Controlling your phone remotely

WaveSecure lets you manage your phone remotely either via our secure site or from a mobile phone using text messages. Most people are familiar with the web approach so here’s how you can do so with any cell phone.

You can lock, locate your phone and wipe mobile data off your device simply by sending a SMS to the current phone number used in your misplaced mobile. The table below sums up the available commands and works for WaveSecure Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile.

Command	Instruction
Lock	To lock your phone, send “Secure lock ”. Eg. “Secure lock 123456”
Customize lock screen	To change your lock screen message, send “Secure lock ”. Eg. “Secure lock 123456 Please contact 911 to return”.
Sound alarm	To lock your phone, send “Secure lock alarm ” or with a custom message “Secure lock alarm ”. Eg. “Secure lock alarm 123456”
Locate	Send “Secure locate ” for a SMS with a link to track the current location of the phone. Eg. “Secure locate 123456”
Wipe	To erase the phone’s data, send “Secure wipe ”. Eg. “Secure wipe 123456”

SMS Command PIN for Android users

When sending SMS commands, the text message cannot be encrypted and will be in plan text. Hence, there is a possibility for your WaveSecure PIN to be compromised. On Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms, WaveSecure will be able to intercept such commands so it will not be an issue.

Android platform lacks this functionality. To circumvent this problem and to protect your WaveSecure PIN, WaveSecure now lets you specify an additional SMS Command PIN. Access the option from Menu, Settings in the WaveSecure app.

The SMS command PIN only works for lock, locate and wipe. Hence, even when the thief got to know your SMS Command PIN, he will not be able to unlock the phone. Additionally, WaveSecure’s lock screen only accepts the WaveSecure PIN, not the SMS Command PIN. This way, even if the thief gains access to your SMS Command PIN, there is no way for him to unlock WaveSecure.

WaveSecure intermittent downtime on January 14

WaveSecure experienced a severe server overload on January 14, lasting about 5 hours from 1900 to midnight GMT. We know that many people rely on WaveSecure for the security of their data and the protection of their phone, and we take this issue very seriously. For that, we offer our unreserved apologies for any inconvenience it may have caused. We’ve investigated the issue and are currently compiling a list of to-dos to improve our service.

Just to give a short summary of what happened. Yesterday, we received coverage from several well-read print/social media, including the New York Times and Lifehacker. This was coupled with the fact that we’ve actually quadrupled daily user sign-ups since a month ago, and that meant that we had underestimated the demand we experienced at a high point (which occurred yesterday). We want to assure you that existing user’s data have not been affected by the overload; What was affected was the speed of user activations and log-ins.

The tenCube WaveSecure web team started work on fixing this issue almost immediately when it occurred, and by 12 midnight GMT, had implemented a solution that will ease our load, and WaveSecure has now resumed normal service. Our web team will be monitoring the situation over the weekend to ensure that we are able to adequately address future overload issues. As always, we are extremely happy with the positive feedback we have been getting from some of our users who wrote back to us expressing concern/support on the situation, and are in the process of answering all queries that have been directed to us regarding this issue.

We would like to also thank New York Times and Lifehacker for their coverage yesterday. Cheers and May the Phone be With you!

tenCube WaveSecure and Geeks'phone join forces leading the mobile revolution!

A few months ago, we found out that a bunch of guys in Spain were coming up with an awesome new Android phone called Geeks'phone One that was designed for geeks and developers. This phone is network unlocked and ships with root access - so no more jumping over all sorts of hoops and forums to tweak your phone! And this was going to be the first European-made Android phone.

How are we involved? Well - WaveSecure ships with the Geeks'phone and is available to all Geeks'phone users for free! We are excited at being part of the mobile revolution with Geeks'phone!

A quick preview of the phone and the box packaging (note the WaveSecure reference at the back of the box!):




The full technical specifications of the phone are available here.

At EUR 299 and no carrier/operator lock - it is a bargain. So head over to their online store and get One for yourself! Put in "TENCUBE" in the coupon code at checkout to get a discount.

tenCube will continue to work with manufacturers such as Geeks'phone to build the ultimate theft proof phone. Do leave a comment here if you would like to see that happen, or if you have suggestions on how we can improve the product to get there.

