Sep 2, 2005
Cell phone antivirus
We’re used to having antivirus software on our computers but now it seems we have to get used to it on our mobile phones as well. The BBC carries an article on securiy form F-Secure’s recent launch of an antivirus package for smartphones. It’s F-Secure’s Mobile Antivirus which for about $30 per year will protect your Symbian smartphone. Says F-Secure, it “provides fully automatic protection for mobile devices against viruses and harmful content in all file types”. I’m not sure this is necessary or not, but I suspect it’s getting increasingly important since mobile phones are more like regular computers today and they are connected to anything and everything.
When we moved to the UAE we brought with us our Sony Ericsson T637 phones from the US. We had them unlocked before moving and they did work over here but the reception was horrible. In many places where others got good connections with (mostly) Nokia phones, we got no connection at all. So we decided to get new phones and since everyone else (almost) is using Nokia… “when in Rome”. My pick was a 9300 Communicator. It’s a bit larger than other phones but it gives me the ability to ditch my PDA (which Crystal felt was really a waste since we had just invested in iPaqs) and carry only one device instead of two. So far I’m really happy with the 9300. It’s small enough to take anywhere comfortably, it syncs with Outlook, and you can transfer files back and forth with a PC. It can play MP3s and Real video which I haven’t tried yet, and it can get on the internet through the mobile phone connection. For a while I considered the 9500 but it’s considerably larger and heavier and you only get wifi and a camera compared to the 9300. Wifi would be nice but not necessary and a camera I can do without.