You can hope and pray you never lose your phone, but it is a certainty that this will happen to some of us. It's amazing that Google and smartphone manufacturers are creating the ability and encouraging us to store so much of our information on their devices, but not providing a way to protect ourselves.
Yes, there are 3rd party apps, but here's the current state of play from what I've gathered:
Lookout - no wiping ability. Who cares about tracking? Sure, it's kind of neat, but tracking by itself is USELESS unless you live in a rural area.
Mobile Defense - new registrations currently suspended. Not sure installing the app does anything for you if they aren't accepting new registrations.
WaveSecure - easily bypassed. Though odds are good that the person who steals/finds your phone won't figure out how to bypass it until you've had a chance to do a remote wipe. So this app seems like the leading candidate at the moment.
Am I missing any?
And ideally we'd have an app that does a comprehensive wipe - not just address book and text messages. Think about all the other personal info on the phone - your emails, gmail/email logins, calendar, logins for websites, logins for apps like bank apps, task managers, etc., pictures/videos, files on sd card, etc. We need an app that does a full and complete wipe back to factory new state. Note that the app would have to be designed to factor in the auto-syncing of data online (gmail, etc.). Perhaps uninstalling all these apps and then wiping the logins.
Personally, I think an app that does all this immediately becomes the #1 'must have' app.
Yes, there are 3rd party apps, but here's the current state of play from what I've gathered:
Lookout - no wiping ability. Who cares about tracking? Sure, it's kind of neat, but tracking by itself is USELESS unless you live in a rural area.
Mobile Defense - new registrations currently suspended. Not sure installing the app does anything for you if they aren't accepting new registrations.
WaveSecure - easily bypassed. Though odds are good that the person who steals/finds your phone won't figure out how to bypass it until you've had a chance to do a remote wipe. So this app seems like the leading candidate at the moment.
Am I missing any?
And ideally we'd have an app that does a comprehensive wipe - not just address book and text messages. Think about all the other personal info on the phone - your emails, gmail/email logins, calendar, logins for websites, logins for apps like bank apps, task managers, etc., pictures/videos, files on sd card, etc. We need an app that does a full and complete wipe back to factory new state. Note that the app would have to be designed to factor in the auto-syncing of data online (gmail, etc.). Perhaps uninstalling all these apps and then wiping the logins.
Personally, I think an app that does all this immediately becomes the #1 'must have' app.