PC PhoneHome For Pocket PC -- Software to Report Theft

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,112523,tk,dn091703X,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article...n091703X,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"Invested plenty in that new handheld, and want to protect it? PC PhoneHome, the maker of theft protection software for notebooks, is offering an answer at the TechXNY trade show here: PC PhoneHome for PocketPC, a version of the company's tracking software for handheld computers. The $29.95 program is based on PC PhoneHome's notebook application, which is designed to track, locate, and recover stolen devices, says Martin Moran, the company's co-founder and executive vice president. It works by sending a stealth e-mail to the device's owner once the missing device is connected to the Internet. That e-mail contains information that is then used to locate and return the missing item to its owner."<br /><br />Sounds cool, although I'm not sure how effective this would be -- would it work over an ActiveSync 'net connection? If not, many Pocket PCs still don't get connected directly to the net.

[snowlion]

Sounds cool, although I'm not sure how many thieves wouldn't hard reset or let the battery drain, thereby invalidating the utility of the software.

'nough said. not to mention the percentage of pdas that actually connect to the internet.

[doc]

I think with their notebook program it installs into the bios or something like that. With the notebook program if you fdisk and reinstall an OS the program is still there.

I'd imagine the PPC version does something similar.

[doc]

PC PhoneHome's software is difficult for thieves to uninstall, because it's likely they will never even know it's there, Moran says. The application is disguised as part of the operating system, and the hard drive of any computer with the application installed cannot be reformatted. The PDA version will withstand a hard reset, he says

looks like that part is covered.

[Janak Parekh]

PC PhoneHome's software is difficult for thieves to uninstall, because it's likely they will never even know it's there, Moran says. The application is disguised as part of the operating system, and the hard drive of any computer with the application installed cannot be reformatted. The PDA version will withstand a hard reset, he says
looks like that part is covered.
:oops: Totally missed that part. I'll edit my post.

--janak

[manywhere]

Sounds cool, although I'm not sure how effective this would be -- would it work over an ActiveSync 'net connection? If not, many Pocket PCs still don't get connected directly to the net.

It would probably be better if it could also utilize 'free' WiFi hotspots and Bluetooth (which is probably harder to realize) and call home that way.
Hence, sooner or later, it will connect to the net and then -- whammo -- gotcha! :wink:

[derosnec]

Sort of in the same topic - over at XDA-Developers they now offer a 'phone home' module in the custom rom builder - you specify what the details field for your PPC should have (owner info etc) and if that changes (IE after a hard reset) after a set period of time it will send a SMS to a friends number - hopefuklly with the new phone number of your stolen XDA. :twisted:

[bdegroodt]

But it's a mobile device...Seems like even if you were to get the message from the device since it's so small and easy to move/hide/etc that it's not going to be highly effective for recovery.