I'm sure that the dark side of computing was not in marketing's mind when they came up with the slogan "It's what computers have become." Phones are becoming more and more like computers every day, so it's not surprising the underbelly of the computing world is also going mobile!

Thru Engadget Mobile, I found out that there is a trojan horse program out there that sends messages to a premium SMS number in the background, thus costing you a ton of money. According to the Unwired View article, this is the first time that a particular trojan horse was written specifically for S60 devices.

In S60 3rd Edition, which is used by all of the Eseries and most of the Nseries devices, it became a requirement for all applications to be signed else the apps could not be installed. Furthermore, depending on how the application is signed, the application will be restricted to specific functions only. Details are explained in the S60 Platform Security FAQ, if you're interested.

For certain capabilities, applications need to be signed by Symbian or a trusted third party. This ensures that applications perform to specific requirements. However, it is also possible to release a piece of software self-signed, which is primarily designed for limited testing purposes. However, self-signed software is widely available from a number of sources.

What can a self-signed application do? According to the Capability Descriptions on Forum Nokia, quite a lot, actually. Capabilities include: reading/writing user data (e.g. contacts/calendar), Bluetooth/Infrared, user environment items like the microphone and camera, location information (from the mobile network), and network services, such as the ability to make a call or send an SMS.

If this trojan program was designed for S60 3rd Edition, it could easily be a self-signed application since self-signed applications are permitted to use SMS. What I am having an issue remembering at the moment is whether or not the user is prompted before SMS is used--someone more familiar with this aspect of S60 security should contact me or post corrections in the comments. I also know that some of the details about what self-signed applications may be allowed to do and what they are prompted to do is controlled through operator firmware variants as well, so the details of enforcement may differ somewhat from version to version.

I do know that with some unsigned applications, it is possible to go into the Application Manager (Tools > App Mgr) and explicitly disable access to unneeded services or change the prompting levels for services that are allowed. In Application Manager, scroll down to find the application in question. Hit the Options soft key and select, if available, Suite Settings. From here, you can adjust the permissions levels.

You should always be warned when you install a self-signed application that the application is untrusted and may be harmful to your phone. Given what a self-signed application has access to, if you're at all unsure about the origin of the application. by all means don't install it! Furthermore, you can prevent the installation of self-signed applications by going into the Application Manager, hitting the Options soft key and select Settings. From there, change the Software installation option to Signed only.

The only other piece of advice I can offer is to be observant and verify what the phone does by checking your call logs and sent message logs in the phone to ensure that no unauthorized calls or messages. Read any messages you get while running an application carefully. If you don't understand what it's asking, the safest thing to do is to not allow the action.

Is there any other hints you can give people to ensure their device doesn't get pwned by nefarious elements? Post your thoughts in the comments.

As I think back to the Great Pockets marketing that went along with the Nokia N95, I began to wonder what it was people actually carry in their pockets.

My pockets regularly consist of: a Nokia N95, a Nokia E61, a bluetooth headset, my wallet, and my keys. The N95/E61 combo may vary from time to time depending on what phone I am playing with, but I find I need two phones to get the functionality I need. I use the E61 primarily for email--QWERTY keyboards make a huge difference here--and the N95 for most everything else, including photo blogging and listening to podcasts downloaded with the Nokia Podcasting Application.

What's in your pocket? What things do you carry on a day-to-day basis and why? Post to the comments and lighten your load!

In my last post, many of you got caught up in the fact that you can sync iTunes with a Nokia N95. Of course I know there are third-party tools that can do this, but that wasn't really the point. The real point was that for convergence to really take hold, the integration into the various aspects of our lives has to be seamless and it has to be that way in the box, meaning without third party add-ons. The integration that the iPod has with iTunes is simply an example of how easy that integration has to be.

Certainly one area that the Nokia N95 has a leg up on over some of the competition is in photo sharing and mobile blogging. Tools are built-in that enable this fairly easily--but only if you use Flickr and Typepad respectively. You can use the built-in Lifeblog with Vox or you can use the Vox Mobile application for tighter integration. If it weren't for Lifeblog and/or Vox Mobile, I would almost never update my Vox blog!

That being said, there could be more integration with more services in these areas, including video sharing sites, and the integration needs to be in the box. I would also take it a step further--we also need integration with new services that haven't even been thought of yet. Adhering and actively promoting open standards that are in-use by others is one way to ensure in the box integration with this new generation of services.

What are some ways Nokia could enable better in the box integration? Share your thoughts in the comments. I can't promise our ideas will make it into future products, but I have no doubt they will be read and considered.

