Thursday, February 28, 2008

How to Dial Multiple Calls?

If you need to dial another number when you are in an active conversation, you can use the Options New call menu. The phone will request that you enter the new phone number, and you can press the green Call button to connect the call (just as you would do for a regular call). Once the new call is connected, it becomes the currently active call, and all other calls are placed on hold.

How to Receive Multiple Calls?

Your Nokia phone is a low-cost conference-call solution.

You can hold multiple conversations at the same time on your Nokia phone. That essentially gives you the capability to run conference calls right from your phone!

The phone's idle screen displays each connected call in a text box. The forefront text box always shows the currently active call.

If a call comes in while you are already in an active conversation, the phone beeps and flashes a text box for the incoming call. You can decide to take, reject, or ignore the incoming call, or simply put it on hold.

If you do take the incoming call, the currently active call is automatically placed on hold. You can use the Swap soft key to switch between on-hold calls .

How to Store Calling Card Numbers in the Contacts List?

If you make frequent calling card calls, you can put the calling card access number, the PIN, and the destination number in one entry in your phone's Contacts list. Then, you can dial it quickly by locating the contact or even set it for speed dialing or voice commands.

But the problem is that the phone cannot just dial all the digits without a pause. The calling card service needs to accept the call after you dial the access number, before you can dial the PIN. It also needs to verify the PIN before you are prompted to dial the destination number. How do you put pauses between the access number and the PIN, and then between the PIN and the destination number, without human intervention?

Nokia phones have a nifty feature that puts pauses in a stream of digits. You just enter the phone number normally in the contact entry. When you need a pause between numbers, you click the * key three times until the letter "p" appears. If you need a longer pause, you can enter more than one "p" consecutively. Then you can go on to enter the next number after the pause.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Using Speed Dialing

With so many calling card services, you can shop around for the one that provides the best services and the best rate. Some calling card services provide two key features for easy mobile dialing:

No-PIN authentication
Some cards allow you to register several preauthorized phone numbers with your account. If the calling card service caller ID detects that you are calling the access number from one of the authorized phone numbers, it automatically authenticates you without asking for your PIN number.

Speed dial for destination numbers
Some services allow you to assign two-or three-digit speed-dial codes for your frequently called numbers. Once you are authenticated and authorized to access your account, you can use those codes to dial long numbers quickly.

Using these two features, you can shorten a 36+ digit international call to 14 or so digits. They are great timesavers. We recommend you use calling services that provide those features.

Use Calling Cards with Your Mobile Phone

Use a discount-rate calling card without the hassle of manually dialing PINs or even access numbers. Also, make the calling card work with your Contacts program!

Calling cards are good companions for mobile phones. Mobile phone calling plans, especially regional plans, sometimes have expensive long-distance rates. Even for national plans, the rates for international calls are often very expensive. Using calling cards, you can call in a local or a 1-800 access number, and then have the calling card service connect you to the destination number via a landline or even the Internet at very cheap rates. You'll still use up your plan minutes, but you won't pay as much in long-distance charges.

However, making a calling card call on a mobile phone manually can be a real hassle. You have to key in a 10-digit access number; wait for the prompt; key in the PIN code (which is normally longer than 8 digits); wait for the prompt; and finally key in up to 16 digits of destination phone numbers (in the case of an international call). Try that when you are walking or driving! Fortunately, a couple of tricks are available that can make it easier to use calling cards.

How to Use Prepaid Calling Cards?

Prepaid calling cards help make your international travel easy and give you more control over account usage.

Subscription-based mobile phone services, while they are very convenient, are not suitable for everybody, or for every situation. Here are some example scenarios when you might not want to subscribe to a mobile phone service plan:
  • You do not want to share your personal information and credit information with the operator.
  • You do not want to be locked into a specific call plan or rate plan for an extended period of time.
  • You travel abroad and do not want to pay for international roaming.
  • You do not want to be surprised by the over-usage charges that are calculated only at the end of the billing cycle. For instance, you might want to put usage caps on the phones you give to your teenage kids.
Prepaid services are extremely popular in Asia and Europe. They are the best way to obtain mobile services when you travel to those countries. In the U.S., prepaid services are also becoming increasingly popular, as mobile phone services reach out to a broad population. Here is how to use a prepaid phone card to obtain services.

