[keyla]

i have seen this application on itunes, i,s called private i phone or something. detective micheal schnider. it's supposed to locate u're iphone whn it's been stolen by letting u know the location. so does anyone knw if it really does work?

[ToasterBoyOhFour]

havent heard of it but would be interested in seeing if its worked or not. thats a great idea!

[Nukie]

From the reviews and the app developer's website, it does have some more tweaks that need to be made.

1. One reviewer says that it keeps telling him his phone is located in Africa when he has it here in the US (ie, not stolen. He was checking to see if it works.)

2. Another issue is that if you change your default email address for notifications, it still sends emails to the old email address as well. It is remembering and using all emails entered. The developer mentions on his blog post he is working on that issue.

Some drawbacks I see.

1. It does not work in the background. You have to hope your thief clicks on the application to get it to run.

2. It only emails you when it is running. Unless your thief is using it from their home or work, it might be hard to track your phone down, ie, if they are using it while running around town it will be hard to find them. But it would at least give you a general idea of where it was being used when the app was last activated.

3. If you use an email address that gets sent to your iPhone, you will be alerting the thief that the gig is up. You should use an email address that does NOT get sent to your phone.

3. If iPhone thieves become wise to the application, they can easily delete it from the phone and never click on it to activate it. This could be circumvented if you phone is jailbroken and you give the app a new icon and name. Perhaps something more enticing?

It's a great idea and I would love to get it when it's perfected.

[b3nny]

very interesting. thnx for the review, i was curious about this.

[gbadude]

How about if you use backgrounder with the app?

[Carrbone]

JUST say GoodBye to it.... The app wont work if your sim card is out!
cause any person, any smart person- is going to pull the sim and wipe ur info off of it,
and It will be sold for the highest dollar, gone and forgotten.


to be honest unless someone comes out with an app that I have on my palm-BluePill...we're SOL...

[sziklassy]

Originally Posted by Nukie

1. It does not work in the background. You have to hope your thief clicks on the application to get it to run.

this fact alone renders this app useless

[boneheadxan]

Why can't Apple have it such that, it can't be wiped out unless you have a certain password. And for times you forget your password, only your iTunes can format it.

Cause currently, even if it is stolen, no matter what password you have...they can just wipe it off..

[one1]

Originally Posted by sziklassy

this fact alone renders this app useless

you're a thief..... you've just stolen an Iphone...... You have the coolest internet and application platform in the world in your pocket........ you're gonna set it on the table and walk away from it never touching it or looking through it for info, right?

That thing is gonna get touched more than an 8 yr old boy in a Catholic church.

[se23]

ha ha one1 that's funny

[sziklassy]

Originally Posted by one1

you're a thief..... you've just stolen an Iphone...... You have the coolest internet and application platform in the world in your pocket........ you're gonna set it on the table and walk away from it never touching it or looking through it for info, right?

That thing is gonna get touched more than an 8 yr old boy in a Catholic church.

The app has to be running... as soon as you load something else it is shut down. Yes it still renders it useless. So you get a "ping" that your phone is in some aparment complex. Are you going to bust in guns blazing to get your phone back? Doubtful...

[straightryder]

You think Apple wants you to get your iPhone back??

They want you to go a spend more money on a new one... keep addin' money to the bank account/ sales.

Think about it.

[one1]

Originally Posted by sziklassy

The app has to be running... as soon as you load something else it is shut down. Yes it still renders it useless.

Nope, you just install this app and backgrounder and it does NOT shut down. It stays running the entire time.

Originally Posted by sziklassy

So you get a "ping" that your phone is in some aparment complex. Are you going to bust in guns blazing to get your phone back? Doubtful...

Probably be beneficial for you not to test this theory with me.

[sziklassy]

Originally Posted by one1

Nope, you just install this app and backgrounder and it does NOT shut down. It stays running the entire time.

How long does the battery last this way constantly sending a gps location?

[Nukie]

Originally Posted by sziklassy

How long does the battery last this way constantly sending a gps location?

Not only would that drain the battery (ie, running the app with Backgrounder turned on), but you would be bombarded with constant emails with the app constantly emailing its location to your specified email address. I really don't think you want your phone to be constantly send you emails all the time before it was ever stolen.