Lost and Found, Stolen and Protected

Like many of us who own smartphones in which we have invested both money and time, I’m terrified of losing my Fuze (okay, maybe not terrified; I guess I reserve that feeling for my children). So what’s a boy to do?

I came across Smartphonetracker, a nifty app that can help you find your phone several ways. Here’s what it has to say:

“SmartPhoneTracker allows you to locate your phone via GPS coordinates, useful if your phone gets lost or stolen, and for locating missing family members. Basically, SmartPhone Tracker is configured to listen for a certain text message. When it receives that text message, the program will wake up, activate the phone’s GPS and obtain a lock. Once it has GPS satellites locked, it will send an email or/and text message with a link to Google Maps with the phone’s location and exact GPS coordinates. If there is no GPS reception for 5 minute, SmartPhoneTracker will send the approximate Cell Tower location.”

I tried out and it really works…with a few limitations. First, I had my wife hide it outside in our neighborhood. I followed the instructions and not only got a GPS lock on it, but I also got a nifty photo from the camera. I was able to track my phone down easily. Unfortunately, the photo was of a bunch of trees and sky, so it is a cute feature, but unless it is facing a street sign or some such, it isn’t very practical. Next, I had her hide the phone indoors at a friend’s house. The problem is that without a GPS signal it is pretty worthless. Yes, it provides a Cell Tower location approximation, but that is in a range of about 1000 meters (a needle in a hay stack comes to mind).

One nifty feature is that, if stolen, it will notify you when the SIM card has been removed and replace so you can be sure to alert your mobile phone company to stop your service before you get massive usage bills.

See below some other options for finding your device with a brief review from Agent Blair over at xda-developers.

Remote Tracker – Searched the thread and haven’t found anything on if it works for the Fuze.
Mobile Justice – No parent site, no support. No idea if it works.
Smartprotect – Not sure if it works on the fuze, saw a comment saying it doesn’t.
Ultimate Theft Alert v35 – doesn’t work with VGA from what I hear.
W.I.M.P. (Where is My Phone)- I tried this and the SMS does not work
Sprite Terminator – I tried the demo too and the SMS also didn’t work. And yes, I use GPS test.