Free Cell Phone Tracker

How The Cell Control Spy Software Is Different Than All The Others

2012-03-04T09:06:31Z

Today I stumbled across what appears to be a very powerful covert cell phone tracker application that I couldn’t wait to tell you about. The most popular articles on my website seem to be those that teach people how to covertly track cell phones and this one definably falls into that category but it works quite differently than most of the others.

What Makes This App Different From Other Phone Locator Programs?

Cell Control seems to be different than any phone tracker application that I have ever seen before. The makers of this product “claim” that you can read text messages, listen to live phone calls, read the call list for a particular cell phone, and of course determine the location of the particular phone. Here’s where things get interesting. The makers of this software claim that you don’t have to install any software on the target cell phone to get access to this information.

They also claim that the target phone won’t show any indication that you have the ability to access this information. Another very interesting feature is that you are supposed to be able to use the target phone as a listening device like a “bug” that you see spy’s use in the movies and on television. They claim that this feature works even if the person isn’t on their cell phone. Apparently, you can also view any photographs that are stored on the target phone with this app.

If you’re surprised by these claims, I don’t blame you. So am I! If it really works, this app will revolutionize the world of covert investigations and surveillance!

How Is This App Supposed to Work?

I’ll bet you’re wondering how this secret phone tracking app actually works. Well, the designer claims that all you need to do is download and install the app on YOUR phone. As mentioned before, there’s no need to install the app on the target phone. Then you need to call the target phone and remain on the line for at least 30 seconds while your phone “pairs” with the target phone. The person doesn’t even need to answer the phone. If the phone call goes to voice mail and the call lasts at least 30 seconds, this is supposedly enough time for the phones form a connection. From then on, you are supposed to be able to perform your investigation on the phone any time you want to.

What Do You Get If You Purchase This Software?

After purchasing the application, you will be able to download it in a zipped format onto your computer. They provide it in a zipped format to make the download time go very fast. Then you unzip the software and follow the included instructions for installing the application onto your smartphone. The software will come with instructions on how to install the app onto numerous makes and models of cell phones. You will even have access to their technical support via email. Along with the software, you’ll get FREE updates of the software for life as well as FREE online technical support for life!

How Many Phones Does It Work On?

You’re supposed to be able to monitor numerous phones but the makers of the software recommend limiting your monitoring to three phones at a time to avoid confusion.

How Long Will This Software Be Available To Download?

To be quite frank, I have no idea how this software does what they claim it can do. It’s absolutely mind boggling to me. I have a feeling that it will be mind boggling to law makers as well when they find out about it. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if when they do find out about it, they try to do something to prevent the distribution of this kind of software.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “you’d better get it while the gettin’s good”? If you haven’t, it basically means that if you don’t get it now, you might not have a chance to get it later. Whether this will be the case with this app is yet to be seen. I can only speculate but my guess would be yes.

Before I sign off, let me just say again that I’m a bit in the dark when it comes to knowing how this app does what it claims it can do. My initial, “knee jerk” reaction was to think that there’s no way this could be possible. Then something dawned on me. I always suspected that someday someone would figure out a way to do this.

Consider that there are certain types of cell phone tracking services that are what you call “network based tracking services”. By that I mean that they don’t require the installation of any tracking software onto the phone. How exactly do they do this? I don’t know exactly but I assume they use some form of triangulation to determine the location of the phone. When I considered the fact that with some network based tracking services, the phones that you want to track don’t even need to be smartphones, I started to think that maybe there’s something to this Cell Control app.

I should point out that I haven’t actually tested this app so I can’t speak to how well or if it works like they claim it does. If any of you decide to try it out, the only thing I might suggest is to make sure you read and understand the details when it comes to their money back guarantee policy. Then, if you do buy it but for some reason you can’t get it to work, you’ll know the procedure for getting your money back. It’s easy to learn about their refund policy, simply click here and then navigate to the FAQ page. About six paragraphs down the page, you’ll see the details about their return policy.

A Comprehensive Introduction To Cell Phone Tracker Software

2011-11-25T06:16:50Z

I’m very excited to welcome you to my website on free cell phone tracker applications today.

If you’re at all interested in learning about the fascinating world of tracking cell phones online or with your smartphone, you’re in for a real treat today!

Over the years, I’ve done a tremendous amount of research and testing on the various software applications that use GPS technology to track cell phones and I’m very excited to share the knowledge that I’ve accumulated with you here at www.freecellphonetracker.net.

GPS functionality is being added to all kinds of smartphone applications these days. As a matter of fact, it’s being used is ways that you probably never dreamed it would be used.

Follow along with me today and I’ll introduce you to this exciting technology and get you up and running with it in no time at all! Once you know how to track a cell phone online, you’ll wonder how you ever got by in life without this ability!

*** Article Content Quick Links ***

What Got Me Interested In Free Mobile Phone Tracking Technology?
Thanks to Free Phone Tracker Apps I Finally Have Peace Of Mind!
Can You Really Track A Phone With Free Cell Phone Locator Apps?
Basics of Mobile Phone Tracker Technology.
How Do Cell Tracker Apps Know Where A Particular Phone Is Located?
What If The Phone That You Want To Track Is Inside A Building?
Where Can You Download Free GPS Tracking Apps?
Free Cell Phone Tracking Apps and Premium Apps That Are Currently Available.
List of Free Cell Phone Tracker Apps.
List of Mobile Phone Locator Apps That You Must Pay To Use.
How To Choose A Free Phone Tracking Application.
What Else Will You Find On This Website?
What If You Still Have Questions?

