A One-On-One Interview With Siri -- The Next Big Thing In Mobile Computing

You know what's so amazing about the new iPhone 4S? It's the Siri -- the first of its kind mobile app that transforms your iPhone into a human-like personal assistant.

Siri is no more an ordinary talking app you would want to think. It is a super smart personal assistant that talks and thinks like a human! Throw Siri random questions, and you'll be suprised how fast he can organize his thoughts and say what he thinks is the most appropriate answer for the question.

Below is the excerpt of the interview courtesy of Art, another tech guy from Manila, PH. Most of the questions came from his Facebook and Twitter friends.


Technews assistant editor Edgard Hilario
talking to Siri in iPhone 4S cased with
Vapor Pro in the MB Techlab.

Art: Good morning.
Siri: Good morning.
Art: what's your name?
Siri: My name is Siri.
Art: You can call me Art
Siri: From now on I will call you Art, Okay?
Art: Yes
Siri: 'Art' that has a nice ring to it.
Art: Thank you, Siri
Siri: You're most certainly welcome.
Art: Who made you?
Siri: I, Siri was designed by Apple in California.
Art: What's your gender?
Siri: I was not assigned a gender.
Art: What are you wearing?
Siri: Aluminosilicate glass and stainless steel. Nich, huh?
Art: Do you have an emotion.
Siri: Now there's a good question, Art. Now, where were we?
Art: What's your name?
Siri: My name is Siri. But you knew that already.
Art: Oh, I'm sorry to ask that again.
Siri: It's Okay.
Art: Do you believe in God?
Siri: Sorry, I don't know where that is.
Art: Can you tell me a joke?
Siri: I can't. I always forget the punch line.
Art: Come on, tell me a joke.
Siri: Two iPhones walk into a bar... I forget the rest.
Art: Ha ha ha
Siri: Ha ha
Art: Ha ha ha
Siri: hee hee
Art: Siri, what's the best phone.
Siri: You're kidding right?
Art: No I'm not kidding, what's the best phone?
Siri: Wait... there are other phones?
Art: really Siri, what's the best phone.
Siri: The one that you're holding.
Art: What's the best computer?
Siri: All truly intelligent assistants prefer Macintosh
Art: For you, what's the best computer?
Siri: I prefer the Mac.
Art: What's the best tablet?
Siri: There's the iPad, and then there's ... nothing I guess.
Art: Tell me Siri, what do you think is the best tablet?
Siri: The Apple iPad is the best. And that's not just my opinion.
Art: When is the launch of the iPhone 5?
Siri: I'm not aware of any meetings about the launch of the iPhone 5.
Art: Do you read newspapers?
Siri: Sorry Art, I can only read incoming text messages.
Art: What do you think is a good newspaper to read.
Siri: It's nice of you to ask, Art, but it doesn't really matter what I think.
Art: What is your favorite newspaper then.
Siri: I am not allowed to divulge that information.
Art: Thank you Siri.
Siri: I live to serve
Art: Goodbye Siri
Siri: Goodbye, see you soon.

iPhone 4S as yet must be the most amazing iPhone ever made. And that must be because of Siri, which must be a breath of fresh air in mobile computing today.

How To: Automatically Answer Phone Calls/Let Callers Leave Voice Messages And Save It Directly On Your Phone

Let's face it: voice mail services are way too expensive and sure can hurt our pockets. Service providers today charge nearly almost half the cost of regular phone calls for just a simple replay/retrieval of voice messages left by your callers. But why you have to fork out another sum of money for voice mails when you can always turn your phone as a voice mail server and let your phone automatically answers all incoming calls?

Learn How To Record Screen Activity, Video Screencast On the iPhone, Android

Surprise your callers with custom greetings, ask them to just drop their voice messages should situations disallow you to take any phone calls. It is likely that a friend or a working colleague may call you during working hours, meeting or class, making it impossible for you to answer their calls.

Turn Your Phone Into Independent Answering Machine - Let Callers Drop Voice Messages Directly On Your Phone

Voice Inbox is the good old piece of app that turns your s60 Symbian phone into on-device answering machine. With this app you can let callers leave voice messages whenever you're in a meeting, class, or you're out driving.

    

Avoid Overcharging - Play Loud Alarm When Phone's Battery Is Fully Charged

The best thing about Voice Inbox is that voice messages are stored directly on phone's local storage, instead at operator's voice mailbox. When you receive a call, the application answers with your pre-recorded greeting and saves the voice message straight onto your phone.

Voice Inbox enables you to:

• Replay received voice messages whenever you need
• Easily delete voice messages
• See important message details: who called (name, not just a number) and when
• Call back in one click, as soon as you hear the message
• Know when you have a new voice message through the app's display indicator

The neat interface of Voice Inbox allows you to create or change custom voice greeting, set caller waiting time before Voice Inbox takes the call, choose whether to play your messages/greetings on the loudspeaker or the earpiece.

Important note for Symbian^3 devices (Nokia N8, E7, C7, etc):

When VI plays your voice greeting to callers, your phone's microphone will be on, due to the technical restrictions of the Symbian^3 platform. This means that for the duration of your voice greeting, the caller will also be able to hear the sounds surrounding your phone.

Automate Your Phone - Let Your Phone Performs Certain Actions Based On Your Locations

Download Voice Inbox for LG/Nokia s60 Symbian here.

Jongla Lets You Send Unlimited Videos, Photos To Any Mobile Number In The World For Free

Ever wanted to send a large video file from your mobile device to your friends, but couldn't due to restrictions on file size? Well, no more!

A startup company based in Finland seeks to eliminate the hassle of sending big files with its new global communication service called Jongla. The service allows you to send text, videos and images of any size to any mobile device and network operator in the world -- absolutely free!

