With Mobiwee I can not only trace my stolen cell phone but I can also deactivate it.

MobiWee works by way of a downloadable client for your iPhone, Android or Windows Mobile Phone, and the client automatically syncs with the server at preset intervals to get the latest pending “requests” from the web interface.

You can follow the quick instructions to download the client from their website, and then install it via .cab (Windows Mobile), .apk (Android) or on either the Android or Apple App Store.

After installing the software, requests that you initiate from the online site will automatically be sent to and then quickly processed by your phone in the background and then executed silently. Depending on the type of device though, you might want to set the time that the client checks for requests higher to conserve battery life.

If your phone is ever lost, you can use the GPS in the phone to send a signal back and trace stolen cell phone on a Google Map with an address on it. Should it get into the wrong hands and your data is compromised, you can even send signals to the phone to lock with a password or even wipe your data. This will deactivate stolen phone for anybody who takes it.

If I clicked the option (in the picture below) to locate my phone, my phone will get the message, and then get the location via GPS (assuming my phone has GPS reception) and then send the location back.

MobiWee’s suite of other features also allows you to remotely track your phone’s usage and statistics. You can view statistics like the last person who called, battery life, manage contacts, Internet Explorer favorites, files, call forwarding and view call logs, all remotely. You can even remotely install applications to your phone, and grab screenshots of what it is doing.

Depending on your type of phone though, some of these may not work to full functionality due to OS restrictions. But, if I wanted to see who has been calling my phone or who has been calling from my phone, I can pull call logs from it just like the location above:

MobiWee’s other features also allow you to do a lot more remote management with your phone, allowing you to take screenshots for example and add files remotely to your phone as well. Microsoft also offers a similar paid service known as My Phone which can do similar tasks, such as view photos and text messages and ring your phone when lost.

Do you currently use a service to track and/or deactivate your phone? Share your options and ideas for keeping your phone safe in the comments below and also be sure to check out similar phone-finding tools like BlueRetriver and WhereisMyCellPhone in the MakeUseOf Directory.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Technology Explained: How Do Satellites Track Mobile Phones? (31)
• Snaptu- Free iPhone Theme for Pocket PC or Cellphone (8)
• Make Unique Free Ringtones & Share Them With Friends (8)
• How To Trace a Mobile Phone Location with Google Latitude (80)
• How To Install Google Android On A Windows Mobile Phone (20)

The key to tracking any signal, whether it be cellular or radiowave signals, is something called trilateration. In order for trilateration to be used effectively, your phone needs to be picking up on at least 3 satellites – 4, or more, is better.

Your GPS-enabled phone receives a constantly streaming signal, from the satellites, containing information such as the time the signal was sent and the orbital information of the satellite.  Based on that, your phone’s GPS receiver calculates your location in latitude and longitude. It can also calculate your current speed, based on the time between readings and distance covered.

So how exactly does this trilateration thing work?

How Do Satellites Track Mobile Phones?

Imagine a cone extending down from each of the three satellites covering your location. These cones make ellipses, close to circles, when the hit they Earth. Now, you have three intersecting circles. The centers of those circles are then used in a trilateration equation to determine roughly where you are. The point where all three circles intersect is your position. Let’s see how that might look in a simplified view.

The actual equation is more complex than the scope of this article will allow. However, I think this will give you a good high-level understanding of how it all works.

Since the GPS system employs from 24 to 32  global positioning satellites, your position can be determined almost anywhere on Earth. Take a look at the animation below and you’ll see how multiple satellites can transmit to your phone simultaneously. When there are 4 or more satellites transmitting their signal to your phone, the calculation is far more accurate.  Originally, the GPS receivers could only use data from 4 or 5 satellites at once. Now they can use as many as 20.

What can stop it from being tracked is anything that is going to block the line of sight. For instance, if you are in a building, away from a window, the satellites cannot communicate with your cellphone. So it isn’t a foolproof system.

Not all phones have the hardware to be tracked by satellite, but many do. BlackBerry and Treo are popular brands of cellphones that have satellite-trackable models. If your phone has GPS but doesn’t use satellites to trilaterate, then it is relying on the trilateration of cell towers, or even WiFi, to determine your location. Same principle, slightly different technologies.

Once your phone has calculated your position, how does it let anyone else know what that position is? I wasn’t able to find a definitive answer, but I’m led to believe it does it via your cell signal when a call is made,  or SMS. I bet one of our readers has an answer to this question.

Interestingly, the entire Global Positioning System of satellites is run by the United States Air Force’s 50th Space Wing, located in Colorado. The system has been around for quite some time and was made accessible to the public during President Reagan’s administration.