What Got Me Interested In Free Mobile Phone Tracking Technology?

Everyone will have their own reasons for becoming interested in tracking a cell phone with GPS.

Allow me to take just a minute and share with you what motivated me to become an expert in this kind of software. As it so happens, I recently turned 40 and I’m enjoying the pleasures of raising two teenage daughters. How could anyone be so lucky as me? I am always worried about them whenever they aren’t with me. Unfortunately, sometimes I worry to the point that it was becoming unhealthy for me.

My daughters are constantly giving me grief because I worry about them so much. Now that they are both teenagers and driving, they seem to want us to give them more and more freedoms. Needless to say, this has been very difficult for me!

This had my wife and I a bit worried because we have always been so very careful to keep them close to us so that we could always keep a watchful eye on them and make sure they were always safe. Maybe we’ve been a bit overprotective but they mean the world to us and we didn’t want to let them out of our site for any longer than we absolutely had to.

Here’s why I became so interested in free phone tracker apps. Nowadays, it seems like our girls always want to be somewhere other than home. This has been really tough for us and to tell you the truth we’ve had a really hard time adjusting! When they were little, it was easy to keep tabs on them but now that they want to have more freedom to explore the world, we worry all the time!

The solution for us was to buy them both new cell phones because I learned about a way to set up a program on their phones that would make it possible for us to use GPS to easily track their whereabouts. In retrospect, this was the best money that we could have possibly spent. We don’t worry near as much now that we have GSP tracking software on their phones. Thanks to this technology, we finally have a little piece of mind.

Throughout the course of deciding which app to install on their phones, I learned absolutely everything I could about how to track a cell phone location with this kind of software and I really do think that it’s the best thing since sliced bread! This driving force to learn how to keep our girls safe resulted in me becoming quite the expert in this kind of technology. My interest in phone tracer apps started out of necessity but it has evolved into a passion.

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Thanks to Free Phone Tracker Apps I Finally Have Peace Of Mind!

Both of my girls have free cell phone tracking software installed on their phones and now anytime I want to settle my nerves, I can simply look at my smartphone or my computer and I’ll instantly know where they are thanks to this amazing technology. As strange as it may seem, this is the best kind of therapy for me! My girls don’t exactly like it but this is the compromise we made. They get the freedom to venture out into the world on their own a little bit but I get to use this technology to keep track of them. I’m happy with the compromise even if they aren’t.

If they are supposed to be at the library, I can use the cell phone locator app to see if they are actually there. It’s not that I don’t trust them. I just want to know that they made it to where they were supposed to be going safely and a cell phone tracker app makes this not only possible but really quite easy. There are all kinds of things that could happen to them. They could get in a car accident. They could get lost. Their cars could break down. The list could go on and on! The uses for cell phone locater apps is virtually endless.

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Can You Really Track A Phone With Free Cell Phone Locator Apps?

Follow along with me on my website and I’ll teach you how to track a cellular device’s location with tracking applications that are absolutely FREE! That’s right! I said FREE! That might seem a bit hard to believe but it’s true and they actually work really well. You won’t believe how cool this technology is. This technology has many useful applications and one that it works great for is catching a cheating wife or husband. You wouldn’t believe how many unfaithful spouses have been caught thanks to the miracle of GPS mobile spy software!

While there is certainly no shortage of free apps for people to use, there are some that you’ll have to pay for. Some charge a couple of dollars for the actual app and the tracking service is free and some give you the app for free but charge a few bucks a month for a subscription that you need to sign up for if you want the app to actually be able to do anything for you.

In the spirit of striving to make this website the most detailed and comprehensive website on this type of technology, you’ll find articles about both free and pay to use apps here on my website.

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Basics of Mobile Phone Tracker Technology

If you want to start using this kind of software, there a some things you should know first. Let me take a minute and give you a quick lesson on how these apps work:

In most cases, the device that you want to be able to track must be a modern smartphone. If your device has the capability of downloading and installing apps onto it, then there’s a pretty good chance that there is a tracking program that will work on it. It’s worth pointing out that Sprint has a program called the Sprint Family Locator that doesn’t require the user to own a modern smartphone. This program will work equally well on any mobile device that is supported by the Sprint network. AT&T has also entered the game with their version called AT&T FamilyMap and users aren’t required to install any software on their phones to use this service either.

You must subscribe to a data plan with your cellular service provider in order for these apps to function. The exception to this rule is if you use Sprints cell tracker service.

The app must be installed on the device you wish to track BEFORE the need arises to use it. Many people don’t think about installing this kind of software on their phone until they lose it. Unfortunately, by then it’s too late. Without a tracking app installed on your phone, you won’t be able to locate it with GPS.

The device must always have the app running in the background of it’s memory so that when you have the need to track a particular device, the software will be able to do its job. Update: Some apps now actually have the capability of being started remotely! You can read my article about that here: Remotely Starting Tracking Apps.

The cell phone that you want to track must be in a cell phone service area. Unlike standalone GPS tracking devices, these apps require both the cellular network and GPS satellite network to function properly.

The phone must be turned on. I believe that someday, someone will figure out a way to remotely power up a phone so it can be tracked using GPS but as of now, this capability just doesn’t exist.

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How Do Cell Tracker Apps Know Where A Particular Phone Is Located?

