The Download Blog

Cell phone users might never be aware that LogMeIn Rescue+Mobile even exists, though most should be pleased it does. The remote-access app from the makers of the popular LogMeIn family (including LogMeIn Free) are back with a feature-rich tool that's custom-built for peering into broken cell phones.

I got a preview of the app at work on Symbian phones at the CTIA 2008 Wireless show in Las Vegas this week (it's already available for Windows Mobile phones). I was impressed with how well LogMeIn Rescue+Mobile organized the phone's file system for quick fixing, while also giving customers enough information about the download process and session activity to dispel qualms of letting a stranger root around the guts of their phones. Letting the users completely terminate a session is a show of good faith.

If this remote-access app sounds like a Geek Squad for mobile phones, there's good reason--LogMeIn is the power behind the Geeks' meanderings into corrupted PCs. Soon, it could be the key to a faster fix for you, and your little phone, too.

Plotting routes is one of Wayfinder Active's many uses.

(Credit: Wayfinder)

The full product launch of Wayfinder Active is arriving in North America just in time for seasonal outdoor pursuits. This free edition of the premium GPS phone navigation system, Wayfinder Navigator, includes goodies that are just right for outdoor enthusiasts taking their phones on a stroll, jog, hike, or geocaching expedition. There are tools for monitoring your speed, distance, and caloric burn, for mapping routes and points of interest, for pulling up a dynamic compass, and for sharing routes or stats. For solo wanderers, there's also a panic button for calling out your location to an emergency buddy.

Appropriately, Wayfinder Active is hooked to an online social community, where members can share photos, thoughts, and routes, the latter of which are auto-uploaded online using the standard GPX format. Users can also download routes to their phones from the community, and purchase topographic maps by state, province, or country.

Watching the demo was enough to make me want to run out and buy a GPS-enabled phone, or at least go on a leafy, hilly hike. Wayfinder Active is available for most GPS-enabled Java phones, with BlackBerry coming next. Get it online or point the cell phone browser to http://active.getwf.com.

Read up on all the latest cell phone and software news from CTIA Wireless 2008.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

There's no real killer app yet for retrieving listings information on your mobile phone, but there could be soon.

On Aptil 11, FreeMobile411 launches the consumer version of its carrier-offered services. Visting FreeMobile411.com from your mobile browser gets you a decent-looking ad-supported WAP site that simplifies directory search and helps you avoid long waits while listening to ads from dial-in services like 1-800-FREE-411.

Enter the search term--it can be a business name ("Blockbuster"), business type ("video store"), or person ("Bill Blockbuster"). Then select the search type, and fill in either the city or zip to search or browse listings. From there you'll have a spectrum of choices to plot on a map, get directions to, dial with a click, or use as an anchor while searching for nearby gap pumps, hotels, banks, and so on. You'll still be able to connect to the operator at the usual carrier rate, but with this useful, easily navigable app, it's doubtful you'll ever need to. P.S. It even looks decent on the RAZR!

At CTIA 2008 in Las Vegas, I took a look at LiveContacts BuddyFinder, Web app that launches on April 15.

I tried it out with a non-GPS phone, and in the process moved to Germany.

To clear a little confusion, BuddyFinder and LiveContacts are two sort-of related names for the app, which is itself the free branch of the better-known FindWhere, a Dutch company with a much more useful, robust service--tracking people down (kids, an elderly parent, a wayward spouse) through their devices. FindWhere includes lost phone recovery, emergency alerts, and notification services if the device goes outside your specified bounds.

Of course, the free BuddyFinder doesn't do all that. Instead, it installs an app to the phone (with yet another name) that utilizes either GPS or cell phone triangulation on select smartphones, and broadcasts the location to FindWhere's servers. The app's only role is to play transmitter. Buddies then see your location mapped online after every five minutes or location change. That's wonderful for plotting a route somewhere for demonstration purposes, or to prove that you actually did go to the library to study, but it's less useful if you're interested in finding a pal while you're out and about.

From the looks of it, BuddyFinder is a rather late, rather feature-slim arrival to location-based friend tracking that's similar to a lot of other services out there, including Loopt, Whereboutz, Rummble, and Whrrl, and even FindMe, which didn't impress me on all accounts, but works nonetheless.

To differentiate BuddyFinder from the competition, the press materials call the Web and cell phone app combo "the only truly free buddy finder service on the Web." I see what they're getting at, since some of the other services rely on data transfers to update your location on your phone, where BuddyFinder tracks you from your PC for free. As I mentioned, it's hard to see how being limited to the PC is a perk, even if there is no data charge. Besides, much of the audience for location-based services already subscribes to an unlimited data plan, so it's difficult to see a real detraction there.

