Pass Safe Gingerbread update

Upgrading to Gingerbread (Android 2.3) will break the Pass Safe's database. In order to avoid losing all your passwords, you should make a backup of your passwords (Export DB function in Pass Safe - unencrypted to make sure that you will be able to read the passwords after upgrade), upgrade to Gingerbread, reinstall Pass Safe and import the passwords (Import DB function in Pass Safe - make sure to use "Import DB (unencrypted)" if you saved the database unencrypted).

And remember, it's always a good idea to make backups before doing any firmware update, no matter how small!

1.5.1 Update:
Pass Safe (even the free version) will dump the database if it will crash after a system update on the sdcard's root directory, in a file named passsafe_crash_db.dump. If you did not create a backup before the system update, you can use this file to recover your passwords. However, you will need an Android phone which was not updated to Gingerbread in order to read these passwords. Follow these steps to recover your database:

1. After update, try to start Pass Safe. It will create a file named passsafe_crash_db.dump on your sdcard's root directory
2. Rename that file passsafe.dump. Warning - it will override any other file named passsafe.dump on your sdcard's root directory.
3. Find another phone which was not updated to Gingerbread (Android 2.3.3) and insert your sdcard (containing newly renamed file - passsafe.dump) into this phone.
4. Install (or update to the last version) Pass Safe Free.
5. Open Pass Safe Free, press menu button and select "Import Database". Caution - do not select "Import DB (unencrypted).
6. Press menu button again and select "Export DB (unencrypted)". Caution - do not select "Export Database".
7. Remove the sdcard and plug it into your phone (the one updated to Gingerbread).

8. Reinstall Pass Safe on your phone.
9. Open Pass Safe, press menu and select "Import DB (unencrypted)". Caution - do not select "Import Database".

Your passwords should be available now.

Find Me!

I’ve wrote a new application which can help android users to locate their phone in case it was stolen. With this application, you can setup your phone to send its location upon receiving an SMS which contains a predefined keyword.

After installation, the first thing which has to be done is to setup the application:

1. Choose a keyword. When the phone receives an SMS containing only this keyword (please note that it is case sensitive), it will start sending regularly its location to a predefined destination. Or you can even specify the destination inside the SMS – I’ll get back to this.

2. Select a delivery method – SMS or e-mail. If you prefer e-mail, you need a data plan for your phone. If you select SMS, normal SMS rates will apply. Please note that if you select e-mail, you will also receive an attachment – a KML file which can be uploaded into Google Maps or Google Earth; you’ll be able to track the movement of your phone since you’ve started to monitor its location.

3. Select a destination – a phone number, if at previous step you’ve selected SMS, or a e-mail address if you have selected e-mail as a delivery method.

4. Select the update rate. This is the frequency of e-mails or SMS messages with location updates.

5. If you have selected e-mail as delivery method, you have to setup an email account from which the e-mails with your phone location will be sent. You have to input a username and a password (the password will be encrypted, so nobody will be able to extract it). It works only with Google email accounts.

6. Press “Save” button. From now one, you can track your phone by sending an SMS containing the keyword. Your phone will keep sending updates to its location until it receives an SMS containing only “STOP” – case sensitive.

A helpful feature is that you can also control some parameters via SMS. You can specify in the message parameters like the frequency of the updates, delivery method and destination. For this, your SMS should look like this:

<keyword>

Param:<delivery method>:<update rate>:<destination>

where <keyword> is the keyword chosen by you (it’s case sensitive) when you’ve setup the application, <update rate> is the frequency with which the application will send the location, in minutes, delivery method can be either “SMS” or “e-mail” (case sensitive) and the destination is a phone number or an email address. “Param:” is important and it is case sensitive, after this the application expects some parameters. Here is a real life example:

myKeyword Param:e-mail:5:myemail@someemail.com

Note that there is a space only between the keyword and “Param:”

VIN Decoder

I’ve completed a new application which can be used to check car’s VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). It can provide useful information to someone who is looking into buying a used car. By checking the car’s VIN code, one could find out if the VIN is  valid or if it was modified – stolen cars often have modified VIN numbers in order to avoid detection.

This application can show where a car was produced, its manufacturer, production year*, model, engine, etc** and it will also verify the check digit. Often, an invalid check digit is a proof of an modified VIN (except for some manufacturers which are not always using a check digit – e.g. Volkswagen or Citroen).

 

     

However, due to the fact that car manufacturers do not always use the same VIN structure, this program is not 100% accurate. You can use this program to filter out cars with obvious fake VIN (like the example in the second picture - the check digit is invalid, the model year is listed as 2008 and the platform is E39, which is impossible since E39 platform was used only until 2005) but if you want to be 100% sure that the VIN is not fake, it’s better to check the VIN at your local dealership.

*note that the year code can be the calendar year in which a vehicle is built, or a model or type year allocated by the manufacturer.

**available information depends on the car’s manufacturer; apart from some specific fields (like country and serial number), the manufacturer will decide what VIN structure will be used; some manufacturers will provide full info on their VIN structure, some other won’t do that; some manufacturers will  change their VIN structure over the years, while others will keep same structure for many years; some will use the same codes for multiple models and some will have one code for each model.

aUnit Converter

      aUnit Converter is a unit converter for Android smartphones. It can convert between more than 550 various units of measure grouped in 14 categories. Available on Android Market.