child phone usage tracking

How I Monitor My Son's Cell Phone Usage?

"Children between 12-14 year olds were tricked into 'sharing' and 'liking' a promotion for supermarket vouchers on Facebook, virally spreading the promotion which misled users into taking part in a premium rate competition." mentioned by Phoneplayplus UK mobile regulator

One of my friend’s daughters was bullied in the school and out of it by some people with malicious intentions.

I’m scared & nervous after reading these reports & incidents.

Cell Phone Parental Control Software Review

1. Phone Beagle

2. SniperSpy

3. PhoneSeriff 

4. Mobile Spy 

I’m a working mom and my husband has a touring job. My 9 to 5 job gives me little time to be with the kids on weekdays.

I got the latest smart phone with eScan Mobile Security for Android for my son as a means of communication sometime back because this is a basic necessity for today’s education and communication.

But the challenge is these cell phones for kids have Wi-Fi capability and my son can access not just social networking sites to chat with friends, but also can access all other websites.

The easy availability of pornographic material, the increasing trend of sexting (where kids send messages along with their nude photographs to other friends) and online chatting used to make me nervous as I was always thinking of the cell phone usage of my kids while I was away from them.

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"A recent Pew Research Center survey found that the average number of texts sent by teens each day increased from 50 in 2009 to 60 in 2011"
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I was feeling helpless and frustrated because I didn't know any way to keep track of the mobile phone usage of my kids to know what they were up to behind my back. I knew that unrestricted and unfettered use of smartphones and internet can affect their not yet fully mature minds.
 
I knew how difficult it was to ask my son to stay away from social networking sites, as I tried once and could not say a thing when he countered with ‘But mom you are also there on Facebook and Twitter’.

I initially tried to search through their phone book and conversations in addition to their messages and chats to look for suspicious activities, but soon found that they did not approve of my snooping habits. I too did not like this way of tracking cell phone usage.

I also tried to restrict their internet usage by changing the browsing settings, but found that they could not open many of the seemingly innocent websites, as they were deemed to be dangerous by the settings.

This frustrated Robert, my son who saw in it an evil intention to stop him from keeping in touch with his friends. Imposing restrictions also made me feel guilty, as if I was invading the privacy of my own son.

Then I came across the latest apps from Yahoo answers that have been designed keeping in mind the dilemma of parents like us. These apps are actually cell phone tracking software.

How To Spy Facebook Chat & Messages, Skype, WhatsApp & LINE Messages From A Web App or Smartphone using PhoneBeagle

Click here to subscribe phonebeagle

I took initially a monthly subscription and I was very happy with the result. Later, I took annual subscription & got a good discount also. Most important it offers a "No Questions Asked" 100% Money back Guarantee.


These Android tracking software apps, when installed in a smartphone or a laptop, start to monitor the activities of the user and also control many of the activities with their help.  I made use of these apps and installed them in the smartphone of my son to keep a tab on their internet usage and also to monitor their browsing activities.

These tracking apps for smartphones have been very helpful in keeping a watchful eye on the internet and the smartphone usage of my kids.

I am now much less anxious thinking about what my son is doing with his smartphone and which sites he is surfing on the internet. Tracking your Android phone becomes child’s play after installing these apps.

In short, 4 steps I recommend to monitor the smartphone and internet usage of your kids.

• Stop snooping around as kids dislike this habit in their parents
• Growing kids hate eavesdropping
• Install apps in the smartphones and laptops of kids to be able to monitor their internet usage
• Educate your kids for all the risks of using smartphone
•  Install proper anti virus & anti malware software in the phone.

Here are some other handy resources for parents with phone-toting kids:

• Common Sense Media Advice for Parents and Teens
• iKeepSafe
• ThinkB4U
• ParentFurther: Kids and cell phones
• WiredSafety's Parents Page

Note: It is illegal to download cell phone monitoring software on a phone that you do not own. You can legally monitor your kids’ phones if you pay for them

How smartphones can have everlasting battery?