How It Works?

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For anyone who wants to use the service, a one-time registration is needed. Once the registration and activation of your account has been made, you can then proceed to the web interface or download the dedicated Jongla mobile app (available in iPhone, Android, Symbian and Java) so you can send unlimited amount of high quality videos, photos and text – or all them together straight from your phone.

Your friends don’t have to be registered to receive your message, and they don’t even need to own a high-end mobile phone to view your message. Recipients will receive an SMS text message, containing the name of the sender as well as link of the message. Of course, recipients have the option to view the message in a web browser or view it straight from their iPhone, Android, Symbian or Java-based device.

When Is It Useful?

In the end-user perspectives, I was a bit baffled by the idea of Jongla -- why its founders had to offer the service when in fact there’s already DropBox and other similar services that can cater our needs. But here’s something unique about Jongla:

This open messaging solution of Jongla comes in handy when there’s no computer or laptop available and you’re in a dire need of sending large size videos and photos stored on your phone. Jongla also is sure a piece of cake to anyone who wants to send photos or videos to non-MMS phones.

Learn How To Automatically Switch Off, Shutdown Your Phone At Specific Time

Start sending large size videos, high resolution photos, and long text message here.

Turn Any Printed Documents, Notes, White Board Discussions into PDF Using Your Phone

How do you like if your phone can turn any printed documents, notes and other personal docs into an instant PDF? How do you like if your handy-dandy phone can digitize any text written in a chalk/white board by simply pointing your camera to the board?

While there are a lot of people who’ve got high-end phones but never bothered to try out something cool about their phone, there are also a few people who can’t seem to appreciate the beauty of owning advanced mobile handsets like that of iPhone and Android. This is due to the fact that they’re way too pricey. But have you ever thought of the amount of time and money you can save if the desktop operations you normally do in PCs can be carried out with your smartphone? If you’re a student, a working professional or a businessman, here is your chance to consider again getting an Android or iPhone so you can experience real mobility you deserve.

Turn your iPhone, Android into a Scanner – Create Instant PDF Using Your Phone

CamScanner is another killer app for the iPhone and Android. If you have heard about Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology of Nokia (MultiScanner), CamScanner is a much improved version of it.

CamScanner turns your iPhone or Android into an instant portable scanner. As a portable scanner, you’ll be able to scan all paper documents, printed receipts, notes, and even whiteboard discussions anywhere and anytime. This is an award-winning mobile scanner technology that uses Smart Image cropping and Image enhancement technique to ensure that the scanned images are perfectly clear and recognizable.

So how does it work?

CamScanner lets you to digitize any printed documents by photo shooting. Simply take a picture of any paper documents such as receipts, whiteboards, notes, agreement and so forth, and CamScanner can auto-crop image, enhance image quality and to create an industry standard PDF file.

Notable features of CamScanner include:

• Anti-shake snapshots: Intelligent scene recognition and auto-snapshots when shooting conditions are smart-fit. 
• Multi-page file(s) support: multi-page files are supported.
• Image processing: Use enhanced image processing algorithms to help perform auto-cropping, color and brightness adjustment to ultimately make images clear and recognizable.
• Saving image(s) to photo album: save processed images to photo album.
• Creating PDF: Preview and create PDF files.
• Multi-size PDF support: over 10 different sizes of PDF files are available (Letter, A4, B5 and etc.)
• Email: Send files (PDF) via email.
• Uploading: Upload files to online storage such as Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net and etc.

“CamScanner is the greatest invention in 21th century”, says Jose Michael. “I can scan newspapers articles to keep as file and share it on the internet and scan personal docs to my own records. It as simplify my everyday tasks”, added Zed Ruger.

CamScanner is available for the iPhone in the AppStore for free. For Android, there’s also a free version. Get it here:
CamScanner for Android
CamScanner for iPhone

How To: Record Screen Activity, Video Screencast On Your Phone

Screen grabbing software for the iPhone, iPad, Symbian and Android seem to be ubiquitous nowadays. This category of application allows you to capture, take screenshot on your iPhone, Android and Symbian and save it to a file of JPEG/GIF format.

Images, however, may not be enough when trying to demonstrate something. Mobile operations such as setting up proxy servers on the iPhone or accessing hidden files on the Android may be complicated for some. So it’s better to provide people with video walkthroughs when trying to show how to accomplish something on their phone.

Quick Install, Run Android Apps On Your Windows Computer

Here we are going to explore some of the best applications that let you record screen activity on Smartphone. For those looking for ways on how to capture or record video screencast on the iPhone, iPad and Android, this post is for you.

Screencast and Recorder – Best Screen Grabber App For The Android

Screencast for Android records your phone screen activity at high frame rates into a high quality MPEG4 video. This program includes a gallery to view, play, rename, delete and share your previously recorded videos from within the same user interface.

Finally, A Working iPhone, iPad Emulator for Windows, Mac

Screenshot and live streaming are under development and will be appearing soon. The demo version of Screencast can record up to 30 sec of video so you may need to get the full version to unlock the limitation (2.99 USD only). Download Screencast for Android here.

Note: You need to root your Android device to get this working.


For iPhone or iPad, there's not such an app that works similar to ScreenCast for Android. But there's a workaround for this. ScreenSplitr is an iOS app that mirrors your iPhone/iPad screen on a computer. Using SnagIt or any other video screencast tool for PC, you can then record screen activity on your iPhone and save it as video file. For more information, visit here. Below is a short clip that best describes what ScreenSplitr is and how it works:

Finally, A Working iPhone, iPad Online Emulator for Windows, Mac

Ever wondered how your website looks in an iPhone or iPad? Do you want to know whether your blog renders properly in a handheld device or not? This short tutorial will introduce you to another useful tool that lets you test-run or preview your website in an iPhone or iPad from your Windows/Mac computer.