May the Geeks'phone be with you!

WaveSecure Wins Google ADC | Free Lifetime account for Android users!

Thank you - WaveSecure is now a favorite Android App!

WaveSecure was one of the three overall winners and the top productivity app in the recently concluded Android Developer Challenge 2 (ADC2)!

This is an important milestone for us and we'd like to thank you for your support, without which it was not be possible!

More links here: Business Week | TechCrunch | UK Independent | Gizmodo | Android Central | InfoWorld

ADC Giveback Special - Free Android account for life

As a giveback to Android users support that made our ADC win possible, we are offering an unlimited free lifetime account for Android users.

Just head over to Android Market and download WaveSecure before 31st Jan 2010, you will be able to enjoy a free WaveSecure account for as long as you use that Android device.

It's our way of saying Thank You, do spread the word to your friends and family Android users so they can benefit from it too!

BlackBerry version coming soon, Beta users wanted!

WaveSecure is coming to BlackBerry soon! As usual, we would love to have you try it out and let us know what you think!

If you or your friends and family owns a BlackBerry and would like to try it out, drop us an email at blackberry (at) tencube (dot) com.

Needless to say, limited number of beta users of our BlackBerry version will also receive WaveSecure free for life.

Users of other platforms such as S60 & Windows Mobile - you can also download a free trial of WaveSecure's from WaveSecure Website!

Droid support and thank you, beta users!

We released WaveSecure on Android Market in early September. At around the same time, Sprint launched the HTC Hero and we were flooded with bug reports and issues from Sprint Hero users. Since we are in Singapore and did not have access to the Sprint Hero (not even on roaming, since Sprint is a CDMA network and there are no CDMA networks here!), we asked users to help us identify these issues so that we can fix them. The same thing happened when the Droid was released.

Lots of people volunteered to help us test and verify our fixes. We chipped away at the issues and consistently released updates every 2 weeks for the past 3 months. As of the last update (v3.0.0.34), we had full Sprint Hero support except for the location tracking feature, mainly because Sprint and/or HTC had done some customizations on Android 1.5 that broke our location feature if GPS was not available.

Today, we are glad to announce that WaveSecure supports Android 2.0 (in addition to 1.5 and 1.6) and CDMA networks. This means that the Droid and the Sprint Hero (except location) and future phones released on Android 1.6 and 2.0 will be supported, unless the manufacturers decide to muck around a little too much and break something that we depend on!

This update has quite a few major fixes/enhancements, listed below:

1. Enhanced location tracking accuracy. Some of users faced some issues with location tracking, sometimes showing the current position in another country altogether! We now ride on the Android platform's location information service. Preliminary testing shows that this information is more accurate.
2. Hard reset proof. If WaveSecure is packaged as part of the ROM, it will connect to the server and you can continue to track the phone. More details coming in the next blog post.
3. Better and faster lock. Some users have complained that the lock screen can be circumvented sometimes. We have improved the locking mechanism and it should be harder to circumvent now.
4. SMS restore fixes. Large amounts of SMS could not be restored - this has been fixed.

Of course, without our beta users, this would not have been possible. We'd especially like to thank Eddie, Warren, Thorvald, Andy, Matt, Kashif, Ben, Topaz and Chris for their support.

Thank you and May the phone be with you!

v3.0.0.31: Critical update for WaveSecure on Android

A few quick words on why v3.0.0.31 (posted to Android Market on 20th October, 2009) is a critical update.

Our official change log for this release (found here) says:

- Android 1.6 (Donut) support
- Fixed bug (for cause #2) where phone sometimes locks on restart for some users, even though SIM is not changed
- Fixed number verification problem during registration
- Fixed bug where remote location command did not send location information to the server if HTTP was not available
- Enhanced buddy number validation checks. App doesn't accept special characters such as -,(,)
- Various other enhancements

The critical bugs that were fixed were:

Phone sometimes locks on restart for some users, even though SIM is not change. This was causing a lot of irritation for users (and for their buddies too) because WaveSecure was detecting a false positive SIM Change and sending out SMSs to their buddies. We finally found the cause (there were 2 causes - one of them we had fixed in an earlier update); which is why Cause #2 was fixed with this update.

