7 Tips for protecting your windows mobile phone

 Partners  3 Responses »
Oct 042009
 

 

Protecting yourself running windows mobile is easier than flying a chair

Protecting yourself running windows mobile is easier than flying a chair

Many people ask me, “What can I do to protect myself as a mobile phone owner?”  In one discussion, they told me “Keeping a windows mobile device is like flying a chair.”  I’d say it’s more like flying a kite, when you have the right conditions, resources, and guidance.

Whether you have an Apple iPhone, RIM Blackberry, Symbian, Google and Open Handset Alliance Android, Palm Pre or a Windows Mobile, all users will need to attend to many of the items listed here for Windows Mobile owners. Nobody is completely safe from the risks of carrying these items. We all have heard nightmare stories of people losing the use of their devices. These seven steps will bring you closer to the safe haven of mobile computing.

  1. Get your windows mobile updates monthly. It’s like brushing your teeth, only you don’t have to do it daily.
  2. Use a PIN to lock your SIM card. This will stop someone from making unauthorized calls.
  3. Install security software.
  4. Lock your phone using a PIN.  It’s amazing that so many of us disable this feature. It’ll keep your sensitive information private.
  5. Encrypt data on storage card. Some of these cards are the size of your fingernail and they hold multiple gigabytes of precious data like pictures, videos, music files. Most people agree it’s a good idea to prevent other people from reading files saved to your storage card. Encryption is the answer, just like locking your car door.
  6. Before you retire your old phone, delete the files. Of course you back up and transfer to your new device first.
  7. Use a simple online service that helps owners identify their valuables before they become lost and makes it easy for finders of lost items to act on their honesty and integrity.  ImHONEST.com donates 20% of its sales to charity.

With these simple steps, you’ll be ready to loosen the lines and let your mobile computing soar.  I welcome your comments and additional suggestions on safe ways of handling mobile devices.

Found mobile phone on BART due to Honesty

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Sep 132009
 
The Power of Honesty returns my lost windows mobile device on BART

The Power of Honesty returns my lost windows mobile device on BART

Have you ever set your cell phone down on the chair next to you when you were in a subway or taxi?

At the moment you do it, I know what you’re thinking. You tell yourself, “I’ll pick that up as soon as I finish this other thing.” Then later, you get off the chair, depart from the scene, and leave your device behind too.   Have you done it with a set of keys?  Maybe you never do it, but you probably know someone that does it again and again out of habit.  Maybe it’s your child.

You’re familiar with the emotions of panic and distresses hurtling inside as you try to remember “where did I leave that item?”  If this is a common occurrence for you or your loved ones, consider consulting Professor Solomon for tips on How to Find Lost Objects.

I left my smart phone device on a BART subway train a while back.  As I emerged from the station, it dawned on me that I left it on the seat of the railway car.  Separated from my digital friend, I started to panic for a moment, and then optimism took hold of me. I asked myself, “Will I need to file a claim at the BART lost and found?”  I turned around to ask the station attendant if someone turned it in. Mind you at this point, I did not expect someone would turn it in, because I didn’t want to be let down if someone actually hadn’t dropped it off at lost and found. 

To my pleasant surprise, the station agents in the booth knew exactly what to do. Evidently, they get this request dozens of times daily.  One made an announcement page to all the stations on the system and the other called my cell phone from his cell phone.  In less than 30 seconds they had it located at the Mission and 24th station.  

This time, I was saved by St. Anthony, the BART station attendants and a complete stranger who was honest.  Whew!  I began to think, “Hey this honesty thing is great.  How can I make it more likely to happen for me next time?”

Partially because of this experience and when I found ImHONEST.com, it made sense instantly for me to add this identification and recovery service to my valuable items and I’d improve the chances dramatically that I’d be able to retrieve lost items.  Please feel free to share your stories of great relief retrieving a valuable item out of the honesty of a stranger.

ImHONEST inspires solution to our National Healthcare System

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Sep 062009
 

Targeted Creative Solutions

With a little belief in each other, we can dramatically CUT COSTS.

My neighbor told me the other day that she put her mother into an assisted living facility.  I know it was a difficult decision for her and a similar one lies in the future for me with my parents.  With the national healthcare debate, we hear horror stories of financial ruin from medical conditions that are treated or assisted living care requirements.  Healthcare insurance is expensive, but how many of us try hard to find better deals?  If you’re there now, how about trying ehealthInsurance.com.  Looking for more assistance?  How about finding an agent through the National Association of Health Underwriters, nahu.org.

A statement from an editor at Kiplinger.com, Janet Bodnar caught my eye.  She says,

“I’m most intrigued by creative solutions that are targeted to specific problems and cost far less.” 