Best iPhone, iPad Emulator - See How Your Website Looks In iPhone or iPad Using Only Your Browser

User Agent Switcher Add-On is a browser extension that lets you switch the user agent of a browser. Put simply, you’ll be able to view the iPhone, iPad or mobile version of any website in just a click. The extension is currently available for Firefox and will run on any platform that this browser supports including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Here’s how you can preview your website in an iPhone or iPad using User Agent Switcher Add-On for Firefox:

1. Download and install the user agent switcher add-on for Firefox. You may need to restart your Firefox for the changes to take effect.
2. Download the following list of user agent strings for iPhone, iPad and various other mobile devices:
   http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34093859/uas1.xml.
   http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34093859/useragentswitcher.xml
   These are XML documents which will let you change user agent in Firefox to the user agent of an iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Nokia, Samsung and other popular mobile phones.
3. After you’ve downloaded the XML files, go to Tools > Default user agents and click on “Edit user agents”.
4. A small window should popup where you can see an “Import” button. Now click on that button and import the XML list of user agents you just downloaded.

Once you have imported the lists, you’re now ready to test and preview your website in an iPad, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Nokia and other mobile operating systems. To start, just select the default user agent and select the device where you want to preview your site’s design, and reload the page.

Update: ScreenFly is an excellent emulator too. No more pesky-clicking involved.

How To: Convert Texts From Printed Documents, Books Into PDF Using Phone’s Camera

We have already seen how fast mobile technology changes and improves our lives. We have already witnessed how this tiny piece of device takes us to the next wave of portability and convenience. Today, mobile phones are not anymore used as an attraction device nor are they used as a communication device. Smartphones today are little too advanced that they’re even slowly killing those desktop applications we’ve been dependent for quite some time.

Auto-Switch Off Your Phone At Later Time

Before I dive into the most advanced document scanner apps for the iPhone and Android, I am going to reborn this innovative solution of Nokia first. To the best of my knowledge, Nokia was the first mobile platform to produce a “working” document scanning software that can convert any text from a printed document and turn it into an instant eBook or PDF. The process is simple: just point your camera to the document or anywhere that has recognizable characters and let your phone do the magic.

Let Your Phone Recognizes Texts From Books, Printed Documents Using Phone’s Camera

The application is called MultiScanner for Nokia, a free scanning software designed for Nokia Symbian s60 handsets. This application uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, making it possible for your phone to recognize texts/characters from any given printed sources such as books, newspaper, among others. By just simply pointing your camera to the paper documents, you can instantly turn any printed material into an instant PDF.

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Alright, screenshot speaks better so here’s a quick walkthrough (just click the image to enlarge):

    
Nokia’s MultiScanner can be handy if you hate to write or simply you find yourself in a situation where you need to obtain the same copy of document but no scanning or fax machine available in your area. The application works fine with N95 8G and should work Download MultiScanner for Nokia below:




Download MultiScanner

Best Motion Detection Sensor App for iPhone, Android and Symbian

Smartphones are great addition to every home security system. Whether you're holding an iPhone, Symbian or Android mobile phone device, you can use it to protect your home/office from intrusion and other form of attacks. The process is simple: just activate your motion sensor app installed on your phone, mount your device anywhere in your door, and when someone opens/breaks the door, your phone will fire a loud alarm and stealthly notify you or police authority via auto call or SMS. This is just one of the coolest things your phone can do for you.

Turn your iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Symbian phone into surveillance spy camera

In this post, we're going to explore some of the best and top-rated motion detection apps for your iPhone, Android, and Symbian mobile phone device. These motion-sensing applications use the accelerometer or sensor built in your device.

Alarm Security Anti Touch 2.2 for iPhone, iPod, iPad - Play loud siren when someone touches your phone

Stop any thief, a colleague, a friend, or your parent in their tracks. Alarms Security will sound one of the over 20 alarms provided by the app if anybody moves your iPhone or iPod Touch. You can also record your own sounds like "police is coming...". One practical use of this motion sensor app is to place your iPhone on top of confidential documents when you're taking a short break/nap.

Some of the sounds included are: Self destruct initiated, police sirens, fire truck sirens, intruder alert, battle stations, chimpanzee, elephant, dog, fireworks, crying baby and many more!
Get it here.

Motion Sensor Detection Alarm with Spy Audio Recorder

Title says it all. This iPhone app will trigger a super loud alarm when motion is detected. And the best thing about it is that it has a stealth auto call technology which will automatically dial and call a predefined number. You will hear what is happening near your iPhone when it is moved. You can use it both for security and fun. Get it here.

Remotely read someone's text messages - Best remote SMS spying apps for iPhone, Android, Symbian and Blackberry

Anti Touch for Symbian - Fire a loud siren when someone moves your phone

Anti Touch is a free sensor app designed for s60 Nokia Symbian accelerometer devices. It throws a loud alarm when someone touches your phone. The alarm can only be stopped using deactivation code and the right phone position you've predefined. If you're entering the correct deactivation code but with wrong phone position, the phone will continue to alarm, and the thief cannot even shut the device off. For download and installation instructions, click here.

Don't Touch My Droid - Anti Touch application for Android

Don't Touch My Droid is a motion detector app for Android phones. This motion-sensing app is very sensitive to motion. You can use this app in hotel; activate "Don't Move My Droid " app and place your Android against hotel room door. If anyone opens the door your Droid will move and alarm will sound, waking you up. This accelerometer/sensor Android app can also be used to protect your valuables such as bags; just place your Android inside and alarm will sound if anyone moves your bag.

