Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson smartphones are among those running the two Symbian operating systems vulnerable to attack according to NetQin.

By Mathew J. Schwartz,  InformationWeek
July 6, 2010
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225702440

New viruses targeting Symbian smartphones have surfaced, according to NetQin, which develops security software for mobile devices.

Two Symbian operating systems are vulnerable: S60 platform 3rd Edition, aka Symbian OS 9.1, as well as S60 5th edition, aka Symbian OS 9.4. The operating systems run a number of smartphones from such manufacturers as Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

Dubbed ShadowSrv.A, FC.Downsis.A, BIT.N and MapPlug.A, the viruses come hidden in games designed for Symbian smartphones. Once the games are run, the virus executes, giving the virus writer full control over the devices, said NetQin. In other words, the smartphone becomes part of a botnet, and can be used to launch further attacks on other devices.

In addition, according to NetQin, “these viruses will either send messages to all the contacts of the address book directly, or send messages to … random phone numbers by connecting to the server.” The messages sent by the virus contain URLs, purportedly to such content as World Cup video on demand or popular television shows, but which really link to websites hosting the virus. To cover its tracks, the virus deletes any messages it sends from a user’s outbox and SMS log.

NetQin estimates that 100,000 mobile phones worldwide are vulnerable to the virus.

Smartphones being infected by viruses isn’t a new threat, and malware aimed at smartphones continues to mature. For example, in late 2009, researchers, discovered the iKee botnet, which targeted jailbroken iPhones, backed by command-and-control functionality to press these iPhones into the service of a botnet.

Even so, stumbling into a virus by downloading a mobile application is a relatively new threat. “The explosion of mobile applications has made smartphones an enticing target for virus authors,” said Lin Yu, CEO of NetQin, in a statement.

Driven by financial incentives, “many security threats that were once only spread on PCs, such as botnets, are now moving to mobile devices,” he said.

These financial incentives may include making phones spend money on services controlled by attackers. For example, last month, Donato Ferrante at Sophos wrote a blog dissecting a different piece of Symbian malware, Troj/SymbSms-A, which spreads via an SIS archive file. Its purpose appears to be to send messages to a premium-rate Russian phone number until the infected smartphone runs out of credit.

If you live in a country where Twitter does not automatically deliver your directs and mentions via SMS you may still have an opportunity to get them delivered if you have a Nokia S60 phone.

The magic is done by Synble, a piece of software that runs in the background on your mobile device. The SMS forwarding is just one feature of Synble, it can also text you when there is an update to an RSS feed which I find useful for sports scores.

As ever it’s free

Go on admit it, you’re po’d that Google Voice (GV) is available to people living in the United States only. It may be for friends or business interests, whatever the reason the ability to call U.S. telephones (both fixed and mobile) for absolutely zip, zero, nada appeals to you. Conversely, U.S. residents can also contact you without incurring international rates.

Having your own U.S. phone number gives you a “presence” in that part of the world and to those who might call that number, you are for all intents and purposes, answering as if in the U.S.! And to make it even sweeter you get to select exactly where in the U.S. your number is located. New York, San Francisco or Biloxi, Mississippi , it’s up to you. Then when you dial using GV, the Caller ID displayed to the recipient shows the number and geographic region you selected. If only you were in the U.S. to take advantage of it .

But wait! for four easy payments of $26.99 + shipping…. ok, ok I’m kidding… I couldn’t help it.  Here’s how you do it for free…

If you know a little about SIP and VOIP continue reading, otherwise grab your nearest geek and ask that person to read this post!

The very first hurdle you have to clear is to request a GV account. Do that by going to the GV invitation page and use your gmail account where requested. In a few days you should receive an email back inviting you to Google voice service. “Hold on!”,  you say, “don’t GV know I’m not in the U.S.? Why bother?”  They don’t check at request time, that’s why, and it’s not going to know as I’ll explain.

Fast forward a few days and great, you have an invite, but in your haste you clicked the link they gave you but got a message saying Google Voice is only for U.S. residents currently. You got that message because the geo-location of your I.P. was recognized as non-U.S. so the next thing you’ll need to do is login to a proxy within the U.S. before you can proceed any further. You probably already know some working proxies in the U.S. and if you do please mention them in the comments below for the benefit of us all. If you don’t you might need to use a commercial one for a while which costs very little in any case. If you read my post about Pandora on my blog you’ll find the one I used mentioned there.

