Books? Really?
Let’s be frank: Your beloved
iPhone can’t compete with old-
school wood pulp. You just won’t
get the same pleasure tapping
your way through a novel as you
would ipping the paper pages of
the real thing. And it doesn’t hold
up much better against ebook
readers like Kindle or Sony Reader,
either. The iPhone’s battery is rela-
tively feeble, and its screen sports
fewer words than a Rambo movie.
And yet for all its shortcomings,
your iPhone is still the ideal place
to stash a book, or even 100, be-
cause it’s got this one great fea-
ture: It’s always with you. iPhone
books are perfect for lling dead
time, for nding relief from the
line at the post oce or grocery
store. Its tiny form makes for easy
one-handed reading in crowded
subways, and it travels light, carry-
ing an entire library in just a few
ounces. It doesn’t replace your
books; it lets you take them with
you wherever you go.
Books? Really?
Let’s be frank: Your beloved
iPhone can’t compete with old-
school wood pulp. You just won’t
get the same pleasure tapping
your way through a novel as you
would ipping the paper pages of
the real thing. And it doesn’t hold
up much better against ebook
readers like Kindle or Sony Reader,
either. The iPhone’s battery is rela-
tively feeble, and its screen sports
fewer words than a Rambo movie.
And yet for all its shortcomings,
your iPhone is still the ideal place
to stash a book, or even 100, be-
cause it’s got this one great fea-
ture: It’s always with you. iPhone
books are perfect for lling dead
time, for nding relief from the
line at the post oce or grocery
store. Its tiny form makes for easy
one-handed reading in crowded
subways, and it travels light, carry-
ing an entire library in just a few
ounces. It doesn’t replace your
books; it lets you take them with
you wherever you go.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: Once
logged into the website, you can track your phone’s
location and set the tracking interval—for example,
you can tell WaveSecure to record your phone’s
location every 60 minutes. Customize your view by
selecting one of the four map options: Map, Satellite,
Hybrid, or Terrain. Sort by location (to see how many
times your phone visited the Starbucks on 9th St, for
example), or sort by date to see all the places your
phone visited on that particular day. The location
page also displays the most recent service provider,
so if someone inserts a dierent SIM card, you’ll
know which company to contact to nd out about
recovering your device.
WEB SECURE: WaveSecure’s web inter-
face displays all the actions you can run
remotely when your device is lost, including
Lock, Track, Location, Backup, Wipeout, and
Restore. It also lets you view the data that is
backed up on the server. You can view
contacts, SMS messages, call logs, and
media. So even if someone was able to get
past your SIM change lock and put in a new
SIM card, you would be able to see their call
logs, SMS messages, contacts, and media
additions.
Secure, Really?
Let’s be frank—you’re never com-
pletely secure if your phone is lost
or stolen. In a matter of minutes, I
managed to use the Software
Development Kit (SDK) to browse
the lesystem and access all the
data and les on a locked-down
phone. And if I can do it so easily,
it’s a sure bet that someone who
makes a living preying on unsus-
pecting people will get access too
(unless there is a setting I missed
that prevents access from the SDK
le manager). So you need to take
precautions. First, back up your
system using this app. Then, if you
lose your phone, don’t just lock it
down—wipe it rst. Just do it!
Then lock it down so the phone
will send you its GPS coordinates.
If it is in your house or another
place you know, look harder. And
if it is truly lost or stolen, at least
you wiped the data so that you
won’t be nancially vulnerable to
an unscrupulous thief.
7