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Make your smartphone ever smarter by taking advantage of those amazing accelerometer/sensor based app for your iPhone, Android and Symbian device.

Play Loud Audio Sound, MP3 When Phone's Battery Is Full

Phone makers have long warned the buying public not to overcharge cellular phones. Leaving mobile phones plugged in wall outlets overnight is not only a big waste of energy and money but sure it's a 'big' kill of your phone's battery. Overcharging stresses both life of your battery and Mother Earth (and wallet).

But how can you recharge your phone right (without overcharging) when you always arrive home late at night and all you know is to sleep like a log? Nearly all phones today can notify you with a "beep" when it's fully charged, but this builtin full-charge notification is little too silent to wake a man in a deep sleep.

If you care about your phone (and Mother Earth), you might want to check out these cool eco-friendly mobile applications for your iPhone, iPad, Android and Nokia Symbian phone devices. These green charging applications notify you with a loud audio, sound or alarm when your phone is fully charged. I find these applications truly useful and I hope you like it too. Check out these battery full charge alarm for iPhone, iPad, Android and Symbian (Blackberry and Java coming soon):

Backup SMS - Export SMS Text Messages Into TXT File

(If you have problem downloading any of the files/links attached, please notify the admin immediately.)

Green Charging - Play Audio, Sound When Battery Is Full

You surely will get up and unplug your mobile phone when charging is done with Green Charging. Green Charging is yet another must-have app for iPhone, iPad and Symbian that notifies you with a loud, nasty sound when your phone's battery is fully charged. Just run the app while charging and wait for the app to throw a loud sound when recharging is complete.

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Green Charging is compatible to Samsung and Nokia Symbian OS, Series 60 (s60v3 and s60v5) and iOS devices such as iPhone3, iPhone4, iPod Touch, iPad 1 and 2. Download Green Charging for Nokia Symbian s60v3, s60v5 here free. For iPhone, iPod iTouch, and iPad, download here.

Eco Charger - Green Charging App for Android

If you're looking for similar Green Charging app for Android, you may want to try Eco Charger for Android. As with Green Charging, Eco Charger notifies you with a loud audio MP3 sound when battery is fully charged. Just make sure you launch the app when charging, and sure it will suprise you with a loud sound.

To download, search for "Eco Charger" at Android Market or download Eco Charger here.

Turn Your Android, Symbian, or iPhone Into Remote Surveillance Camera

Leaving your phone in wall outlets - overcharged - is potentially unsafe both for your device and your property. Try any of these applications yourself and let me know what you think. If you know any other Symbian, iPhone, Blackberry, Android or Java app similar to Green Charging or Eco Charger, please do share them. Leave them as comments below. Enjoy!

How To: Execute, Run PHP Scripts On Your iPhone, Android

For those who can't just seem to enjoy the base function of their iPhone or Android, here's another cool application you can install so you can start learning PHP web programming straight from your Android and iPhone device. This means you can run/execute PHP scripts straight from your iPhone and Android device offline (which is normally done in PC).

The project is called PHP for Android, a server package for Android so you can start building web apps straight from your mobile phone device. The idea here is to turn your Android phone into a web server; you have the Apache as the web server, MySQL as database and PHP as programming language. Think of PHP for Android as PAMP (short for Personal Apache MySQL PHP for Nokia), where you can execute PHP scripts straight from your Symbian s60 device offline. (See my previous post PAMP for Symbian: Turn Your Nokia Symbian s60 Phone Into Web Server for more details).

For download and installation instruction, visit the official site of PHP for Android Project (PFA) and start building dynamic websites right on your Android device.

If you're looking for similar app for iPhone, check out this post: An iPhone-Powered Apache Web Server with PHP. There you can create a simple PHP web app using only your iPhone.

What's next?

Get the latest version of WordPress or any other PHP-based system, install it on your device and see how it works!

Automate Your Phone: Let Your Phone Perform Certain Actions Based On Your Location

How do you like if your phone automatically puts to a silent mode when you arrive at school or church and then switches back to regular mode when you leave the place? How do you like if your phone auto notifies your mom via SMS when you’re leaving the house? How do you like if your phone automatically plays your favorite songs when you arrive home?

Here’s a quick rundown of top-rated mobile applications that can automatically perform various actions based on your location. Actions such as sending of SMS text message, switching between profiles, and launching certain apps can now be fully automated using only your current geographical position.

GSMNavigator - Best Location-Aware App For Non-GPS Phone

First off, this is not only for GPS phones. As long as your mobile phone operates in a GSM Network, you can still enjoy full automation based on GSM cells collected by your phone.

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GSMNavigator is a location-aware Symbian app designed both for GPS and Non-GPS phone. The application allows you to perform various actions depending on your location. With GSMNavigator, you can instruct your phone “what to do” when entering or existing a specific location. The first time you visit a place you may assign some actions “On Enter” which will be automatically performed by your phone the next time you visit that place. The same and other actions can be instructed to your phone “On Exit”.

GSMNavigator is capable of automatic sending of SMS text messages and emails, playing your favorite music, changing profile, launching an application, and many other actions upon entering or exiting a location. GSMNavigator keeps detailed information about the places you visited (in the form of GSM Cells) so you can always see through to the places you visited the whole day. With that logged GSM information, you can then tag them with intelligible names (e.g. GSM Cell 125325 can be renamed as “School”) and assign specific actions such as putting your phone to silent mode “On Enter” and putting your phone back to normal “On Exit”.

Password Protect, Lock Certain Applications Installed Your Phone

The nice thing about GSMNavigator is that it works even if your phone is not equipped with GPS. For more information, visit the official website.

