A control panel from Prey, an app that can help locate missing gadgets.In light of the recent arrest of a TSA agent at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport who is said to have stuffed a passenger’s iPad down his pants, now might be a good time start thinking about tracking your hardware on the road.
Travel Tech
Apps, computers and gear for those on the go.
As a first line of defense, iPhone and iPad users should install Find My iPhone, a simple app that allows every device registered to your Me.com account to be tracked almost anywhere in the world. You can also remotely erase and lock your devices to keep the contents away from thieves. The app is free.
For a bit more firepower, I recently started using a program called the Prey Project (shown above) on all my computers. It is a free piece of software that protects mobile devices and laptops running OS X, Windows, Android, and even Linux. The program is invisible and runs in the background, waiting for a signal to begin recording. Once you’ve registered your laptop or device as stolen, Prey will begin sending information via Wi-Fi about the device’s location, currently open programs, and even screenshots and webcam portraits of the thief.
A standard version is free and the Pro version starts at $5 for users of three or more devices.
Need further proof this software works? The consultant Sean Power lost his Macbook Pro in New York City and used the program to track the thief down to a bar in SoHo where his Twitter followers wrested the Macbook back from the thief while Mr. Power was in Ottawa.
This sort of vigilante justice is generally frowned up by the authorities, but clearly anyone with enough fool-hardy Twitter followers can use this technology to get almost any laptop back.