The idea of an everlasting battery for mobile phones and laptops is mind-boggling.

Actually, some serious researches are going on using Piezoelectric materials.  These materials  has a property of  transforming ambient vibrations into electrical energy that can then be stored and used to power other devices. In the first video you will see the mechanism of generation of Piezoelectricity & in next video, you will see an interview with Dr. Madu who is currently working with this technology. This technology will be available by 2015 commercially as per Dr. Madu.

In this video, you will find how simple to generate Piezoelectricity.



Three types of piezoelectric devices tested are the commonly used monolithic piezoceramic material lead–zirconate–titanate (PZT), the bimorph Quick Pack (QP) actuator, and the macro-fiber composite (MFC).

This could be a solution for recharging of batteries of smartphones soon in an environment friendly way.

A team of researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) have measured the energy generated by this film accurately for the first time. And as a result have reached the conclusion that it’s feasible that piezoelectrics could power laptops by using the constant pressure of the user typing on the keyboard.

Dr Madhu Bhaskaran from RMIT University in Melbourne explains her team's research into the creation of an ever-lasting battery.



Boonsri Dickinson mentioned in her article smartplanet.com how this technology has also been used in London club to light its dance floor.

In this article, Boonsri mentioned Georgia Tech researchers have figured out how to make this material generate electricity and perform a calculation at the same time. The study was published in Nano Letters, Advanced Materials. The researcher put zinc oxide onto nanowires because zinc oxide is a good semiconductor. That way, when the material moves, it produces a current when put under mechanical stress.

About Boonsri:

Boonsri Dickinson is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco. She has written for Discover, The Huffington Post, Forbes, Nature Biotech, Technewsdaily.com, Techstartups.com and AOL. She's currently a reporter for Business Insider. She holds degrees from the University of Florida and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Should you buy Samsung Galaxy Note ?

Since 2007, I was using Blackberry and was a big fan of BBM till I found how Samsung Galaxy tab helped one of my friends to do various official works.

Recent Update : Samsung has announced a quarterly profit of around £4.59 billion, this figure is double that of last year and is in part down to the huge success of their Galaxy smartphones including the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2.

It’s just a powerful toy for him. He used it for taking notes, taking photos, video shooting and for video chats with his team or family.  I liked how he played angry bird as a stress buster after a stressful meeting, but I was apprehensive of its size and voice quality.

I was thinking of buying an iPhone and an iPad, but their high cost was prohibiting me from buying it together. I couldn’t delay the purchase much because I required a quality smartphone at least for my daily office work.

At that time, I saw an ad of the Samsung Galaxy note on TV. This 5.3-inch smartphone with stylus was the latest player in the world of connected devices.

I decided to purchase this model because Samsung has shown some amazing innovation in their products, their technology and their concepts in terms of consumer electronics recently. I went to the Samsung store for a demo. I liked the demo and purchased it.  I also took a 3G connection of Vodafone to use this phone.
Here is my review on the Samsung Galaxy Note after using it for one month.

Samsung has already declared it a success, reporting more than one million units shipped worldwide. Actually this model blurs the line between phone and tablet.

Top 12 Features of Samsung Galaxy Note  

1. Samsung galaxy note iPhone has a quick settings toolbar, which is handy for quickly accessing GPS, Wi-Fi and Profile options.

2. The display is super AMOLED (Super Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode)and has a dense 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. I personally appreciate the hybrid nature of the device.

• Super AMOLED differs from other display technologies in that the layer which detects touch is integrated into the screen rather than being overlaid on top. 

• AMOLED display do not need backlights because they emit light itself when electricity is applied.

• If  you held the Super AMOLED display at eye level, you could still see the images on the screen without any blurring or distortion because it provides 180 degree viewing angle.

3. The device includes Android Gingerbread 2.3 and an 8-megapixel/2-megapixel camera combo.

4. It comes with an 8 MP camera on the back and a 2 Mp camera on the front which is great for Video Chat. The phone is a perfect fit for video calling apps, using the Note's 2MP front-facing camera.

