 7 is a part-hydrogen, part-petrol machine that runs 200km from a full liquid hydrogen tank and hits 500km on a full petrol tank. The liquid hydrogen is stored in a thick steel cylinder that’s been crash tested against weight, impact and temperature. The result of using hydrogen is that only water is produced instead of Hydrogen. In fact, BMW even bottled up the water to give it to their guests at the showroom.

Images from Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Back of the distinctive BMW Hydrogen 7, the liquid hydrogen tank, the 12V engine, the hydrogen refuelling valve, the steering with push-button to switch to hydrogen and back, the sleekness of the back wheel, the BMW Hydrogen Power illuminator, and Hydrogen 7 brand

Safety is one of the top consideration in the design of the BMW Hydrogen 7 - just like how LTA implemented the recent taxi rule in the CBD. As such, any vapour that is given out during combustion is channel through 2 valves - one at the roof of the car and another at the bottom - in case the car topples. Locks at the door are translucent with LEDs that blink should hydrogen leakage be detected within the car. In such a situation, all windows will automatically wind down.

The BMW Hydrogen 7 is powered by a 12V engine and has both hydrogen and petrol lines. The maximum torque of the car is modified so that there will not be an obvious jerk when the car switches from hydrogen to petrol or vice versa. This option is available either through the push of a button at the steering or when hydrogen or petrol runs out - during which, an automatic switch is triggered.

The test drive along Beach Road was good and comfortable and the switch from hydrogen to petrol and vice versa was only noticeable through the sound of the click of the valve. This 7 series, like it’s petrol-based cousin has good handling and shields passengers from noisy roads. In fact, a decent conversation went on despite a bus and a lorry rambling on its side. As this is a foreign registered car, the GPS system wasn’t activated. If you weren’t being told that it’s a hydrogen-hybrid, you probably can’t tell the difference.

Images from Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Front of the distinctive BMW 7 series, the back passenger LCD panel, the control knob for the back passengers, the flushed side handles, the top light and control panel for back passengers, the flush-hidden mirrors, comfort and control by the door, and the BMW Hydrogen 7 back view

However, because we didn’t really have a chance to drive the BMW Hydrogen 7 at top speed, I can’t comment on the car’s ultimate performance. However, given the track record of BMW’s, there’s no doubt on what it can do.

The BMW Hydrogen 7 is committed to making clean energy a reality. By working with organizations to provide the basic framework and architecture for producing and supporting clean energy fuel, BMW hopes to make hydrogen fuel a reality for consumers.

Yeah… there isn’t a typo here - man is "man" with a small "m" and not a big "M" which generally refers to mankind (meaning men and women and all). Why do I say so, gee… I guess the screen shot tells a thousand words.

The people at Google Korea do know what’s most important/best for men, since by any order, the first match should have been the second match instead.

Ed: This is not the AutoComplete feature in IE. This is the AutoComplete feature on the Google site.

One of the fears of investing into technology is that it would become obsolete as soon as it is purchased. This is especially so when pursuit of the technology is ceased instead of it dying a natural death or being superceded by newer technology. With Toshiba flying the white flag now, many consumers will be stuck with HD-DVD players with a very slim chance of seeing more movies produced on the media.

This is worse than having a mature technology dying because there may still be libraries of movies that are already available on the old media. In this abrupt pull back of technology, there is a high chance that companies will stop investing in this technology and hereafter move on to producing movies on the Blu-ray disc - the Sony technology that HD-DVD lost to.

One would then wonder what happens to the consumers then? Well, the HD-DVD player will probably go the way of the LD player, except that there’s still a chance of finding old movies and Karaoke discs on LD than on HD-DVD discs. To add salt to the wound, if the HD-DVD player is white and huge, it’d indeed be a white elephant.

TOKYO–Investors cheered an impending end to a format war for next-generation DVDs on Monday, pushing up shares of both Toshiba, on the verge of abandoning its HD DVD discs, and Sony, the leader of the rival Blu-ray camp.

