back to article Cerberus

We’ve all lost our phone at one time or another. Actually, that’s a lie - I’ve never lost my phone, wallet or car keys in my life. But assuming that to err is indeed human, Cerberus provides a simple, reliable and fairly cheap way to locate and, if necessary, disable your Android pride and joy. Cerebus icon Cerebus icon …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Good - but why pay?

    www.androidlost.com https://market.android.com/details?id=com.androidlost&feature=related_apps is free

    Don't see any difference between these two, apart from the cost of Cerberus and its stupid name.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      The free version....

      ...is only 20% of the size of Cerberus.

    2. Jedit Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      And Samsung phones have it built in

      You can set up a free Dive account that in the event of phone loss, allows you to remotely lock or wipe your phone and get its current location using GPS.

    3. dotdavid
      Thumb Up

      AndroidLost

      That looks good. Previously I bought SeekDroid but it doesn't play very nicely with multiple devices. I'll give AndroidLost a try instead.

      Someone should make an open source one of these considering how much trust you need to place in apps of this type.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Open source alternative

        Here you go:

        http://preyproject.com/

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      AndroidLost - Very impressive.

      For a goof, if you have TTS installed (most do), type in "come on barbie lets go party" on the AndroidLost, Controls, Mobile, "Text to speech"

      And listen in awe as your phone talks to you...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    'Compulsive eavesdroppers can record up to five minutes of audio'

    Is this legal in the UK?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      who cares?

      Steal my phone, and get recorded, that's the least of your problems :)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Perhaps...

      ... but it doesn't seem to bother the investigating powers or the prosecutors unduly.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      More legal

      Than mobile phone theft. I'm guessing anyone that's stolen YOUR phone has lost their right to privacy on YOUR phone.

    4. Captain Underpants
      Alert

      @AC 10:23

      Well, if you've installed it on your own phone then anyone using it without your permission is probably on the wrong side of the Computer Misuse act. That should effectively get you away from accusations of unfairly using your own device to catch some thieving goit using your property without permission.

      Now, if you install it on your mate's/family's/OH's phone without telling them and start using it to spy on them, you're probably in trouble...

  3. Andrew Jones 2

    only way to remove it....

    I have often wondered about these claims.

    Surely on any handset - rooted or not - "Reset to factory default" will remove ANY paid or free phone recovery app?

    Additionally almost every phone (even dumbphones) have a *# "secret" number well publicised on the net of how to enable a reset to factory defaults.

    1. dotdavid

      Ignorance is our first line of defence

      Fortunately a lot of these petty phone thieves are quite ignorant and often don't bother resetting the device.

      Android provides a "device admin" role which I think prevents a normal reset (it certainly stops users simply uninstalling the app, unless they have the unlock code/password). And rooted phones have even more protection Of course you can bypass this sort of thing by reflashing or whatever, but it's another step the phone thief has to go through.

  4. Al Taylor
    Alert

    From the author

    Granted Android Lost includes the same set of core features but the browser interface is a bit rough and ready and it's nothing like as easy to use. There are at least half a dozen apps similar to this in the Market but Cerberus has proved the most reliable in my experience and I reckon that alone justifies the cost.

  5. Alex C

    battery life

    I had one of these apps a while ago - very clever and all but given the cost of it was about 1/3 of battery life it seemed pretty pointless. How has this app affected battery life?

    Cheers

    Alex

  6. Chris007
    FAIL

    Need to clarify this in the article.

    "If your handset's GPS pick-up is off, the app will switch it on for pinpoint accuracy, only falling back on a cellular location if it can’t get a satellite fix."

    Only on Android between 1.6 and 2.2 or if 2.3+ you need a rooted phone

  7. Al Taylor
    Alert

    From the author

    @ Alex C - In my experience the app has no noticeable effect on battery life.

    @ Chris007 - the auto-GPS enabling works on my unrooted 2.3.3 HTC Desire HD so I'm assuming that when the developers say you need a rooted handset if running ">2.3.3" they mean 2.3.4.

  8. robp

    Another app

    But this one for more than just your phone.

    Prey

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Suggested Price: £2.60

    Pfft.... I pint o beer costs more than that, stop whining, its cheap and does a good job.

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