iPhone is the world’s best smart phone available today without any doubt. People carry their phones everywhere they go, and hence there is always a chance of them forgetting their iPhone somewhere or the iPhone getting stolen. Learn how to track, message, erase and recover your lost or stolen iPhone.
Also read: 4 Ways to Track and Recover your Stolen Laptop
Track or Locate your iPhone
1. Track your iPhone via MobileMe
Apple has announced a new service called Find My iPhone that will allow iPhone owners to remotely locate their lost or stolen iPhones using the iPhone’s GPS. The service will be available as part of Apple’s MobileMe online subscription service.
Find My iPhone will pinpoint the iPhone’s current location using Google Maps and let owners send and display a message on the iPhone even if it’s locked, presumably to provide information on how to return the phone to the finder of the phone. The Find My iPhone feature can also force the iPhone to play a sound for 2 minutes, which is useful for not only getting the attention of the finder of iPhone but also locating it between couch cushions.
The Find My iPhone feature will require a subscription to Apple’s MobileMe service, which costs $99 a year (currently $65.99 on Amazon.com) after a free 2-month trial.
2. iPhone anti-theft solution – iLocalis
iLocalis lets you track your iPhone device location and also remote control it! It is considered as the best theft-tracking and remote control utility for Apple iPhone.
iLocalis has the following uses-
- Never lose you iPhone: If it is missing just log onto the iLocalis site and you’ll know where it was located last.
- Retrieve a stolen iPhone: If your iPhone is stolen you can log into the site and check out where it’s at. Extra features built into iLocalis allow you to send text messages or make calls on your iPhone when you don’t even have it with you. If you iPhone is stolen log in and send yourself a text message. If the thief changed the sim card you’ll have their phone number!
- Allow your family and friends to know where you are: iLocalis will send a message to your friends when you are near by. You can also set it up to allow your friends to locate you. If your friend also has iLocalis you can send messages to each other for free. No txt messaging charges.
- iLocalis can also be used for a business that needs location services for their employees. Employees carrying iPhones with iLocalis can be tracked via the web site easily.
Note: iLocalis needs a jailbroken iPhone with Cydia installed and supports all firmware versions on iPhone 3G and 3GS.
3. GPS tracking for iPhone with Mobile Spy 3.0
Mobile Spy version 3.0 spy software for Apple iPhone from Retina-X studios allows users to track GPS locations, SMS messages and calls of employees, teen or family mobile phones by logging into SSL secured online control panel from any computer or phone’s web browser.
Mobile Spy allows users to monitor their handsets in real time and runs in the background behind all other applications. After the spy software is setup on the cellphone, it will silently record SMS messages, GPS locations and call activities, and then upload the data to your private Mobile Spy secure online account.
The Mobile Spy version 3.0 software is compatible with all iPhone models, Windows Mobile or Symbian OS based smartphone and is priced at $99.97 (1-year subscription).
4. Find and Recover your Stolen iPhone with iHound
This free security program alerts you when your iphone is connected to another individual’s computer. It will also track down the location of where your device is being used.
When your missing iPhone is being plugged in to a computer, you will:
1. Get an email saying that your tracked device is being located.
2. Get a detailed report on where it is being used by logging in to iHound’s website.
The second method can be very useful when the stolen iPhone is switched off and later gets connected to a computer for changing software or formatting the memory card.
Download iHound for iPhone or iPod Touch
5. Recover your Lost/Stolen iPhone with Navizon app
Navizon is a hybrid positioning system combining GPS, Wi-Fi and Cellular triangulation techniques. It calculates the geographic location of a wireless device by analyzing the signals from nearby Wi-Fi access points and cellular towers and comparing it against a database of known data points. A new option called Locate-by-SMS allows you to locate your lost iPhone by just sending an SMS text message to it.
6. MyFoundCast
MyFoundCast, a patent pending technology is the internet’s first lost and found service that allows you to create custom wallpaper and embed information into that wallpaper so when somebody finds your iPhone or iPod Touch they will know how to return it. All members are given a unique tracking ID and automatically registered in our lost and found database. You may register the serial number of any iPod or iPhone.
I am not sure if this really works. If someone is honest enough to return your iPhone he/she will do some basic research on the owner of the iPhone and return it back. Isn’t it?
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October 16th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Those really helpful apps for iphone. Are all of them Paid apps or we could get some of them for free??
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Raju Reply:
October 16th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
It has been mentioned as free or paid in the article. Most of them are paid, but worth the money
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October 19th, 2009 at 7:54 am
wouldn’t this all be useless if the thief that took my phone restores it since they’re all apps? is there any programs that could get pass this problem?
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Heero357 Reply:
October 26th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
restoring it wont change serial # or anything gps w/ the gps. the gps is the key to finding it, so unless the thief can change the gps transponder it can b found no matter what.
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November 2nd, 2009 at 4:33 am
ok so i lost mine on friday night. i didnt have any of these apps. what is the best way of goin about this? i dnt mind paying a fee or anything..just need it back.
anyinout would be much appreciated.
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November 7th, 2009 at 11:46 am
No mention of Orbicule?
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November 9th, 2009 at 4:17 am
How can I find the owner of a lost iphone? Sherry
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Abbie E Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Sherry you should call the last couple of numbers in the call log and see if they can contact the owner! I lost my iphone yesterday and would really appreciate it if someone did that for me!
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November 10th, 2009 at 8:23 am
same here. anything i can do to find it even tho i dont have any of those apps?
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November 11th, 2009 at 11:54 am
good to know that any new smart phone can protect by this application software,…but i wolud like to know that what about those who had lost there smart phone which dont have this software application,…i had not get my ans???
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Raju Reply:
November 11th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
You don’t have much options unfortunately. Unless the smart phones start to come with in-built technologies, nothing much can be done.
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November 13th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
I got my iPhone back!! Here is the cold hard TRUTH! Forget all you have read and heard except http://www.rewardingreturn.com/ or a similar technology to encourage honesty through bribery because nothing else will work! Here is how I got my iPhone back …
Unless a reward that appears on the phone works nothing else will, here is why. My phone was stolen from me and the thief removed the Rogers (Canada) sim card (so my number was gone) he then installed a new sim card. He also did a device erase (too easy to do) so all the apps were gone. Rogers was told 15 minutes after it was gone that it was STOLEN. Rogers did not care … they had a new customer and would sell me a new phone at FULL PRICE $699, that is ALL they would do even though they know it as put back on their network within 8 hours.
Call the police. Get a sympathetic officer who actually wants to do their job. Go to your iTunes and click on “preferences” then “devices” and rest your pointer on your device’s last backup. Information will appear including the IMEI number. This number is golden as the police with this number and a call to the correct department of your cell provider can easily locate the phone and thief even with a device erase and new sim card installed. Rogers has a police only department for this that will NOT speak to you the rightful owner but if detailed information is required, Rogers requires a WARRANT. Rogers Law Enforcement Division (416)935-5300.
The police who picked up my phone would not lay charges but I did get my phone back a little worse for the ware.
Two last pieces of advice … lock the phone and enable “erase if 10 bad passcode attempts” because “restore” is amazing and restores EVERYTHING and no personal info has wound up in the wrong hands. Lastly write down the MAC address before you loose the phone as if is not in iTunes and it could possibly be used to locate it as well.
Tim
Ontario, Canada
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