Toshiba shares jumped 5.1 percent as analysts praised its decision to cut its losses, while Sony, whose technology is set to become the industry standard for the next generation of high-definition home movie DVDs, rose 2.7 percent.

"It doesn’t make sense for Toshiba to continue putting effort into this," said Koichi Ogawa, a chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments. "It needs to cut its losses and focus its resources on promising businesses."

A source at Toshiba told Reuters on Saturday that the electronics conglomerate was planning to give up on the HD DVD format after losing the support of key retailers and several movie studios including Warner Bros.

Toshiba, which led a consortium promoting HD DVD, would suffer losses of hundreds of millions of dollars to scrap production of its equipment and other steps to withdraw from the business, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.

But analysts gave high marks to Toshiba’s seemingly quick decision to pull the plug on HD DVD because of the heavy costs involved in promoting the format.

Nikko Citigroup raised its rating on Toshiba to "buy/high risk" from "hold/high risk." JP Morgan maintained its "overweight" rating while predicting the elimination of sales promotion costs would add $280 million to Toshiba’s operating profit in the next business year from April.

"Since the business has no growth potential without video software, we think the company will probably withdraw completely rather than just partially," JP Morgan analysts Yoshiharu Izumi and Masashi Hayami wrote in a note to clients.

While keen on a new format DVD that can hold more content and produce higher-quality pictures, movie studios, and retailers want a single format that would avoid the cost of producing and stocking two different types of DVD.

Shoppers, faced with two formats and movies that might only play on one or the other, have tended to buy neither at a time when the entertainment industry was hoping the new generation discs would revive the $24 billion home DVD sector.

An end to the war means consumers can now be sure they won’t be stuck with a 21st century equivalent of Betamax–Sony’s videotape technology that lost out to VHS in the 1980s.

The defection of Time Warner’s Warner Brothers to Blu-ray from HD DVD in January was a heavy blow to Toshiba’s plans. It took Hollywood’s biggest film library into the Sony consortium’s camp and meant 70 percent of Hollywood movies would be in the Blu-ray format.

When the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores, said Friday it would quit stocking HD DVD movies in its 4,000 U.S. stores, both consumers and pundits said the war was over.

The decision matched earlier ones by consumer electronics chain Best Buy and online video rental company Netflix.

"Blu-ray won. It’s fantastic and I trust Sony," said one customer who was browsing the DVD player aisles at the Best Buy Co Inc store on New York’s Fifth Avenue.

Tania Bonetti, who works in the home theater section of the store, where DVD players cost from $399 to almost $1,000, said, "Blu-rays are flying off the shelves, but we have to order if you want HD."

Wal-Mart’s own movie and gaming blogger put the future of HD DVD in stark terms.

"If you bought the HD player like me, I’d retire it to the bedroom, kid’s playroom, or give it to your parents to play their John Wayne standard def movies, and make space for a BD (Blu-ray disc) player for your awesome Hi Def experience," Wal-Mart blogger Susan Chronister wrote in a posting.

Stephanie Prange, editor in chief of Home Media Magazine, said the war’s end should boost high-definition DVD adoption.

"It would definitely help. The two formats, though both were good, have confused consumers and prevented them from moving into the high-def future," she said.

Article obtained from ZDnet at http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6230980.html on 19th February 2008

Really, I have nothing against Sony, Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, nor their products, i.e. before they decided to adopt Microsoft’s Windows Mobile as their OS of choice. I have personally given WM many opportunities as my OS of choice but it had time and again failed and fall short of one of my simplest expectations - answering phone calls.