The most widely used method of tracking down a phone with a mobile tracking app is for the software to utilize the GPS receiver that is built into most modern cell phones. GPS stands for “Global Positioning Satellite” and it is comprised of a network of satellites that are constantly orbiting the earth. A phone basically locks onto or “acquires” a connection with several satellites simultaneously. These satellites transmit data to the phone and when the phone has received enough data from enough satellites, the exact latitude and longitude can be calculated.

Now unless you’re a sailor, knowing the latitude and longitude won’t be of much use to you since most people navigate by the use of physical addresses instead of GPS coordinates. Fortunately, these location tracking programs are capable of converting the GPS coordinates into physical address and displaying those addresses on a computer generated map. This makes using the data that is provided by these apps very easy. As a matter of fact, location based applications are quite user friendly.

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What If The Phone That You Want To Track Is Inside A Building?

Most of us don’t consider the fact that being inside a building may pose a problem for GPS tracking software. In modern times, we have become accustomed to our phones working just fine when we are indoors. It wasn’t always like that however. In the early days of cell phones, users would often have to walk outside to make a phone call because the signals were so weak indoors. This is because the signals had to try and penetrate the walls of the building.

Unfortunately, this just isn’t possible with current GPS technology. If you happen to be standing near a large window, your phone will “possibly” be able to receive a GPS signal but the chances of you being positioned near a large window very often is quite slim. Some of you might be thinking that this means that these apps just won’t work when you are indoors.

Fortunately, there are some “alternate methods” that tracking software can use to determine the location of a cell phone. These methods aren’t generally as accurate as GPS but they are better than nothing. There are four technologies that can be used to hone in on the location of a cell phone if GPS reception isn’t an option.

Alternate Tracking Method #1: “Network Based Location Detection”

This method utilizes the customer’s cell phone service provider’s network to extrapolate the location of wireless devices. The advantage of this method is that users don’t have to download or install an application on the phone in order to be able to track it. An example of a service that makes use of this technology is Sprint Family Locator. Any phone that works on either the Sprint or Nextel network can be located with this service.

Let’s dig a little deeper and talk about the three network based tactics that can be employed to determine the location of a cellular phone. They are advanced forward link trilateration (AFLT), triangulation, and cell identification.

A) Forward link is a relatively new technology that appears to be very promising. Basically, this method requires the the phone measure the signal strength of nearby cell phone towers. It then measures the time that a signal takes to travel from the tower to the phone. This time/distance data can then be used to improve the accuracy of the triangulation method of determining the location of a device.

B) Triangulation is a method of tracking cell phones that has been used for a long time. Utilizing this method requires that the three cell phone towers that are nearest to the phone be identified. Then, a rough approximation of exactly how close the phone is to each of these towers is calculated based upon the strength of each signal. Then, through a complex calculation the location of the phone is “estimated”.

C) Cell Identification is the least accurate method and it is generally used is rural areas where the phone isn’t capable of acquiring a signal from three cell phone towers. With this method, a “very rough guess” of the location of the phone can be made because the range of any given cell phone tower is the known variable. For example, if the phone is reported to be receiving a signal from cell phone tower “A” and the known effective signal range of the tower is a 20 mile circle, one can deduce that the phone is “somewhere” withing 20 miles of that towers coordinates.

Alternate Tracking Method #2: “SIM Based Location Detection”

With this method, wireless devices that utilize Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology can make use of raw radio measurements that may be acquired from the device’s SIM card to extrapolate the location of the phone.

Alternate Tracking Method #3: “Hybrid Based Location Detection”

This method utilizes a combination of one or more tracking methods to determine the location of a wireless device. You may have heard the phrase aGPS being thrown around from time to time. This is a perfect example of a hybrid based method of tracking cell phones. With aGPS, both GPS data and data from a wireless network is used to acquire the initial GPS coordinates much faster and to reacquire the signal quickly when the phone happens to lose GPS reception due to the surrounding terrain or obstacles.

Alternate Tracking Method #4: “Wi-Fi Based Location Detection”

The use of Wi-Fi to determine the location of a mobile phone is bit unpredictable. When this method is utilized, the cell phone will attempt to connect to the nearest Wi-Fi signal and determine its location based on the known location of that particular Wi-Fi signal. While on the surface this may appear to be a reliable method of tracking a mobile phone, it can actually be surprisingly unpredictable. In some instances, the location that is reported with this method can be very accurate and in other case the reported location could be 100 miles away from the phone.

The reason for this wide margin of error is because not many people have a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) address for their broadband Internet connection. If the Wi-Fi signal that your phone picks up on does in fact have a static IP, the location that is reported will be very accurate. The problem with this type of location detection lies in the fact that most people are on “shared IP addresses”. For example, there may be dozens of homes who are sharing the same IP that you are sharing. In my case, the shared IP address that I use is actually 50 miles north of my home.

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Where Can You Download Free GPS Tracking Apps?

In the section below, you’ll find several links to articles where I have written extensive reviews on many of the various apps that are currently available. In each article, you’ll find instructions for where to go to download the app that the article is about.

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Free Cell Phone Tracking Apps and Premium Apps That Are Currently Available

If you are interested in learning how to do free cell phone tracking online, you should know a couple of things. The first is that there are several great apps that really are 100% free. There are also several apps that have a one time purchase price and some that charge a monthly subscription fee. For your convenience, I’ve complied a list of the applications that I have reviews for on my site. Please note that each link will you to an article that describes the particular app or service in much more detail. I’ve broken this list down into two sections. The first section lists the free apps and the second section lists the those that charge a fee.

