Thursday, June 25, 2009

Opera Mobile 9.7 Turbo Beta 1 Released

http://www.opera.com/mobile
Opera 9.7 Turbo, sounds vaguely like a sports car doesn't it!

For those still stuck with Java phones, Opera Mobiles gives the ability to surf an almost complete rendition of the internet. It is almost synonymous with a fast mobile browsing experience, and it's secret?

Opera's own proxy servers which relay the web traffic to you after compressing and resizing images and removing stuff your mobile cant handle anyway. OK, fine, they aren't "secret".

Somewhat strangely this facility had been absent from Opera Mini's elder cousin Opera Mobile. Which is a version of Opera for phones which are a bit... smarter. However Opera Mobile 9.7 will now utilize Opera Turbo servers which will ruthlessly compress away the fat and resize the images to make webpages a fraction of their original size, before sending them to your screen.

Opera has been very successful in dominating the mobile browser market, thats to its unique features and fast speed, and best of all zero cost. With competition from browsers like SkyFire, which provide similar features, however it may need to do better. This will certainly make Opera more attractive to those people using Smartphones but it still need to beat skyfire's fratures such as full support for flash and online video. For those of us still runningjava phones though, Opera Mini is still your best friend.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Mobile Phone Antivirus - Continued

SpyBot Search & Destroy for Mobile
http://www.safer-networking.org/
With mobile phones becoming an everyman’s first point for access to technology, isn’t it just a matter of time before hackers decide to concentrate solely on these? We use banking services through our phone, pay our bills, and access our email, etc, making phones the ideal target for data thefts.

Thankfully, spyware and malware aren’t as ubiquitous on cell phones as they are on computers. Still, there has been an increase in the number of reported threats on handheld platforms and it seems very likely to go up.

One of the best tools to check the threat of spyware and malware on PCs, SpyBot – Search & Destroy, has been launched in SpyBot – Search & Destroy Mobile Editions.

SpyBot Mobile uses a lightweight version of the original software to primarily detect threats on Windows Mobile phones although it also scans some Symbian-based platforms. The possibility of the latter being infected is rare, the company says, but adds that they could act as carriers for malware to infect other phones.

Taking up a mere 2.6 MB of disk space, the installation is smooth and simple for even a layman, and those who have used the PC version of Spybot will find themselves right at home.

Starting the application, the home screen is quite idiot-proof. There’s a ‘Scan’ button at the bottom left, hitting which starts the program. Now, users are advised to be a little patient for about an half an hour, depending on the size of your memory card and the amount of data you have on it. Still, you won’t be running this every day, so it’s a small price to pay for a once in a while application.

Once you are done with the scan, the usual options of Quarantine, Remove, etc, pop up. Perform the appropriate action and you’re good to go!

The program lacks the kind of real time monitoring tool, but it won’t be really needed at the moment, it might be so in the future.

Platforms: Windows Mobile, Symbian
Price: Free

Friday, June 12, 2009

Mobile Phone Antivirus

Virus Threats on mobile phones are increasing. In the past two years, Trend Micro and F-Secure have released several reports - the most notable ones being at the Cellular Telephone Industries Association annual gatherings- that talked of a trend where viruses have been on the rise in cell phones.

The bulk of these viruses were found to be on the two platforms: Windows Mobile and Symbian. Needless to say, antivirus companies from Symantic to Kaspersky were quick to launch several mobile antivirus kits. A free antivirus would not be good enough; think again.

NetQin Antivirus
http://www.netqin.com/
For a waiting to hand in a freeware antivirus from Avg, Avast or Avira, till then NetQin's mobile antivirus package from Chinese firm is possible alternative.

The installation is pretty easy and straightforward, and doesn't take up much disk space. Upon installation, it’ll prompt for an update of the virus definition files, done quickly over your wireless connection.

The first scan will, of course, take a long time and users should be prepared to start it at night, before sleeping. The software claims to dig into the core of each file to scan it and uses battery power effectively while at it – two aspects that have been verified by several reviewers.

Still, if you do start the scan during the day and need to use the phone in between, hit the helpful ‘pause’ button and resume the scan whenever you have time.

What’s more, the software features a great real-time monitoring tool. NetQin is vigilant about any data that is being sent over SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, infra-red, GPRS and other network connections, and claims to detect and block threats effectively.

The smashing part about this program is that apart from Windows mobile and Symbian, it’s also compatible with almost every Nokia phone out there.

Platforms: Windows Mobile, Symbian, Nokia S40 Operating system
Price: Free

How to identify your Mobile Phone Platform?

You can always check your mobile phone user manual to know what platform your phone is running on. However if you find hard to find it out then you can always use the internet.

To start off, visit GSM Arena at www.gsmarena.com.

If you know the brand and model number of your phone, then simply search for the same in the search box provided at the top right corner. Alternatively if you are unsure about the model number of your phone, just use the listing of brands on the left to browse through the different models in a pictorial grid – after all you know what your mobile phone looks like!.

Once you locate your phone through either method, click on it to open its specification sheet. For phones where the OS is not listed, or for those operating systems that are not listed, you will need to know whether your phone supports Java. It is a rare that smart phones don’t have java support.

Of course if that doesn’t help then you can always use the Google or search for Wikipedia entry. You can also call your customer service for your brand and ask them to help you out with this information.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

MagMyPic, Magazinalize your pics

http://www.magmypic.com
Be a superstar of all times, may be it had came to your dreams but now you can be a superstar for sure(...). The first step, the magazines; your cool pictures on the top magazines in the world. Yes this is your chance and this chance is for free. No hidden cost. Just go to the website magmypic.com, and you can be in the covers of your favorite magazine.

Ok be official.

The website magmypic is a not that new website created for the hungry peoples who dream of their pictures on a magazine cover. You just choose one of your coolest pictures and upload to the website and everything else is easy. You can put you picture in the listed magazines for free. Show them to you friends and enjoy their amusement( only if they didn't know).