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Help Android equivalence to Find My iPhone

M

Macnerd

Newbie
I want to get a tablet. I can't decide between a tablet or an iPad.
I have read on the 'net that an Android phone/tablet cannot be tracked after a factory reset. But an iPad will survive a factory reset. I've also read that if an Android phone or tablet is just turned off, the owner can't track it. Maybe the websites that I've been to are pro-Apple. Needless to say, I don't want to spend $800 on a tablet & not be able to track it if it has been stolen or lost. I can pay LoJack $15 per year, but I'd prefer a free solution. So, what is your reply to my question?
 
You're right. An Android device (usually but there are work arounds) can't be tracked after a factory reset or while turned off.
Can an iPhone/I pad??
 
It depends on which website I go to. Some say yes & some say no. If it is true that iPhone/iPads survive factory resets, I haven't been able to find out how. I sure hope that the powers-that-be at Android come out with a tracking app that's as good as or better than Apple's. And it survives a factory reset!
I currently have an Android smartphone. My contract expires in October 2016. I can't decide between getting another Android or get an iPhone or get a dumbphone.
 
Customer tracking began on Android with Where's My Droid in 2009. (You could similar information on feature phones before that but without device locking).

Check out "Wheres My Droid"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alienmanfc6.wheresmyandroid

http://wheresmydroid.com/

Since then others copied the function until Apple did and then Google with the standard Android Device Manager.

The reason that the iPhone credentials survives is that a full reset is blocked due to anti-theft encryption - a great feature - and not the quality of the tracking.

That level of user-protecting encryption is finally coming in Android M due later this year from Google and expected to roll out to branded phones in 2016.
 
Plus for a rooted Android phone there's cerberus which will survive a reset same as any anti theft app installed in system but I guess the problem is that the reset wipes the account?
Can an iDevice really be tracked while powered off though?
 
EarlyMon said:
Customer tracking began on Android with Where's My Droid in 2009. (You could similar information on feature phones before that but without device locking).

Check out "Wheres My Droid"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alienmanfc6.wheresmyandroid

http://wheresmydroid.com/

Since then others copied the function until Apple did and then Google with the standard Android Device Manager.

The reason that the iPhone credentials survives is that a full reset is blocked due to anti-theft encryption - a great feature - and not the quality of the tracking.

That level of user-protecting encryption is finally coming in Android M due later this year from Google and expected to roll out to branded phones in 2016.
Click to expand...
I didn't know that Android came out before Apple with "track my Android". Cool!
I have a Verizon LG G3. It's acting more like a dumbphone than a smartphone. I have to keep tapping it to wake it up. I'm stuck with it until October 2016. I know that Android M will be out in the 3rd quarter of 2015. Hopefully, by October of 2016 all Verizon smartphones will have Android M installed. Then I'll have to decide whether to get another Android or an iPhone or a dumbphone.
 
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