Skip to Content
Uncategorized

App Lets Stolen Smartphones Snap Thieves In the Act

Lookout’s Lock Cam will take and send you a photo of the person (or pet) who stole your gadget.
January 23, 2013

Mobile security software maker Lookout announced a smart-sounding new feature for its Android app today that might help you recover a stolen smartphone or tablet: Once someone tries and fails three times to unlock your password-protected gadget, Lookout Mobile Security will stealthily take and e-mail you a photo of that person and their location.

Called Lock Cam, the feature will be made available to current Lookout users during the next week, Lookout said in a blog post Wednesday. Those who use the paid version of Lookout can already access it, the company says.

I’m skeptical that this will help recover many gadgets, but I am hopeful that some pet owners using the Lock Cam feature will soon be getting e-mails containing photos of their dogs and cats (or drunken shots of themselves).

Lookout also added another feature to the paid version of its app–in addition to being able to remotely lock down your phone so others can’t use it, users can now append a message of up to 300 characters to your phone’s screen (such as, “Help, return me to my owner!”). Lookout already offers ways to track a missing phone even if its battery is dead (see “How to Track Your Smartphone’s Final Moments”).

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Scientists are finding signals of long covid in blood. They could lead to new treatments.

Faults in a certain part of the immune system might be at the root of some long covid cases, new research suggests.

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.