Be sure and check my website frequently because as new apps hit the market, I’ll be writing reviews on them and adding them to this list. My goal is to make my website your “one stop” resource on mobile phone tracking software and services and I’m working very hard to accomplish this goal.

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List of Free Cell Phone Tracker Apps:

Google Latitude – This is a very useful app that has many interesting social networking features that are very popular today.
Glympse – This is a particularly useful app for business users because they can set tracking timers that expire within a few minutes or a few hours. This way business users can allow their associates to track them and still have their privacy after business hours.
Instamapper – This app is supposed to be able to work with some prepaid phones. It also has the ability to be remotely activated by simply sending a text message to the phone.
BuddyWay – Another free app that has an interesting proximity alert feature that many people find quite useful.
MobiWee – Offers premium features like those seen on Find My iPhone and iLocalis but it’s free.
Map My Tracks This app is designed to track sporting activities. It has features that can help athletes train more efficiently and improve their performances.
Family Locator Pro (Life360) – Great app designed for keeping families safe. If you’re interested in family safety, this app has a very interesting feature that will show visible indicators of registered sex offenders that are near the phones current location.
Mologogo – This app is supposed to work with prepaid phone from Boost Mobile.
Where’s My Droid – This app is really interesting because you can send a text message to retrieve the location of your lost phone. You can also make your phone start ringing for a predetermined length of time simply by sending a text message to the phone. This feature works even if the phone is on silent mode.
GPS Logger For Android – This is a simply, no frills, bread crumb type GPS tracking app. Even though it’s not packed with lots of features, I think many of you will still find it quite useful.
WAZE – A very cool free app that makes use of the GPS capabilities of modern cell phones to point out traffic jams and warn drivers of road hazards such as speed traps, accidents, and more.

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List of Mobile Phone Locator Apps That You Must Pay To Use:

Cell Control – This is an app that you are supposed to install on your own phone and not the phone that you would like to track.
SpyBubble – A very powerful and stealthy app for doing covert cell phone tracking. According to the developers of this app, it’s completely undetectable when installed on a phone which makes it great for covert investigations. It has many features that James Bond himself would envy.
SpouseSpy – This is an app that is designed primarily with the goal of catching cheating spouses.
Sprint Family Locator – This is Sprint’s GPS tracking service. It offers a feature called “Safety Checks” that sends the location of a particular phone in the form of an email or text message to specific users at predetermined times during the day. Many people like it because you don’t need a smartphone to use this service.
Find My iPhone – This app is designed just for the Apple iPhone and it has some powerful features such as remote lock, remote wipe, and remote backup.
iLocalis – This one is another iPhone specific app that offers many of the same features that Find My iPhone offers at a reduced cost. It does require that you jailbreak your phone which poses its own risks.
AT&T FamilyMap – Works without installing software on the phone.
Verizon Family Locator – This service from Verizon has an interesting feature called “Departure and Arrival Notifications” that will send predetermined users messages when a person carrying a specific phone either arrives at a certain location or leaves a certain location.
AT&T FamilyMap – This is AT&T’s take on this technology. Much the same as Sprint’s version, it doesn’t require users to download or install any special software onto their mobile phones.
VZ Navigator – This isn’t really a phone tracking app. It’s actually a GPS navigation app but you can update the location of your phone on Facebook with it so I’ve included it in this list.

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How To Choose A Free Phone Tracking Application.

With so many options when it comes to tracking software to choose from, how is one to pick just one? My advice would be to try several of them to find out which apps you like the best. Many of the most popular programs are free so there’s really nothing to keep you from experimenting a bit to find the perfect GPS tracking application for your needs. Some of the premium apps and services have free trials that you can sign up for if you want to test them out. This will give you a chance to find out if you really want to pay to buy or use a particular app.

If you’re like most people, you’ll probably end up using several of them. I personally have five installed and running on my new HTC Thunderbolt 4g smartphone right now. These are only the apps that I use daily. I’m not counting those that I download and install simply for the purpose of testing so I can write thorough reviews for the readers of my website.

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What Else Will You Find On This Website?

I’ve written about other cell phone related topics on this site as well such as other useful cell phone apps for various types of phones, cellular related technology, and even spy gadgets that I find interesting. One very handy spy tool is a device that allows users to retrieve deleted text messages. If you’re interested in cool spy gadgets and cool spy software, there is bound to be something for you here at www.freecellphonetracker.net

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What If You Still Have Questions?

I love making new online friends so don’t hesitate to send me an email if you want to talk. I’ve included my email address in the “Contact Info” page which you can find by clicking on the tab at the top of your screen. I try really hard to be accurate in what I write about but I’m certainly not perfect. If you read something on my site that you believe to be inaccurate, please let me know so that I can fix it. I really want this website to be the most informative site on the Internet about free phone locator software. As a matter of fact, I work very hard every day to make this goal a reality!

I hope you enjoy the time that you spend on my website and if there’s ANYTHING that I can do to help you with your free GPS cell phone tracking needs, please don’t hesitate to ask! In the meantime, I’ll be busy writing many more articles that I’m sure you’ll want to read so stay tuned! Thanks so much for stopping by my website and PLEASE come back soon! I suggest that you check back daily to see what is new and exciting in the world of GPS cell phone tracker technology.