Phone number wasn't getting verified during registration for some users (especially Sprint users). Our phone number verification process involves asking you to enter your phone number, sending a SMS text to that number (which is your phone) and then comparing the 'from' number in the verification text to the phone number you entered. This problem occured because we were trying to do an exact match between the two. While the number entered during registration is in the nice, full international format that we expect (+1650999999), the 'from' number in the text received is not, which was causing the problem. This has been fixed and users should not face these issues any more.

Technically, the phone number verification issue was one of the things that was stopping us from claiming full support for users on CDMA networks such as Sprint. Now that we have this issue out of the way, our beta users on Sprint will at least be able to register and this will unearth more issues. We have yet to test extensively and it will be some time before we announce full CDMA support.

Thanks to our beta users who have helped us debug these problems. If you are ever in sunny Singapore, drop us a line and we will buy you a beer at this place. It is right next to our office and owned by a mean looking biker dude (and a not-so-mean looking woman)

Help us debug problems with WaveSecure on Android!

WaveSecure on Android is currently in Beta and we've gotten a lot of great feedback. We're continuously working to improve WaveSecure and some of our users have been very helpful.

A few bugs have been reported - some generic and others, not so much. The cause of these bugs are pretty wide spread (custom ROMs, mobile networks etc) and it is extremely difficult for us to debug and fix these problems if we cannot replicate them in house.

If you face such a problem, please help us by installing a 'debug' version of WaveSecure on your phone which logs activites on your phone. It will be much easier for us to fix issues if we have the log file.

To install the debug build:

1. Go to Settings -> Applications. Check "Unknown sources"

2. Go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications. Uninstall WaveSecure Beta currently installed

3. Make sure that there's an SD Card in the phone

4. Download the debug app from here: http://www.wavesecure.com/installations/ws-debug.apk

5. Install the application and then launch it

At this point, follow the steps you did to replicate the problem you were facing.

Once the problem(s) are replicated, the next step is to extract the log file. To do so (on a Windows computer):

1. Connect your phone to the computer

2. When the USB connected notification comes up on your phone, pull down the notification bar

3. Click on the USB connected notification

4. Click on Mount to mount your SD Card so that files can be copied from it. After this your SD Card will appear as a drive on your computer

5. The logfile (WaveSecure.log) is on the root folder of your SD Card

Email the log file to android at tencube dot com along with the following information:

1. Nature and details of the problem
2. Steps to reproduce
3. Phone model
4. Custom ROM name and version, if applicable
5. Country and mobile network


We'll follow up from there and email you back about the status of your bug report. We really appreciate the help - we will reply to every such email you send us, along with status updates. Thanks very much!

Note: Once you extract the log file, you can continue using the debug version of WaveSecure or uninstall the debug version and download the installer from Market. The drawback of the debug version is that the log file will continue to take up space on your SD card.

Head over to our official feedback channel http://feedback.wavesecure.com for new feature suggestions/bug reports. This will help us track issues and respond appropriately.

May the Phone be With You!

Part 2 of 3: How you can use WaveSecure to get back your lost phone: The five stages of grief

The TV show, Frasier (one of my favourites) offers some basic psychology education, especially the 5 stages of grief - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

Losing a phone can be traumatic for most people and the 5 stages of grief play an important part.

Denial

Usually happens between 0 - 30 minutes of realizing that you have lost your phone.

"No, no. I am not as careless as my friend XYZ. This can't be happening to me"

Pockets and purses are emptied furiously in search of the phone. A 2nd phone is procured through a friend/friendly person nearby. You call your phone incessantly, hoping that some kind soul will pick up and then you can beg/plead/threaten and maybe offer a reward for the return of your phone.


Anger

30 - 45 minutes

"How could I be so stupid to leave it in a cab?"

Much swearing ensues, punches are thrown to the wall. 5 (4?) bruised knuckles are acquired. Usually happens when your phone stops ringing and you can't reach it any more.


