Sunday, June 19, 2011

Track your cellphone « General « MyBroadband Tech and IT News

We’re all so reliant on our cellphones that losing one is a tragedy. Use some of these tools to keep tabs on your mobile line.

It’s everyone’s worst nightmare: a stolen or lost cellphone.

Not only is it a pain in the neck (and potentially expensive) to replace, but it is also a massive inconvenience. Even when you do get a replacement piece of hardware it has none of your applications on it, it hasn’t been customised like your old one and, most importantly, it doesn’t have your data; all those numbers, important messages and top game scores – just gone.

Hopefully you’ve backed up your numbers somewhere but even then it can take ages to restore them all and they’re bound to be a complete mess when you’re finished.

Losing a cellphone is one of the easiest things to do. If you’re quick though, you might just be able to get your prized hardware back before it’s picked up by some passer-by, or before it has been stolen, erased and sold on in the black market.

Today there are dozens of applications that can be used to track stolen and lost cellphones. Here is a list of some of the ways to achieve this.

Most mobile phones today have built-in GPSes and most hardware makers offer services to locate your missing phone. Many HTC phones for example, include HTCSense, a service that both syncs your mobile data as well as helps you find your phone when it is lost. It’s worth checking out your phone maker’s website for similar tools that may already be available before you install third party applications.

Android users could also use something like MobileDefense which is available in the Android market and allows you to track a phone, lock it remotely or even wipe the data on the phone from afar.

Apple iPhone users that already subscribe to Apple’s MobileMe can use that to find their missing phone. Like most tools, if you can’t find your phone or you know it has definitely been stolen, you can remote kill the phone. MobileMe isn’t free but it does include many other services

Another, cheaper, option for Apple users is to use something like iHound which can locate a phone, sound an alarm on the phone, wipe the data remotely and much more. iHound is also available for Android devices.
Blackberry users can achieve the same effect using tools such as SmrtGuard or BuddyGuard, both of which will locate and wipe a lost or stolen phone.

Users with mobile phones that are using Windows can use Microsoft’s My Phone software. It’s free, and besides allowing users to synchronise and backup data, it can also be used to locate a lost phone. It provides the user with the location of the phone when it was last synchronised. My Phone can also be used to reset the phone to its default factory settings remotely which effectively wipes the phone clean. My Phone can be downloaded on most Windows-based phones and is included in Windows Phone 7.

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