Symbian Review

In our everyday life we are always trying to secure facilities we care about. Developers designed special applications for Series 60 v3 Smartphones to help us when the phone gets stolen or forgotten.

Recently we have tested the first security application from SymbianGuru called Phone Guardian. So far this has been the only reliable software against thieves. We have got to know about the newly released application of the same kind named WaveSecure Lite from tenCube. The result of their comparison, advantages and disadvantages of every of them can be found in this review.

Here is brief information about the applications to be analyzed:

App name	Vendor	Price	Size, Kb
Phone Guardian	SymbianGuru	Buy $11.99	198
WaveSecure Lite	tenCube	Buy $10.00	167

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We analyzed the following list of aspects and application details:

• Installation
• Trial period
• Interface
• Settings
• Help and Support
• Application in action
• Special features
• Testing results

• Conclusion

Installation

Phone Guardian is installed in the course of several seconds not causing any difficulties. And this factor is very important because users start evaluating the application efficiency right from the beginning of its usage.

WaveSecure Lite is installed quickly, just follow the instructions on the screen of the mobile phone.

App name	Score
Phone Guardian	10
WaveSecure Lite	10

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Trial period

The trial period of the Phone Guardian application lasts 5 days. Take great advantage first to try it and only then to purchase it.

The free trial version of WaveSecure Lite application expires in 3 days.

App name	Score
Phone Guardian	8
WaveSecure Lite	4

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Interface

The main screen of the Phone Guardian application has the following view:

The application has nice and pleasant interface, which attracts and is easy to use.

Clicking left soft key Options user will see the following buttons:

• Change password
• Register
• About
• Help
• Exit

When you open WaveSecure Lite application you will see the main screen which looks as follows:

You can see the main menu consisting of the list of buttons.

Left soft key Options shows the following items:

• Help
• About

App name	Score
Phone Guardian	9
WaveSecure Lite	7

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Settings

Phone Guardian application suggests no settings options, but the application has all settings in the main screen, so having extra Settings would be too much.

Main screen of Phone Guardian has the following view:

• Guard active – to turn Phone Guardian on or off

When turned on, Phone Guardian performs two main functions:

- Device locking function
- Anti thief function

• Lock mode – to select the lock mode from the list of available:

o On SIM change – the phone is locked on every change of SIM card
o On Lock SMS – the phone is locked after the Lock SMS is received by the phone
o Both – both modes mentioned above are active

• Alarm – is set to emit siren when locked
• Lock message – to enter text of a Lock message which appears on the screen when the phone is locked

• Send alarm SMS to – to indicate the specified number of the phone to which the application sends SMS when a different SIM card is inserted into the mobile phone
• Autolock after – to set the lock-time when the phone is idle

Press Security Settings on the main screen to access settings of the WaveSecure Lite application:

• Default lock message – to enter the message that will appear on your phone whenever it’s locked
• Auto-lock on SIM change – if enabled, your phone will be automatically locked whenever a new SIM card is detected
• Alarm when locked – if enabled, your phone will sound an alarm whenever it’s locked
• SMS Prompt – if enabled, WaveSecure Lite will prompt you whenever it sends out an SMS

App name	Score
Phone Guardian	10
WaveSecure Lite	7

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Help and Support

Phone Guardian application includes the Help file, it is divided into parts available for separate items of application; it has an e-mail (support@symbianguru.com).

I liked the responsibility of the support department, which in the course of one business day sent me a detailed answer to the asked question regarding Phone Guardian.

WaveSecure Lite contains the Help file, which provides brief information about the application and its options; you can contact the support department (lite@wavesecure.com) in case of some questions or suggestions.

Unfortunately the support department didn’t respond to our e-mail.

App name	Score
Phone Guardian	10
WaveSecure Lite	6

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Application in action

Phone Guardian is a security anti-thief application. So it should be used in the unfortunate case when your phone is gone or you are afraid that it can be stolen. That is why Phone Guardian can be operated remotely, sending special text messages to the phone.

Special text messages should have the following format:

:COMMAND:PASSWORD

i.e. Colons followed by a command followed by a Colons followed by the password (you should remember to send Lock SMS only in this format, otherwise Phone Guardian won’t have any effect)

The following commands are offered:

• LOCK :l: (small letter L) (e.g. :l:PASSWORD)

Small letter “L” Locks the phone. If the lock is enabled, the phone is locked and a text message is sent back confirming this.

• UNLOCK :u:

Unlocks the phone. The phone can also be unlocked on the handset entering the right password.

• TURN ON SIREN :s:

Turns siren settings on (Alarm is set to “On”).