Still, if you're seeking a geo-tracking service, there's no harm in looking at BuddyFinder. You can sign up for the beta now, or wait until April 15th for the full release.

I'm looking at a cell phone screen and four faces are looking back. It's CTIA 2008, the biggest wireless and cell phone trade show of the year, and the CEO of iVisit, a multiparty video conferencing app for PCs, Macs, and mobile phones, is demoing the product, iVisit Teleport. I must say, the slick, feature-rich app looks pretty cool on Orang Diamaleh's large-screen smartphone.

iVisit Teleport's feature-rich app manages to avoid distraction.

The simplest way to think about iVisit Teleport is as a P2P social network that lets you call, chat, video conference, and transfer multimedia for up to 8 contacts at a time. You sign up for an account and can start adding any contact who has also registered with the service. Conferencing starts when you enter a room, after which you have an array of controls to launch multimedia sharing functions with a one-button click; that is, tap or click the interface to chat, start a video conference using the phone's camera as the lens, send a file, and see a buddy's GPS location on a map.

I like the glossy black interface, which packs in a lot of features without making the app feel overcrowded. The video quality wasn't too shabby either, and definitely an improvement over other video software I've seen, but a lot of that input will depend on the capabilities of the phone itself. On mobile phones, iVisit Teleport supports 120x160, 320x240 video. It will be interesting to see how iVisit Teleport plays out on an actual conference call when the app's beta release goes live in April on Windows Mobile phones, and if the pricing will appeal more to consumers or small businesses. In the meantime, anyone can pre-register for the iVisit Teleport private beta or iVisit desktop for Windows and Mac.

Quite a few services on the market offer some variation on the theme of making inexpensive international calls. Fring and EQO dress it up with IM and a social networking aspect that grants free international calls between registered friends and cheap calls to everyone else. Likewise, there's Skype to Go and Talkster, which both require you to punch in local access numbers to get cheap rates. However, Packet8's MobileTalk has risen above them all as a mass market solution that sheds the extra messaging frills, money-making ads, and prep time to make the call. (Note: Give yourself a few minutes for the initial account set-up, including finding the phone's IMEI number.)

The premise is dead simple. You download the MobileTalk app, then make calls as usual. When your fingers dial out an international number, MobileTalk springs to life, delaying the call by a few seconds to connect you to a local number (that's what gets you the cheaper rates,) then pushes the call through to your destination.

Payment is pretty easy too; it arrives as a separate credit card charge on your statement when you set up your account. The costs are comparable to other phone card and VoIP-out services--that's about 2-3 cents per minute to most of Europe and 3-5 cents to most of Asia. Doubting Thomases can track call costs from their online account as they speak.

Because Packet8 MobileTalk requires the user to do absolutely nothing to connect an international call, it's the kind of set-up I want to have for calling my London-dwelling sister on my morning commute, and the kind of app I would recommend to any smartphone owner who prefers to set and forget. Packet8 MobileTalk is currently available for Windows Mobile, Symbian, and BlackBerry phones, and is expected for Java phones in 4-to-6 weeks.

Traditionally focused on securing mobile devices for corporations and even the U.S. Government, Bluefire Security plans to enter the consumer market with Mobile Defender.

Bluefire's bid joins them to the ranks of other security vendors who have created mobile versions of their desktop apps. I got a chance to preview Mobile Defender at CTIA 2008 in Las Vegas. The app, currently available in private beta for Windows Mobile phones, has a simple four-button interface, with each button corresponding to an element of protection--firewall, SMS and MMS spam-blocking, an application protection shield that guards against auto-installing malware, and a feature to remotely wipe the contents of the handheld should it get stolen or irreversably corrupted.

Mobile Defender is of the "set and forget" variety, which means that after you install it, it pretty much runs on its own. Bluefire intentionally withheld tweaking options, which Mark Kominsky, Bluefire's CEO, explained as a big usability win to keep users from worrying if a lack of configuration knowledge is somehow crippling their coverage. Pro users who enjoy customizing their settings would disagree.

While security compromises from mobile phones have been small in scale, and mostly isolated incidents, Komisnky believes that cell phones dangle attractive lures for hackers along three vectors--As mobile messaging becomes ubiquitous and malware authors propagate poisonous code in links; as mobile phone commerce takes off, and as the mobile Web becomes easier to surf from devices like the iPhone.

