Find My Phone

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Find my Phone or similar is the name given by various manufacturers to software and a service for smartphones, whereby a registered user can find the approximate location of the phone if switched on, over the Internet, or by the phone sending e-mail or SMS text messages. This helps to locate lost or stolen phones.[1][2]

Microsoft's My Windows Phone service offers a free facility called "Find my Phone" for phones running Windows Phone. Apple offers a similar app - Find My iPhone for free. Similarly, Google, has designed the "Android Device Manager" app for select phones running Android. At least one of these can be installed remotely on a phone, after it has gone missing.[3][4]

Some of these applications may have limitations which can be checked before installing, such as only working in some countries, dependencies upon the phone's implementation of GPS, etc.[3] Similar paid or free apps are also available for all device platforms.

Similar applications are available for computers. Computers rarely have built-in GPS receivers or mobile telephone network connectivity, so these methods of location and signalling are not available. A computer connected to the Internet by a cabled connection gives its location as the location of the Internet Service Provider (ISP) it is connected to, usually a long distance away and not very useful, although the IP address may help. However, a WiFi-connected computer (typically a laptop computer) can find its approximate location by checking WiFi networks in range against a database, allowing approximate location to be determined and signalled over the Internet.[5]

References

  1. ↑ BBC: Inside a knife-point mugging, 9 July 2012. Describes a street robbery of a phone and other items, and how a suspect (in possession of the phone, and recorded on security cameras in the area) was quickly tracked and arrested through a Find my Phone service.
  2. ↑ AP: Cop accused of stealing driver's iPhone from wreck, 12 July 2012. iPhone tracked as having been stolen by policeman from car crash.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 ReadWriteWeb: How to Find Your Lost or Stolen Android Phone for Free. Comparison of several "Find my Phone" applications for Android phones.
  4. ↑ Mlot, Stephanie. (2013-08-02) Google Unveils Android Version of 'Find My iPhone' | News & Opinion. PCMag.com. Retrieved on 2013-08-09.
  5. ↑ PC Magazine: 6 Ways to Find Your Stolen Laptop, July 2011


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