On to the next gotcha. Before you try to use your GV invite check before you click the invitation link that you really are on a proxy. Use a service such as WhatIsMyIP to verify the location is reported as within the U.S. And another big one – clear your browser of cookies, very important! If Google finds it’s own cookie(s) in your cache reporting a locale other than the U.S. it will go by those and not the proxy location. So just make sure your cookie cache is cleared.

Now if you’ve done all that, go ahead, click the invite and GV will guide you through the setup of your number, your voice mail settings and all the other features (including free send/receive texting!). It’s all well-documented at the GV site which will become visible to you at this point.

Hold your questions for a moment now, I’ll deal with them shortly, just stick to the steps in this guide and it’ll become clearer to you as we progress.

If you’ve been following along in a set by step manner, you’ll find another big Gotcha at this point. GV requires a U.S. number for forwarding purposes and for validation. Curses! Why didn’t I tell you, this is a chicken and egg situation and a waste of time! Well it’s not.

Now there may be lots of argument about big government going on in the U.S. at the moment, but for purpose of this exercise we love them and more particularly the Federal Communications Commission or FCC. Because of a quirky FCC requirement regarding rural phone line availability companies such as IP Kall exist. Basically IP Kall get a subsidy every time one of the phone numbers they control connects a call. And it didn’t take them long to figure out that if you used SIP for the call termination, more and more people could use their service and they would get correspondingly large subsidies. People who have a U.S. landline have a billing item for a “universal access fee” and we’re taking advantage of that program’s largess here! But that’s another story.

Go ahead and sign up for IP Kall (or similar, if you find others please leave them in the comments) and make sure it’s working. By working I mean that you can dial the number it assigned you and it rings back to your PC or ATA. Now you have a U.S. number that’s located in Washington state on the west coast, which in and of itself is quite useful, but not as useful as a GV number.

Go back to your GV setup and put the IP Kall number as your forwarding number. Google will now dial that number which will then ring at whatever device/softphone is logged into your SIP account. Google will ask you to key in a confirmation code and then you’re good to go! Be careful that you have the correct DTMF settings too, you might have to play with that a little.

If you so wish you can then go the GV dashboard and add a free Gizmo account as a forwarding number which is also very useful as it can forwand an incoming call to SIP, Skype or GTalk.

Once you have all the setup done you can dispense with the proxy, in other words, GV does not check location during usage, only at signup time. In addition, the IP Kall number will expire after 30 days of inactivity, but with GV you can dial it for free so there’s no excuse for that.

How you use it after this is up to you, I like to use it via the SIP client on my Nokia E71 as well as  my Linksys PAP2 ATA.

In summary:

• Obtain GV Invite
• Sign up for Gizmo5
• Sign up for IP Kall
• Register GV using a US proxy
• Enjoy!

Remember Google Voice is still a Beta product and subject to change. All comments welcome.

The launch of Symbian’s Zoom OMAP34x-II MDP development platform signals that the open source OS will power some high-end smartphones.

By Marin Perez,  InformationWeek
April 15, 2009
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216500914

The Symbian Foundation is looking to bring in more developers for the upcoming open source Symbian, and it has created a new development platform based on Texas Instrument’s OMAP technology.

The new platform, dubbed Zoom OMAP34x-II MDP, will enable Symbian developers to make mobile programs that take advantage of TI’s powerful OMAP processor architecture. This processor will power many high-end smartphones like Palm’s upcoming Pre, and it offers near-laptop-like speeds, capacitive touch capabilities, 3-D graphics, and video encoding up to 720p. The new platform will be able to validate handsets that run Symbian^3, which is targeted to be in development by the second half of this year.

“The OMAP 3 software development platform and the Zoom OMAP34x-II MDP make it easy for the Symbian developer community to take advantage of TI’s fully featured, affordable hardware platform, sparking innovation and helping developers mastermind the next generation of technologies that shape future mobile consumer experiences,” said Pierre Garnier, VP of TI’s wireless business, in a statement.

