A New App For Mobile Security: Maverick Mobile

sarahintampa — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:31:00 GMT

At this year’s DEMO conference, one of the best demos was from a Pune, India-based company called Maverick Mobile. Their new mobile application helps protect the data on your phone in the event the phone is lost or stolen. The app can be used to back up your data, encrypt it, track your device, retrieve your phonebook from a lost phone, disable the device remotely, and even sound a warning alarm if you know the device to be stolen. At time of launch, the Maverick Mobile app works on Nokia phones only, but in November, the company will debut their Windows Mobile and Blackberry versions.

The app incrementally backs up the data on your phone to their secure servers so you can always retrieve it easily. If your phone is stolen and a new SIM card is put into the device, the application recognizes the change and immediately encrypts all the data, including your phonebook, images, messages, etc. You can then retrieve the data from another phone that’s in your possession and – here’s the best part – that retrieval is done using SMS text messages that are automatically sent from the stolen phone...meaning the thief’s account is used to pay for them!

You can also hunt down your device once it's been re-activated. The mobile app can send your new phone the phone number, device ID, country code, operator name, and area code belonging to your stolen device.

However, the craziest thing about the Maverick Mobile app is that it actually lets you harass the thief! You can make spy calls to the device, which switches on the loudspeaker and mic of the stolen phone so you can listen in on the conversations made. But what’s even more hilarious is that you can disable the stolen phone remotely and then have the device sound a loud alarm that sounds like a siren. The only way to disable the siren is to remove the battery! You can also have the app send a customized message with the alarm (like “this phone has been reported stolen, to return it, please call…” (or whatever message you want).

I couldn’t find any company videos that would allow you to see the device in action, unfortunately. However, I did come across this video from eWEEK where they interview one of the company founders:

Cellphone Supercomputer

sarahintampa — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:10:00 GMT

A new technology from Accenture's research labs, a French company, allows cell phones to transform into thin clients. The technology was demoed last week by showing a cell phone that recorded images of a print of Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" painting. After the camera took video images of the painting, a search of a database on the linked Windows XP computer returned results giving information about the painting as well as info about the the recent film of the same title. This extends the possibility of mobile-based search to include interaction with objects in the real world...when can I get a phone that does that? (via The Raw Feed)

Entries tagged with data - Channel 10

A New App For Mobile Security: Maverick Mobile

Cellphone Supercomputer