There are numerous applications on the market for locating a lost or stolen phone, some offering more features than others, and while there may be applications available for locating non-smartphones, this article is aimed primarily at smartphone users. I also won’t mention every application available as this is just a general guide to get you pervy to the fact that there is software out there to help you should you ever fall victim to a lost or stolen phone. The important thing however, is that you know this now, BEFORE you lose your device.

As technology continues to advance, smartphones are becoming more and more like miniature computers and thus their value continues to increase. Unlocked iPhones without a contract can fetch upwards of $600 and some Nokia phones easily fetch upwards of $700, definitely not chump change if you’re my pay scale, and working two jobs 9-6 and 10-5 to survive… Ok, I got that from Jay-Z, erm, ah hem, and I’m not really working two jobs, but you know what I mean! But as the price of the gadgets go up, the size of them go down, which makes them an increasingly popular target for thieves. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen somebody’s BlackBerry sitting on a public table, window sill, or shelf, all by itself with nobody around. I’m sure the owner was just around the corner and would be returning momentarily, but that’s all it takes for something so small and valuable to be swiped. I’ve even seen iPhones sitting on the seat of a car, with the doors unlocked, completely unattended – and the window wasn’t even cracked. That’s clearly smartphone abuse! No, I’m not a thieve or a secret spy, the simple fact is that I have a nose for technology, I can’t go anywhere without noticing it all around me. My wife and I were at a baseball game the other day and when se asked me what the score was I replied, “three to two to one,” and after a moment of silence I said, “That’s BlackBerry-3, iPhone-2, and G1-1, the number of each device I have counted in the hands of fellow on-lookers.”

So what would you do if you lost your beloved smartphone? Would you call 911? Believe me, that has actually happened. Would you fall into a bout of depression? I guess it would all depend on your particular situation, and on whether or not you had precious information stored on your device or whether or not you could afford to shell out for a brand new one. Well, the utilities I’m about to share with you should without a doubt, prevent at least 126 heart attacks, 227 bouts of depression, 43 calls to 911, and 126 broken piggy banks. So on to saving the world, one smartphone at a time…

One of my favorite applications for locating your BlackBerry is called Berry Locator. The thing that really separates this application from some of the other apps available are the number of features included with this application. Berry Locator goes above and beyond simply locating  your BlackBerry. Not only will you trigger an audible alert even if your device is in silent mode, but you can also cause it to vibrate, and make both the screen and the LED lash repeatedly, all simultaneously. If that’s not enough to help you find your device under the heaping pile of papers on your desk, I think it’s time to do a little cleaning! If you suspect that you lost your device at the park or even worse, you suspect that your device has been stolen, you can use some of the more advanced features such as GPS locating and/or a feature that displays an email on your BlackBerry’s home screen with instructions on how to return the device. A couple of things to note, as you would expect, your device must be capable of acquiring a GPS signal and it must have a data connection to receive the signal to send its current location back to you. You can trigger the application by sending an email to your device that contains a certain keyword of your choosing. A very nifty, full featured app if you ask me, and for a very reasonable $6.95.

If you’re an iPhone user, you’re pretty much out of luck, at least until Apple releases the 3.0 software update. But even then you’ll have to splurge on a MobileMe account to get the “Find My Phone” feature which will be included starting with the 3.0 software. Details are scant at the moment on exactly how the feature will work but one can assume that you’ll have to have GPS enabled and a data connection for it to work and you would access the “Find My Phone” feature via the MobileMe interface.

There is a great option for Android devices on the horizon, by the name of Mobile Defense. The application is still in beta testing but it’s looking really promising and personally, this looks as if it’s going to be a kick ass tracking application. It looks as if they will be offering a tiered subscription model starting with a free version which simply lets you locate your phone and allows you make your lost phone give off an audible alert, on up to a Family subscription (no pricing available yet) which will add a ton of other features such as remote wipe capability, low battery SOS, remote lock, and much more. All in all, I think this application is definitely worth checking out when it comes out of beta testing, if you’re serious about keeping tabs on your Android device.

Last but not least there is an app called GuardMobile for all you winmo users out there. This app promises to lay dormant in the background while only consuming a few bytes of that precious memory space, silently waiting for commands. The application page says that this app works even if the SIM card is changed, which seems like a pretty plausible scenario to me. You can control the app via SMS messages from a predefined phone number that you configure during initial setup so that only the person sending SMS messages from the correct number can control the app.

Now, the trick is to get one of these applications installed on your phone BEFORE you lose your device, otherwise there’s not really much else you can do but hope someone honest finds your phone. What are you waiting for? Head on over to one of these sites and lose-proof your baby and let me know how these programs work for you. If you happen to use another application and have actually used it to help you find your lost or stolen phone, I’d love to hear your story!

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