Remote Control your Android Phone using SMS

How do you locate your mobile phone if the ringer is off? Maybe you switched the phone to vibrate mode while you were in a meeting and the device is nowhere to be found.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could borrow your colleague’s phone and use it to turn on the ringer of your missing phone?

Meet Agastya, a new Android app that lets you “remotely” perform various tasks on your phone from any other phone via simple SMS commands. The other phone, that is sending the commands, need not be running Android – even the basic Nokia 1100 would do just fine – and either phones don’t require GPS or data plans (Internet).

The workflow is easy. You send an SMS command from a friend’s phone to your own phone in a given format and the app reacts accordingly. For instance, a command like “ringer” would turn on the ringer while “silent” would put the phone to silent mode.

The app can also help you retrieve your missed calls list or your incoming text messages via, you got it right, SMS. This feature should be handy for people who own multiple phones – you can easily check the call and SMS logs of your secondary phone from the one that’s in your pocket.

Here’s a complete list of SMS commands that you can try on your Android phone:

• SILENT – Turn off the phone’s ringer
• RINGER – Turn on the ringer
• IMEI – Get the IMEI number* of your phone
• LAST MESSAGES – Retrieve the last 5 text messages received on your phone
• LAST CALLS – Know the last 5 missed/received/dialed numbers
• <CONTACT> – Fetch the contact number of a person from the address book.

[*] The IMEI number can help you block a misplaced (or stolen) phone from accessing mobile networks (type *#06# to know the IMEI of your existing phone).

Agastay isn’t the first app that offers such features. The more popular Where’s My Droid app can not only turn on the ringer of your phone remotely but will also send you the phone’s current GPS location by SMS. There’s overlap but these apps are more inclined towards locating your lost phone while Agastay is like a command console – you can toggle between phone states or even fetch details of a contact remotely from the phone’s address book. The IMEI feature is also handy for blacklisting your misplaced phone.

In my tests, Agastya did work as advertised and the SMS based commands executed almost instantly though the app did crash in one instance. The company says that Agastay works on Android 2.2 and above.

On a related note, if you aren’t allowed to carry cell phones in your office, you should grab the SMS to Gmail app as it will auto-forward all your incoming text messages and missed calls list to your work email address.

4G LTE Network soon in INDIA

Here comes the 4G network to India, though only in a trial phase. Mukesh Ambani's fourth-generation telecom services are soon to rollout across the country.

Next month Reliance Industries Limited will start with its 4G network in Jamnagar before the project is escalated across India.

Only Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has secured 4G spectrum in all the circles via its subsidiary Infotel Broadband services. Airtel has won rights for Punjab, Karnataka, Kolkata and Maharashtra where as Qualcomm to come up with the network in Haryana, Kerala, Mumbai and Delhi. Aircel has managed to acquire 4G networks in Assam, orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, J&K and North East circles. Tikona will launch the service in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, UP and Gujarat where as Mauritius based Augere Limited has managed to grab only the Madhya Pradesh circle.

4G networks is ultra-fast Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology facilitating high-speed Internet browsing, HD video streaming, voice over LTE, data downloading at 100MBps to 1GBps speed and location-based services.

RIL is roping in vendors such as Huawei, Alcatel Lucent and ZTE for 4G equipments. Presently Huawei holds 50% market share in the world for LTE equipment.

4G networks is ultra-fast Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology which is now available in only limited regions in the world. It facilitates high-speed Internet browsing, HD video streaming, voice over LTE, data downloading at 100MBps speed and location-based services.

Bharti AirTel, the largest mobile operator in India, is also learned to roll out its first 4G mobile telecom network very soon, probably with a trial phase in Kolkata. 

Motorola Gleam Plus in India soon

Motorola Gleam is a symbol of style from Motorola. Motorola Gleam Plus comes with a slim and stylish design. Gleam is perfect for those who are looking to add style to there life. Apart from the stylish design what makes style icon is the animated illuminations with incoming calls and messages. It features a 2MP camera, supports the memory card up to 16 GB, features GPRS connectivity, Bluetooth v 2.1, stereo FM radio with RDS and manymore.

Size and Design:

Motorola Gleam has a sleek and stylish flip design. The phone is light weight and has an elegant and glossy look. It weighs just 105 grams and has a depth of 13.5mm. It is 52.5mm wide and about 107mm long. The shinny look of the phone is bound to catch every eye.

Display:

It features a TFT display having a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels and 256K color support. The screen size is 2.8 inches and the pixel density is 167ppi. The display quality is very much average. There is also an external display in the phone with icons.

Camera:

It features a 2MP camera having maximum image recording resolution of 1600x1200 pixels. There aren't any image enhancing features in the phone to be talked about. It does record VGA quality video and there isn't any secondary camera in the phone.

Storage Capacity:

The internal storage capacity of the phone is 50MB. The phone does have a microSD card slot which supports the memory card up to 16 GB.

Connectivity:

The connectivity features of the phone are again very much the basic with no support for EDGE, 3G and Wi-FI. It features GPRS connectivity, Bluetooth v 2.1 with A2DP and EDR and micro USB v2.0 with HS.

Battery:

It features a Standard Li-Ion 750 mAH battery that is capable of providing up to 417 hrs of stand by time and up to 4 hrs and 50 min of talk time.

Other features:

It supports HTML but not Adobe Flash. The phone has a stereo FM radio with RDS, the games re pre-installed. It doesn’t support GPS connectivity. The phone has Organizer, Voice memo and predictive text input features. It is available in Silver and Winter White Colors.