Over the past year, we have received thousands of emails asking when Undercover would make it to the iPhone. We can finally provide a definitive answer: today!
We have been working for over 9 months on the iPhone version. It's not just a port of our Mac version, but a brand new application and - even more important - a brand new backend. Undercove features a secure, web based system that you can use to view your iPhone's last locations or open them in Google Earth. You can also use the system to report your iPhone (or iPod touch) lost or stolen. More information about the product itself is available at the Undercover iPhone page, so I won't repeat this information here.
Instead, I would like to focus on the features that make Undercover truly innovative:
- Undercover is built to manage multiple devices per user: it provides a beautiful interface to easily manage several iPhones and/or iPods. This could be very convenient for a family, a school or a company.
- The web interface is really easy to use. You can view the last 10 locations at a glance, without having to navigate cumbersome screens or entering arcane hex strings.
- There is no way to prevent any iPhone app from being uninstalled (Apple apps are an exception here). However, Undercover significantly increases the recovery chance by pretending to be a game. That's right: when Undercover is launched on a device that is flagged as stolen, it will pretend to be loading game. This will win some time, so that Undercover can obtain the most accurate location.
- In order to increase the chance of recovery even more, we will be releasing additional iPhone apps. These apps know how to talk to the Undercover server. So even if Undercover is removed from your phone, its location can still be transmitted. More information on these helper apps will be available soon.
- Although we provide a web-based system, we still offer full theft recovery assistance. So just like with our Mac version, you still have access to our world-class recovery center.
- In addition to reporting an iPhone stolen, you can also report it lost. In that case, the finder will see a message that you can set when you reported the iPhone lost.
Make sure to have a look at the guided tour movie at the Undercover iPhone page. Winnie will guide you through the process of reporting an iPhone lost or stolen and she will show you what happens on your stolen device.
We hope you'll like Undercover iPhone. Keep in mind that this is just the first version. We have some great ideas in mind for the upcoming updates (which will be free, of course).