Skip to main content

Track your lost or stolen Android or iOS devices online (Windows Phone and PC/MAC/Linux too!)


Find My iPhone for iOS devices
With one in five people in the world currently owning a smartphone, it has become a goldmine in recent year for thieves to make quick cash by stealing and reselling those android and iphones.  At this time of year with the hustle of the holiday shopping spree, it's very easy to fall prey to an opportunistic pickpocket or even to simply forget your device somewhere due to the many simultaneous thoughts juggling to your mind.  Luckily, both Apple and Google have both provided native solutions for the average user so that they can fight back against these scenarios.

Android Device Manager for Android devices
Both "Find my iPhone" and "Android device Manager" can be located in the App store and the Google Play store for free.   Both apps provide a way to locate your device on a map, lock your device, Ring your device even if the sound is off, and/or wipe your device from either running the app on another device, or through your favorite web browser.

Here are the web browser links:

With the Apple app being slightly more mature, it does offer slightly more in the way of options such as password protecting the app and the option to send a message to the lock screen of your missing device.  On Android there is no option at this time to send a message to the device screen but you can change the lock screen password after locking it from the cloud. 

Multiple devices can be tracked on Find my iPhone

Multiple devices can be tracked on Android device manager
Set up is quick and easy with both apps walking you through the process.  Most people will be up and running within minutes of installing the app on their device.  For those of you wondering, it is not just limited to smartphones as these apps also work on Google and Apple tablets such as the Nexus 7 and iPad mini.  

Sadly, what neither of these apps do is provide a way to take a picture of the perpetrator that has stolen your phone.  There are third party solutions such as Prey that will do that for you and add more features for a price.

Windows Phone users, don't feel left out!  You have a Find my phone option as well through your web browser.

For those that don't mind  jailbreaking your iPhone/iPad, you can install igotya from Cydia which allows you to take pics from the camera of your lost phone.  Android users have a wealth of options such as Lookout which has a lock screen camera option as a free service.  Other notable third party options are avast, androidlost, Cerberus, and the previously mentioned Prey.

One great thing about Prey is that it's not just for iOS and Android devices,  but also for PC, Mac, and Linux systems (Ubuntu included) so that you can have one central place to track most of your devices.  There are plenty of choices out there with this article highlighting just a few of these options.  Remember that no app is perfect and there may be ways around it but luckily many would be thieves are not that intelligent to begin with. 

With the power to track down your devices, also remember that you should never confront the thief directly.  If possible, have a police officer retrieve your property for safety.  


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Retron 5 hacked to launch RetroArch and play ROMS off your SD card

It appears that a someone going by the screenname of  RetroN Labo  on Youtube has successfully hacked the Retron 5 console to run the full version of  Retroarch.  In the video shown, various emulators that are not part of the original firmware are playable including the PC Engine, Playstation One, Nintendo DS, and Wonderswan.  As the stock firmware from the Retron 5 is programmed to load games from an original cartridge when it is inserted, this hack appears to run ROM and ISO files, most likely from the SD card slot built into the back of the console. In most of instances shown in the video, emulation appeared to run smooth, and the games previewed looked playable. Currently, Hyperkin (Retron 5 manufacturer) is in hot water with Retroarch's creators due to using their emulator cores without permission.  After being discovered, Hyperkin has shared their code, and claims that they have removed any infringing code from their console.  The Retroarch group feels diffe
14 comments
Read more

Clean up your Facebook activity log with Absterge

Lifesperience is now Raycommend, which can be found here:    Ray Commend   Facebook is a platform that tends to elicit many different reactions from people when asked.  Whether you love it or hate it, every day millions of people from all over the world and all walks of life log on to the site or one of its various apps to catch up with family and friends.  As the years go by, one tends to build up a lot of content and in the case of many, some embarrassing content can be buried deep within your timeline. The fact that Facebook's settings can be confusing, even though they have tried to simplify them does not help. We're now in a day and age where many employers look at Facebook accounts long before they consider hiring you, so how does one clean up without spending hours manually clicking on on timeline icons?  Enter the Absterge script. According to the Absterge page: "Absterge works such that a user logs in to the Facebook Timeline, and navigates to the
24 comments
Read more

Your Wii's second life as an emulation and media center powerhouse

Lifesperience is now Raycommend, which can be found here:    Ray Commend   While the Wii was initially a very popular console for Nintendo, for most people, it has gone unused for years gathering dust.  More powerful consoles and devices have taken its place and even Nintendo themselves have practically abandoned it with many of their own channels going offline over the last year.  Chances are that by this point, your Wii is long out of its warranty period.  If you're willing to take about an hour of your time, you can turn your old Wii into a great emulation station and decent media center for the kids. The things that you will need to get the most out of your old Wii console are: An SD card (up to 32gb) An internet connection The first thing that you will need to do is softmod your console which will allow it to run unsigned software outside of Nintendo's ecosystem.  Yes!  One of the great things about the Wii (for our purposes) is that you don't need t
2 comments
Read more