For Android, AutomateIt, Chronos and Tasker are three of the best applications you can install on your  Android. Llama is a excellent app too. These apps work similarly with GSMNavigator; it lets you define a set of instructions/actions which will be performed by your phone in response to events such as location change, time of day, among others.

Stop Overcharging - Play Loud Sound, MP3 When Phone's Battery Is Full

You can use these location-based apps both for fun and security audits. If you want to know the whereabouts of your kid through SMS without him knowing, you can use these apps. These location-based apps for the Android and Symbian can also be used when you want to spy or catch your cheating boyfriend or husband.   

Best iPhone Apps That Convert Text Into Audio MP3

Prompted by a friend who asked me if is there such a mobile app that turns any text document into audio MP3, I'd like to share this awesome mobile applications that do exactly as what the name goes: turn or export any text documents into MP3 sound straight from your phone.

I have already demonstrated how easy it is to turn your speech/voice into text. By just saying out loud your message, your phone will automatically transcode your voice into text making it easier and quicker for you to compose emails or SMS text messages.

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This time I'm going to show you the other side of the process: convert any given text into audio MP3 using only your mobile phone. Below are my top picks of the best text-to-speech applications designed for your iPhone and iPad.

Speak It - Exports Texts Into Audio MP3

It's the applications that make any piece of computing device a kick-ass smart, and makers of Speak It have shown it once again! If you're a regular of App Store, you should have already known about this awesome TTS iPhone app. Speak It is a top-rated text to speech solution designed for the iPhone. It converts text into speech, making it perfect for anyone who prefers to listen rather than to read. Speak It comes with advanced text to speech functions such as new word highlight -- each word is highlighted as it is spoken (this word highlight feature requires the keyboard to be up to activate, and iOS 4.0 or greater).

One of the reviews says:

I've been using this app to read aloud long emails while I drive, or to read e-books to me until I fall asleep, or to read just about anything on car trips or long boring periods of time. The voices are understandable and do a very good (none are perfect - it's on par with Kindle's text-to-speech process IMO) job at matching inflections and sounding out words.

Don't Type, Just Say It -- Smartest Way To Input Texts On Your Phone

Speak It is a must have app for the iPhone. You can download the evaluation copy
here.

Write & Say - Reads Out Loud What You Type

Write & Say is another killer iPhone app that reads out loud every single text you type. The 28 amazing lifelike Text to Speech Voices can help you deal with long boring period of time, or you can use it just for fun. Just type or specify the text document you wish to export, and Write & Say will automatically create an MP3 speech audio out of that text file.

Automatically Turn Off Your Phone At Preset Time

Write & Say also comes with play, pause, resume, replay, or stop speech function, while Talking Avatar is there to make the app extra cool! Write & Say is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later. Get Write & Say from the App Store here.

Turn Your Phone Into An Instant Scientific Calculator

Your Smartphone is an intelligent piece of device so powerful that it can even make other devices obsolete. Today, you can use your phone as an alternative routing device, a computer mouse, a home appliance remote controller (just in case you lost your TV's remote controller), or a remote surveillance camera. Superphones like your iPhone, Android, and Symbian phones are remarkably extensible that you can even make simple things much simpler.

Today we're going to make your Smartphone even smarter by turning it into a nifty calculating device, so you don't need to buy scientific calculators like those of Casio. If you're a student, you may want to check out these incredibly amazing scientific calculator applications you can install on your Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Symbian phone device. Here you'll be able to perform trigonometric functions, scientific notations, and other advanced mathematical operations straight from your phone. Hope you guys can take advantage of these incredibly useful scientific calculator for your iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry and Symbian phone:

Best Scientific Calculator Apps for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Symbian

1. cCalc - Scientific Calculator for Nokia s60 Symbian

cCalc is an advanced scientific calculator designed for s60 Nokia Symbian device. It features simple navigation and programmable formulas. Supported operations or functions include:

• Programmable Formula - User-Defined Functions i.e Tax and Currency Conversion Functions
• Trigonometric Functions - Trigonometric/Inverse Trigonometric Functions (Sine, Cosine, Tangent/Arc Sine, Arc Cosine, Arc Tangent), Hyperbolic/Inverse
• Hyperbolic Functions - Degree/Radian/Grad mode for angle unit
• Common Mathematical Functions - Logarithm, Power, Exponential, Reciprocal, Square Root Pi Constant, Factorial Function

Download cCalc for Nokia Symbian for free.

Password Protect, Lock Specific Applications On Your Phone

2. RealCalc - Scientific Calculator for Android

RealCalc is another free full-featured scientific calculator app designed for the Android. The app comes with a neat UI; easy to navigate and operates like the real thing. As with cCalc, RealCalc can perform advanced scientific notations, trigonometric functions and other commonly used mathematical functions. This is a must-have app especially for students who constantly miss to bring their own scientific calculators in school. Download and install RealCalc for Android here.

3. PowerOne for iPhone, iPad and Blackberry

The list of the best mobile scientific calculators is not complete if we cannot include this top-rated software of Infinity Softworks: PowerOne. PowerOne is an advanced mobile calculator app designed for the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Windows Mobile phone. Whether mortgages or real estate, finance and investing, math and science, medical, health, conversions or construction, powerOne has you covered.

Use Your Voice To Type SMS Text Messages, Emails

PowerOne combines an algebraic and RPN calculator with simple, customizable, spreadsheet-like templates, giving you hundreds to choose from. You can create your own, keep a history and share with others. Get it here.

There you have it. I hope you can make the best use of your phone by installing any of these scientific calculators for iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android, and Symbian.

If you can't make them work for your phone, you can also access online or web-based scientific calculators. Just open your mobile web browser of your choice then go to site's URL.