Dashwire, a small Seattle start-up eleven employees strong, continues to impress with its growing service for managing and interacting with the contents of your cell phone online. To recap an earlier review, Dashwire synchronizes your cell phone to an online account, displaying on a flexible dashboard your call history, images, profile, texting history, photos, ring tones, videos, and contacts. You can roll up your sleeves and muck around with your phone from Dashwire, a much happier experience than crouching over your two-inch cell phone screen and tapping or clicking away through on-device management programs, particularly if you're not on the go and are sitting comfortably in front of a computer, thank you very much.

Since Dashwire is linked to your phone via a downloadable client, everything you do online also occurs on your phone, and vice versa. Therefore, you can view, tag, and share media, send text messages, listen to voice mail, and add bookmarks from the comfort of your online dashboard. It's cool. But in the last month, it's gotten cooler.

(Credit: Dashwire)

There have been quiet roll-outs of tweaks, even a few big changes. For a start, Dashwire has drastically improved its search tool. Users can now push photos to friends' phones, e-mail addresses, and Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Bebo. (In Twitter, most photos are converted to a TinyURL.com link. It doesn't work 100 percent of the time, and Dashwire's working on that.)

The service also now supports data transferring when users switch phones, which was the top request among private beta testers, and a great new feature for quickly assigning speed dial settings.

The big thing, though, is integration with CallWave, a service that transcribes voice messages to text. This is a smart move, and it makes perfect sense for Dashwire, which is all visual management, to provide visual voice mail.

Coming up
Dashwire will be introducing a few more additions in stages over the next six months. Starting Friday, text messages will be threaded by contact, in a manner much like the iPhone. In about four to six weeks, a new, dynamic phone client will replace the current app, which is currently limited to a few syncing options. The new, richer Dashwire client will peform all sorts of party tricks, like pulling in media when you switch to a new handset, push status updates to Facebook and Twitter, and pull in content from the Web.

The final announcement in this cascade of upgrades is that Symbian S60 users will be able to get their hands on Dashwire if they can hold their horses until late August or early September.

Dashwire runs equally well from your phone memory and storage card, and it's now in public beta for Windows Mobile users. Get out there and try it.

>>See all the latest news in cell phones and mobile software coming out of CTIA Wireless 2008.

Share photos via SMS, e-mail, or post online.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

(Credit: Yahoo Inc.)

Vioce technology is Yahoo's big news of the day. While vocal search is one aspect of an enhanced version of Yahoo's oneSearch tool for mobile phones, it's the only aspect of the service that has been made available as a preview today. And the implementation has only been rolled out for BlackBerry phones.

Luckily, I happen to have one of those here at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas, where I met with Yahoo's director of mobile product marketing, Adam Taggart to discuss oneSearch 2.0 (see video).

Like Yahoo Go 3.0, oneSearch 2.0 opens with a slick interface. The idea is to make vocal input as good as manual input, Taggart said, but to remove the pain points of having to type a search when you could just as easily speak it.

In the cacophonous conference hall, not every request came out clearly, but it's easy to see how this feature will form the basis of hands-free search. Additionally, the recognition technology is adaptive, Taggart explained, interpreting from a range of accents and inflections, and learning your vocal patterns after a few sessions.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

That's not all oneSearch will learn. With a little use, it's also meant to interpret your search patterns, which will help the app return more customized results. The vocal recognition isn't perfect every time, so Yahoo has embedded drop-down boxes to fill in the unclear search terms.

Going forward, phones will also receive relevant proximity-based search results, which will offer suggestions for listings close to your current location. GPS is the most precise, but mass market phones should also be able to take advantage of cell tower triangulation, which is effectively put to use in the My Location feature of the latest iteration of Google Maps. When in doubt, there's always adding your city or zip code manually.

Windows Live Search with voice announced something similar last November at CTIA's fall show in San Francisco. The big difference here, Yahoo emphasizes, is that oneSearch isn't just about dishing out local listings. You can also search for flights, Web sites, zip codes, videos, and so on, by pressing and holding the green talk key for as long as you speak your query. No need to shout or slow your speech. The app works best when you present your normal cadence and tones.

Currently the talk feature of oneSearch 2.0 is available for BlackBerry, with predictive search features and all the rest coming in a few months. Get the link by pointing your BlackBerry browser to m.yahoo.com/voice.

>>Catch the latest news in cell phones and mobile software from CTIA 2008 in Las Vegas.