First, you need to purchase a valid SIM card from an operator that provides prepaid services in the area where you will be spending time. Put the SIM card into your unlocked phone and turn it on to register on the network. The SIM card gives you a phone number but no services. The phone can make calls only to the operator or to emergency services at this point. The SIM card is relatively cheap (about $25 in the U.S.), and you can keep it for as long as you want. Using the same SIM card allows you to have a stable phone number.

Prepaid cards in foreign countries also give you a local mobile phone number for the locals to call.

Second, you need to purchase a prepaid card from the operator's retail store. The cards are also available in many local gas stations and grocery stores. The prepaid card has a face value of a number of available minutes. Once you've paid for the card, scratch the back of the card to reveal the secret PIN number.

Then, use the phone to make a call to the recharge number listed on the card. Listen to the instructions and enter the PIN when you are prompted to do so. The network operator will verify the PIN and unlock your SIM card for the number of minutes listed on the card.

Now, you can use the phone to make and receive phone calls until the prepaid minutes run out. At that time, you'll need to buy another prepaid card and repeat the process to recharge your SIM card.

Prepaid services are typically more expensive than subscription-based services in terms of per-minute charges. But if you do not use up all your plan minutes in a subscription plan, you might end up paying less using a prepaid service.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Using Video Ring Tones

If you have a Series 60 phone, a Symbian application called Vision (available from http://www.psiloc.com/index.html?id=168) can bring your contact picture and ring tone to new levels. This program allows you to assign a video clip for each contact! When the contact calls, the video automatically plays on the screen, with full motion and sound. It is extremely cool and could really impress people around you.

The Vision program also supports large caller pictures. This is handy if you feel the default caller pictures are too small and are hard to see.

Using Ringtone

On many Nokia devices, you can use ring tones to differentiate callers. You might assign a special ring tone to a person or a group of people. This way, you will be able to tell who is calling without checking the phone screen, so you can quickly decide whether to take the call.

Set a ring tone for each caller.
On a Series 60 device, you can simply open the Contacts list (i.e., the address book) and open the contact person to whom you want to assign the ring tone. Then, from the Options Ringing tone menu, you can select a ring tone for this contact. Notice that all audio files in the Gallery appear on the list as well.
Series 40 devices do not support per-caller ring tones. But they do support per-profile ring tones.

Setting a ring tone for each caller group.
On Nokia phones, the Contacts list (i.e., the address book) can organize contacts into caller groups. Each contact can belong to multiple groups at the same time. For instance, on my phone, I have caller groups based on the contacts' relationship to me (e.g., the Family and Work groups) or the contacts' geographic location (e.g., the Austin and Dallas groups). You can specify a different ring tone for each caller group.

Series 40 devices also support per-group ring tones. To change the ring tone for a caller group on a Series 40 device, select the Contacts Caller groups menu and then select a group (i.e., Family, VIP, Friends, Business, or any other you have named). Use the "Group ringing tone" option to select a standard ring tone, or use any third-party tone file in the Gallery.

Using Contact Thumbnails

Use thumbnail pictures and ring tones to differentiate incoming callers.

Nokia mobile phones support the use of custom pictures or distinct ring tones to distinguish important callers or groups of callers. Using those features, you can give your phone a very personal touch. For instance, you might assign a special picture and ring tone for your mom. But more importantly, you can quickly tell who is calling without reading the caller ID. It is a lot faster to recognize a picture or a tone than it is to read words.

Use Contact Thumbnails
On most Series 40 and Series 60 phones, especially camera phones, you can assign a picture to each contact. Even if a contact has multiple phone numbers, it can still have only one thumbnail image. When a call is received from any phone number belonging to this contact, the picture is displayed with the caller ID information, including the contact's name, on the phone's idle screen.

To assign a thumbnail on a Series 40 phone, you must go to the contact's Details view. If the contact does not already have a thumbnail image, you can select the Options Add image menu and then choose any image from the device's Gallery. The device automatically resizes the image to the thumbnail size.

If the contact already has a thumbnail image, you must first select that image and then use the Options menu to change or delete it.

On a Series 60 device, you need to first enter the editing mode of a contact by selecting the contact and then the Options Edit menu item. Then, use the Options Add thumbnail menu to assign any image in the Gallery to this contact. If a thumbnail already exists for this contact, the new image will just overwrite the old one.