The move is a clear signal that the open source Symbian will power some smartphones with a lot of horsepower, but as these handsets become more of a mainstream product, it’s apparent that technical specs alone aren’t enough to differentiate devices. With Apple’s App Store leading the charge, there’s a growing emphasis on the software platform and what type of apps can be used on a smartphone.

This focus on software is one of the reasons Nokia decided to buy out Symbian last year and spin it into an open source operating system. Developers will likely be able to utilize Nokia’s upcoming Ovi Store to distribute Symbian apps, and this over-the-air store will help users find new programs by utilizing social networking and location information.

Hidden iPhone Tethering Feature Exposed

I came across this story recently and it made me realise just how backward the iPhone really is. Lack of MMS, no incoming VOIP notifications, no copy and paste and now this! This “hack” is widely available as standard on any S60 phone. How primitive.

Part 1.

OK, VoIP – you’ve heard of it and maybe you’ve dabbled with it, but you also know that what you don’t know is likely to come back and bite you, usually when money has already changed hands and not long after your 30 day money back offer expires.

If you’re like me when I started investigating – you’re probably overwhelmed with the myriad of acronyms and models, the complexity involved, and in the case of the heading above, all of these from just one vendor. Well I can relate,  been there etc. so read on…!

The VoIP market is a bit like the Wild West, there’s a land grab going on, the only difference now is that the prize has been renamed “mindshare”.  There are plenty of players, all touting how “their’s” is the best solution, claiming dubious “features” as benefits and exploiting user forums for their devotees to evangelize on their behalf.

It all ends up as a pissing contest with the poor user being pulled in multiple directions, F.U.D. (Fear, Uncertainty,Doubt) being planted by rival companies to the point where it’s almost impossible to try and get some sort of measured and objective advice.

I don’t claim to be a GURU but I thought I’d share my thoughts and what works in Ireland, doesn’t cost a fortune and is robust enough for you to basically forget about it once installed.

There are of course many ways to to take advantage of VoIP from your broadband connection, this article describes some of the options from Cisco/Linksys who are a major player in the domestic market place and work reasonably well with broadband, as known to an Irish end-user.

Linksys PAP2T

I limit the article to the options that do not require a PC or laptop to run and can use your existing wired telephone by means of an ATA or Analog Telephone Adapter. It means you can fall back to Eircom/BT etc (POTS or Plain Old Telephone Service), or VoIP, so you’re not stuck if the VoIP fails which is a generally a smart way to start out.

First important thing to note for us Irish people with our so-called “broadband” connections is that for many of you the experience is not going to be pleasant. If you got suckered in to one of those “free broadband with a bundle” type deals or “low-cost” or some such you’re likely to get exactly what you paid for – not a whole lot.

VOIP requires bandwidth somewhere in the region of  100Kbbps sustained in both directions (between you and your ISP) to ensure a smooth conversation.  If your connection can not provide that rate the conversation becomes garbled, chopped and you’ll end up frustrating yourself and the person you’re calling. Now before you say but I have a 1 MB or more connection remember I mentioned both directions, many ISP’s don’t tout the upload speed because quite often it’s only 128Kbps. And when you factor in contention, signal quality and overhead it’s not uncommon to be only getting 50Kbps or even less on these budget packages. Your deal doesn’t seem like such a deal now does it?

Back to the hardware. You need an ATA. Linksys have four models – the  PAP2, PAP2T, SPA2102, and the SPA3102. In fact they have more (through acquisitions) and they are still trying to get the product mix right, they probably only need two models for the Irish domestic market. You may also hear the make Sipura bandied about, that was one of the acquisitions but you can disregard that info as it’s “encapsulated” into the four models described here.

The workhorse, the one that was the original disruptive technology is the PAP2. This made VoIP in the home widespread and is the grandfather on which other models are based. Although still widely available in the market place it has been superseded by the the PAP2T. The PAP2T adds more memory, fax capability and better compression. If you have a choice always take the PAP2T over the PAP2. But PAP2 is perfectly acceptable too.