Of course, there are those people that fear that having their location tracked by their phone will lead to some sort of uber-surveillance. Personally, I don’t see it. How many cellphones are there in the world? What kind of massive server farm would you need to keep track of all that?

Very generally speaking, if law enforcement wants, or needs, to track your phone, then a warrant must be obtained and provided to the service carrier. There are situations of emergency where this process is sped up and may not include the full warrant procedure. Surely you’ve seen at least one story of how a stranded or kidnapped person was found alive, thanks to cellphone GPS services. Due to all those safeguards, the system is reasonably free from abuse and a technology that truly does add to our lives.

Image Credits: 50th Space Wing, Wikimedia Commons

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Technology Explained: What Is Bluetooth? (8)
• How To Trace & Deactivate A Stolen Cell Phone (6)
• The Cut Out and Keep Guide to Essential Software Programs (25)
• Technology Explained: What Is CGI Animation? (13)
• Technology Explained: What Is Blackberry Technology? (15)

How Tracing a Mobile Phone Location With Google Latitude Works

The cool thing about Google Latitude is that there are really no fancy, expensive gadgets required. All you need is a mobile phone and you can build what’s essentially a GPS network of friends, without the need for GPS technology. Wondering whether your buddy Jim is still at work? Just log onto Google Latitude, or check Google Maps on your phone, and sure enough, Jim’s icon shows up on the map where he works. Did your best friend go missing after her date the other night? If she left her phone on, all of her friends can check out where she’s currently located.

The potential uses of this technology are amazing, and Google is just getting started by integrated it’s cellular triangulation technology with Google Maps. MakeUseOf authors previously covered similar applications, such as NavXS and BuddyWay. However, BuddyWay requires that the phone or PDA is GPS enabled. The convenience of Google Latitude is that you don’t need GPS, and it’ll work on almost any mobile phone that can use Google Maps. According to Google, these include Android-powered devices, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile 5.0+ and Symbian.

Setting it up is as easy as typing your phone number into the entry field on the Google Latitude main page, or you can visit “google.com/latitude” with your mobile device and install it directly. It’s basically the latest version of Google Maps with Latitude embedded. Once you’ve installed this version on your phone, you’re good to go – just click on “Menu” and then “Latitude.”

Setting Up Google Latitude With a Network of Friends

Setting up the application on your mobile device is a piece of cake. Once you open Latitude on your phone, you can immediately start adding friends with their email address. If none of your friends have Latitude installed on their phones yet, forward them this article and tell them to install it!

When you first fire up the map after you’ve enabled Latitude with your profile, you’ll immediately see your regular Google map pointer replaced by your picture icon, email address and your location the last time your device was polled.

This is cool and everything, and as I outlined in a previous MakeUseOf article on Google Maps, this application does a great job keeping the map updated with your status within a certain radius, depending on where the nearest cell towers are. However, while keeping track of yourself on the map while you’re driving or walking around town is fun, it can get pretty boring when you’re doing it alone. Latitude lets you have a little bit of fun with your network of friends by letting you add each of them to your Latitude “friends” list so that you can see their locations too. To test this feature, I called up a friend of mine with a Blackberry down in Derry, New Hampshire, and asked him to fire up Latitude and add me as a friend. Once we confirmed each other as friends, I instantly showed up on his map and he showed up on mine!

When you click on your friend’s icon, you can see their contact and location information, or you can choose how you want to share your own information with this specific friend. This means that you can pick and choose the level of privacy that you want for your own status updates based on individual friends. You can provide your exact location to your best friend, while keeping your details somewhat vague for your parents. Also, within the Latitude menu, you can set your privacy level for everyone across the board.

You can toggle your privacy settings back and forth, so that when you’re somewhere that you don’t want anyone to know about, you just flip your status to “Hide your location.” When you’re back where you’re supposed to be, you just flip your privacy back to “Detect your location.” If you want to fool your friends (or your boss) into thinking that you’re somewhere you’re not, you can manually set your location.

Using Google Latitude Online

Of course, tracing a mobile phone location isn’t enough for Google. This is the part that really made me raise my eyebrows. Google has incorporated this mobile technology into an online gadget that you can view and manipulate from your iGoogle page.

This means that even if you don’t have your mobile phone with you, but you have access to the Internet, you can check out where all of your friends are at the moment, or update your own location on Latitude so that they know where you are. This whole concept takes the whole architecture and intent of Twitter and adds another entire level of graphical interactivity to it, with visual, real-time status updates for your friends. The next evolution of this technology that I envision is the ability to embed a Google Latitude widget in your blog or web page that allows you to share your own Latitude location information with your readers. Since the status bar already exists for short text updates, this feature would turn Google Latitude into a more graphical version of Twitter.