• TURN OFF SIREN :n:

Turns the siren settings as “off”. This command does not change phone lock status!

• FULL LOCK :f:

Turns on siren sound and locks the phone with sending the appropriate SMS to all numbers, including the number from which the Full Lock SMS was sent from. This option is very useful when you know that the thief can be located near you at the moment and you do not know if siren is switched off or on.

• GET INFO :i:

Gets information about current status of the mobile: sends date and time, CellID information, IMSI number, number of the current SIM card. In this way you can track the mobile constantly and not only when the SIM was changed.

In my tests all the commands were executed quickly, there is no sound when the Phone Guardian SMS comes. The Phone Guardian SMS are not visible in the Inbox folder, also the sent SMS are not visible in the Sent folder.

This is the SMS that I have got after the phone was locked:

The main screen of the WaveSecure Lite application has the following view:

Here you can see the main menu which is represented in the list of the following buttons:

• Security Settings – contains the list of configurations which you can modify to your wishes; you can also change your PIN here, clicking left soft key Options of the Security Settings screen
• Buddy Numbers – to add your friends numbers, which will be alerted with SMS if a new SIM card is detected (you can add up to 9 buddies)

• Status – information about the activation status and license type

• Lock now – you can lock the phone yourself against the unauthorized access, for example if you leave it alone for a certain period of time

Special text messages should have the following format:

• To remotely lock the phone

Send an SMS with “Wslite lock <PIN>” to the current phone number

• To customize your lock screen message

Send an SMS with “Wslite lock <PIN><Your message>”

• To make the phone screem

Send an SMS with “Wslite lock alarm <PIN><Your message>”

If someone steals your phone and changes the SIM, you will need to SMS the new number to remote lock, just check the buddy alert to find this number.

The WaveSecure Lite application works efficiently. It locks the phone when the new SIM card is inserted and emits loud alarm sound. When you send the lock SMS, the phone is being locked and only after entering the correct PIN code the phone can be unlocked.

App name	Score
Phone Guardian	10
WaveSecure Lite	8

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Special features

Phone Guardian is the application that grabs your attention from the first moment being filled with special features:

• Phone Guardian commands – special text messages to remotely operate the application, very convenient, especially the “i” Information SMS that allows tracking the phone at any time.
• Different lock modes that allow to lock mobile either on SIM change, on lock SMS, or when either of the conditions fulfills.
• Sending Alarm SMS to a specified number with variety of the information which can help to find the phone location.
• Loud and annoying siren: I can imagine how inconvenient it may be for the thief when the siren goes on and he can not turn it off, especially if it is in the subway or other crowded place.

WaveSecure Lite can suggest you the following special features:

• Auto-lock on SIM change – if enabled, your phone will be automatically locked whenever a new SIM card is detected
• Alarm when locked – if enabled, your phone will sound an alarm whenever it’s locked
• Possibility to lock the phone on the spot clicking the Lock Now button

App name	Score
Phone Guardian	10
WaveSecure Lite	7

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Summary of the test results

Having analyzed all components and settings and given them the scores from 1 to 10, we have multiplied the scores by a corresponding importance factor in order to get the total score value of the application.

We have used the following Importance factor (IF) values:
• Installation: IF 2
• Trial period: IF 4
• Interface: IF 4
• Settings: IF 6
• Help and Support: IF 5
• Application in action: IF 10
• Special features: IF 7

The total possible score for an application would be 380 points.

Multiplying the score by Importance factors we have got the following table:

	Phone Guardian	WaveSecure Lite
Installation	20	20
Trial period	32	16
Interface	36	28
Settings	60	42
Help/Support	50	30
Application in action	100	80
Special features	70	49
Total	368	265

Test winner according to the overall application test is Phone Guardian from SymbianGuru.

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Conclusion

Both anti-thief applications are interesting and will be efficient in case the phone will be stolen. But still Phone Guardian remains better and more reliable than WaveSecure Lite application for offering different lock modes that allow to lock mobile, for operating the phone remotely, sending special text messages to the phone, which perform more actions than WaveSecure Lite can. And the app usability of Phone Guardian is more convenient as for me.

If you are worried about your Smartphone and want to preserve it you can calmly download and install Phone Guardian. Together with reasonable price and reliability Phone Guardian will loyally serve you for a long time.

WaveSecure Lite is a decent secure application, it is a bit cheaper than Phone Guardian, but together with this it suggests less security options. The advantage of WaveSecure Lite is the possibility to send alert SMS to 9 buddy numbers simultaneously.

Anyway you can test both applications downloading free trials before choosing which app to purchase.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 9:25 and is filed under Software Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.