The SPA2102 and SPA3102 are not just adapters but also feature built-in routers. These may be of interest to users whose ISP only only provide a single port router. A single port router has only one RJ-45 ethernet jack. The PC is connected to this jack for internet connectivity. The SPA2102 and SPA2103 have two RJ-45 jacks. One gets connected to the ISP router and the other to the PC so although the VoIP device and PC share just one connection they can operate independently of each other.

If you already have a multi-port router on your connection then all you need is the PAP2 or PAP2T.  When researching your best price on eBay/Amazon etc. you might discover variants on the PAP2T such as the PAP2T EU and PAP2 NA and sometimes the word Vonage.  All things being equal what would really suit you is the PAP2T UK. The two letter suffix describe the plug the adapter uses, Europe, North America and UK. Others like CA  refer to central America, AS for AustrailAsia etc.  But they all work here since the transformer will take 110v-240v. Don’t buy a Vonage PAP2 unless you *know* you want one. It’s proprietary to a voice provider  in the U.S. and U.K. markets and likely not what you want.

So what about 941′s 962′s & Co? They are also VoIP devices but they cannot be used with POTS, i.e. they can’t plug in directly to your Eircom wall jack. They are more suited to an office type environment. But you should be aware of them as they do have their uses in a SOHO setup too. Maybe I’ll do an article later on their benefits, but for a novice stick to the PAP2T as it’s inexpensive and straightforward in it’s usage.

In summary;

The SPA-1001 has been discontinued and was replaced/renamed the PAP2.

The PAP2 has been discontinued and is replaced with the PAP2T.

The PAP2T is the latest model VoIP adapter from Linksys.

The SPA2102 is the latest model  router/adapter combo from Linksys.

The SPA3102 is the latest model router/adapter combo from Linksys with LAN Passthrough.

-NA or -EU means that the device is not associated with a particular VoIP provider (unlocked). Devices without -NA or -EU usually have another -XX designation and are locked to a specific VoIP Provider, e,g, -VN Vonage.

If you are looking to purchase used equipment, make sure it is a -NA or -EU model. Other models are not truly “unlocked” and will not be supported by Linksys or other providers.

• SPA2000: Basic phone adapter that allows two phones or fax machines to be connected to an Ethernet network in order to make and receive telephone calls or faxes.
• SPA2100: Similar to the SPA2000 with the addition of an Ethernet Router. Functions of the built-in router include QoS.
• SPA3000: Has only one phone adapter port, but can be used for POTS backup for strictly VoIP systems.
• SPA3102: Similar to the SPA3000, but includes single LAN output that can be used to connect to a computer. This is handy if the user only has a modem and no router. The SPA3102 connects to the LAN socket on the modem. The computer, which is traditionally connected to the modem, now connects directly to the LAN connection on the SPA3102. The SPA3102, effectively, is an ATA and single output router in one box.
• SPA9000: An IP PBX system that allows an Auto-Attendant configured, Hunt Groups, multiple IP phone extension, and POTS connectors. The SPA9000 also has basic router functions, port forwarding, QoS, and DTMF functionality.
• SPA901: A basic IP phone with only one line. Often referred as a warehouse or kitchen phone.
• SPA921: A single line phone with LCD display screen.
• SPA922: A single line phone with LCD display screen, but adds a single port built in switch.
• SPA941: The flagship of the SPA phones. It incorporates a 4-line IP phone and an LCD display.
• SPA942: Similar to the 941 aside from the additions of  Power_over_Ethernet ability, back-lit screen, and a single port built-in switch.
• SPA962: Similar in appearance and functionality to the 941/942. Features a six line, 2-inch color screen.

Note: This is the first of a series of articles intended to assist users move to VoIP. Your comments and feedback would be appreciated and will help me cover the aspects you wish to see. This is a draft article which will be updated with links and definitions over time.

This is a useful service and is absolutely free. As you might expect you automatically receive responses to your tweets directly via SMS to your phone but there is another feature I find quite useful – namely a clipping service.

You can specify a keyword that you are interested in, for example I used the word “Athlone”, and whenever that word appears in ANY tweet it gets forwarded to my phone. Of course you can specify limits on the amount of texts you receive and the hours of the day that the service is active.

