Wanted: beta testers

We are in the process of completing a major update to Undercover iPhone. The upcoming update has an amazing new feature: it will offer the possibility to remotely launch Undercover on your stolen iPhone, in order to track the thief's location. In addition, we completely redesigned and improved the Web-UI, making it even easier to track and recover your lost or stolen device.

We are about to start beta testing and we are looking for testers. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch and are willing to spend about an hour to help us test Undercover and send us your feedback, we would greatly appreciate it. To enroll, please use this link.

Thanks!

UPDATE: We are no longer looking for beta testers. Thanks to everyone who responded!

Undercover 3.2 update is here

This update fixes a problem of increased network traffic that a small number of our customers experienced with Undercover 3.1 on Snow Leopard. This update is recommended for all users. Simply grab it from our Undercover page and run the installer.

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.

Car wash recovery story

We just posted a new recovery story about an iMac stolen from a car wash in Bakersfield, CA. Head over to our recovery page to read how Undercover helped IT manager Brian to get his Mac back in less than a week.

Preparing for the future

Orbicule is highly committed to OS X. In fact, OS X is the only platform we write software for (both flavours: Mac OS X and iPhone OS). Undercover is not just some port from a Windows app, it has been designed from the ground up for Mac OS X and iPhone OS. Instead of only offering features for the lowest common denominator of all platforms (and we all know what that is ;)), Undercover adds unique functionality such as the iSight capture, screen capture, simulated hardware failure and plan B.

To underscore this commitment, we are pleased to announce that Undercover will embrace Snow Leopard. Not only will we make sure that Undercover runs on Snow Leopard, we will go a step further and offer unique Snow Leopard features. The updated version of Undercover will be available soon after the Snow Leopard release, due in September.

In the meantime, iPhone OS, our other pet platform, has received a major upgrade as well. We plan to have a new version of Undercover iPhone ready this summer. This new version will take advantage of Push Notifications to send alerts to a lost or stolen phone.

In case of loss, push notifications will let you display messages to the finder, and play an alert sound (this comes in handy if you simply forgot the iPhone under your couch).
In case of theft, Undercover will send fake message to the thief. If the thief accepts those messages, the stolen phone's location will be transmitted.

Following a good old Orbicule tradition, these updates will be free to all registered users. Have a great summer!