Amazing App - Android Lost

A few weeks ago someone stole my phone.  Unfortunately, the person who stole my phone didn't return it so I had to get a new phone.  So I decided to research lost phone apps.

Android Lost is AMAZING.  Its still in Beta so it may have bugs, but so far I have tested out a bunch of features and they have worked.

Some of the amazing features -

Alarm

Will ignore silent mode. Turns up the volume, sound a siren and sets the volume back to normal level. It also makes the screen flash so you can see it in a loud or dark environment. Select seconds for alarm:

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I can't tell you how many times I misplace my phone.  Then I have C or Navy call my phone and my phone is on silent.  Problem solved with this app!

Overlay message

Puts a red overlay message on top of the keyguard or lockscreen. Useful in case a friendly guy finds the phone and starts using it in order to find out who owns it. Will use a tiny bit of power during unlock since it runs as a service. Send an empty string to disable the overlay message.

This is pretty self-explanatory.  There is also a way to send a text if you don't lock your screen.

SIM card owner

When the app detects that an unknown SIM card has been inserted it will send a warning to the SMS notification number and start a polling service. That way you can still use both the SMS commands and web controls even if the google account on the phone has been blocked and google cannot send push messages.

Lock phone

If you are already using another type of lock on your phone there will be no point in using this feature.

Click the button and the phone will lock the screen with the 4 digit pincode. You must first have accepted the admin rights on the phone (cannot be initiated remote). If you leaves the pincode empty the phone will be unlocked.

Erase SD Card This will erase your SD card. No further warning will be given.

Wipe phone Dont use this feature unless you REALLY mean it. It will wipe your phone. You must first have accepted the admin rights on the phone (cannot be initiated remote).  Also wipe external storage (requires android 2.3)

I wish I knew about this app before I got my phone stolen.  I ended up changing all my passwords because I was terrified.  Granted I would have had to have admin rights on my phone before I wiped it and put a lock on it, but I can guarantee I will be using these features if my phone ever gets lost/stolen.

Text to speech

Click the button and the phone will speak your message out loud. It will use the default installed TTS language.

EnglishDefault language

I think this is a really neat feature. :) I would want to enter "Find me please!!" hahaha.

Hangup phone Will hangup the phone. Not part of the official API so it may not work on all phones.

Call List Here you can fetch your call list. It will send the last 20 items to the server.

Sound Recording Will record a sound file from the microphone for the selected amount of time. You must have a sound player that supports 3gpp files - for instance the VLC player. If recording is longer than two minutes it will NOT be sent to the server. You will have to fetch it from the phone yourself. 10 seconds20 seconds30 seconds1 minute2 minutes5 minutes10 minuteshalf an hour1 hour

Front Camera Click the button and the phone will take a picture with the front camera and send it to your mail. Requires android 2.3. If you have an older version of android it will default to the rear camera.  Still not perfect. Yes I know that there is a quick popup and yes the mail attachment is not yet perfect.

Rear Camera Click the button and the phone will take a picture with the rear camera and send it to your mail. The phone will take the picture in the lowest possible quality which is 640x480 and around 100k on my phone.

All of these are really neat too!  You can find out if you have had any missed calls or if the person who found your phone has dialed India or some crazy expensive phone call.  I also like the camera information so you can try to figure out where you left your phone.

However the best feature is -

GPS

Click the button and the phone will send the location to your email account. If gps fix is not found in 60 seconds or gps is disabled, network location will be sent. If both GPS and network are disabled the last known location will be sent.

Auto switch on GPS if deactivated

You can see exactly where your phone is located!!!  I tried it out and I got the EXACT location where I am right now.  Kinda crazy, but SOO cool!