The thumbnail picture feature can come in very handy when you meet someone at a conference. You can ask for his phone number and then take a picture of him together with the number. You will be able to put the name, the number, and the face together later, when you get home.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Using International Formatting for Numbers

We've discussed how to access the phone numbers in your Contacts list quickly. But those tips are useful only when you can use the phone numbers stored in the Contacts list. In particular, if you are a traveler, a number in your Contacts list might need a prefix when you call from another city or country. If that is the case, you cannot use any of the Contacts list features on your phone a huge bummer, and a huge loss of productivity. One of the most important tips to speed up your dialing is to store properly formatted phone numbers, which are accepted in all areas you travel to, in the Contacts list in the first place.

Most wireless network operators allow you to use shortened phone numbers. In the U.S., you can typically just dial a seven-digit number to reach a local phone number. However, it is a bad idea to put seven-digit numbers in your Contacts list, especially if you travel a lot. For instance, the number 5551212 reaches different people in New York City and in San Francisco. At the very least, you need the 10-digit number, which includes the 3-digit area code, to dial anywhere in the U.S.

The situation is even more confusing if you travel to other countries. Ten-digit U.S. numbers will not work in the UK or in Germany. The best way to store phone numbers in your Contacts list is to use the international phone number format. To conform to the international phone number format, you simply need to add a +1 in front of a 10-digit U.S. phone number. Therefore, the phone number 5555551212 would be +15555551212. It doesn't route any differently if you call or send a Short Message Service (SMS) message to a number in that format from your home calling areathe operator knows what to do with it.

Using Voice Tags

Another way to dial a number from your Contacts list quickly is to use a voice tag. This way, you do not even need to dial any numbers. You can add a voice tag to any phone number in your phone's Contacts list via the Options Add voice tag menu item. To use voice dialing, you can press and hold the right soft key until the phone prompts you to speak. If your voice matches any of the recorded voice tags, the phone automatically dials the corresponding number.

The voice tag feature is very useful when you use your phone with a hands-free kit inside an automobile. You can start and end entire conversations without being distracted by the keypad and phone screen.

How to do Advanced Contacts Search?

As you can see, the default contacts search on early Nokia phones is very primitive. It can search only the contacts' names (only first names for Series 40 devices) and supports only the slowest text entry method. But if you have a Nokia Series 60 phone, some additional software programs will drastically improve your search efficiency. One such program is Smart Dialer from Moov Software (available for evaluation and purchase at http://www.moovsoftware.com/).

Once Smart Dialer is installed, it automatically runs in the background when you start up the phone. You can see it or stop it by holding the menu key and bringing up the application switcher.

With Smart Dialer running in the background, you simply start typing the number, first name, or last name you want to dial from the phone's idle screen. Smart Dialer automatically searches through your contacts and recently sent, received, and missed calls lists and returns a list of matches, narrowing the possibilities as you press more numbers. Smart Dialer's key feature is that it supports a very effective form of predictive text to match the search string to contacts. You can think of it as being similar to T9 text entry [Hack #58]. But instead of using a T9 dictionary to predict your input, Smart Dialer uses the names and phone numbers already in your Contacts list to come up with matches. For instance, you can type 642 to match all contacts in your Contacts list that have the following characteristics:

Any contact with a combination of mno, ghi, or abc at the beginning of the first name or last name. For instance, Michael, Michele, and Nick all match this criterion.

Any contact with a phone number that contains the numbers 642.

To make the search more efficient, Smart Dialer orders its search results by the number of times you've dialed the contact. You can also spell Rec (732) to get calls in your recently dialed, received, and missed lists.

To dial a selected contact, you simply press the green Call button. If instead you want to view or edit information about the contact, press the center key on the navigation pad.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Enhanced Speed Dial with the SIM Card

Your mobile phone's SIM card can store numbers and associated names just like a fancy landline phone's speed dial. The SIM card can support speed dialing for up to 250 numbers.

To start using this tips on a Series 60 phone, visit the SIM directory application usually found in the Tools >SIM directory menu. To add a number to the speed-dial list, select Options >New SIM contact, enter a name and number, and select the Done soft key.

To speed-dial numbers from your SIM card at any time, simply type in the location of the number (i.e., where it appears on the SIM's phone number list) and press the # key. For instance, to dial position 39, just dial 39# from the idle screen. Press the green Call button, and you're dialing!

