Lose your smartphone, lose your life!

Lose your smartphone, lose your life!

We've all done it. We rely on our smartphones to store all those important photos, numbers, and emails, and when we (inevitably) lose the phone it feels like you lose your whole life. There is nothing worse than being told by a smug friend, after your phone has gone, that smartphones are called that for a reason, and you should have installed a tracking device!

Being a helpful bunch at Quintessentially, we thought we'd help you out:

iPhone

The most popular tracking app was MobileMeFind, but it has stopped allowing new accounts. What else should you try? Search the App Store for 'Device Locator'. You will need to create an account at device-locator.com. This fledgling app only costs a few bucks, but enables you to locate your device, display a message on its screen, take a photo of whoever is using it, or get it to make a noise to help you locate it in the house.

Obviously you need to leave your GPS turned-on, and it must be somewhere it can receive a GPS signal, otherwise it has to use cell towers to get a 'fix' which may only be accurate to 1Km. This is where Google Latitude comes in.

When Google's Street View cars were driving around, they also plotted the locations of WiFi networks. If your phone, with WiFi turned-on is anywhere near a plotted network, then Google can get a fix within 20m or so. What's even better is the Latitude app is free from the app store. Just use your existing or phone's email address to create an account on Google. You can see where your phone is, quite accurately at www.google.com/latitude.

Recommendation: Use both!

Android

As above, download the Google Latitude app to be able to get an accurate phone location from any web browser. In the phone settings (Settings>Location & security) tick the boxes for My Location>Use wireless networks and Use GPS satellites. Create an account and view the location as for the iPhone.

For a little more control, download the Lookout Mobile Security app (www.mylookout.com). The free version acts as an anti-virus, locates your phone and instructs it to sound a siren to help find it when close-by. It also automatically backs-up your contacts, photos etc. which can then be accessed online. For $30 a year you gain the features to remote lock and wipe, and also the ability to restore all of your info to a new phone.

Blackberry & Windows Phones

Lookout (details above) is also available for Windows phones & Blackberries (make sure your model has GPS), but for those of you whose Blackberry is a work phone, maybe you might prefer some peace & quiet by letting it remain unfound!

But how do you get your device back?

All of the apps above rely on your phone being able to get an accurate GPS fix, and not be sitting in a block of flats (it won't work out what floor its on) for you to be able to know where it is. There is one clever piece of software available for Android tablets & phones (and also for PCs & Macs) that is second to none. In addition to the features of apps, it can take photos of the miscreant using your device, and even show screenshots - handy if whoever has your device is checking their Facebook account, making identification a formality. If they try and insert a new SIM card, the app even texts you the new mobile number! This program is open source (free for most features) and available at www.preyproject.com/.