Bargaining

45 - 60 minutes

"If I get another phone, I will definitely do something to protect it. But please, I hope I can get back my phone this time around"

Praying begins, bruised knuckles et al. This is the crazy damn-I-wish-I-had-done-something phase, coupled with frantically calling people you know to find out how you could possibly get back your phone. We silently hope for one of our friends to be a Knight in Shining Armour and come up with a brilliant idea, but unfortunately it doesn't happen.


Depression

1 - 24 hours

"Gah, what's the point of trying to call my phone over and over again. I'm never going to get it back"

Sorrows are drowned. By this time, you realize that your phone is probably gone for good and you will never get it back. Funeral for your phone was considered and widely debated before being rejected.

On that note: this picture was part of our very first marketing brochure (back in 2006).
Acceptance

1 - 7 days

"Ok, I need to get a new phone"

300 contacts unremembered. Intense financial calculations on how you can afford a new phone. Spreadsheets are whipped out, financial models are made. You live without a phone for a bit and you wonder how you ever survived in ye olde days before you had a mobile phone.


However, fear not - if you have WaveSecure on your phone, you won't have to go through this. Which is why we say: May the Phone be With You!


Next up, Part 3 of How you can WaveSecure to get back your phone: Retribution

Part 1 of 3: How you can use WaveSecure to get back your lost phone

Let's take a moment to talk about WaveSecure and its features here, in more detail than we have done earlier.

WaveSecure is a mobile security product that helps you in three ways - it protects your phone, your data and your privacy.

Protecting your phone

When the first version of WaveSecure was built, it attempted to solve two problems:

1. If someone picks up my lost phone, the odds are that he will put in his SIM card at some point. I want to know that guy's phone number.

2. I need a way to prevent access to my phone - a way to 'lock' it so that the phone becomes useless to whoever picks it up. Thereafter, he may be more willing to return the phone.

Thus the Lock and Track features of WaveSecure were born. Of course, we are now on v3 of WaveSecure and have added some jazz around these features.

Locking your phone means that:

1. Your phone looks like the picture on your right

2. No one can access anything in your phone - which means that no one can read your message, make calls (although you can receive them) etc

3. A "lock message" of your choice is displayed on the lock screen for the purposes of giving contact details or offering a reward and just plain swearing at the thief if that's your thing!


Tracking the SIM changes in your phone means that:

1. You will be notified of SIM Changes in two ways - your buddy gets an SMS from the new SIM card inserted in your phone and the new number shows up under the tracking section of the website

2. Using this information, you can either call the person or use this as evidence that your phone is stolen to make a police report. In some countries, the police will trace down your phone for you if you can give them a lead on the person who has stolen your phone and the thief's phone number will suffice.


A lot of users requested for the ability to view the location of their phone. Recently, we added the ability to track down the location of your phone as well! We'll talk more in detail about location and how it works in another post.




Protect your data

When you lose your phone, your data is gone with it as well. WaveSecure helps you keep your data safe by backing up your Contacts, SMS, Calendar (not available on Android), Call Logs, Photos and Videos. You can do this either from your phone or by logging on to www.wavesecure.com.

If you happen to change your phone, you can easily restore your data to your new phone once you setup WaveSecure on your new phone.


Protect your privacy

WaveSecure enables you to wipeout all your data even if your phone is not with you! Login to your account on www.wavesecure.com to wipe out your contacts, calendar (not available on Android), SMS, photos, videos and your external memory card.

This way, if you happen to lose your phone - you need not worry about your private data such as SMS, pictures or other documents getting in the wrong hands.

Coming up next - Part 2 of How you can use WaveSecure to get back your lost phone: The five stages of grief

WaveSecure on Android - demo video

We have finally gotten down to finishing up the demo video that talks about how WaveSecure works on the Android platform.



Here's a video we did about a year ago about the adventures of a guy named Dave who lost his phone.



Coming up next: How you can use WaveSecure to get back your lost phone.

Stay tuned!

WaveSecure now on Android!

Today, we’re really excited to announce that WaveSecure Beta is now available for Android phones - for free!

This is huge for us - we’re the first application in the Android marketplace to offer a complete device and data security app. And it is available worldwide!

Over the past few months, we were spurred on by the huge number of requests pouring in to support the Android platform. So after a few months of developing and extensive testing - we’re very proud to unveil WaveSecure for Android!

