Collaborative Computing, Protecting Your Smart Phone and Adding Fun to Planning Travel--More Great DemoFall08 Companies

Securing Your Phoneand, its Data While Making life a Living Hell for Thieves

Maverick Mobile Solutions’ Secure Mobile was one of the best mobile technologies at DemoFall08. Designed to protect strategically critical and personal information on your mobile phone, this company’s software thwarts cell phone thief’s efforts to rip off you data and adds a delicious dark twist to cell phone security. Unlike most cell phone security software, Secure Mobile doesn’t live in the SIM, but sits in a cell phone’s hidden mode and supports data replication, device tracking, data retrieval, mobile phone disablement and a clever feature called “Spy Call.”

            Secure

Mobile

is one of a handful of technologies I revisited in DemoFall’s pavilion several times. Every time I left their demonstration, I was smiling.

            What I really love about it is its abilities to mess with a thief. Specifically, once you use activate Secure Mobile from a remote device you can physically track your phone, see what calls and SMS text messages have been made and received, and remotely disable the device.

            But the frosting on this technological cake is a feature that remotely turns on the microphone and speaker of the stolen phone and lets you listen on to the thief’s calls or view their SMS and text messages. But wait there’s more!

            When you’re ready to escalate your personal war against the thief, you can send an SMS to the stolen phone that makes it play a very loud siren or customized message/sound. Secure

Mobile

will begin shipping in mid September initially for the Symbian mobile phone operating system and will be available on Nokia’s and Maverick Mobile’s website.

            Although mobile commerce has yet to take off in the

US

, it’s an important component driving sales of smart phones in most of the world.  I believe Secure Mobile will go on to become a Demo-launched technology that raises a new standard in an important technology.

Furthermore, it’s difficult to imagine why a mobile network operator would not offer this company’s technology as part of a premium or basic replacement policy. Organizations with enterprise contracts with network providers would be pleased not only automated back up[ of data on smart  phone, but also mechanisms that maintain the sanctity of that data.

Keep your eye on Maverick Mobile Solutions, they could be the DemoFall08 company to watch in the mobile category.

            But, I really love the idea of mobile phone technology that protects my data and which also allows me to also play with a theif’s mind and lifestyle!

TravelMuse—A new Way to Organize and book Travel

TravelMuse was another company at DemoFall08 I liked. Designed to help you organize vacations or ay other type of trip according to your personal needs, TravelMuse incorporates booking, social media, and organizational tools that let its users gain tighter control over travel.  I liked this site’s interface and capabilities, both of which are powerful and instinctive.

            Most of my travel plans today are of the “it would be really nice to go to…” type.

Like millions of other people if I want to take a recreational trip, I have to plan it months in advance and put up with the rigid structure of existing travel sites. What Travel Muse does that I like is that it lets me save and share the various disjointed things that motivate my desire to travel. A real world for example: I have a life-long interest in

Colorado

and

California

gold mining. Expedia can get me to

Pueblo

and

Saguache

,

CO

, very easily, but what they don’t do is let me readily share the hundred or so megabytes of historical research I have with someone I want to accompany me on that trip this fall. TravelMuse reaches into my address book and lets me share my arcane information very easily, communicating updates and other elements of my trip with minimal user intervention.

            But more importantly TravelMuse appears to be able to help me stay within my extremely tight budget and still have an enjoyable trip.

            The sheer amount of useful destination information onTravelMuse.com reduces much  guesswork in making travel plans. The reservation and booking side of TravelMuse is through Travelocity.

            My reaction to TravelMuse is very favorable. I wish it had been around a little sooner, before I was locked into my current arrangements for a fall trip to

Colorado

’s

San

Luis

Valley

and mining district towns on the west slope of the

Rockies

. Be that as it may, I have about 300,000 air miles banked and a compelling interest in castles in the

UK

.  I’ll probably try travel Muse to organize and plan that trip early in the spring of 2009.

OpenACircle Blows Open the Concept of Collaborative Computing

While I’m on the topic of products with great user interfaces, OpenACircle.com just blew me away. OpenACircle.com is a collaborative environment designed for small and mid-sized groups. Unlike other collaborative software or web-based applications, OpenACircle.com is simple enough that anyone can begin using it within minutes and easily track presentations, conversations or other elements of a collaborative project. Up to three cameras and one desktop can be displayed onscreen at  once.  Adding users, including their video input is a snap and requires a minimum of user intervention.

     But what I really love about OpenACircle.com is its ability to archive information and its extreme flexibility, features that help groups track commitments to overall tasks or discrete projects associated with specific tasks or projects. As conversations evolve in this collaborative environment individual users have the ability of initiating and participating in one-on-one video sessions.

I’m unaware of any collaborative environment that has the same feature set as OpenACircle. It sets a new standard, it’s free, and it can be put to work in minutes.

            It’s not difficult to imagine OpenACircle.com quickly finding large groups of users in small business or medium-sized businesses, not-for-profits, college study  groups (where I think it would be an instinctive natural application  for law school or other specialized graduate school curricula).  The only problem I have with OpenACircle.com is trying to imagine a single category of people working on a common task that can’t or shouldn’t use it.

            And I’ll be among the  people that use it vey shortly as I organize a group of like-minded

California

amateur historians interested in studying post Gold Rush immigration patterns and related economies in 19^th Century

California

.

            There are a great many other DemoFall08 companies I intend to look at and write about  as well in the coming days.—jim Forbes, 09/12/2008.