Turn Your iPhone into the Ultimate Mobile Idea Management Tool

Have you noticed that interesting and valuable ideas often pop up in your mind at a wrong time? Yes, this is an inherent feature of a problem solving and creative process. If it happens that you great ideas annoy you when you are in a waiting room of your doctor worry no further. With the help of Sparks - a cool new iPhone application you won't lose great ideas any more. Sparks has another decent software from the creators of Firetask - professional time management software for iPhone.

Sparks is easy to use, simple but most importantly functional. First, you have categories. So you can easily categorize ideas - work or personal ideas, does not matter. You can manage them all. To give you a better idea, I've managed some ideas regarding this blog with Sparks. First, I added a new category. Then, I quickly noted down the following ideas.

Idea 1: Post articles more frequently
Idea 2: Increase link exchanges
Idea 3: Add more beginner tips
Idea 4: Make promotional code give-aways more regular

Then you assign criteria to the ideas based on four different dimensions: Innovation, Simplicity, Uniqueness and Potential. Sparks quickly calculates particular idea's Score.

I also liked the feature to add notes to ideas.

The beauty of Sparks is the Analyze tabs where you can see your ideas on a sleek matrix diagram.

In terms of usability, the software is pretty good. The only not so user-friendly thing is that it's not immediately clear what color denotes. In other words, which color identifies uniqueness of the idea. The same can be said about the size. However, with size you can assume that the larger, the more potential.

Now the bad part. Sparks is not free and costs $4.99. However, this app is worth the price.

Now the good thing. The developer has decided to provide 5 promotional codes of Sparks (can you spot idea 4 in action? :). The codes will be given to the first 5 readers to send me an e-mail and quoting the price Firetask! So, the task is quite simple! All you have to do is to look up Firetask's price and send an e-mail.

Hurry up. These codes won't last long!

If you'd rather get Sparks right now, here is the download link: http://cut.io/pBC3

Tip #5 - How to Add an Extension to a Contact’s Phone Number

If you are a business user of iPhone like me, most likely you often dial phone numbers with extensions. Listening to lengthy phone menus is not the best experience. So, this tip teaches you how to add an extension to a contact's phone number. The process is straightforward and easy. Just make sure to follow the step by step instructions given below.

1. Create a new contact or go to an existing one.

2. Edit the contact's phone number.

3. Move the cursor to the end of the phone number and tap + * # at the bottom left of the keyboard.

4. Tap "pause", which will add a space and a coma after the phone number.

5. Enter the extension and hit "Save".

That’s it. Now every time you call this number, you will be directed to the contact’s extension.

If you liked this tip, you may like to check out a post listing all of my beginner tips.

iPhone 3GS' Built-in Encryption "Sucks"

One of the "missing" functions in iPhone and iPhone 3G has always been encryption capability. This can somewhat be compensated by using third party software, for example a commercial SafeWallet or a decent freeware alternative Keeper. However, if a device has built-in security features and they are good and strong, using built-in features is almost always better. For example, think about TPM-enabled laptops. I'm pretty happy with my HP and I feel quite safe. Even if it is stolen, the sensitive data is protected.

What can be said about iPhone 3GS' built-in encryption functionality? The main purpose for including encryption in iPhone 3GS is to make the device appealing to business users. Unfortunately, if you are a business user like me and depend on iPhone 3GS' built-in encryption, think twice before protecting sensible data with it.

As it turns out, a couple of minutes and a couple of freeware applications is what it takes to crack iPhone 3GS' encryption. At least, this is what an iPhone developer and a hacker Jonathan Zdziarski claims. According to Zdziarski, iPhone's encryption is poorly implemented. The bottom line is that, even though iPhone 3GS includes a built-in encryption, it's totally useless. After all, what's the use of security features that cannot be trusted?

Let's hope that Apple will improve this drawback in the future firmware releases. Meanwhile, third party software is the way to go.

Reference: http://cut.io/fMSV