Yes, my WM-based phones have either:

1. Failed to detect an incoming call, or
2. Failed to answer my phone calls despite me pressing the Answer button, or
3. Failed to make phone calls given good signal strengths, or
4. Failed to send our SMS given good signal strengths, or perhaps it just…
5. Failed to report the actual signal strength

Yes, I am irritated by my WM-based, and yes, I am switching back to a Nokia. =) Nokia’s a god-send, until it becomes gey kiang (act smart). At the end of the day, a phone is still a phone… is still a phone. When it has all the bells and whistles but fails to function as what it is meant to do, then it is not a good phone. No amount of software including MP3 player, Flash player, or Microsoft Office Suite built-in will make it a good phone if it fails to perform its most basic function of answering a call.

I hope Sony Ericsson got it good.

BARCELONA (Spain) - SONY Ericsson on Sunday announced a new premium handset aimed at capturing the Web convergence market blending multimedia with mobile web communication in its first product using Microsoft’s operating system.

The Xperia X1 will launch in the second half of 2008 and will be sold worldwide, including in the United States.

It marks the first time Sony Ericsson is using Microsoft Windows Mobile in a departure from its collaboration with Symbian, an open operating system that is partly owned by Sony Ericsson.

Executives said their focus was on the user experience, not the operating system, and said that many Sony Ericsson signature features, including a patented nine-panel interface, had been built on top of the Windows operating system.

Sony Ericsson executive Steve Walker said Microsoft Mobile was the ‘ideal’ platform for the X1.

‘In the case of the X1, Microsoft gives us an opportunity to build on,’ Mr Walker said. But he said that did not necessarily mean that subsequent handsets in the Xperia sub-brand would be based on Microsoft.

The handset features an arc sliding mechanism with a 3-inch-wide (8-centimetre-wide) DVD-quality video display, a full keyboard alongside a touchscreen and optical device for navigation.

Sony Ericsson executives declined to give pricing on the handset, except to say that it would be at a premium mobile phone, or to say how many models it plans to ship.

The partnership was announced on the eve of the Mobile World Congress, the largest wireless industry conference bringing together more than 50,000 industry executives from some 1,300 companies.

‘With Sony Ericsson we are now working with the top five handset makers around the world,’ Microsoft product manager John Starkweather said in an interview before the Barcelona wireless conference.

Samsung, Motorola Inc., and LG all ship cell phones with Microsoft Mobile, while Nokia, the largest handset maker by volume, incorporates some Microsoft technology, including Windows Media Player.

Microsoft expects to ship 20 million new phones using Windows Mobile in the fiscal year that ends June 30, Mr Starkweather said. — AP

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 11th February 2008

Sun Microsystems - made famous by their Sun machines and SunOS, has agreed to purchase MySQL for $1 billion, promising to push the open-source DBMS to larger corporations. MySQL has always been the DBMS of choice for freelance programmers because it can be easily set up and configured - with a large community for support.

With Sun’s acquisition, and pending further analysis and information, this could go either way in that:

• part of it will remain free and supported by the community while another part becomes commercialised (pretty much like how it is now)
• the entire thing goes commercial, with a watered-down version for free

This is pretty much like where Redhat was headed for - Redhat Enterprise for corporate and Fedora Core for enthusiasts.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Sun Microsystems Inc. has agreed to buy open-source software maker MySQL AB for $1 billion, beefing up the server maker’s database offerings with a company whose technology is used by some of the world’s biggest Web sites.

Santa Clara-based Sun, in separate announcements before the market opened, said its second quarter revenue would narrowly exceed Wall Street estimates. It also said profit would fall at the high end of analysts’ expectations. The company revealed its preliminary results ahead of schedule.

Sun is paying $800 million in cash and assuming $200 million in options to acquire MySQL. The Swedish company makes open-source database software used by companies such as online search leader Google Inc., popular Internet hangout Facebook Inc. and Finnish phone maker Nokia Corp.

Sun said the deal will help spread MySQL’s software to large corporations, which have been the biggest customers of Sun’s servers and software, and boost its distribution through Sun’s relationships with other server makers such as IBM Corp. and Dell Inc.