Locate a Cell Phone Position For Free Using Where’s My Droid

2011-11-25T06:18:01Z

It’s about time I told you about another free GPS phone tracking app that is available for you to download and use so today I’ll show you how to locate a cell phone position free with a really cool app called Where’s My Droid.

If you haven’t already guessed by the name of this piece of software, this isn’t an app for tracking iPhones or BlackBerrys. It’s also not only for tracking down the location of a Motorola “Droid” cell phone. It will actually work just fine on any phone that runs on the Google Android OS. As a matter of fact, I tested the app on my HTC Thunderbolt and it worked great!

Let me make something clear before you get confused about what this app is actually designed to do. It’s really just designed to help you find your lost or stolen smartphone. Despite the fact that it doesn’t come bundled with a large selection of abilities, there are lots of really interesting features that make finding a lost phone a breeze with this application!

Keep in mind that most of the time when you misplace your phone, it’s probably somewhere nearby. I usually end up finding mine in between the couch cushions or in the pocket of a pair of jeans that are piled up with all my dirty laundry. The guy who designed this app kept this in mind and provided some very useful features that will force the phone to start ringing even if the phone is on silent or vibrate mode.

The manner in which the Where’s My Droid phone tracking app works is kind of interesting. Instead of logging into a website and sending a code to the phone to activate these phone locating features, you simply send a text message to your phone that contains what is called an “attention word”. When you first install the app, the default attention word is “Wheres My Droid”. You can actually change this to be what every you want. If you feel like it, you can change it to be “Pink Puppies”. It really doesn’t matter.

How The App Works:

Here’s how the app works. Once it is installed on your phone, it lies dormant waiting for a text message to be received that contains the attention word. When a text message arrives that contains the attention word, the predefined task will be carried out. You can tell the app to cause the phone to ring for a predetermined length of time. You can choose to make it ring for 30 seconds, 60 seconds, or 5 minutes.

What Makes This Any Better Thank Just Calling Your Phone To Make It Ring?

Well, when you call your phone to make it ring, it will only ring three or four times and that’s only IF your phone isn’t on vibrate or silent mode. If it’s not on silent and it actually does ring, you’ll have to run around the house frantically listening for the ringtone before the call goes to voicemail. This rarely works out very well and if you’ve tried it, you know how frustrating it can be. Just about the time you think you are honing in on the location of your missing phone, it stops ringing and you have to call it again.

The beauty of using this app when you want to locate cell phone position free is that the app will override the current sound settings and cause your phone to ring at the maximum volume for the predetermined length of time.

How Are You Supposed To Send A Text Message If You Can’t Find Your Phone?

The first thing that came to my mind was how on earth am I supposed to send a text message to find my phone if I can’t find my phone in the first place? Well, there are actually three solutions to this problem. The first two are the “official” methods and the third is one that I came up with on my own. I personally tested all three of these methods and they all resulted in the phone ringing when the attention word was sent to my phone.

You can send the text message that contains the attention word from a friend’s phone.

You can send what is called an email-to-text message. For example, I’m with Verizon so I would need to send an email to this email address:phonenumber@vtext.com. The message must contain the attention word in either the subject line or the body of the email. Most cell phone service providers have their own unique way of letting their customers send texts through email.

Here’s a list of those that I’m currently aware of:

Verizon Method: phonenumber@vtext.com
AT&T Method: phonenumber@txt.att.net
US Cellular Method: phonenumber@email.uscc.net
Alltel Method: phonenumber@message.Alltel.com
Virgin Mobile Method: phonenumber@yrmobl.com
T-Mobile Method: phonenumber@tmomail.net
Cricket Method: phonenumber@sms.mycricket.com
MetroPCS Method: phonenumber@mymetropcs.com
Sprint Method: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com

You can use a free online texting service with from a website like txtdrop.com or textem.com to send the attention word.

Can This App Really Find My Phone Using GPS?

Actually, the app wasn’t originally designed with this ability in mind but the feature of locating your phone using GPS does in fact work. It is, however, kind of a “no frills” GPS locator. I just tested it by sending the attention word for the GPS locating feature and it worked great on my phone. I need to point out the attention word that you choose for the GPS tracking feature must be ENTIRELY different than the attention word you use to make your phone start ringing. These phrases can’t even contain any of the same words in them or the app will malfunction.

When I tested the GPS location feature, my phone received the attention word and instantly started calculating it’s location. Other than the fact that some text was displayed in the very top most section of my phone that was describing what was happening, it was pretty unobtrusive. As a matter of fact, If I wasn’t looking at the phone, I wouldn’t have noticed anything at all.

After about five seconds, a text messages was sent from my phone to the phone that I sent the text message that contained the attention word. This text message said, “WMD: Attention word received, phone is on and GPS has been started. Please wait up to 5 minutes for a response”.

What actually happened was that in about five seconds, another text message arrived on the phone that said:

Current location:
Accuracy: 6.0 Meters
Latitude: (my phone’s latitude was reported here)
Longitude: (my phone’s longitude was reported here)
Speed: 0 MPH
Bearing:N/A

I have to admit that this information wouldn’t be much use to me since my brain doesn’t easily decipher latitude and longitude. Fortunately, about a second later, another text message arrived that contained the exact street address of the location of my phone. This address was sent as a link that I could tap on which opened the Google Maps app on my phone. On that map, the exact location of my phone was displayed.

I should point out that another text message also arrived and it simply contained the Google Map’s URL of where I could find my phone. I’m not exactly sure what the need for the redundancy here was but it was there nonetheless.

