The iPhone’s sleek design, portability, and high demand make it a prime target for thieves keen to flip the phone for a few hundred dollars. But while Apple has introduced a number of security features to help keep the phone’s memory secure (you can now automatically delete the memory after too many failed password attempts, assuming you use one), until now there hasn’t been an easy to way to actually find a lost phone and get it back.
iPhone developer Mike Schneider thinks he has the answer: Private-I (iTunes link), a LoJack for your iPhone. The 99 cent application will automatically detect your current location using the phone’s GPS or triangulation features (depending which version of the phone you have), and submits the data to an user-defined email address.
Unfortunately, the program has some drawbacks. In order for it to access the phone’s position data and send the notification email, the thief will need to actually open the application from the iPhone’s home screen. The app is designed to be as tempting to thieves as possible, prominently advertising the word “PRIVATE” in bright red letters. If the thief is foolish enough to open the app, they’re presented with a screen saying that ostensibly private images are loading (this gives the app time to pinpoint the phone’s location and shoot off the email).
Private-I is by no means foolproof – any intelligent criminal is going to remove the SIM card as soon as they swipe the phone (and then reset the memory as soon as possible). But for fending off the run-of-the-mill idiot who can’t resist pulling a five finger discount, it could work wonders.
Schneider is also responsible for the handy Direct Line(iTunes link), an app that automatically navigates through corporate phone trees so you can actually talk to someone.
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Is anyone else laughing at what the thief has to do for the location to be reported? I guess there are dumb criminals out there, but this isn’t going to help much even if you know the location. The idea is good, the implementation is flawed.
Thanks for the laugh.
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For a buck, it’s worth a shot.
Nice new tool. I would sacrifice a buck for it. So long as I could catch theives
But the crook needs to click the PRIVATE icon for it to work. It would be better if you loose your iphone, you call a number, enter you phones number and the system emails your phone and it sends an auto email back to the phone owner with location.
The idea is good, and for only a dollar then why not? Probably will not be very successful though considering the thief would have to be pretty dumb to open the application. And what is someone going to do even if they had the location of their stolen phone? Call the police to help escort you in retrieving it?
I think the idea is that the thief will be inquisitive enough to open an up that says “private” on there, just like “don’t press the red button”.
1. u get the phone back only if the thief actually OPENED the application
2. Thief has to click on ALLOW and not “DENY” when iPhone asks user permission to use the location.
3. and thief has to stay at that place till the cops arrive, and not move. if he moves, he has to reopen the application
Awesome.
Jay (http://www.konsulted.com)
Well written article, showing both sides of the equation. Apple Neeeeeds to allow apps to run in the bg. Then this would be perfect!
This is pretty cool, I use iHound Software for my thumb drive and external HD, but they haven’t come out with a iPhone version yet. This is pretty sweet, maybe apple will allow some programs to run in the background in the future.
i guess its worth it
ttp://cashtutor.blogspot.com
http://cashtutor.blogspot.com (can use as much traffic as I can get lol)
Jason,
Thanks for the review.
In response to some of the comments above, there are certainly limitations to the program. It has been an interesting challenge programming within the limitations of the SDK. Without allowing programs to run in the background, I couldn’t design a more robust solution. That said, I am coming around to Apple’s approach in managing programs. My iPhone almost never crashes, and continues to run as fast as it did when I bought it. If apps could run in the background, my iPhone would be as painful to use as my old Windows mobile device.
On the issue of whether the thief needs to give permission to access the phone’s location, once the application is opened twice by the user, the prompts no longer appear. The application walks the user through opening the app twice in order to prevent the warning from popping up on a potential thief.
Again, thanks to Jason and Mike A. for featuring Private-I. I am a huge fan of the site!
–Mike
http://www.thisistech.com
Why not let the user choose an icon for it — the phone icon, the sms icon, the email icon, etc, and then let us place it where it’s normally found, and fool the person into clicking it?
For example, let’s say I chose the “Photos” icon (the stock icon that launches the photo gallery) and then positioned Private-I in the upper-right-ish portion of the home screen. To the usual person, it appears to be the photo gallery.
Then I take the “real” photo gallery icon, and put it on the second/third home screen.
The same idea could be done with any of the stock features (phone, sms, email, etc). Perhaps even allow the user to -switch- icons with stock. So let’s say I chose that photo gallery icon, Private-I might let me assign the stock photo gallery icon a -new- icon to tell them apart.
Just some thoughts.
Oh, and then make “Loading Private Photos” a user-definable field to take it a step further: “Loading $customFieldLabel” — so if I give Private-I, say, the SMS icon, I could make it say “Loading SMS Messages” if I wanted. Or even “Loading Contacts”, or whatever.
Hmm, so you know where your phone is? Haven’t you already reported it stolen/lost to AT&T?
Do you plan to drive to the location and yell around for anyone with a stolen iPhone?
Is there a jailbreak app that does something similar in the background? I’ve been looking for something that would toss my position to a private webserver via scp or another secure channel on a regular interval.
I have to say that I think this is pretty nifty idea.
Is there a program where one can find their phone if it is lost? I know this program relates to stolen phones, but what about one that we simply lose. With the GPS function, can’t the owner simply activate the GPS to figure out where the phone is?
This app is ridiculous… think about it: Even if someone finds your phone and clicks the icon, how long do you think he will keep this app running? 30 sec? a minute? five minutes?
As soon as he closes the app, the location information will no longer update (since iPhone apps CANNOT run in the background.)
Good luck finding this person!
I got the Owner Information app from the app store.
(check out – http://www.phonefound.com)
You can enter your personal information and create a wallpaper with your information on it.
This way in case an HONEST person finds your iPhone and actually want to return it they can easily figure out who is the owner.
This looks like a copy of GadgetTrak for the iPhone, which was launched in August, which is free due to the limitations imposed by the SDK, it also gets network data and stores the data for you on the server.