While I was out today with my kids, I had my Nokia N95 with me and I was listening to tunes on my recently acquired iPod Shuffle. While I could have easily used my Nokia N95 to listen to music--in fact I had used it earlier in the day to listen to podcasts--the iPod was simply a better choice. The reason is quite simple: it integrates very easily into iTunes, my "hub" for all the music I own. The moment I plug my iPod in, it syncs with my MacBook. A couple of clicks refreshes the iPod with music. A few minutes later, it's ready to go. Out of the box, anyway, the Nokia N95 doesn't integrate with iTunes.

On the picture side of the house, the Nokia N95 integrates with my online presence very well. I can easily take pictures and within moments, upload them to either my my Vox site. I could also upload them to Flickr, but I am not a huge Flickr fan. I can do this with the other Nseries devices as well. When I want to take all the pictures off the phone, I plug the phone into my Mac and iPhono comes up, offering to suck down all the pictures from the phone. A few clicks and several minutes later, it's done. No muss, no fuss.

The Boo Hoo For You campaign by Symbian shows, mobile phones are very integrated into people's lives into Japan--moreso than the two examples I discuss above. It's clear that effective convergence in a device is going to require a lot of partnering along with a lot of different parties in order to achieve anything close to that.

This video has been posted on the S60 blogs a couple of times already (Thanks to Carol for reminding me):

If you're not interested in watching the video, it basically extols the virtues of Japanese cell phones and how "behind the times" the rest of the world is because of how the cell phone is so integrated into their lives. A Japanese mobile phone is one or more of the following:

1. A wallet--it's tied to some sort of electronic payment system
2. A way to consume MANGA--extremely important
3. Your way to check-in at the airport for a flight
4. Your keys for your house
5. Your work badge/access card
6. Your cinema tickets
7. Your public transport pass
8. A fingerprint authentication device
9. A face recognition/authentication device
10. Your coupon at stores
11. A way to experience scents
12. A fashion consultant
13. Your video iPod with access to live TV
14. A mobile GPS
15. A reader for 1D and 2D codes for marketing and even on fruit and veg labels

That is a lot of integrated functionality that is really the epitome of convergence. But it made me realize that everything on a single device represents a huge single point of failure: what happens when you lose your device?

One of the features we tout on the Enterprise Solutions side of the house with Nokia Intellisync Mobile Suite is the ability to remotely wipe a phone that has been lost. That takes care of the confidentiality problem, assuming a similar service exists in Japan. Now you've got a problem: unless you can easily replace the phone and get the various parts of your identity copied onto the phone easily, you are locked out of a lot of your life.

If all of that data is stored or at least constantly backed up on the network, it should be a relatively straightforward process. Certainly when your device is managed through Intellisync Mobile Suite, that is the case. How quick is that restore process and what are you supposed to do in the meantime? How do you manage all this stuff on a large scale?

The other problem I can see occurring with a converged device is one of battery life. When you have all that functionality in one device, how do you keep the device charged long enough to do anything? And the question of what do you do while the device is charging still remains.

It is clear that true convergence is going to require a lot more than just cramming more and more stuff into a device. There needs to be a whole supporting infrastructure around it not only to make the convergence more useful, but to gracefully recover in the event of a failure.

I'm sure there's some part of this picture I missed. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments, please post them in the comments.

So who's gonna be at this weekend's BarCamp in NYC? If so, what will be be presenting? Do you know of anyone who is presenting anything S60-related? Nokia will be sponsoring event, and I heard that Nseries devices will given away to participants who have the best presentations and win some games. Cool!!

Project Manager of the Nokia Mobile Web Server project (aka "Sombrero"), Juha Pusa, will be in attendance presenting the mobile webserver. What is it? Why does it matter? What can you do with it? How can you extend it? Etc..

Also, I know the very hip, David Harper, will be there presenting WinkSite, be sure to check that out. But sadly, yours truly will be on holiday and in the wrong continent. Hope everyone has a great time! For those who don't know what BarCamp is...

BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

When you come, be prepared to share with barcampers.
When you leave, be prepared to share it with the world.

NO SPECTATORS, ONLY PARTICIPANTS

Attendees must give a demo, a session, or help with one, or otherwise volunteer / contribute in some way to support the event. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall. The people present at the event will select the demos or presentations they want to see.

Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present.

A commercial running in Japan for Symbian (DoCoMo?) smartphones...

Just got a new N95 on Friday, yesterday I updated the firmware and it bricked it. The phone support team tried to re-flash it, didn't work. So now it's on it's way to Germany to be repaired. Grrrrr...... Fortunately there's a bunch of N95's laying around here, so I won't miss my GPS when I'm holiday next week. But just wanted you all to know, that even we Nokia guys and gals have phone problems too sometimes. :-)

When I hit up Phil to write for the S60 blogs, he asked me what I would like to write about. I spent some time thinking and I came up with something I call "Extreme Convergence."