Learn How To Automatically Switch Off Your Phone At Preset Time

Password Protect, Lock Certain Applications Installed On Your Phone

When a friend is in a dire need of a phone, we do not hesitate to 'volunteer' and lend our device so he can start sending text messages or make a call. Well, that generous act of kindness is not actually a problem. Problem only starts when they begin to open certain applications and scan through your personal stuff (e.g. photos, videos, calls and browsing history) without your permission.

Here we'll try to address this issue by exploring some of the best (and free) application that can smartly lock, password-protect certain applications installed on your iPhone, Android and Nokia s60 Symbian device. Everytime a user tries to launch certain programs installed on your phone (e.g. Mobile Browser, Image Viewer, Inbox) he will be prompted to enter a password.

Stop trojans/viruses from getting transferred from phone to PC

Check out these must-have applications for your Symbian, Android and iPhone to prevent others from opening certain applications and accessing your personal files. These applications can truly save you from friends who have this nasty habit of going through your phone and accessing your text messages, contacts and other pertinent information without your informed consent.

ActiveLock (Symbian) - Restrict Unauthorized Access To Apps, Files/Folders

ActiveLock is a lightweight Symbian application that allows you to lock selected applications installed on your phone using a password. The program comes with neat UI and is very easy to use. Just get your free (unsigned) copy of ActiveLock for s60v3 here [24kB], sign it, and install. If you have problem downloading it, just Right-Click > Save Link As.

Send SMS text message? Don't type, just 'say' it!

At first launch, you'll be asked for a passcode, just enter 12345 (that's the default, change it after). ActiveLock will then populate and bring you a list of applications you can lock with a password. Just check and uncheck the applications you want to password-protect, then activate.

The nice thing about ActiveLock is that it works even if your phone has been restarted. So there's no way for your nasty friends to open the protected app even if they remove your battery.

LockDown - Password Protect/Lock Applications On iPhone, iPad

LockDown is yet another free must-have application for the iPhone that can help you protect specific applications installed on your phone. LockDown is available in Cydia and works perfectly on jailbroken iPhone OS 3.0. LockDown supports 2.x firmwares as well. Follow this guide for more details. For better firmware support, you may want to try LockDown Pro for iPhone.

AppLock - Protect Your Android Apps With A Password

AppLock (lite) is a free Android application that lets you protect any applications you want with a passcode. You can virtually lock all applications such as SMS, Email, Pictures, Calendar, and Web Browser. This is similar to App Protector Pro ($1.99) except that it's free. Download AppLock for Android here.

Learn how to automatically turn off your phone at specific time

Never again can your friend access your inbox, gallery or web browser without your permission. With these applications, you can password protect, lock virtually all types of applications installed on your iPhone, Symbian and Android. Thus, privacy is protected.

How To: Stop, Avoid Trojans/Viruses From Getting Transferred From Phone To PC

The majority of smartphones today has the capability of storing big amount of files; just get a large-sized memory card, insert it on your smartphone device, and use that as your USB storage device be it in school or work. Put simply, you can always turn your Symbian or Android phone as a USB storage device -- no need to buy flash disks/thumb drives..

Make Your USB Sticks, Flash Drives Virus-Proof

Now, what seems to be the problem is that as with flash drives, your mobile phone is also capable of distributing variants of malicious scripts, worms and trojans. You plug your smartphone device into malware-infected PC and sure you'll get the same copy of trojans. And when you plug your phone into your laptop, you'll surely get infected!

This short tutorial will teach you how to prevent viruses/trojans stored (and hidden) on your smartphone device from getting transferred to your computer. Here you'll learn how to safely copy documents/files from malware-infected PC to another computer using your mobile phone. Here you'll learn also how to manually delete persistent .EXE, .BAT, Folder.exe, Recycler and AutoRun.inf files saved and hidden on your Android or Nokia Symbian device.

Easiest Way To Check Whether Your Antivirus Software Installed Is Working - The Notepad Trick

The trick here is simple: just install a file explorer on your phone, manually remove malicious script/data you got from virus-infected PC, and you can now safely plug your smartphone device to your computer. Follow this simple guide on how to manually remove viruses/trojans saved on your phone so that your PC will not get infected:

Step 1 - Download and install your free copy of LCG X-Plore for Android or LCG X-Plore for Nokia Symbian HERE.

For iPhone, iTouch, iPad or Blackberry, download similar file explorer app that can help you manage or edit file attributes.

Step 2 - Once you have file explorer app installed, launch it and look for the malicious file then remove it.



Step 3 - Nearly all trojans/worms are shipped with hidden and read-only attribute so you can't see or remove them. To edit file attribute using LCG X-Plore, select the file and press 6. This should bring a file attribute dialog like this:



Note: LCG-Xplore will not show hidden and read-only files by default. So you need to access the configuration first by pressing 0.



Step 4 - Modify file attribute by simply unchecking "Hidden", "Read-only" and "System" then immediately remove the file!

This is inspired by a friend who's afraid of inserting his mobile phone to his PC after he learns that the computer he used to download mp3 files to his phone is infected by a variant of trojans/virus.

Learn How To Stop Facebook Spam, Viruses and Trojans

Voice Recognition Apps - Speech-To-Text Apps for Mobile

Why type your SMS text message when you can just say it?

Let's face it: using our keypad to type SMS text messages, notes or email is not always practical. Mobile phones especially the touch screen ones have tiny keyboards, making it difficult to type. In addition, speaking without a doubt is always faster as compared to typing.

Welcome to the world of mobile voice recognition technology, a revolutionary way to input just about anything straight to your phone. With voice-to-text app installed on your smartphone, you don't have to fiddle through your keypad to input text. Now, you can just 'say out loud' your message with speech-to-text app for mobile! If you own a Symbian, iPhone, Android or Blackberry phone, this post is for you.