Is There Anything Else That You Should Know?

One thing that could be very important is the actual selection of the attention word. It’s important that you choose a phrase that would not normally be included in any regular text messages that someone might send you. For example, if you chose the phase “Uncle Mike” to be your attention phrase and someone sends you a text message with the phrase “Uncle Mike” in it, this would either activate the ringing feature or the GPS location feature.

For this reason, it’s really important to choose a phrase that is very unique but easy enough for you to remember. If you chose “Gjkjk$%#%$#_jkl897″ as the attention word to locate your phone using GPS, that code is definitely unique but the chance of you remembering it when you need to track down your phone is pretty darn slim.

The Where’s My Droid Download Link

If this app sounds like it might be useful to you, you can download it by clicking here: Click Here To Download Where’s My Droid

As always, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read my article. If you’re still hungry for more interesting cell phone related articles, perhaps I might suggest that you read Call My Cell Phone From Computer or maybe Best Texting App For Android.

Free GPS Tracking Software That Can Help You Avoid Traffic Jams

2011-11-25T06:18:55Z

Today I’ll be adding another article to my series of articles that showcase the many free cell phone tracking applications that are available for use in this day and age. Actually, today’s article will be a little bit different than many of the programs that I have written about in the past.

Today we’re going to be talking about a GPS cell phone tracking application that is not necessarily geared for the purpose of identifying the location of a particular cell phone. It’s more of a combination application that brings GPS tracking, GPS navigation, and the amazing social networking craze together into one, very convenient application.

I’ve always been a strong believer that in order to develop great software, there has to be a specific need for the particular software that is being developed. Whether you are developing software for the purpose of entertaining someone or for the purpose of providing a useful service, if you find a genuine need and build the software around it, people will find value in it and use it.

One thing that many people have in common these days is that they absolutely hate it when they get stuck in traffic jams. The application that we’re going to be talking about today is called WAZE and it’s designed to help drivers avoid common traffic pitfalls. The designers of this software have cleverly dubbed it a “social driving navigation app”. Follow along with me and you’ll see why I think they were very clever with the features they thought to include.

What Can The App Actually Do?

This app can be used for the purpose of using the GPS receiver in your cell phone to find your way from one location to another. It’s capable of giving you spoken turn by turn directions to your destination but that’s not what sets this application apart from other types of software in its class.

What sets this application apart is that it is designed to collect traffic information on all of the phones that it is installed and running on. The application is actually capable of recognizing whether or not you are stuck in traffic or whether you are traveling along at a normal rate of speed for the road you happen to be on.

Let’s talk a little bit about how this application can be useful to you and help make your commute to and from work a little less stressful. Wheneve you have the application installed and running on your phone and you are driving on a highway, the application knows that the normal rate of speed for that particular road is probably 55 MPH. If for some reason, you are traveling along this road at 20 miles an hour, the application is able to extrapolate that there must be some kind of congestion or problem with the flow of traffic on that particular stretch of the highway.

The more people who have the application installed and running on their phone, the more data this traffic monitoring service is able to accumulate. If people all over your city have the app installed and running, the more accurate the traffic reports will be. Users can then easily determine which route would be the best route to take if they want to avoid being stuck a long line of parked cars on the highway.

Okay, now you know a little bit about how the application can passively collect traffic data, let’s talk a little bit about how users of the application can utilize the social networking features of this software. If you remember the old movie called Smokey and the Bandit, you probably remember how the participants in this cross country motor vehicle race used their CB’s to “shout out” to other drivers about speed traps that they happened to come across.

“Smokey” is an old CB’ers nickname for a police officer. In the days before cell phones, it was quite common for people to use their CB radios to warn other drivers about speed traps or traffic jams. Many people used CB’s as their primary form of communication on the highway and any communications were heard by anyone who was close enough to receive the transmission. When cell phones replaced CB radios, this rudimentary early warning system sadly became a relic of the past.

How This App Is Breathing New Life Into An Old Idea.

The designers of the WAZE GPS traffic monitoring application are working to bring a similar form of traffic monitoring from the past back to life. As a matter of fact, they’ve affectionately named those who use their application as “Wazers”.

My favorite feature of the application is that the designers have figured out a way to breathe new life into the once popular traffic warning system by making use of today’s amazingly popular social networking phenomenon. Wazers who happen to drive past a speed trap can quickly mark the speed trap with their cell phone in the WAZE application. Then, any drivers who happen to be running the application as they are heading down that particular stretch of highway will receive an audible warning that says, “Speed Trap Ahead” from their cell phone. If you ask me, this is amazingly cool!

This is better than any radar detector that you can install in your car because the information is coming from real people. By the time your radar detector goes off, and it may be too late to slow down but the application is actually capable of notifying you early enough that you can slow down in time avoid getting a ticket.

Wazers can also easily share information about traffic accidents, traffic jams, road conditions, or other road hazards that they happen to come across. The designers of this application even created an integration between Facebook, foursquare, and Twitter. This makes it possible for the creation of what they’re calling “localize driving groups”.

Is The App Easy To Use?

The WAZE application is surprisingly simple to use. The developers of this software have documented it quite well on their website which is www.waze.com. Not only are there many features that are built right into the application which are readily available for use on your cell phone, I especially like that I can go to the WAZE website and see a “Live Map” of the area that I might be planning on traveling in. Users can simply enter the address or even the general area in which they plan on traveling and view a scrolling banner in the left sidebar of the screen that displays the most recent traffic alerts for that area.