If you tend to rotate among a few handsets frequently, you'll probably find this hack quite useful. Just remember that each SIM position can hold only one number, so plan ahead for that.

When the caller ID display of the phone matches an incoming number to a name, it first searches the SIM directory and then the phone's Contacts list. So, if a phone number is associated with "Big Uncle Bob" on the SIM card and "Bob Robertson" in the Contacts list, your caller ID would show "Big Uncle Bob" as the incoming call.

You can set up SIM dialing on Series 40 phones in a similar manner. Usually you'll find the capability as an option when you click the Details soft key while browsing your contacts.

Using Speed Dial

Nokia mobile phones have built-in speed-dial support. Speed dial allows you to assign a phone number to any of the numeric keys on the phone's keypad. When the phone is displaying the idle screen, you can simply press a key and then the green Call button to make a call to the key's assigned speed-dial number. On Nokia Series 40 phones, you can also press and hold a key on the keypad and the phone will automatically call its corresponding speed-dial number.

On some devices, speed dialing is also known as 1-touch dialing.

To assign a phone number to a speed-dial key on a Nokia phone, first you need to select a contact from the Contacts list. Then, open the contact, highlight a phone number, and use the Options >Speed dial menu to assign that phone number to a key on the keypad (on some Series 60 devices, use Options >Assign 1-touch no). The 1 key is always assigned to the voice mail number from your wireless operator (it is stored in the SIM card) and you cannot change it.

If you try to speed-dial a key that is not yet assigned a number, the phone will prompt you to enter a number for that key.

On some Nokia Series 60 phone models (e.g., my Nokia 6600), you can also bring up the key map for the speed-dial assignments via the Tools>Speed dial menu. If a key is assigned to a contact, the contact's thumbnail picture or name is displayed. For unassigned keys, the key number is displayed. You can use the Options menu to assign, remove, and change the phone number for each key.

The phone's built-in speed-dial application is easy to use but it holds only 10 phone numbers. If you need to speed-dial more than 10 numbers, you can use the speed-dialing feature in the SIM card directory.

Dial phone numbers quickly.

In today's world of electronic gadgets, we no longer have to remember phone numbers. Instead, we use electronic address books to locate contacts. The tight integration between the address book and the phone is actually one of the major selling points for mobile phones. But compared with dialing from memory, navigating the menu-based address book (a.k.a. the Contacts list on Nokia phones) is often a slow process.

Both Series 40 and Series 60 phones offer a quick shortcut from the phone's idle screen to the Contacts application. The Contacts application is typically mapped to the left soft key on a factory-fresh phone. If you customize the left soft key to another application, you can still go directly to the Contacts application by clicking the center key on the navigation pad (i.e., the joystick) on Series 60 devices, or the down key on Series 40 devices.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Be Aware of Caller ID Spoofing

The wireless operator's caller ID service embeds your phone number in every phone call and every network connection you make from your phone. A common assumption is that caller ID is always accurate, since it is controlled by the wireless operator. In fact, some services even use caller ID as their primary authentication mechanism. For instance, by default, T-Mobile's voice mail allows you to check messages without a password if you are calling from your T-Mobile mobile phone. Some web sites automatically sign into your account if you make an HTTP request from a phone number registered to your account. In many cases, your caller ID has become part of your identity.

However, in reality, caller ID is not completely secure. An experienced phone hacker can manipulate the network and change the caller ID to any number she wantsthis is called caller ID spoofing. Some callback services, such as Star38 (http://www.star38.com/) and Camophone (http://www.camophone.com/), allow anyone to spoof caller ID for as little as five cents per call.

You should call your service providers and request to set passwords for all mobile phonerelated network services. T-Mobile now allows customers to set an optional password on their voice mail account.

Remember that you cannot always trust the caller's identity based on the caller ID. For instance, if you get a call with the caller ID indicating "Bank of America," it does not necessarily mean that the call is indeed from a Bank of America representative. You certainly should not disclose your bank account information based on the caller ID. In this case, you should offer to call the representative back using a published number for Bank of America.

Use Strong Passwords for Web Accounts

You should use strong passwords to protect online accounts for your mobile phone, especially the wireless operator's web account for your service, and web sites you frequently use to share photos.