Have you ever used any of the latest “friend tracking” mobile phone technologies for tracing a mobile phone location? Which one is your favorite? Share your opinion in the comments section below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Google Maps Adds GPS Tracking To Mobile Phones (12)
• How To Use Google Maps On Your Basic Mobile Phone (18)
• Use Google’s new Mobile Directory without a Keyboard! (7)
• The Ultimate Guide To Your Windows Mobile Phone [PDF] (12)
• The Five Best Things About Google Maps (24)

To instantly share my whereabouts, detours, experiences and some photos with family and friends, I was looking for a one-in-all tool that could easily be updated while I’m on the road.

What I found was a website called EveryTrail. The original idea for it is to provide outdoor fans with a platform where they can manage and share their tour data or browse the tours of others to find inspiration. For me it will serve as a small travel diary.

The way it works is straightforward. There are three steps to creating a record of your own trip. First you can upload a GPS file or hand draw your trip on the map. Next you add details about the trip including title, date, type of activity, location, trip story, tips for others, and edit the statistics and the map view that will be shown.

Finally, you can add your photos. If both your camera and the GPS device were set to the same time, the photos will be automatically placed on the right spot of your route, based on their date and time setting. If that is not the case you can manually place them yourself.

Once it’s all done it will look something like the following example, depending on which information you included.

Top left: summary with trip story to the right.

Middle left: map with photos to the right. You can also switch to see the full map or the stats instead of the photos.

Bottom: strip of all trail photos. Here you can initiate a sort of slide show and photos next to the map will cycle through the respective trail positions. Below the photo strip are the tags and GPS data downloads, joined by comments to the right. At the very bottom you’ll find share options and a picture summary.

You don’t have to be a member of the site to enjoy exploring. There are over sixty thousand trips to be discovered. You can search the public trips by location, activity, keyword, trip date, all-time or recent popularity, and follow in the footsteps of previous hikers, geocachers, backpackers, skaters, drivers…

Aren’t detailed maps, GPS devices and the developments they have brought us a blessing for the outdoor lovers? On the other hand, true adventurers will find it ever more challenging to discover the unexplored. Are you encouraged to follow the trails they have left for us?

Picture credits: arinas74

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Cool Online Resources to Plan Your Next Vacation (11)
• Travel The World with Hello Backpacker (4)
• How To Stay Digitally Charged and Connected On The Road (4)
• Create A Free Travel Packing Checklist With Packwhiz (2)
• A Quick Road Trip Planning Guide For Techno Geeks (3)

However, I never found any opportunity when I really needed a low-resolution digital camera, but I found myself in countless situations where I really could have used a phone with the global positioning feature.

Google’s mobile version of Google Maps has always offered the ability for mobile phone users to call up Google Maps to view the map of a particular location or search for driving directions. Later, Google added the ability for users who had a GPS-enabled phone or Smartphone to locate their current location through satellite triangulation.

This is a very cool feature of Google Maps, and one that sets it above most other free mobile mapping applications. However, since such a small percentage of Google Mobile users actually own a GPS-enabled phone, Google decided to add GPS Tracking to Google Maps. It’s an amazing technology that offers any cellphone user, regardless of GPS functionality, the ability to zero in on your current location. Google Maps does this the moment you start up the application on your cellphone, as shown here on my Cingular Smartphone.

That little blue dot in the middle of the map is the magical location icon that represents your current location. If you have GPS on your mobile, the Google Maps accuracy is phenomenal. If you don’t have GPS on your phone, Google triangulates your position using the three closest cell towers. There are both pros and cons to using this approach in order to identify your current location. The only con is that the accuracy of GPS is usually within only a couple hundred feet. The accuracy of Google’s new “My Location” features can range as wide as 5000 meters. The pros, however, are:

• “My Location” works faster than GPS, since cell towers are quicker to access than GPS satellites.
• The positioning feature works anywhere your phone can reach a cellphone signal, including indoors.
• Unlike when you use GPS, your phone’s battery will not drain any faster than normal.

Use Google Maps Mobile to Plan Your Trip

The feature of Google Maps that I personally use the most is the Satellite View. In this mode, Google Maps switches to the popular Google satellite imaging feature, where the map is replaced with a real satellite image of your location (dated back a few weeks or months.) My next order of business was to switch to Satellite View and then map out some directions.

Here you can see the amazing clarity of the satellite view. The menu items show all of the things that you can do with Mobile Maps, including mapping out driving, walking, or transit directions, showing local traffic patterns (if you live in or near a city), using GPS, marking favorite locations, and even options like locating the map for any address listed in your phone’s contact list. My next step was to determine directions and distance for me to drive from Southern Maine to Los Angeles, California.