The Nseries and Eseries devices are converging a larger number of "things" into a handset. Who is really making use of all of those features? Who might be taking that convergence to an extreme (for example, doing all their computing)? What are some of the challenges of having your computing life essentially in the palm of your hand? What other features can we cram into a mobile phone anyway? I'm sure we can take it pretty far, but how far should we go?

These are questions I hope to be able to explore while I write on this blog, but I'm sure that those of you who don't know me from my own personal blog might want to know a little about me first. I work for Enterprise Solutions in the Security & Mobile Connectivity Product Line Support team. I have surprisingly little to do with phones. You might see some of my handy work over on Nokia Support Web if you have purchased a Nokia Security Appliance as I am currently an editor for the Knowledge Base there. I've also written a couple of books on Check Point VPN-1, which is a software firewall that runs on the Nokia Security Appliances, among other things.

So why is a security guy who doesn't work with devices write about devices? Because we make really cool devices, if you haven't noticed! I also think that as the phones become more and more powerful, a lot of the security issues we have on desktop computers are going to start becoming issues on our mobile phones as well. It's only a matter of time. I would hope that as the leading manufacturer of mobile phones, we would learn from the mistakes of the dominant desktop PC operating system maker and bake security deep into S60 to prevent a lot of these problems from becoming issues.

I look forward to contributing to the conversation here on the S60 blogs and thank Phil for the opportunity to do so.

Jussi-Pekka Erkkola from Nokia Multimedia was nice enough to lend me the new Nokia BH-501 stereo bluetooth headset, I just spent a long intimate weekend with it and am absolutely loving it. My first experience with stereo bluetooth and I'm quite pleased with this first generation device from Nokia.

I won't bother describing the looks, just have a peak at the photos. It comes in either black or white. The speakers are covered in that typical black, soft headset stuff. It's held on your face with two soft rubbery pieces that sit on top your ears, and a rubbery band wraps around the back of your head. The headband isn't adjustable, so one-size-fits all. At first I was a bit concerned, but it sat on my head quite firmly. I went running and cycling over the weekend and it barely moved around at all, although I still wished it could have been a tad firmer. It's nice a light, and after a while you forget you're wearing it.

The headset is quite large so you can't really put them in your pocket, but what's nice is that it'll wrap very firmly and comfortably around your neck if you don't want them on your head. As you can see from the photo below, they look a bit ridiculous on your face. Mono bluetooth headsets took a while before they were visually acceptable to wear in public without people thinking you were from Star Trek, I'm sure these will be no different.

The BH-501 has all the standard bluetooth features. Accept a call, end a call, redial last number, volume up, volume down. Connecting to my N95 was a cinch, reconnecting it was simple as well. What I was really missing was the music player controls (stop, RW, FF, pause, play). It would probably be a bit complicated for some to fast forward and rewind while the device is your head, but geeks like me would quickly figure it out and enjoy it.

Now of course to the most important thing - the sound. I'm no audiophile, and honestly I haven't spent time with a lot of different headsets, but I was quite happy with the sound quality of the BH-501. My music was clear, the bass was deep without distorting at max volume. Since the speakers sit on top your ears rather than inside your ear, you don't get that ear-drum-piercing sensation if you like your music loud.

And speaking of loudness, the maximum volume is very good. I remember my first bluetooth device was basically worthless on a bus or on a busy street. And my Nokia E70's maximum volume was so low, it too was basically worthless. Obviously having the audio come in stereo helps with the overall loudness. While I was cycling on a busy road and listening to an audiobook with a soft-spoken reader, I wished it could have got a bit louder. I turned the "loudness" on in my N95 and cranked up the equalizer, which didn't change it much - but it was still acceptable.

One concern I do have probably has nothing to do with the headset, but with the bluetooth technology itself. The sound would occasionally cut out for a split second or two. At first I thought it was because of my cycling or running, but it also happened while just sitting still. It could be my N95, but more likely it's just bluetooth being, well...bluetooth.

What was very impressive was the microphone built into the right earpiece. While cycling at a fast speed, I was chatting on the phone. Even though I heard the loud wind beating up against me, the people on the other end didn't hear it at all, which was typical for my other headsets. The mic is positioned on the back of the earpiece, so wind wouldn't hit it if you're traveling forward. A very pleasant surprise!

So all-in-all, a great piece of first generation equipment from Nokia, not much I'd improve it it all. Big thumbs up from me!

Hat tip to R2 and Stefan from Ring Nokia had already discovered this, and I haven't even officially announced it yet!! We even have a lot of registrants already, good detective work boys!! :-)

So I'm writing to cordially invite you to our "An Evening with S60" event to be held at the Nokia Flagship in Helsinki, Thursday June 14, 2007 from 19.00 to 21.00 (they're shutting down the store an hour early for us). It's a night of networking, technology, and of course...fun!

