This is sort of confusing to explain, but I’ll try. Basically, some pictures unexpectedly showed up on my and my wife’s new cell phones. Here’s the story:
[ul]
[li]My wife and I purchased identical cell phones two days ago. They are SonyEricsson Z520a’s. In addition to the usual cellular connectivity, they also have Bluetooth and an IR port.[/li][li]Both of the phones are using new SIM cards and are not using SIM’s from any other phone.[/li][li]I updated my contact list by exporting info from my PalmPilot using the IR ports on the Palm and the phone. I also sent some calendar info to the phone from the Palm.[/li][li]I transferred some contact info to my wife’s phone. For a few contacts, I used the IR ports on the phones. For some contacts, I decided to experiment with Bluetooth connectivity. I set up the connection and the contact info was sent and received without incident.[/li][li]While Bluetooth was active, my wife’s phone sat on our computer desk. My wife was using the computer to surf the internet. The computer was running Outlook Express and Firefox. (Computer is a Gateway 500SE running WinXP,SP2. There is a NetGear Wireless (g) adapter. However, the internet is actually accessed using a DSL modem connected to the computer’s NIC. The wireless adapter, while connected via USB, is “disabled”.)[/li][li]While the Bluetooth was active, I was holding my phone and standing next to my wife. The two phones were less than a meter apart.[/li][/ul]
Now for the spooky part:
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[li]A few minutes later, my wife was exploring her new phone and discovered pictures in the MyMEdia section. The pictures are three random pictures of family and friends. The pictures are stored in my “My pictures” file on the Gateway computer. No one had accessed these (or any other) pictures that evening.[/li][li]I discovered five pictures had taken up residence in my phone. Three were the same pictures as my wife had acquired. Two were different. All the pictures are pictures hosted on the Gateway computer.[/li][li]According to the info with the pictures on my phone, they had been received by my phone yesterday evening. At the time listed, my phone was attached to the charger in another room. The phone was not in use at the time.[/li][li]The times listed for the pictures on my wife’s phone were twenty to thirty minutes IN THE FUTURE. The date and time on her phone were accurate.[/li][/ul]
How did these pictures leap out of our computer and into our phones? All of the pictures are ours and are in the computer. They are not stored anywhere else. They are not on the PalmPilot, so I didn’t send them from there. The only way that my computer can communicate with the outside world is via NIC connected to DSL modem, the NetGear wireless adapter, a standard phone (voice/fax modem), printer, and monitor. The DSL modem also is a wireless g router. It does transmit and is currently unsecured. However, the pictures in question are not on the internet, nor were they being used. These are simply five random pictures out of the several thousand that I have.
Are my phones possessed? One of the pictures that appeared on my phone, but not my wife’s, is a picture of my recently deceased grandmother. A picture that is on both phones is a very happy picture of a friend who is dying of cancer (he wasn’t diagnosed at the time of the picture and he is still alive today, though in failing health). One picture is of my wife taken during a small vacation she and I took after the death of our son. Another picture is of my in-laws sitting on our front porch while the kids searched for Easter eggs. The last is a picture of my sister and her two kids. All five pictures are of vastly separate occassions and are stored in different folders. None had been accessed recently.
How could this have happenned? Thanks for reading my rather lengthy post.