She is referring to making the current healthcare system less top-heavy.  She illustrates her point with three examples: 

  1. Minnesota State Employees healthcare plan that pays for results, rather than procedures
  2. Small Businesses in Texas have Group purchasing plan that is affordable
  3. Safeway workers rewarded with lower premiums for healthy behaviors

ImHONEST.com provides value to its partners and customers for the very same reasons and in a similar manner.   ImHONEST is a creative solution targeted to a specific problem.  I’m not saying that if you lose an item of value, you’ll have expensive medical conditions, but with over 12 thousand laptops lost in US airports every week and tens of thousands of cell phones lost in taxi cabs in the same period, there is a giant need for creative solutions like ImHONEST to celebrate the Found part of the equation in lost and found.  Most likely, you know someone that lost at item of value.

These perspectives partially explain why ImHONEST is so intriguing to me.  It works for a number of reasons, which are fascinating.  There is a higher probability that the valuable item will be lost than stolen.  Sure enough, one can buy insurance to protect their gadget, and those gadgets of their loved ones; and they’ll be saving themselves from the headaches of replacement.  I know you’re asking yourself, “Is the premium at $60 per year worth the peace of mind?”  For example, many readers are comfortable paying $60 per year for company solutions like Asurion Insurance or Lo-Jack to track and replace a lost or stolen item.  In my view, many more customers would be pleased protecting the loss of their item for only $2.50, rather than $60.  The coverage is a little different, because it’s based on honesty and simplicity. And it works.  Check out some successes highlighted at honestyblog.com.

Everybody has a pain threshold and losing a mobile handheld is no picnic when considering the time it takes to replace the hardware, re-install the applications, retrieve the data, restore the settings and configurations. It’s like moving into a new house or apartment.  And we’re not even addressing the question of sensitive personal data lost and the potential embarrassment of the breach of privacy.  You can take care of it with three simple steps. The trick is to do it before, not after the event.

  • Buy the ImHONEST labels
  • Identify and register the item on ImHONEST.com
  • Affix them to item

 Since anyone can take care of it with a minimal effort up front, it’s a no-brainer to order it now or make it part of your business or non-profit.

James Gaskin discovers and explains ImHONEST

 Partners  No Responses »
Sep 012009
 

Thought leader for small and mid-sized businesses, Mr. Gaskin delivers Laptop Safety Seminars. He covers subjects like how to outsmart laptop thieves, getting lost laptops returned, guaranteeing no one else can read your private laptop files, backups automatically, and protecting your laptop from WiFi Hot Spot Predators.  In this video series hosted by HP, before he addresses the question, what is the Pirate Backup System, he outlines the ImHonest system. We are thrilled!

Blogger discovers ImHONEST.com

 Partners  1 Response »
Aug 272009
 

Senator Ted KennedyThe passing of Ted Kennedy yesterday got me thinking . . . now is the time to launch the blog.  Americans will be mourning his loss, reflecting on his contributions, some will be thinking about his mistake at Chappaquiddick Island.  Agree or disagree with his politics, he had an impact shaping legislation over a long period in four keys areas: healthcare reform, anti-war, civil rights, immigration. To push that agenda, he relied on the same principles that a product I found depends on.

I discovered it one day when I was buying some software.  I came across the simplest, coolest thing. It’s just a label that you can put on your valuables so when someone finds it, all they have to do is go on the web page or call a toll-free number and this company handles the rest, returning it to the owner.  Now here’s what really closed the deal for me. It’s called ImHONEST.com and it actually helps people who are busy with their own lives do what most people want to do anyway. It is an online service that lets owners identify their valuables before they become lost and makes it easy for finders of lost items to act on their honesty and integrity.  On top of this, ImHONEST.com donates 20% of its online sales to charity.

ImHONEST.com online service attracted me instantly because it depends on the value of honesty. Everyone has lost a cherished item at one time or another.  You know the range of feelings: dismay, distress, horror.  If not, then you know someone who has lost something. It feels terrible when it dawns on you that it’s missing.  I like the way ImHONEST prevents this problem by putting a spot light on our interdependence on each other, on the purpose of fulfillment and the nature of altruism.  These are the sweet nectar of life.  You enjoy the sense that at the core of human nature is optimism, a life force to reach out and connect, to give a favor just because you can.  That is so cool.  You know what I mean, when you’ve done something, even when it’s for a stranger, not for the reward you anticipate, but for the fulfillment in yourself.  We don’t ordinarily think about what honesty means, but when we get tested and pass, fulfillment should be enough of a reward.

I believe ImHONEST has an intrinsically positive message for everyone that it touches because of its reliance on the principal of honesty and integrity.  It can be expressed a million plus ways.  Remember when someone acknowledges you with a small gesture?  It could be when someone in front of you lingers a bit and holds a door open . . . or when you’re on the road and the driver behind you in the next lane waves you on to merge lanes in front of them . . . or when your special friend gives you an invitation to go out on the town . . . or when you receive a postcard in the mailbox saying ‘hey it’s great knowing you . . .  or when you go to the lost and found to drop something off . . . or you go to LAF to pick something up and it’s there!  Why not reflect on how you feel and why that happened at those moments?  Why not make a greater effort to create those experiences every day?  A little extra effort is all that it takes.  It doesn’t have to cost money.  Why not try it now?

This Honest Intentions blog is meant as a platform to publish these types of messages.  We are going to build it, grow it, link it, spread it, and amplify it. What an exciting mission!

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