After a couple of days I got tired of some web betting company that was quoting odds for Athlone Town F.C. football games, twitter spam in effect, so I modified my search phrase putting a “-” sign in front of the twitter id that was sending those messages. That worked very well, so now I’m getting tidbits about my topic of choice and filtering the twits’ tweets on twitter, if you know what I mean!

clipped from www.twe2.com Twe2, Twitter SMS in Europe! Twe2 is Free Twitter SMS alerts in Europe and beyond. We don’t charge you to receive an SMS, Twe2 is Totally Free and we mean it… We got sick of not being able to get our Twitter alerts via SMS in Europe so we decided to take matters into our own hands and do it ourselves. We are really sorry that we have to ask you for your Twitter Password but there is no other way. We promise to be careful with it and as soon as we can find another way, we will. Twe2 will send you an SMS with your Twitter stuff in it but to keep it free, we have to append an advertisement to the bottom of each one. Hopefully thats ok! Twe2 can: Twe2 is absolutely FREE. get your Direct Messages by SMS. get your @Replies by SMS. get search and interesting stuff via SMS Available in lots of countries.

CIOs attribute their interest to the minimal amount of capital needed to get started and the higher level of flexibility that open source applications generally present.

URL: informationweek.com

Hard economic times have resulted in good economic news for makers of open source PBXs.

In a study released by the Eastern Management Group based on a survey of 6,000 IT executives, open source-based PBX products and overall solutions now account for 18% of the private branch market

Most of the executives buying open source PBXs are using Digium’s solution called Asterisk, according to the report. Explaining their success, company officials said they’re seeing a high level of commitment from CIOs. They attribute that interest to the minimal amount of capital needed to get started and the higher of flexibility that open source applications generally present.

“CIOs are attracted to this because the cost is zero to implement and the chances are systems administrators know how to install it and make it work. CIOs are even able to reuse their old phone systems. They want to move up to a more sophisticated back-end platform without ditching their indestructible Nortel handsets; they can do it in phases with Asterisk,” said John Todd, the open source community director of Asterisk.

Todd however cautioned that there are costs associated with installing Asterisk, namely a “forklift upgrade,” or significant upgrading of a user’s system. Todd recommended that users hire a consultant for the initial install, and then allowing companies’ IT staffs to maintain it.

Nortel’s 15% market share was second to Digium’s 18% share for open source PBXs, with Cisco coming in third, with 12%.

The report contends there is a market shift currently under way where, thanks to the arrival of open source, traditional telephone makers are competing for dollars in a consistently shrinking market. Because open source PBX software is free and can be downloaded for free, it is assumed that it’s being used almost exclusively in laboratories, the survey states. But that assumption has been fundamentally wrong.

“When the fog lifts, we find open source is the PBX of choice for a large and growing share of the commercial marketplace,” said John Malone, CEO of the Eastern Management Group.

Offering evidence backing up the contention that PBXs are gaining acceptance outside of its traditional markets, Malone said 40% of businesses installing open source PBXs in 2008 were in the government, education, retail, medical, and financial markets. Furthermore, both large and small companies are installing more than one PBX.

For CIOs looking to just swap out their PBX, he recommended hiring a one-time consultant to install Asterisk, leaving IT personnel to maintain it. But for companies looking to integrate with complex sales platforms or call centers, the costs will be higher, he added.

Safeguarding an IP PBX presents some challenges, but basic measures can help. InformationWeek has published an independent analysis of this topic. Download the report here (registration required).

Here is a GPS phone tracking app for S60 phones I look forward to testing. I like the sound of “Intelligent Update” as internal GPS really drains battery life. Of course with our lousy data plans available in Ireland we have to be careful when we use such features.

Quoted from http://phonelocator.mobi/:

phonelocator.mobi – locate your phone – locate your loved ones – realtime GPS tracking for Nokia S60 phones –

Phonelocator is a native S60 realtime GPS tracking application for Nokia S60 phones. It allows you to view the location of your phone and a trail of where it has been using this website. Phonelocator has advanced features like “Intelligent Update” that reduces the amount of data sent by the application and “Battery Saver” that turns off the GPS when the phone is stationary or the GPS signal is too weak. Phonelocator can be run in the background and started when your phone is booted.