The Android version of WaveSecure has all the features we’ve had on the S60 and Windows mobile platforms:

1. Lock your phone remotely to prevent unauthorized access to your phone
   
2. Track your phone's location and the SIM changes in your phone (even if your phone is not with you!)
3. Backup your contacts, SMS, media and call logs
4. Restore your contacts and SMS
   
5. Remotely wipe your data on your phone and memory card
   

Log in to your account at www.wavesecure.com to check out how you can remotely control your phone. We know that you’ve been eagerly awaiting this launch and we appreciate the patience – download it at Android Market now!

WaveSecure for Android is currently in Beta and we would really appreciate your input, rants and raves on the app so that we can make it better – so do head over to our feedback forum!

WaveSecure for Android currently supports v1.5 (Cupcake). We have officially tested it on the HTC Dream and the Magic, but our users tell us that it works perfectly on the myTouch 3G and the HTC Hero as well.

A demo video is coming soon - till then, we've got some good old screenshots for your perusal.

Do spread the word around, and enjoy WaveSecure on Android! Don't forget to rate the app on the Android Market and put in a comment.

May the phone be with you!

Update: The demo video is now up.

Celebrity Phone loss-Cricketer Jimmy Anderson

English cricketer James (Jimmy) Anderson has reported that he has lost his 3 week old handset! Read the tweets - http://twitter.com/jimmyAnderson9

In his own words, "Not having a phone is more hassle", Now imagine the data on the phone and his privacy about to be breached.

The solution to Jimmy's predicament is WaveSecure! The larger point is that you and me are susceptible to be in Jimmy's shoes everytime!

May the phone be with you!!!

120 gadgets lost daily: Insurers now offer plans to cover loss of devices such as phones, iPods

Read more on people losing their gadgets, and how the important stakeholders in this industry are coming together to gearup to this challenge.

This article also covers PHONESafe, which is an avatar of WaveSecure in Singapore!

Brand new website!

We have revamped our corporate website. Please visit http://www.tencube.com/ and have a look. As always, we look forward for comments and feedback. Write to us on wavesecureteam@tencube.com.

Looking forward!

WaveSecure user survey

Thanks to everyone who took time to fill in our survey. Your inputs are valuable to us, in helping us secure your phones.

May the phone be with you!

WaveSecure user survey!

We welcome you to participate in the WaveSecure user survey. Provide us with your answers and convey your thoughts to us!

Takes just a few minutes!!!

http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=NJNJJ_33d306a7

WaveSecure Champions Program!

We welcome mobile users to be a part of the WaveSecure Champions Program!

1. As a CHAMPION USER we shall be Providing you with the latest WaveSecure 3.0 and also with regular software updates which would include,
   
   
   1. Feature additions
   
   
   2. Bug fixes
   
   
   3. Patches and other upgrades
   
   
   
2. Looking forward for regular feedback from you on,
   
   
   
   1. The working of the software on your phone and via the website (www.wavesecure.com)
   
   
   2. What WaveSecure can incorporate to be better than other competing solutions
      
   
   
   3. How we could enhance the user experience of the WaveSecure application and the web account
   
   
   4. Software updates that you think should be necessary in the coming future
   
   
   5. Absolutely anything else that you might have to suggest.
   
   
3. Giving you the opportunity to qualify for Champion Rewards by sending in your suggestions and input regularly!

If you use a Windows Mobile handset or a Symbian S60 phone, we welcome you aboard Team WaveSecure Champions. We look forward to working with you in making the mobile world a lot more secure and usher in peace of mind!!!

Please write to us at champions AT tencube.com and be a WaveSecure Champion

May the Phone be with you

WaveSecure lauded at NAVTEQ LBS Challenge!

Your favorite WaveSecure has won accolades at the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge for APAC – WaveSecure won the first runnerup at the recently concluded Communicasia'09! Celebration time as this further accentuates the value that WaveSecure holds for mobile phone users worldwide!

http://nn4d.blogspot.com/2009/06/navteq-reveals-winners-of-2009-navteq.html

Cheer us and "May the phone be with you"!