Ever wonder how to protect yourself from [...]]]> Last March Apple lost a prototype iPhone 4. The loss became a major technology news story. It is easy to lose a cell phone. If it happens we may lose irreplaceable or private data, like cell phone numbers, email addresses, bank account information or social security numbers.

Ever wonder how to protect yourself from a finder or thief accessing information stored on your Android, Blackberry or iPhone device? Here are some ways you can protect yourself:

Note: There are myriad variations of phones, carriers, and operating systems. Even though your phone is an Android, BlackBerry or iPhone the services listed below may not work.

Lookout is a free product for Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices. Once installed and configured it provides three services. Locate helps you find your device. Scream sounds an alarm sound that helps you find your phone or startle whoever has it. Lastly, Nuke lets you wipe your information from the device. The thief may have your phone but not your information.

MobiWee is another free, multi-platform service. It is a bit more of a Swiss Army knife than Lookout. It supports Android, Blackberry, iPhone and Windows Mobile. It has a File Manager feature which allows you to remotely transfer files from computers to your device. It also features an SMS Manager service that allows you to send and receive messages to contacts directly from your computer. Contacts Manager is a service that lets you remotely backup, restore, delete or add a new contact from any web browser. You can also transfer contacts when you get a new phone. The Lock/Wipe feature lets you remotely disable or wipe your phone if it is lost or stolen. Locate My Device helps you find your device when you can’t. They also feature a call forwarding service. The MobiWee service is only free while it is beta.

MobileMe is a subscription service from Apple, which includes the Find My iPhone feature, which is germane to this topic. It locates the iPhone and allows you to remotely lock or wipe the iPhone. MobileMe also features web-based contacts, calendar and email which can be synced with your iPhone. It also provides an online photo gallery and file storage.

Roblock is a security app that works on BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices. It costs $9.95. It lets you track your lost device. You can communicate with whoever has it via SMS (text) or email. It will let you recover the phones contacts, even if you never recover the device. There is a remote locking feature. It will also let you remotely erase the device and any media card inserted in it.

Verizon sells the Total Equipment Coverage package that includes Mobile Recovery, which can sound an alarm on the lost device, locate the phone, and remotely lock or wipe it. The service costs $7.99 per month for smartphones. My research indicates that AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile do not appear to currently sell this service.

Businesses have different choices for remote control than those available to an individual user. BlackBerry devices connected to a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) can be remotely erased. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 allows administrators to remotely wipe a phone running Exchange ActiveSync. It can encrypt device data cards. Windows Mobile phone devices and iPhones are compatible with Exchange ActiveSync. Google Apps Premier edition works with Exchange ActiveSync. It lets the administrator remotely wipe or encrypt data synced with iPhones, Android devices or Windows Mobile devices.

Like all technology hygiene you should attend to this before you need it. So pick one of the above and make certain that your smartphone is protected before it’s lost.

By the way, Apple was prepared. They wiped and locked the lost iPhone 4 prototype within hours of its disappearance.

Google Image Ripper (GIR) saves steps. GIR serves up the images. Google Images search serves up thumbnails with [...]]]> When I need to find a graphic image—photo, picture, or drawing— I used to use Google’s Images search. However, there is an alternative interface, Google Image Ripper, that improves on Google.

Google Image Ripper (GIR) saves steps. GIR serves up the images. Google Images search serves up thumbnails with links to the webpages and maybe the image.

The nsfw (not suitable for work) check box on GIR is a content filter. If checked, images that might make you blush or offend you are displayed.

Below are screen shots of my search for small TiVo images on both sites.