The acquisition, expected to close in the third or fourth quarter, takes pressure off Sun to spend some of the cash it’s been accumulating. It also bolsters its software offerings with a well-known known name in Internet data retrieval.

Sun also said it expects net income of between $230 million to $265 million, or 28 cents to 32 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting profit of between 22 cents and 38 cents.

Sun said it expects to notch about $3.6 billion in sales during the second quarter. Analysts were expecting, on average, $3.58 billion in sales.

Article obtained from Associate Press on 18th January 2008

Recemt sales in consumer electronics exhibitions had been focusing on Blu-ray players - or at least that’s what I had been seeing. Either that or the marketing that was done was really good. For the uninitiated, the Blu-ray is just 1 of 2 of the successors of DVD technology - promising to provide higher definition playback as well as other enhanced features. Blu-ray promises a larger capacity and better protection while HD DVD - the other competitor seems to provide only higher definition.

Perhaps the marketing strengths of Sony - who owns Blu-ray, had been really good because I can probably recall about hearing a Blu-ray player, but a HD DVD player? Hmm… probably just HDTV.

LOS ANGELES - THE high-definition DVD war is all but over.

Hollywood’s squabble over which of two technologies will replace standard DVDs skewed in the direction of Sony Corp late last week, with Warner Brothers casting the deciding vote in favour of the company’s Blu-ray discs over the rival HD DVD format.

In some ways, the fight is a replay of the VHS versus Betamax battle of the 1980s.

This time, however, the Sony product appears to have prevailed.

‘The overwhelming industry opinion is that this decides the format battle in favour of Blu-ray,’ said Mr Richard Doherty, research director of Envisioneering Group, a market research company in New York.

Behind the studio’s decision are industry-wide fears about the sagging home entertainment market, which has bruised the movie industry in recent years as piracy, competition from video games and the Internet, and soaring costs have cut into profitability.

Analysts predict that domestic DVD sales fell by nearly 3 per cent last year, partly because of confusion over the various formats.

But HD DVD is not dead.

Two major studios, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, have deals in place to continue releasing their movies exclusively on HD DVD, as does DreamWorks Animation.

Warner Brothers, part of Time Warner, will also continue to release its titles on both formats until the end of May. But by supporting Blu-ray, Warner Brothers, the largest player in the US$42 billion (S$60 billion) global home entertainment market, makes it next to impossible for HD DVD to recover its early momentum.

Consumers have been largely sitting on the sidelines waiting to buy high-definition DVD players until they see which will have the most titles available.

Retailers have been complaining about having to devote space to three kinds of DVDs, and the movie business has delayed tapping a lucrative new market.

‘Consolidating into one format is something that we felt was necessary for the health of the industry,’ said Mr Barry Meyer, chief executive of Warner Brothers.

With Warner on board, Blu-ray now has about 70 per cent of the market.

Toshiba said in a statement it was quite surprised and particularly disappointed by Warner’s decision.

Which technology is better has been the subject of intense debate. HD DVD players have been much cheaper, but Blu-ray discs have more storage space and more advanced protection against piracy. Both versions deliver sharp resolution.

Blu-ray titles have sharply outsold HD DVD offerings by as much two to one, according to some analysts.

In Singapore, sales of either type of disc have been slow to pick up as well.

Retailers say regular DVDs outsell Blu-ray and HD DVD discs 20 to 1.

Viewers have stayed away because players are still expensive - usually at $1,000 or more. They are also waiting for more titles to ship in the new formats.

As of last month, there were about 100 such titles in either Blu-ray or HD DVD, compared with about 1,000 in the United States.

NEW YORK TIMES

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 7th January 2008

PhoneBAK for O2 Zinc by Bak2U (bärk-tə-yōō) is probably one of the most amazing software I have ever installed in my entire life till this point in time. My ActiveSync didn’t work as I thought it would - which I later discovered to be a setting on my PDA. Despite this, all it took was for me to copy the .cab file to my PDA to run on it. This is just the beginning of the fun part…

Ok, I have to admit that I am not a manual’s person - which means I don’t usually like to RTFM (read the friendly manual), but the installation process is intuitive enough for me to get to this stage.

