PhoneSCREAM (iTunes Link) is the first of hopefully more anti-theft app from Singapore company BAK2U. The company develops anti-theft software for many mobile phones and laptops that can help increase your chances of retrieving your missing gadgets if you have their software installed.

Bak2U’s PhoneBAK software, currently available for most mobile phone platform, has some sophisticated features that will alert you when your phone is stolen, report the unauthorised SIM card’s information and also track the phone’s location via the mobile cell location.

BUT, for PhoneBAK to run on the iPhone, it probably requires the app to be running in the background for it to be able to detect and then send out the SMS without the thief’s knowledge, which was why the app never got the stamp of approval from Apple. That’s where PhoneSCREAM comes in.

What is PhoneSCREAM

PhoneSCREAM is like the sad little cousin of PhoneBAK which might deter some clueless thief for a short while. What it does is when activated, should anyone lift the iPhone, the in-built accelerometer will detect the movement and scream – by default, a siren will be heard. To deactivate it, you just need to press the Home button. You can also custom record a warning via the mic and use that as the siren. To change to that or to two other siren sounds, just go to the Settings and select PScream and make your choices there. Pretty simple and easy to use.

See it in action here:

How loud can it scream?

Therein lies the problems for this app. Its simplicity also makes it a less than effective way to deter theft of your iPhone. It’s main objective of alerting you when the iPhone is shifted, is easily thwarted if you had previously set the volume to low or silent. It will be more effective when the accelerometer detects the movement, when the siren goes, the app should also push the volume up to maximum for it to be effective. However, anyone who plugged their earphones to the iPhone, the PhoneSCREAM is rendered useless as the alert sounds comes out through the earphones.

Press HOME and be home free

Furthermore, it’s too easy to deactivate the alarm. Like an alarm clock, most people’s first reaction to shut the alarm is to press the biggest button on the clock. For the iPhone, it is the Home button. When PhoneSCREAM is running and screaming its head off, by pressing the Home button, the alarm is switched off and voila, instant peace. A better option would be to set a numeric key lock that will only silent the siren if the right key combination is keyed in.

According to the app’s description in the App Store, PhoneSCREAM disables the auto lock so that it will always detect motion but will lock the iPhone when the siren is triggered. However, this doesn’t seem to work for the iPod Touch as when the siren goes off, after the Home button is pressed, the auto-lock did not lock the iPod Touch and just returns to the Springboard. Anyone with iPhone can verify that it will display the number pad for unlocking?

Another thing to add is that the app will keep your iPhone awake if it is activated. Forgot about it and your battery will probably go flat before it can start screaming.

i-PhoneSCREAM – Give me PhoneBAK soon!

That said, it is unfortunate that due to Apple’s strict restriction over the SDK prevented Bak2U to offer PhoneBAK for the iPhone. Though PhoneSCREAM can serve as a _first line of defense, its limitations are apparent and makes it far less effective as an anti-theft software. Hopefully the guys at Bak2U will persevere and hopefully we’ll see a closer copy of PhoneBAK for the iPhone in the near future, or at least a beefed up PhoneSCREAM soon.

PhoneSCREAM (iTunes Link) is available at the App Store for US$0.99. Also check out other iPhone apps from Bak2U at the App Store.

Screen shots

vLingo follows the footstep of Google Mobile by offering voice recognition that will let you initiate calls, search the net and also keep you updated with your friends on social networks like Facebook and Twitter – all without typing. Ok, you’ll still need to tap a few times to start and initiate the voice recognition.

vLingo works by listening for a keyword, followed by the words or phrases to work its magic. Keywords like “call” – to initiate a call, “search” – to initiate Yahoo or Google search and lastly either “facebook” or “twitter” to update the respective sites. After “thinking” about what you said, the app also shows you the possible terms you spoke so that you can fine tune your result.

I’ve no problems getting it to correctly call up contacts from the Address Book, but had more issues with local street and building names, Amoy Street, Maxwell Road and Vivocity all were misses.

vLingo – iTunes Link – FREE but not available for iPod Touch

Amazon also launched their own Amazon App that puts the whole store in your iPhone or iPod Touch. The app allows you to search through the Amazon store, view and edit your Wish Lists and with tier 1-Click system, also makes it easy to purchase their products straight from your iPhone. It also has this feature call Amazon Remembers that allows you to snap a photo with your iPhone, store it on their server. Amazon then employs their Mechanical Turks to search through their inventory and returns you a link to purchase that item from Amazon, a high-tech shopping list.

FYI, the Mechanical Turks, or Artificial Artificial Intelligence, is Amazon’s own humanized work force that gets paid for working on requests by other people or businesses, usually for small tasks like finding a product that matches your photo with the Amazon App.

Amazon App – iTunes Link – FREE but NOT available from Singapore App Store

PhoneBAK Lite (pending approval) is a homegrown product from BAK2u, the mobile security solutions company, that had its original App rejected by Apple. The original version of PhoneBAK was suppose to send out a pre-determined SMS and Email if an unauthorised SIM card was inserted with location of the iPhone for the owner to track. But according to this post from The Singapore iPhone Guide, Paddy Tan, the owner of BAK2u explained that it was probably rejected because they were using private APIs and also PhoneBAK needs to be running in the background for it to detect, which is not allowed by the iPhone SDK. So let’s cross our fingers and hope the Lite version gets approved and you can have more security on your iPhone.

Watch how PhoneBAK would have worked if it was approved.

In the meantime, check out other Apps from BAK2u here.

Lastly, if you are on Twitter, do follow iHeartApple to get updated on our latest entries. And if you have not gotten a Twitter client on your iPhone or iPod Touch, read this review from The Apple Blog which goes through 12 of the most popular Twitter applications you can find in the App Store. There’s bound to be one that you will like. My favorite is Tweetsville and Twinkle. What’s yours?