Google's ADM phone finder coming this month

Google’s ADM phone finder coming this month

Android Device Manager will be available later this month for phones with Android 2.2 or later. The official Android blog carried the announcement last week in a posting by Android product manager, Benjamin Poiesz. The service will enable Android users to enjoy the same protective features that iPhone users enjoy with Apple's Find my iPhone and that assorted third-party services offer those who have Android smartphones.

Lookout for Android, for example, has been a popular option thus far. The Lookout service carries a Lock It Down feature, where, If your device is in the wrong place at the wrong time, you remotely lock it to block access to your personal data. You can post a custom message to get it back, and there is the Wipe It Clean option to wipe data off the device if the user thinks the device is gone for good.

You will not find any shortage of 'Find My Phone' services available. As for Apple, the Find my iPhone was announced back in 2010 as a software app to help pinpoint the exact location of an iOS device.

Basically, the ADM phone finder covers all possible scenarios, for times when you accidentally drop your phone into a bag, or park it somewhere in the room where you cannot remember and need to hear it ring to locate the sound. What is nice about Android Device Manager is that even if your phone was in Silent mode the ADM will ring your phone at maximum volume. The second scenario is when you have forgotten your phone at some more remote location. The service will let you check its whereabouts on a map, If both scenarios don't fit, and the phone is stolen, you have the option to wipe everything off the phone, erasing all data.

Android Device Manager will be downloadable. Google says that you will need to be signed in to your Google account to use it. Several Android watching sites over the weekend, meanwhile, reported that the first stage of the ADM is being pushed out to a few users even though the service is not yet live. These users reported that the service was rolled out to their devices already.

While it has taken Google some time to come out with its own find-phone solution, it can never be too late. Mobile security company Lookout viewed data last year and estimated that lost phones, if unrecovered, could cost U.S. consumers billions, They said at the time that "Losing your phone is more than just a hassle – it's expensive. If everyone who misplaced their phone didn't ever recover it, we estimate lost phones could cost U.S. consumers more than $30 billion in 2012."

Coffee shops, offices, bars and restaurants top the list as the most common venues to lose a phone in the U.S. The top U.S. city for lost phones is Philadelphia, and the most likely venue for losing a phone is a coffee shop. In London, they said, the top venue to lose a phone was a pub.

More information: officialandroid.blogspot.com/2 … ne-with-android.html

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Citation: Google's ADM phone finder coming this month (2013, August 5) retrieved 29 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2013-08-google-adm-finder-month.html
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