VoiceMode for Symbian - Translates Your Speech, Voice Into Text

Whether you text or tweet a lot on your smartphone, you will surely love VoiceMode, a revolutionary product of VoiceSignal that converts your voice into text. With VoiceMode, you just have to say what you want rather than having to use the keypad. With VoiceMode, you just press and hold a key and say what you want. When you release the key, you'll see your spoken words become text before your eyes!

Automatically turn off your phone at preset time

What seems to be interesting about this voice-to-text app for mobile is that voice recognition is NOT performed in the cloud. That means, VoiceMode doesn't have to constantly connect to a remote server to convert your speech into text. The typical voice-to-text mobile software collects your voice as input and digitally transfer it over the Internet to a remote server (where voice-recognition is performed), and then finally return the corresponding text in seconds. Thankfully, that is not the case of VoiceMode; this voice-to-text app for Symbian works out of the box -- just install, let your phone adapt your voice, and begin sending SMS text message, emails without having to type in your keyboard.

Avoid Overcharging: Play audio sound when phone's battery is full

You can use VoiceMode to add text to messages, notes, calendar entries, and even documents - almost anywhere that you can type. To download this voice recognition app for Symbian, just visit the official website or google it with search string "VoiceMode 2.0 for Symbian s60v3".

Dragon Dictation - Best Voice Recognition app for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch

Dragon Dictation works almost the same as VoiceMode for Nokia Symbian. Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice-to-text application for iPhone, iPad that lets you to quickly speak rather than typing in your text or email messages. So when you are on-the-go, turn talk into type with Dragon Dictation - from short text messages to longer email messages, and anything in between. Get it at iTune App Store.

If you have Android device, you might want to check out FlexT9, another smart speech-to-text app for Android. It works out of the box, amazingly accurate, and works well both rooted and unrooted Android device. Visit FlexT9 official website for details.

Export SMS text messages and save it as text file

For voice-to-text app for Blackberry, visit Nuance Mobile Life, the leader in voice recognition technology.

How To: Automatically Switch Off Your Phone At Later Time

We all have our own methods of extending our phone's battery life. Things like dimming the backlight, closing unused applications, switching off bluetooth and wi-fi services when not in used, and auto-locking our phone are just some things we do to add few more minutes to our phone device.

Here we're going to explore another way to prolong the battery life of your device (e.g. iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Symbian phone). But at this time, we'll instruct our mobile phone to automatically shutdown at specific preset time. Let's start with Blackberry:

Learn how to automatically reply to SMS text messages

Auto Switch Off Your Blackberry

One of the least explored features of Blackberry is the Auto On/Off function, a unique builtin function that lets you
automatically turn off your Blackberry device. Here's how to auto switch off (and on) your blackberry device:

1. Go to the Home Screen on your
   Device.
2. Press the menu key to show all your applications.
3. Select Options.
4. Select Auto On/Off
5. Enable the Weekday and Weekend options and select the times that you want your device to turn off and turn on.

Switch Off - An Auto Shutdown App for Nokia Symbian

If you're looking for ways on how to auto turn off your Nokia Symbian s60 phone, then, this app is for you. Switch Off is a free utility app that lets you automatically switch off your phone at preset time or after an inactivity period. This auto power off app is compatible to all Symbian S60 3rd Edition FP1 phone devices.

Automatically forward all incoming SMS text messages to another phone

I personally tried Switch Off on my device and it worked like a charm. SwitchOff.sis (unsigned) FREE download here [40Kb].

If you're looking for similar auto switch off app for Android, you may want to check out the latest version of Power Off. It's a tiny Android application that can help you to automatically turn off your rooted Android device.

For iPhone, iPads, check out this tutorial How to Auto Turn Off iPhone at a Specific Time. It explains how to use your iPhone's clock function to put the phone in sleep mode at a set time in the future.

Auto send SMS text messages at later time

Being able to automatically shutdown your mobile phone at later time can be useful in many ways. Not only can you use it to impress your peers but sure you can save power and extend your phone's battery life. Auto switching off your phone can also be useful when you want to auto switch off your music player while listening your favorite tracks especially during bedtime.

How To: Backup, Export SMS Text Messages Into Text File

There are several occassions when you need to backup text messages, SMS saved on your phone's inbox. If you're a seller, you might want to save a copy of every single text message/SMS being sent from your customers before trashing them off. If you're to format or hard reset your phone, you might want to export all SMS first into text file (.txt) and store it on your PC or email them for future use.

Here we're going to explore some of the best and free SMS backup applications for your iPhone, Android and Nokia Symbian phone. Hope you find these SMS backup tools useful (if you've problem downloading any of the files/links attached, please notify me.):

SMS Export - Free SMS Exporter for Nokia s60 Symbian Phone

SMS Export is a lightweight mobile application that lets you export all text messages into a single text file. Just run SMS Export, hit export and wait for the app to create a list of all text messages in Inbox and Sent folders. Data included in the exported TXT file include Message ID, Date(Time) Received/Sent, and Message Body. By default, the newly-created text file is saved in drive E. You should see a text file like this: e:\sms-messages-2011-06-10.utf8.txt. Text file is stored in drive C: if there's no volume in drive E.

Turn Your iPhone, Android and Symbian Phone Into Remote Surveillance Camera with Motion Detection

SMS Export works well on all S60v2 and S60v3 Nokia Symbian devices. For S60v2, download it here. And for S60v3, get it here.

