28 August 2009

Undercover welcomes Snow Leopard

Undercover has a tradition of innovation. It was the first theft-recovery app to:
  • snap pictures of the thief
  • transmit screenshots (it's still the only one)
  • simulate a hardware failure (it's still the only one)
  • offer a plan B, allowing you to completely block the stolen Mac (it's still the only one)
  • come out as a Universal Binary, running natively on Intel Macs

Today, the innovation continues, as we are introducing the first 64-bit theft-recovery application on any platform. With Undercover 3.1, we not only support Tiger and Leopard, but also Snow Leopard, which is about to be released within a few hours. When running on Snow Leopard, Undercover automatically switches to 64-bit if your Mac supports it. This makes Undercover even faster, more efficient and more secure.

In addition, Undercover 3.1 uses Apple's Core Location framework on all Snow Leopard-enabled Macs. It's the same framework that Apple uses on the iPhone to provide accurate location information.

Here is how to upgrade Undercover when installing Snow Leopard:

  • Install Snow Leopard (there is no need to remove Undercover first)
  • Download the Undercover 3.1 installer from our website and run it
  • There is no step 3

Undercover will automatically detect and remove previous versions of Undercover and it will install the appropriate version for your version of Mac OS X.
Undercover will also detect your registration information, so you won't be prompted to enter that again.

If you are currently running Tiger or Leopard and you have no plans to upgrade to Snow Leopard, there is no need to upgrade your Undercover. On Tiger and Leopard, Undercover 3.1 is exactly the same as Undercover 3.0. It only adds new features on Snow Leopard (64-bit and Core Location).

The innovation won't stop here: Undercover 3.1 is just a small update to ensure that our customers can protect their Snow Leopard Macs from day one. We are simultaneously working on a much more substantial upgrade that will be available this fall.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is great; does it still use the Skyhook location software as well?

Peter Schols said...

Core Location uses Skyhook technology, so indirectly Undercover is still using Skyhook too.

Scott Teresi said...

Can I install the Orbicule update now, before I get Snow Leopard, and will it work correctly after I upgrade the OS? Then I don't have to try to remember to upgrade Orbicule later.

Peter Schols said...

Scott, you have to install Undercover on the OS it's intended to run on. If you install on Leopard and you then upgrade to Snow Leopard, you will need to reinstall Undercover. It's the same installer, but a different version will be installed if you are on SL versus Leopard

Scott Teresi said...

Thanks, that makes sense and clears that up!

bblackvt said...

Wonderful the Right Price means everything…we love this new piece, bring it on…

mpgomez said...

I think this sounds great, but I don't understand why as an Undercover user I didn't receive any notification of the update. I just happened to see this on the Apple site by accident. Thank you

Anonymous said...

Orbicule:

I love Undercover, but am running into a bit of a problem with this upgrade. I did a clean install of Snow Leopard and now the installer gets stuck on "Preparing Undercover 3.1".


Any ideas?

Peter Schols said...

@ mpgomez: we are sending out emails to all our registered users. However, we have tens of thousands of customers, so it might take a while before everyone receives the update email, even with automated system we are using.

Peter Schols said...

@anonymous: please contact support [at] orbicule [dot] com if you experience any issues installing Undercover 3.1

Jack said...

It should also be mentioned, that there IS kind of a Step 3—that is, restart and installation, and then when you immediately get the pop-up dialog asking for permission for the "uc" activity, click the affirmative button.

Lee Probert said...

Is there a way to test Undercover now i have installed the latest version for Snow Leopard? Also, will the firmware password I set months ago still be valid?

Unknown said...

Looks like great software. A shame that there is no windows version though. For people with bootcamp, the thieves could just get rid of UC thru windows.

Peter Schols said...

@Lee Probert: please contact our support team, we will be happy to send you test-instructions.
The firmware password should remain enabled. However, you can always set it again using the Apple firmware password utility on the Snow Leopard disk. The utility resides in the hidden /Applications/Utilities folder on that disk.

@Livapi: enabling the firmware password should prevent this.