Email wasn’t designed with security in mind. Unless you take steps to protect your communication, emails are sent in plain text - and so are your email account username and password.
At the same time, if you and your recipient are taking the appropriate security precautions, mobile email can be a secure and reliable alternative to other forms of mobile communication. If you have data service for your mobile, encrypted email can replace text messaging, and if you aren’t able to access a website securely to upload content - photos or videos for example - getting it to a trusted contact as an email attachment can be a safer alternative.
Email wasn’t designed with security in mind. Unless you take steps to protect your communication, emails are sent in plain text - and so are your email account username and password.
At the same time, if you and your recipient are taking the appropriate security precautions, mobile email can be a secure and reliable alternative to other forms of mobile communication. If you have data service for your mobile, encrypted email can replace text messaging, and if you aren’t able to access a website securely to upload content - photos or videos for example - getting it to a trusted contact as an email attachment can be a safer alternative.
This article suggests the following tactics for improving the security of your mobile email:
Have you ever had a problem with your neighborhood and wanted to rally your community around finding a solution? Commons, a mobile mapping and reporting game, does just that. Commons is an iPhone app that allows players to locate their position on a map and then guides the players through a series of challenges to report and comment on their neighborhood. Reports can be voted on, so users who submit the best reports or images can win badges that show their involvement. The first real-world gameplay happened lower Manhattan in New York City on June 19th at the Come Out and Play Festival.
Apple’s release of version 4.3.3 of its iOS operating system “..kills iPhone tracking”, according to a recent article. After nearly three weeks of public attention on this issue, this news will perhaps appease some iPhone fans but is not likely to end the debate over what users should know and control about their smartphones’ location tracking abilities. Like Apple, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone systems have also recently come under fire, though important differences exist in the way each company collects and uses location-based information.
We have reviewed recent articles and research on each of these mobile operating systems’ location tracking capabilities and will describe the various claims made and the research undertaken to test these claims.
Today's news covers a new Android app development contest in Sub-Saharan Africa, Libya's rebel-created cell network, a look at how Android has become the fastest-growing mobile OS, a study on how mobile owners listen to music on mobile devices, and the growth of mobile Internet in South Africa.
Are you an app developer in Sub-Saharan Africa? Google has launched an Android Developer Contest – there are three competition regions (West and Central Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa) and three categories (Entertainment/Media/Games, Social Networking/Communication, and Productivity/Tools/Lifestyle). Check out the competition's page to learn more – submissions open on June 1st and are due by July 1st.
After Libyan government forces disabled mobile and Internet services in March to cut off rebels' communication, a group of expatriates set up a new cell network outside of government control. Read the Wall Street Journal's in-depth coverage of the creation of the system here.
Today's Mobile Minute brings you coverage on an iPhone security hole, how mobile phones are used to transfer music in Mali, Facebook's continued mobile marketing strategy, and the Guardian's updated mobile web site.
Kanchoo is a support service for publishing mobile phone applications. Users provide the content and graphics and Kanchoo develops the application and provides a content management system. Once the application is active, the company can also assist with monetization and advertising services. Is is a Hong-Kong based company and Kanchoo means "publish" in Chinese.
Kanchoo works with media companies, businesses, and organizations to publish and distribute content to mobile platforms. The company asks users to submit specific graphics and content and then develops the application and provides a content management system for updates to the application. The service costs users US$88 to create the application and US$28/month to host it.
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a mobile phone
Key Features :
Kanchoo makes it easy for users to create their own mobile phone applications. Users create an account and upload a small number of required items. Users can preview the application before Kanchoo submits it to the iTunes App Store for approval. Kanchoo also provides a content management system for the user. It is free to create an account and experiment with the service.
Today's Mobile Minute brings you news about the relationship between consumers and telecoms in Sierra Leone, potential problems with mobile phones for transparency in elections, law enforcement officials pulling evidence from iPhones, how international roaming charges were dropped in East Africa, and why geotagging photos may not be in your best interest.
Users can record, edit, and publish stories with their iPhones. It was created with radio in mind and enables users to easily record and then edit interviews on an iPhone mobile device.
Hindenburg Mobile is an on-the-phone audio recording and editing suite. It lets journalists media producers concentrate on telling stories without having to deal with technical hassles. Hindenburg allows a user to drag & drop and plug & play to record and then edit audio on the phone. Users do not need to worry about bit rates, sample rates, codecs, etc. Hindenburg Mobile integrates with the desktop editing suite from the same company, Hindenburg Journalist (in beta). The Hindenburg products are tested by radio professionals, journalists, content providers, and university students.
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a mobile phone
Key Features :
Application is available for download from iTunes. There is also a beta version of Hindenburg Journalist, a desktop audio editing suite, available for download.
VolunteerMatch for iPhone provides iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users with a free mobile solution for accessing VolunteerMatch's directory of volunteer opportunities. Users no longer need to visit our Web site to discover new ways to get involved in their local community.
Our new iPhone app, now available in the App Store and on iTunes, puts all the power of the Volunteer Match web site into your pocket. VolunteerMatch for iPhone includes opportunities from over 70,500 participating organizations, the largest network of directly participating nonprofits on the Web. The application was developed as a pro bono collaboration with imc2 (www.imc2.com).
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a mobile phone
Key Features :
With VolunteerMatch for iPhone, you can:
Search the biggest network of volunteer opportunities in the iPhone.
See what's near you with one click.
Let organizations know you want to sign up.
Read reviews from actual volunteers.
Share your activities with your friends and family.
Save volunteer opportunities for later.
Main Services:
Location-Specific Services and GIS
Information Resources/Information Databases
Display tool in profile:
Yes
Tool Maturity:
Currently deployed
Release Date:
2010-03
Platforms:
Mac/Apple/iPhone
Current Version:
1
Program/Code Language:
Objective C/iPhone
Organizations Using the Tool:
All of VolunteerMatch's 70,000-plus participating organizations are now distributing their listings through VolunteerMatch for iPhone.
Number of Current End Users:
100-1,000
Number of current beneficiaries:
10,000-100,000
Support Forums:
http://www.volunteermatch.org/about/contact/
Languages supported:
English
Handsets/devices supported:
iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and other iPhone OS devices.
As smartphones proliferate around the world, we ought to remain cognizant of what information we share on those phones with applications, application developers, advertisers and marketers. Phones are incredibly personal, always on, and always with most of us. As a result, they can reveal sensitive information. In fact, it is time for smartphone users to put pressure on application developers, platform providers, and eventually legislators to protect private and potentially sensitive information.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently published a paper on locational privacy. Because smartphones know where we are (using GPS, and if not, using applications such as Google’s My Location service), they can reveal a lot of information about activities, patterns of behaviour, and relationships we have.
Public Radio Player, the new version of the old Public Radio Tuner, is a free application that allows users to access over 300 public radio stations across the United States. With a few swipes to the screen of an iPhone or iPod Touch, users can listen to live shows or recorded podcasts from locations of their choice.
The Extraordinaries, a new project by Mobile Voter (disclosure: I sit on the board of Mobile Voter) seeks to revolutionaize the way we volunteer. We wrote about its precursor before. Busy people in the West rarely volunteer for lack of time to go to an organization. Most volunteer opportunities require training, vetting, and time commitments. In fact 46% of non-volunteers in America, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, say they don't because they are too busy.