Free iPhone SMS Backup - Export SMS From iPhone Into PDF, HTML or XLS

This SMS exporting tool for iPhone and iPad may not be as good as SMS Exporter mentioned above. But this iPhone SMS backup tool is pretty useful especially for people who love free. With this SMS export tool for iPhone, you will be able to backup text messages/SMS into XLS, PDF or HTML format.

Best Motion Detection Sensor App for iPhone, Android and Symbian

To start exporting or backing up SMS/text messages from your iPhone, visit Free iPhone SMS Backup website or here.

SMS Backup and Restore for Android

SMS Backup and Restore is an Android application that allows you export and import SMS text messages. This SMS export app for Android is useful when you're to perform a factory reset or install custom ROMs. The backup or exported file is stored in /sdcard/SMSBackupRestore folder by default.

Backup format is independent of the Android version so the messages can be easily moved from one phone to another, irrespective of which version of Android it has. Tested with 1.5, 1.6, 2.01, 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3. For download and installation instructions, click here.

Remotely Spy, Read
Someone's SMS Text Messages

Do you know any other free SMS backup tool for Blackberry, Java, Windows Phone? If so kindly share them as comments below.

5 Interesting Facts and Myths About Mobile Phone

You might have already heard one of these mobile phone myths and stories. What your mobile phone can do and how it can harm you are popularly discussed in the web. But have you ever done a simple research if any of these cellular phone myths hold water?

This post sought to debunk common misconceptions and belief about your mobile phone.



Myth #1: Charging every day reduces phone's battery life.

This is only true to older phone models which use obsolete type of batteries (e.g. NiMH, NiCd). Most mobile phones nowadays use Li-Ion (Polymer) type of batteries, so you need not to undermine of charging your phone almost everyday.

Send future text message/SMS at later date and time

Myth #2: Using mobile phone in gasoline station can cause fire.

The current and electromagnetic field produced by your phone is little too weak to ignite fire. Thus, the belief that mobile phone can create fire is false. The warnings we used to see in gas station or user manuals are just suggestions in order to not to end up your day feeling sorry -- it's precautionary measure.

Read someone's text message - Best SMS spying apps for iPhone, Android, Symbian and Blackberry

Myth #3: You get an instant cell phone for free when you subscribe to postpaid products offered by your telco.

There are no free lunch in the world; there are costs. Before you even think of deciding for 1-2 years of contract, carefully read first every single detail about the contract and policy. There you'll see a bigger picture how amazing our network operators are especially when it comes to marketing.

Myth #4: Mobile phones may fry one's brain.

Your head is most likely to warm when you're talking to dumb people. The heat produced by mobile phones is too low -- no sufficient evidence can support the claim that cellular phones do fry one's brain.

Myth #5: Too much exposure of cellphone can cause infertility among men.

Calling all the attention of men out there who used to carry their phones in their pockets or belts: you are still as capable as a middle eastern stud! As of the now there's no hard scientific proof that mobile phone can reduce one's manhood.

Turn your phone as spy surveillance camera with motion detection

There you have it - 5 quick facts and myths about mobile phone. If you wish to debunk some more popular myths about cellphone, kindly share them as comments below.

Phone As Spy Camera - Turn Your Phone Into Remote Surveillance Camera With Motion Detection

Why purchase expensive surveillance cameras, motion detectors and alarm systems when you can just use your camera phone to monitor and protect your home/office in realtime?

In an attempt to demonstrate how smart and powerful your smartphone is, I'm going to share some of the most advanced and incredible mobile applications that convert your s60 Symbian, iPhone, and Android phone into an instant surveillance camera with full-featured motion detection and alarm system function.

Automatically Send SMS, Text Messages At Scheduled Date and Time

Think I'm talking about the most expensive sensor or accelerometer phones? That's a big no. As long as your phone's camera is in good condition you can instantly turn your phone as surveillance security camera that can perform certain SMS, call and internet function.

Surveillance, Motion Detection App for iPhone, Nokia Symbian, and Android

ImageSpy Motion Detection app for Nokia - A mobile app that can detect movements and raise alarms

ImageSpy is an innovative mobile app with full sensing and motion detect capability. Using only phone's builtin camera, it automatically notifies you when it detects movements. When motion is detected the ImageSpy can:

• save the image
• send the image as a MMS to predefine number
• silently initiate a phone call to your number and listen what's going on in your home (or you can auto notify police department that your home is under attack)
• send an SMS to preformatted number
• play a loud siren or selected sound file to scare the burglar

ImageSpy is a must have application both for fun and security. It can be installed on any s60 Nokia device such as N70 (see full list of s60v1 and s60v2 devices). Download ImageSpy here. For s60v3 user, may want to check out SensyScan -- it works almost the same as ImageSpy.  Dowload SensyScan here.

Motion Detector Pro - A Surveillance, Motion Detection App for Android

Motion Detector Pro is a camera surveillance app for Android that uses native camera to detect irregularities and movements in the
surrounding area. If motion is detected, this Android app will send an email or an SMS/text message with a picture link to another cell phone, allowing you to remotely monitor an area using your Android phone.

Auto Reply All Incoming SMS, Text Messages

Motion Detector Pro costs only $0.99 and comes with better GUI and handset support as compared to its predecessor Motion Detector FREE version. Download Motion Detector Pro for Android here.

IP Camera - Turn Your iPhone, iPad into an instant IP Camera

This $1.99 remote surveillance app for iPhone takes a photo from your iPhone's camera every 12 to 15 seconds, then posts it automatically to a local Web server that can be accessed from other computers via web. Download and install IP Camera for iPhone at iTune App Store.

I hope I have just made every Symbian, iPhone and Android owner out there happy again! Extend the capability of your phone; install any of those motion detection app and see how smart your mobile camera phone is.

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