Many web services also allow users to retrieve forgotten passwords by answering a personal question (i.e., the "password question"). It is important to use a password question that is not easy to guess. And don't forget: the answer to the question "what is your favorite pet's name" does not have to really be your favorite pet's name. It just has to be something you can remember.

In early 2005, it is believed that a cracker either guessed socialite Paris Hilton's T-Mobile account password, or exploited an SQL injection vulnerability on the T-Mobile portal web site and reset her password. Regardless of how the attacker did it, Paris's account was compromised. After logging into her account, the cracker downloaded and then posted all her personal information, including her Contacts list and phone camera photos, on the Internet.


Protect mobile phone data on the phone's companion PC and web accounts

Mobile phone data is stored not only on the phone, but also on the phone's companion PC and web accounts. For instance, the Nokia PC Suite can copy everything in the phone's memory to a PC for offline processing or backup purposes. Voice mail messages are typically stored in the wireless operator's voice server. Mobile web portal sites also store a lot of sensitive data from the contacts or photo albums in the Camera application. Any comprehensive mobile security solution needs to protect this remote data as well.

Secure the Companion PC
Generally, you should not use a public PC in a library or web cafe to copy data from your phone. In theory, you can delete everything off the public PC after you are done and you won't leave a trace. But in reality, you can miss or forget to delete important data. The Nokia PC Suite can also store important information and settings (e.g., Bluetooth settings) in directories that are not obvious to most users. Hence, to avoid these potential information leaks, I recommend avoiding public PCs altogether.

You should also safeguard your PC from viruses and spyware, which can be used to steal data from your phone. A piece of good PC antivirus software, such as Norton AntiVirus from Symantec, will protect your Nokia PC Suite databases and synchronized Outlook databases from attacks.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Prevent SIM Card Changes

To prevent your stolen phone from being used by thieves, you can lock the SIM card to the phone. After you report the stolen phone and deactivate the SIM card via your operator, the thieves will not be able to insert a new SIM card and continue using the phone.

On a Series 60 phone, you can do that via the Settings>Security>Phone and SIM>Lock if SIM changed menu. Again, you will need to enter the SIM password obtained from the operator.

No solution is completely secure. An experienced hacker can still reflash your phone via a data cable and get rid of the SIM lock. But the SIM lock does make it more difficult for ordinary thieves to resell the stolen phone.

Report a Lost or Stolen Phone

If your phone does get stolen, the first thing you should do is call the wireless operator and deactivate the SIM card so that the thief cannot make calls against your account. You can also ask the operator to put the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number of your phone into a blacklist database. The blacklist database is a cooperative effort by wireless operators to bar blacklisted phones from making calls on any of the participating operators' networks. This greatly reduces the value of a stolen phone. However, the current blacklist implementations have some problems:

In most countries, the blacklist is a national or regional database. The thief might be able to export the phone to other countries where it has not been reported as stolen.

Wireless operators in the U.S. have not joined any blacklists. This has made the U.S. a haven for stolen phones.

In addition, an experienced mobile phone hacker can alter the phone's IMEI number via data cables. It is an illegal operation, but it is possible. Once the IMEI number is altered, the phone is no longer on the blacklist.

If you live in the UK, you can register your phone with the National Mobile Phone Register via the web site http://www.immobilise.com/. This allows you to quickly report a stolen phone to the UK national blacklist and get notified when the police recover your phone.

Restrict Calls

To protect against unauthorized calls, you can restrict the type of calls the phone can make or receive, via the Settings>Call barring menu on a Series 60 device and the Settings>Security settings>Call barring service menu on a Series 40 device. For example, you can bar the phone from making expensive international calls when the device is roaming.

When you activate or remove those settings, the phone communicates with the network to update settings with the network operator. You need to have the four-digit SIM PIN code to activate call restriction. Call your operator's phone support and ask for the Extended Services SIM password, if you do not have it. Once you have the SIM card PIN, you can change it from the same menus you use to change the phone's lock code.

An even more extreme measure is to restrict the phone to dial only a predetermined list of phone numbers. You can use the Settings>Security>Phone and SIM>Fix dialing menu on a Series 60 phone or the Settings>Security settings>Fixed dialing menu on a Series 40 phone to do that. You will be asked to select the allowed numbers from your Contacts list, and to enter the SIM password to activate the setting.