Look at that, only 3,077 miles, and just under 48 driving hours. The resulting directions are straightforward; and if you’re confused, you can just click on any one of the steps, and Google Maps presents that portion of the route for you, in either satellite view or map view.

The route display is highlighted on the map, just like you would highlight your own paper atlas when you plan for a long road trip. As shown in this map, Google Maps sticks to the major roads and highways, and attempts to identify the fastest and most direct driving route for you.  No more spending hours pouring over maps the night before a trip.  With the click of a button on your Smartphone, Google does all of the planning and routing for you.

Instant My Location Updates at the Touch of a Button

If you drive for a few hours and want to determine where you are, just open up Google Maps and press 0, or click on the little magic blue ball at the lower right corner of the displayed map. Google Maps performs its cellphone tower triangulation magic, and you’re instantly swept to the map that shows your current location. It’s like having your own personal navigator and mapping system right on your cellphone. Who needs a GPS unit now?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• How To Trace a Mobile Phone Location with Google Latitude (80)
• Top Mapping Tools: Maps, Local Guides & Driving Directions (12)
• The Ultimate Guide To Your Windows Mobile Phone [PDF] (12)
• The Five Best Things About Google Maps (24)
• Take Google Maps Offline & Get Maps You Can Print using Google Maps Buddy (16)

Personally, I was not a huge fan of BrightKite until just recently, when they released their dedicated iPhone Application.  The location-based social network always seemed a bit lame to me because you either had to have your laptop with you (and booted up) everywhere you went, or you had to control the entire system through text messaging.  Now, for iPhone users anyway, this App could take BrightKite over the top.

The BrightKite App [iTunes Link] is very well made.  This is partly because the website is also fairly simple in its design and therefore the App needed to do a small number of things very well.  The most prominent screen, which will be the most useful to the casual user, is the “I am…” screen (as seen below).

From here you can see your current location, turn on and off the iPhone’s built in location feature, toggle Place Snap, or pick a place at which to check in. If you’re not familiar with BrightKite, “checking in” is the way that you connect your account to your location.

Also on that page, you can post a note or a photo. These features work about as you’d expect them to, with images coming from either your library or your camera directly. Notes are limited to 140 characters. I had a hard time determining what the “Place Snap” feature is, but I believe it just checks your location automatically if it is turned on.

One of the neat features of BrightKite (and consequently of your iPhone once you install this App), is that you can get updates about your local area on the fly.  This is especially cool if you’re at a conference or concert where there are likely to be many members of the tech-elite present. The “Nearby” tab provides you with everyone within a specified distance’s updates, images, and notes. Clicking through gives you access to even more information about that post and that user.

One thing that should be noted is that privacy, especially location-oriented privacy, is something that BrightKite has done a great job building in.  On their website they have a fairly decent list of privacy controls.  The App displays a little open/shut lock icon anytime you could post new information. If you want to restrict access to your locations or updates, simply toggle the lock and you’re safe from prying eyes. You probably won’t have to use it very much, but it’s nice to know that the privacy features are there when you need them.

If you really begin to dive into BrightKite and your group of friends grows, you’re going to probably use the direct messaging service fairly frequently.  BrightKite wisely added “@reply” functionality (see: “Twitter“) to their service, but when that just won’t do it, direct messaging is the way to go.  On the App, messaging is delightful.  This is primarily because the interface is just like that of the iPhone text messaging client or iChat on the Mac.  While there are several more tabs on the App, they are all fairly self-explanatory.

In closing, I think this is one of the better site-to-iPhone App transitions I have ever seen.  Even if you don’t like BrightKite as a service, you’ll be able to appreciate the attractive layout and intuitive design.  I’m definitely adding this one to my permanent front page icons (a lofty spot on an App reviewer’s iPhone) and in the next few weeks I will try to remember to play with the location-based features as I travel around.

If you noticed that I used a lot of the same screenshots from the iTunes page for BrightKite, it is because I have very few friends!  Feel free to friend me!

Also, while BrightKite is still in Beta, invites are pretty widely available. Right now I have 20 to give out, so you can either leave your email in the comments or email me at James AT MakeUseOf dot com.  If you can’t get one from me, don’t worry, they will probably give one too you very quickly if you submit your email on their site.