You might be thinking to yourself that these user generated traffic reports sound great but who is actually going to take the time to report them and participate in making the service useful. If you are in fact asking yourself this question, you’ll be pleased to know that the developers of the software had you in mind when they were programming it.

Whenever you want to report a traffic problem, you can do so with a simple tap on your touch screen. Let me give you an example of how easy it is to do this on my HTC Thunderbolt which is an Android powered phone. I simply click Menu -> Report -> and then tap the type of report that I want to make. For example, just the other day, I was able to report a traffic accident for other Wazers to know about and it took me a grand total of 10 seconds to do so.

How Well Does This App Work In Reality?

While this application is able to passively collect date based on the number of users who are traveling on a particular road, it will be much more useful and successful as more and more people begin using it. The more drivers who have the app installed and running on their phone, the more passive data the service is able to collect. Although it’s true that more data results in more accurate traffic analysis and reporting, the addition of the “human element” is what makes this app the winner in my opinion.

I remember the days when my father and grandfather used to jump on the CB’s airwaves and warn nearby motorists about any “Smokey’s” that were hiding in the bush trying to catch speeders. As a matter of fact, I kind of miss those days. I actually get quite a thrill out of reporting a speed trap with the WAZE GPS traffic monitoring software.

Will This Application Work On Your Cell Phone?

Currently, the application will work on iPhones, Android powered phones, BlackBerrys, Nokia phones, and Windows Mobile powered phones. I have no doubt that as this app becomes more and more popular, we will see versions that support other types of phones spring to life.

Does This Application Have A Good Reputation?

I’m not sure what the reputation of the application is for other devices but for the phone that I use, which happens to be an Android powered cell phone, the application has a very good record. As a matter of fact, as of today, it has been downloaded over 46,000 times and has a score of 4.4 out of 5 stars in the Android Market.

What Else Should You Know About This App?

Here’s a short four minute video made by the developers of WAZE that does a great job of elaborating on the features that I’ve talked about in this article today. If my article has peaked your interested about this app, I suggest that you take a few minutes and view this video. It’s really well designed and I think you’ll find it to be quite useful.

Where Can You Get The App?

You can download this app directly from the designers website. If you would like to take it out for a spin with you the next time you hit the road, you can click here to download it: Click Here to Download WAZE.

Like always, I would like to thank you for spending your valuable time reading this article on my website. Please take a second or two and tell your friends about it by clicking on the Facebook Like button which you’ll find to be located below the title of this article. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled that you took the time to share this information with them.

If you’re like many of my readers, you’re probably interested in learning more about GPS tracking technology. If this is, in fact the case, you should probably take a minute and read How To Catch A Cheating Wife.

This Powerful GPS Phone Tracking Software Can Help Keep Your Family Safe!

2011-11-25T06:19:36Z

Today I’m going to be sharing another free cell phone tracking app with you called “Family Locator Pro” (Note: This is one of the names that you can find it under in the Android Market but when you download it, the name of the app is actually Life360). I’m sure you probably realize that the most popular reason for using this technology is to track someone’s cell phone using covert GPS tracking apps like SpyBubble or Cell Control for times when you want to act as your own private investigator. There are, however, many other legitimate reasons for making use of GPS phone tracking technology.

One of them is to simply make sure that your family members are staying safe from the many hazards that exist in the world today. This is the main focus of Family Locator Pro (Life360).

It’s entirely normal for parents and other loved ones to worry when the people that they care about the most are out and about. After all, the world that we live in today can be a very dangerous one! It’s just not the same as it was 20 or 30 year ago. The days of letting your kids ride their bicycles or skateboards anywhere they wanted are long sense past. To be a responsible parent in this day and age, you need to get smart and learn how to utilize modern technologies to keep your children safe.

Fortunately, along with this increased danger, some amazing advancements in technology have come forth that can actually help us keep those that we care about safe and secure. GPS tracking just happens to be one of these kinds of technology. Keep in mind that not all GPS phone tracking applications are created with the goal of family safety in mind. If your interest in this technology is based primary around family safety, you’re going to enjoy learning what I have to teach you about Family Locator Pro today.

Three Ways This App Can Help To Protect Your Loved Ones

You can track the location of your friends and family members with this app.

You can use the software to determine if there are any nearby threats such as sex offenders who might live in the area where your loved ones are hanging out.

Those who have this application installed on their phones can use it to send out a family wide distress alert if they ever feel threatened or that they are in danger.

How This App Works:

Here’s how it works. First you need to download the app and install the application on all of the phones you want to be able to keep track of. This this only takes a few seconds for each phone. I timed this process while installing it on my HTC Thunderbolt and in less than 20 seconds, the entire process was complete.

The bad news is that at the time this article was written, the app only works on Google Android powered smartphones and iPhones. The developers have reported that it will soon be able to function on the Windows Phone as well as Blackberry mobile devices. Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to how “soon” this will actually be. If you ask me, this app is so valuable that the release of versions that will work on other platforms can’t come soon enough.

Next, you’ll need to register for a free account that is called a “Life360 Family Channel” before you can begin using this service. After you sign up for this free account, you will register each device that you will want to keep track of. This feature makes it possible to group all of the devices that your loved ones carry together so you can easily keep track of them in one easy to use web based interface.

