There are few things worse than rifling around in your bag – be it handbag or computer satchel – for your Android phone or tablet only to suddenly realise that it just isn’t there. Your scuffling about inside the bowels of your bag becomes more urgent, your heart rate goes up and you feel almost sick. You’ve been the victim of a quick snatch and run that’s cost you your favourite piece of kit.
Mobile phone theft is on the rise and with tablets becoming smaller and easier to slip out of site (like the Nexus 7) they too are starting to feature on the statistics tables. Fortunately there are a few apps you can download and use to track your device once it’s been stolen.
An app that comes highly recommended in the free category is Where’s My Droid. They ask you to donate $1 which is, you have to admit, a paltry sum when you compare it to what you spent on your ASUS device in the first place. This app has you text a word to your phone which makes it turn the volume up and ring, or send back the GPS location.
Next up is McAfee WaveSecure an app that offers you seven days of free trial fun and then asks you for a testy $19.99 a year. A worthy investment if you consider the alternative and the app itself has won all sorts of awards. You can secure your personal data, remotely lock the device and locate and track your device.
Locate My Droid is free although they ask for a donation via accepted means of payment, and has a variety of cool features that make it stand out from the crowd. It’s easy to use, secure, works worldwide and doesn’t chow down on battery life.
Prey is often recommended on Android forums and, let’s face it, the name is awesome. You can keep track of your laptop, phone and tablet and you can control it with ease. Lovely open source goodness that even comes with a video showing you how it works.
Finally, Snap Secure Mobile Security is on my top list of apps to secure your device. This has a bunch of fab features and it will cost you £17.99 a year, but the real cherry on the cake for me is that it has a feature called Personal Guardian which is essentially a panic button so you can send out a silent email, text or tweet along with your location in case of an emergency.
Now get out there and get your phone secured, you could be very grateful for this feature one day.
Tamsin