Years ago, I read an article in 2600 describing a system that would track down your stolen laptop. Presumably it was all open source software, I can’t remember. GadgetTrak, which is a company that can track down your stolen gadgets, including Mac/PC, iPhone, BlackBerry, and WinMo phone, has a fun success story that’ll kill a few minutes.
An iMac was stolen in Brooklyn. Then the GadgetTrak software kicked in, taking a photo of the presumed thief and using Wi-Fi to pinpoint, to with a few meters. The police were then contacted, and paid a visit to the suspect’s place of business. There they found the stolen iMac, as well as two other stolen laptops.
Seems to be a pretty convincing proof of concept. Not that I’m going to buy MacTrak anytime soon, mind you.
I beta tested the Netbook version and its pretty insane. Using wifi info, it pinpointed me within 20 yards almost every time. There are a a few extra features I’d like to see but I’d guess they are coming.
really powerful stuff.
can’t you just format the hard drive and get rid of it? or is it hardware based
You set the BIOS password on your system, this should be done anyway. Pretty cool story, nice to see thieves get what they deserve, I have had TWO laptops stolen in the past year at my work. Think I will look into this.
I wouldn’t recommend the blackberry version of this. It doesn’t work, and when I dealt with support, they had no solution. And when they couldn’t fix it, they refuse to refund the money for it. Not a company that I’d recommend doing business with.
Dave’s comments are false, obviously from a competitor. GadgetTrak’s Blackberry software is Enterprise Certified by AT&T which means it is tested on all devices they support. We provide full refunds if for whatever reason the software does not work. Davei is either a troll or a competitor, probably both.