We're still busy putting together another exciting agenda for the night, but so far the plan is…

* Food & Drinks
* Finally meet (in the flesh!) all those Forum members you've been reading about an chatting with over the years.
* Share your S60 experiences with S60 product line engineers and architects.
* Finland is the home of S60, so I promise to bring many members of the S60 crew along!
* Hands-on with all the latest S60 devices including the Nokia N95, E61i, E65, E90 Communicator, N77, 6110 Navigator, 6120, and 5700.
* One-on-one demonstrations and presentations. (And of course we'll bring the infamous "Tune My S60" demo!)
* A whole lot more!

Click here to register!! (you won't receive any confirmation e-mail, I'll contact each of the registrants in the days closer to the event) And be sure to check back here to See into S60 for all the latest info. E-mail me with any questions you may have! phillip dot schwarzmann at nokia dot com

Can't wait to see you all there!!

Hey all you S60 enthusiasts in and around Chicago!

We had such a great time out at our "An Evening with S60" event in New York City, we're doing it again in Chicago! So you're all cordially invited to our second ever "An Evening with S60" to be held at the Nokia Flagship Store in Chicago, Thursday June 7, 2007 from 6pm to 8pm (they're shutting the store down early for us!). It's a night of networking, technology, and of course...fun!

We're still busy putting together an exciting agenda for the night, but so far the plan is…

* Food & Drinks
* Finally meet (in the flesh!) all those Forum members you've been reading about an chatting with over the years.
* Share your S60 experiences with S60 product line engineers and architects
* Hands-on with all the latest S60 devices including the Nokia N95, E61i, E65, E90 Communicator, N77, 6110 Navigator, 6120, and 5700.
* One on one demonstrations of Intellisync MobileSuite, loads o' widgets, Nseries experiences plus other cool new S60 technologies.
* A whole lot more!

I'll post more details on here as they come up. Contact me (phillip dot schwarzmann at nokia dot com) or Dan Shugrue (daniel dot shugrue at nokia dot com) with any questions you may have.

Can't wait to see you all there!! Continue to the registration pages...

Lots and lots of coverage about the S60 Summit around the blogosphere, here's some of the highlights...

Lengthy Articles
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/S60_Summit_Operator_Keynotes.php
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/Samsung_at_the_S60_Summit.php
http://www.ringnokia.com/2007/04/s60_summit_day__1.html
http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=351
http://www.ringnokia.com/2007/04/s60_summit_day_.html
http://www.ringnokia.com/2007/04/a_few_words_abo.html
http://www.mobile-review.com/exhibition/2007-s60-sammit-1-en.shtml
http://www.mobile-review.com/exhibition/2007-s60-sammit-2-en.shtml
http://mobile-review.com/review/nokia-e90.shtml
http://www.paniccode.com/?p=586
http://blogs.s60.com/seeintos60/2007/04/s60_summit_day_0.html
http://blogs.s60.com/seeintos60/2007/04/s60_summit_day_1.html
http://blogs.s60.com/seeintos60/2007/04/s60_summit_day_2.html

Podcasts
http://blogs.s60.com/voiceofs60/2007/04/podcast_22_stefan_constantines.html
http://blogs.s60.com/voiceofs60/2007/04/podcast_23_live_from_the_s60_s.html

Photo Galleries
http://content.zdnet.com/2346-12553_22-64154-1.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/s60online/tags/s60summit2007/
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/media/gallery/s60-summit.php
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohl_work/sets/72157600161438457/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/benoitdarcy/sets/72157600118928387/

Full Coverage
http://www.ringnokia.com/2007/05/more_s60_summit.html
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2007Apr/bpd20070501004783.htm
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/media/gallery/s60-summit.php
http://martinjsmith.blogspot.com/2007/04/weekly-links-roundup.html
http://symbianguru.typepad.com/welcome/2007/04/s60_summit_2007.html
http://www.ringnokia.com/2007/04/all_the_pdfs_fr.html
http://www.ringnokia.com/2007/04/s60_summit_2007_1.html
http://www.ringnokia.com/2007/04/videos_eldar_sh.html
http://www.ringnokia.com/2007/04/s60_touch_pulle.html
http://www.solopalmari.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3148&Itemid=2

Quick Mentions
http://www.biskero.org/?p=1406
http://www.pocketpicks.co.uk/latest/index.php/2007/04/30/s60-phones-to-get-touch-screen-interface/
http://www.ringnokia.com/2007/04/more_s60_summit.html
http://www.clicknfun.com/samsung-introduces-the-symbian-os-smartphone-sgh-i400/
http://gigaom.com/2007/04/28/what-really-happened-at-s60-summit/
http://darlamack.blogs.com/darlamack/2007/04/want_to_get_to_.html
http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2007/04/widgets_for_s60.html

...anything I'm missing??