Lazybit

Version 3.1 is about to go public, this story provides details about some of the entries in the changelog.

+ improved SIM card write speed, only updated records are written
+ the .manifest file is now embedded into the program
+ notifications about missing readers can be optionally disabled
+ automatically enable and start the smart card service, if possible
+ detect ActivClient and let people disable it, for it renders the reader unusable
+ gracefully handle AT&T cards that have incomplete USIM phonebooks (no email file)
+ added support for PTT (push to talk) records available on some 3G cards
- fixed the problem of pasting contacts to FDN sections
- addressed issue of a limited number of contacts copied from Google
- Facebook deprecated their contacts API, so the feature is removed

Full story »

If you're someone who checks the system logs every now and then, to make sure things are running smooth - you may have noticed some errors related to Private Disk:

The PRVDISKAMD64 service failed to start due to the following error: The system cannot find the file specified.

The program works fine, despite these log entries.  The error is not critical and it has no impact on the program's functionality. But why is it there? And what does it mean?

Private Disk comes with several flavours of drivers - 32-bit and 64-bit. Upon installation, both driver types are registered, but only one of them is successfully loaded by the system.

The other type, which is not compatible with the platform, fails to load - hence the log entry is generated.

In other words, you can simply ignore these notifications.

This behaviour will be changed in the next release, so the system won't bother loading modules that are not designed for it. Until then, here is a simple solution:

1. download Autoruns from Sysinternals
2. run the program and switch to the Drivers tab
3. find the drivers the pubisher of which is Dekart
4. uncheck the versions that do not correspond to your system
5. the new settings will come into effect after a restart

On choosing the entries:

• if you have a 32-bit (x86) system, disable the ones ending with "amd64"
• for 64-bit platforms, disable the other ones (as in the example below)

What the modules mean:

• pdfilter - Disk Firewall, the application-layer access filter;
• prvdisk - virtual disk driver (the thing that makes the encrypted drive show up in My computer as a regular disk);
• prjndl - the disk encryption driver that implements AES-256 in CBC mode, our NIST-certified implementation of it.

What this means:

• The latest version is the most feature-rich SIM card management program
• The 1.x and 2.x branches are not supported anymore and they will not be updated

If you've made up your mind - you can upgrade to SIM Manager 3.

A new version of SIM Manager was released the other day, it brings changes on multiple fronts:

• features
• names
• costs

The 3.x branch is a major step forward, the program will be extended in these directions:

• More online synchronization services will be supported. At the moment SIM Manager can synchronize with Yahoo! Contacts and Google Contacts; it can also retrieve the phonebook from Facebook and write it to the SIM. We'll add new services to this list. The most likely candidates are Microsoft Live and Nokia Ovi - but our priorities will be determined by the feedback we receive from people. So if you are interested in seeing your favourite service in SIM Manager - let us know.
• Other methods of retrieving SMS and address books will be added. The first point in the roadmap is retrieving the data via Bluetooth or infrared, thus you won't need any cables or readers at all.
• SyncML support - so you can synchronize with any online service that relies on SyncML to get its job done.

What happens to the names:

• We decided to ditch the number sufix in the name, because it creates confusion among people (and sometimes among dekarters). There will be no more "SIM Manager 2" and "SIM Manager 1.x".
• SIM Manager is the name that we're keeping, the version number is not a part of the name anymore.
• SIMple is the name we chose for a simplified version of SIM Manager - the one you get for free when you purchase our SIM reader. SIMple is not as feature-rich, it lacks the online synchronization features and it cannot exchange data with other systems; it does only one thing - read and write to the SIM. Of course, this can be more than enough for most of us.
• If you're interested in any of the old versions, you can find them on our FTP archive.

Costs:

• The cost of the program is the same.

• There are three update options:

  • From 1.x to 3.x - USD 13
  • From 2.x to 3.x - USD 3
  • From SIMple to SIM Manager - USD 9.90

  • Secret option 4 out of 3 - get it for free, if you do one of these:

    • become a fan of Dekart on Facebook
    • tweet about us
    • write about us on your site
    • or you can just drop us an email and explain why you deserve the license; we're open to arguments :-)

The latest version, at this point, is 3.0, here's a direct download link - it always points to the latest version.

As I write these lines, we're already done adding some changes to 3.1, which will significantly reduce the amount of time needed to write data to cards.

Stay tuned, and have fun with SIM Manager - the best SIM card management program out there.

A fresh version of smart card Logon for Windows 7 x64 is now available: httx://dl.dropbox.com/u/3258602/DKbeta/Logon-x64.msi

The software is also compatible with:

• Windows Vista
• Windows Server 2008

This is a free version without any feature limitations. Get it while it is hot! ;-)

SIM Manager can retrieve the address-book and SMS from the iPhone, via iTunes' backups.

Depending on the firmware version of your iPhone, you can get lucky and recover deleted SMS as well. Take a look at this video for more details:

This procedure does not require a card reader, so technically you can try it out for free - since the trial version of SIM Manager is fully functional during the evaluation period.

Here is a download link for the current release candidate of version 3.0: dl.dropbox.com/u/3258602/DKbeta/SIMManager3-a.exe

Some great changes are on their way - SIM Manager is going to get a major upgrade soon.

The software will be extended with new online synchronization features for services other than Google Contacts and Yahoo! Contacts (which we already support).

A great addition to that is Facebook - the new version of SIM Manager can get all your friends' phone numbers off Facebook and write them to a SIM card. Here is how this works:

In the future, we adding support for SyncML, and the ability to retrieve the data from a phone via Bluetooth.

SIM Manager's icon is changing as well, here are the prototypes:

Stay tuned for more.