Please let us know if you use BrightKite and what you think of this App.  Also, post your user account address so we can all friend each other!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• MakeUseOf Your iPhone: Wikipanion (Wikipedia App) (5)
• MakeUseOf Your iPhone: Set Up Voice Dialing With Cactus (8)
• MakeUseOf Your iPhone: iPhone as a Remote Control for iTunes (7)
• MakeUseOf Your iPhone: 3 Travel Apps To Hit The Road With (6)
• Google’s Mobile iPhone App Now With Voice Recognition (3)

(1) Couch Surfing / Hospitality Club – These two are completely independent communities, however the idea behind both projects is very similar, thus they share spot #1. Check out video below for a quick intro.

Couch Surfing

Sign up for Couch Surfing if you would like to meet and interact with people around the world. The motivation of this community is to share whatever you have with others – your expertise, a bit of company, dinner, a cup of tea or your couch or guest bed. As a member you can set up a profile in which you write about yourself and describe what you have to offer. People interested in meeting you or surfing your couch can contact you through your profile. Within the community you can join groups for special interests, for example to hear about meetings or get togethers in your area. Once you met someone through the site you can leave a reference on their profile and become their friend. I have been a member of Couch Surfing for almost two years, hosted several dozen people, gave them a tour through my city, had meals and went out with them. I was hosted by two people and I can tell you, it’s such an incredible feeling to be welcome and treated like family by a stranger far away from home. The only negative experiences I made were with people who didn’t show up or canceled last minute. Other than that everyone was at least nice, but most people I met were awesome.

Hospitality Club

Now that you know about Couch Surfing, there is not much left to say about Hospitality Club. It’s the same, but different. Many avid Couch Surfers are also members of Hospitality Club and vice versa. I like to keep it simple and decided for the site that looked cooler and seemed more easy to use. For example Hospitality Club urges guests to share their personal information including passport number with their hosts and encourages hosts to check the passport of arriving guests. While this is a good precaution, it somehow turned me off. I’m not a control freak, I like to be a bit naive and trust in common sense and humanity. Couch Surfing just seemed more like I would fit in there.

(2) FreeCycle

The Freecycle Network™ is a nonprofit movement, dedicated to the free exchange of anything people want to part with. Furniture, electronic devices, toys, clothes, anything. It’s subdivided into individual local groups, located across the globe. These groups are basically Yahoo Groups that are utilizing the eMail list feature. You may post OFFERED as well as WANTED items to the public list and anyone who is interested or can help out will contact you directly. The groups are moderated by local volunteers. To sign up search for your community or browse all existing groups. If you find that there is no group in your area, you can start one and add it to the Freecycle Network™. Currently the network consists of 4,233 groups with a total of 4,444,000 members.

(3) FON

FON is the world’s largest WiFi community. FON members, also known as Foneros, share their WiFi connection with others for free. In return, when they leave their home base, they can use the WiFi connection provided by other Foneros for free. If you do not wish to share your WiFi for free, you could even make a little money. However, this would exclude you from using FON Spots for free.

With FON Maps you can check whether or not a FON Spot is available in your area. The image below shows a random selection from a residential area in Germany’s capital Berlin. Every yellow face represents one available access point.



(4) GeoCaching

GeoCaching is the modern form of treasure hunting using the internet, geographical data and a GPS device (although you could manage to do it without the gadget). You can hide a treasure (cache) yourself, then log onto the site and share the location. Or you can look for caches hidden in your area and begin searching for them.

(5) BookCrossing

BookCrossing has been around for a long time. It’s an adventure for people who love to read and share. Share your favorite book with a lucky stranger. Sign up with BookCrossing, receive an ID and printout explaining what BookCrossing is, paste it in your book and then set it free – anywhere. You can leave the book on a bench in a park or lay it on someone’s care in the parking lot or drop it in a mailbox. If you’re lucky the recipient will log into the BookCrossing website, report the book with the ID they found inside and leave a comment about how they liked it.

(6) PostCrossing

PostCrossing may sound like BookCrossing, but the two have little more than a similar name in common. PostCrossing is about receiving postcards from around the world. Signing up requires sharing your postal address. The next step is to request an address and mail this person a postcard. To verify that your postcard was sent and received, the recipient will submit the ID you noted onto your card to the site. Next you’re in the queue to receiving a postcard from a random stranger somewhere on this planet. I’ve tried it, it really works!

Isn’t it amazing what possibilities the internet has opened up and how we can connect through it? What are your thoughts on these communities and which pages did I miss? Please share!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• 6 Unique Web Communities That You Won’t Forget (54)
• Wakoopa – Find Out What Software You (And Others) Use Most (10)
• Use Hunch to Answer Your Questions & Make Decisions (4)
• UrbanDictionary – Words Defined by Average People (16)
• PMOG : The Social Browsing War Begins! (7)