QUICK LOOK
- Android application
- Remotely turns the phone up to top volume so you can hear it ringing
- SMSes you the GPS co-ordinates of your phone
Is asking the hubby to phone your cellphone whilst you rummage frantically under the couch, only to remember you took it out to charge at the office, a regular occurrence? It is for me. I lose my phone probably once a week or so. Well, this nifty, lightweight app can make finding it a whole lot easier.
Where’s my Droid? is a super-easy app to set up and use. It’s free to download from the Android Market. It does two simple, useful things:
- if your phone is on silent/vibrate mode it allows you to turn it to full volume, remotely, and start ringing for all it’s worth so you can find it, and
- it can also send you the precise GPS location of your phone if you’re worried you may have left it at Aunt Mabel’s in the Karoo.
When you install the app, watch the first of the helpful tutorial videos (it’s about 1 minute long) just to reassure yourself that it is actually as easy to use as you think it is. The only other thing you need to make sure you do is activate the GPS from the menu – the app can’t do this for you when you need to use the function. Then close the app and never think about it again until you need it.
When the time comes – as it inevitably will, if you’re as forgetful as me – all you need to do is grab someone else’s phone (any phone, it doesn’t have to be a smartphone) and send your own phone an SMS saying ‘wheres my droid’, to get it to turn the volume up and start ringing madly, or ‘gps my droid’ to get it to SMS you back the GPS location of your phone. There’s an e-mail option as well, but it doesn’t seem to work in South Africa.
When you find your phone, click the big, cheerful ‘PHONE FOUND!’ button and it resets your volume back where it was before so that you don’t accidentally blast your ears when it next rings.
I half wish the button said ‘ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!’ or something equally congratulatory to make me feel like slightly less of an idiot for losing the phone in the first place. You can change the attention words that you SMS to your phone to activate the app, so perhaps I should change these to ‘I’m NOT blonde’ or ‘phone, don’t you love me anymore?’ to make myself feel a bit better.
It did occur to me that if your phone gets stolen, you might be able to find it quickly using the GPS feature, before the SIM card gets taken out. Even then, though, it’s probably not a terribly good idea to go marching off there with the kitchen cleaver reader to kick some ass. That only works in the movies.
Where’s my Droid? is one of those absolutely essential apps that every Android user should have on her phone. Install it today, because like a PC backup system, you never think you’ll need it until you really need it.
Turn ons
- Really simple to use
- An essential app
Turn offs
- I do wish the GPS feature plotted the position on Google Maps for you instead of just giving you co-ordinates
Price: Gratis
