LoJack For Your Laptop

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Erick Schonfeld is a technology journalist and the former Editor in Chief of TechCrunch. At TechCrunch, he oversaw the editorial content of the site, helped to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produced TCTV shows, and wrote daily for the blog. He joined TechCrunch as Co-Editor in 2007, and helped take it from a popular blog to a thriving... → Learn More

It was only a matter of time before a location tracking app found its way into laptop security software. Laptop Cop, which lets you remotely control your computer and delete files if it is stolen, now has a geo-location feature based on WiFi-hotspot triangulation technology from Skyhook Wireless. It is the same technology that is used in the iPhone (along with GPS and cell-tower triangulation) to determine your location for geo-aware apps. Now you can tell the cops exactly what door to knock on, more or less.

Laptop Cop costs $50. It does come with those other features as well. But if you want the same Lojack service for your laptop without paying, you can download MyLoki for free. It is a browser add-on from Skyhook that broadcasts the location of your laptop. And anyone can always check your personal MyLoki page to see where your is laptop (which is supposed to be a proxy for you, but not when it’s been stolen).

It won’t be too long before all of your devices will tell you where they are.

Update: There’s another laptop recovery service from GadgetTrak for Macs that also uses Skyhook. In addition to the WiFi positioning, it also uses the Mac’s built-in camera to to take a picture of the perp and sends it to your Flickr account. So busted.

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