5. Tucked in the lower right corner of the Note's frame is the S Pen input device. It probably seems strange that Samsung have introduced the stylus again, but it works well and is accurate to work with. It is perfect for those who like a big screen and with the stylus feature it makes taking notes, writing shopping lists etc a very easy thing to do.  It’s important to note that you can completely ignore it (or lose it) and still use the Galaxy Note just fine.

The S Pen uses Wacom technology and works with the digitizer in the Note's display to allow users to draw and activate things on the screen with the pen-like tip. The tip has 256 levels of pressure sensitivity, so apps that support the S Pen's capabilities can allow the user to draw thick or thin lines depending on how much pressure they put on the screen.

6. Belonging to the Android family, I got access to the many Android applications that are available and grow by the day. The Android Market contains over 400,000 apps, which users can draw from to get the most out of their device and many of the apps are free-of-charge, which is not to be sniffed at.

7. This model is Bluetooth capable so it’s great with a Bluetooth headset.

8. My favourite personal use of this note is for reading e-books and the 1280 x 800 screen makes this a comfortable thing to achieve. It is a similar experience when I decide I need to chill out and just play a game or two.

9. For email, you get the standard Android Gmail client which is always excellent, and Samsung's own Mail app, which can also pull in all manner of POP3/IMAP and Exchange accounts you may use. It also makes full use of the large screen, offering a split, two-pane view of your messages, when put in landscape orientation.

10. All the usual Google apps are on-board, including Maps, Talk, Latitude and Places and you get easy access to the Android Market app store for grabbing new software too. Voice control comes courtesy of a premium version of V-lingo; it's not quite as fully featured as Apple's Siri, but you can quickly train it to navigate media and jump to contacts with the power of your voice alone.


11. I just love the media playback and gaming features. I frequently travel to Pune and I use this device to see movies, TV etc.  There's even a setting that pushes the brightness levels of the screen even further for viewing in direct sunlight, though be prepared to take a noticeable knock to your battery level as a result.
What I love about the Samsung Galaxy Note is that it gives me the perfect capability of both business and personal use, meaning I can take it anywhere and use it for any purpose.

12. Lotus traveler or Microsoft outlook can help you be in touch with my office whereas,  gmail and facebook will  help you to be touch with my friend & family.

Here is a brief summary of pros and cons of this device based on my experience

Pros

• Excellent screen with high resolution 1280x800. This means that you get better viewing fields

• Outstanding camera

• Battery life is a plus. Manage to last a full day and that’s with heavy use.

• Build quality is impressive. Samsung is known for using plastic, which makes some of their devices seem cheap by today’s standards but not the galaxy note. The only plastic you will find here would be the battery back plate and it doesn't look or feel cheap at all.

Cons

• Speakers are weak for a device of this size. 
• Does not support dual SIM
• Camera lens easily scratched

In summary, Samsung’s Galaxy Note is a robust but lightweight device crafted largely of plastics that is very comfortable to use but this phone is not intended for the masses. Not everyone would be comfortable with carrying or holding a device of this size. Overall if you’re looking for something that can function both as a phone and a mini tablet, then this is the device for you.

I still have to do "Icecream" OS update.

OK ! let me also tell you why I wrote this review on Samsung Galaxy Note ?

I consulted few people and everybody told me not to buy it. Consensus was to buy a ipad2 or wait a few months for ipad3. One of them also lend me his ipad for using it, just to convince me that to buy a Samsung device is a wrong decision.

At the end, I must thank Vodafone for having good 3G coverage at least to the places where I frequently visit.


I’m happy that I took this bold decision not to buy iPad.

Interesting reading and additional information: 

1. Apple and Samsung patent cases dismissed
2.How well does Super AMOLED perform next to AMOLED and LCD screens in sunlight by Blake Stimac
3.Is this the next generation of portable devices? Samsung Galaxy Note review by techradar