After installing it, I didn’t see any icons in the Programs directory - which is quite a good thing because you won’t want the person who found/took your phone to know that you have PhoneBAK installed. So being a geek, I went into the Program Files directory where I found the directory. Clicking on PhoneBak.exe, the program fired up. As I didn’t want to mess up any settings, I opened the PDF file that came together with the software.

Ok. I admit it. Before I could proceed any further, it asked me for a password, which I won’t know till I read the manual. =P

After I got in, it reminded me that I have 3 days to register my copy before it expires and locks me out of my own phone ceases to be a really useful software to help safeguard my precious phone. Configuration from here on is a breeze. The first tab allowed me to add in notification numbers. It is important not to add in your own number. At first, I thought I had it figured out, but on second thoughts, I still don’t know why… but oh well, I added in the number of my other phones, my friend’s, my mum’s, my grandma’s, my dad’s, my neighbour’s and the police station hotline because I realise that I can now send SMSes to landed numbers and when the other person picks it up, the entire SMS gets read. Then again, I’m not too sure if it’s a good idea. Well, it probably depends on what messages you configure for it.

The next tab allows you to add in your SIM ID. This can usually be found on your SIM card. However, it adds the current SIM ID to the software database and you can either add the other IDs in manually or run this program again when you insert your other SIM cards. Of course, when you do the latter, an SMS will be sent out from that SIM card that you just used.

The 3rd tab is my favourite tab. You can add any messages you want. I replaced the default message with something along the lines of "Your stolen/missing phone has been used by an unauthorized SIM card". Of course, if you really lose your phone, then it’s no longer as amusing. However, if you do intend to use the police hotline as your notification number, then you might want to key in something like "This is a prank message. I don’t think you police can really catch me. Really. Maybe you should try hard, like really hard. Moreover, you guys probably do not know what I am using a stolen phone. Do you guys think you can really catch me? Really? Really? Really?". Well, it’s extra long so that the police can have some time to trace the number. =P But seriously, DO NOT route your messages to the police hot line because you might one day get a new SIM card (perhaps a 3G SIM card with the same phone number) and it’d still send the message if you hadn’t configure it. You have been warned.

The next tab is the activation tab - where you must enter your activation code within 3 days before it locks up your phone the software deactivates. It’s quite a simple step so there is no need for further discussion.

The last tab is the password tab - where you change the password where you initially entered. Do (1) change your password and (2) try not to use your mobile number/NRIC number/IMEI number as your password because these are some of the first few things that the perpetrator will use. Instead, use something that only you know. Something that is seemingly random… like 3452897956098204098560982345454524879098234957985692736487643593854. Ok, I was just kidding. It’s probably too long anyway.

So there you have it - the really useful software that doesn’t give the finder any excuse not to return you your phone. However, do remember to reward the person if you really dropped it and someone really returns it to you. After all, what is more precious than preventing your videos from leaking out? It’d be fun if the software can access the mobile cell station ID and triangulation information - better if it is able to record incoming and outgoing calls, SMSes and conversations. This will definitely track them down.

And just for the fun of it, I swapped the SIM card with my other SIM card and it worked like a charm. My friend, mother, grandmother, neighbour and minus the police station all got the message. Of course, besides my friend who has my other number, no one knew what in the world the message was for, so do think of a useful message to write when you configure your software so that you can also be notified somehow. Either that or you tell your mother, grandmother, dad and neighbour about the new software too and get them to try it as well! Haha… you’d never know if they’d ever need it.

However, while that is still a dream, PhoneBAK from Bak2U still does what it is meant to be - an excellent anti-theft software that aims to provide loss protection. So, go on and try it today at http://bestmobilesoftwares.com/Home.htm or find out more at http://www.bak2u.com.