After you have completed these steps, the software will automatically be able to begin tracking your family members. When you log into your Life360 Family Channel, you will see a map and on this map the location of each of the phones that you have assigned to your family channel will be displayed (Note: This is a premium feature). Not only will you see their current location, which by the way is displayed in real-time, you’ll see icons on the screen that represent the location of registered sex offenders as well as various safety resources such as the nearest hospital, police, or fire stations.

My Favorite Features:

Now, let me take a minute and tell you about one of my favorite features that comes with this free GPS family tracker application. The app has a handy one button “check in” feature. Virtually every parent in the modernized world has said to their children “Be sure and call to let us know that you made it there safely and that you’re okay”. If you’re a parent, you know all to well that teenagers will often “conveniently forget” to do this. What most likely happens is that they don’t want to be embarrassed in front of their friends so the just don’t bother doing it.

With the Family Locator Pro app installed and running on their phone, all they have to do is open the app and tap the green “check in” button. This button is the green button with the white check mark in it. This will instantly send their current location to their parents letting them know that their kids are safe. What could be embarrassing about that? For all their friends know, they are simply texting another friend which won’t draw any suspicions whatsoever since that’s all kids seem to do these days. If you give your kids an easy way to check in that won’t embarrass them in front of their friends, they will be much more likely to “remember” to do it. When they tap the “check in” button, a message will be sent to their family members notifying them that they reported that they are safe.

Another very cool and powerful feature that comes with this free family tracking app is the ability to send a panic alert to the entire family by simply pressing a button. Imagine that your teenage daughter is out on a date with a new boy and she starts to feel unsafe but she doesn’t want to make things worse for herself or draw attention to herself by making a phone call. With the panic alert feature, she can click one button and instantly send a distress call out to all of the members of her family who are in her “family channel”. This button is the red button with the white exclamation button mark in it. You can then call the police and give them her exact GPS coordinates or you can jump in your car and go help her yourself if you would rather.

Are All Of The Features Free?

While testing this app, I discovered that not all of the features are free. Some that are, in fact free are the ability for family members to check in manually, send a manual distress message, and view the location of emergency services on a map on the phone your family member is carrying. When logged into the web based Life360 Family Channel, family members can click on the “Locate” button next to any family member and the last known location of the phone will be displayed on a map on the computer screen.

I should point out that the mapping service that this app uses is Google Maps so you can be sure that the mapping data is quite detailed and up to date. You even have the option of viewing the map in regular map mode, satellite mode, or a combination of the two which is called hybrid mode.

How Much Does Access To The Premium Features Cost?

If you want to unlock the other more advanced features, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium account. I was initially under the impression that these features were included with the free version but it appears that they aren’t. Nevertheless, the features included with the free version are still very useful and after you use them for a while, I think you’ll see the value in them and want to upgrade to a premium membership.

If you would like access to even more features, you can sign up for the Life360 Full Family Safety Package. The cost for this premium package is $19.99 per month. Alternately, you can subscribe to the specific premium features that you would like. There are three to choose from. They are Sex Offender Monitoring for $9.99 per month, Enhanced Family GPS tracking for $14.91 per month, and Emergency Child ID for $4.99 per month.

Where Can You Get This Application?

For those of you who would like to test this app out, you can get it here: Click here try Family Locator Pro for free today.

I hope you found this article on this free family phone tracker useful. If you did, perhaps you might consider helping me spread the word about it by sharing the article with your friends by clicking on the Facebook “Like” button located just below the title of this article. I’m sure that your friends will appreciate the fact that you cared enough to take the time to share a way for them to keep their family members safe from the dangers that exist in the world today.

Have You Ever Asked Yourself What Are Apps And How Do They Work?

2011-11-25T06:20:23Z

This may seem like a silly topic for an article to many of you but believe it or not, there are actually a lot of people who have asked me what are apps an how do they work.

Not all of my articles need to be geared for experienced power users so today I’ll bring the heat down a notch or two and get back to basics. Only a few short years ago, cell phones were very basic in their design and capabilities. Today, however, is a completely different story! Some of the smartphones available today are more powerful than the supercomputers of 30 years ago!

Let me start off by clarifying what a smartphone actually is. A smartphone is basically a cell phone that has the capability of downloading and running small computer programs. These little computer programs are known affectionately as “apps” or “applications”. Keep in mind that smartphones are basically very small computers.

Okay, let’s say that you’ve just upgraded your old clunky cell phone to a new modern smartphone. What now? Well, actually nothing HAS to change. If you would like, you can just keep using your phone as a communications device. I personally think that if you do, you’ll really be missing out of what apps can actually do for you.

When Apple introduced their amazingly popular iPhone to the world, they hit the airwaves hard with TV commercials that used the slogan, “there’s an app for that” in them. It’s only been a few years since Apple introduced the iPhone and in that time span, virtually every cell phone manufacturer has jumped on the smartphone bandwagon. It’s my opinion that Apple is responsible for the overwhelming popularity of these “mini computers” we call smartphones today.

If you can think of a task, there’s probably an app that will make performing that task easier. There are actually well over a million apps that are available for smartphone owners to use if you can believe that. What’s even more impressive is that hundreds of new apps are being developed everyday!

There are apps to calculate how much you should tip your waitress. There are apps to help you keep your day organized. There are apps to calculate your fuel mileage and remind you when you need to get the oil changed in your car. There are also apps that are simply little “time killers” such as video games or even good old fashioned crossword puzzles. Of course, there are a number of good cell phone tracking apps that you can choose from as well. Let’s not forgot those!

How To Get Apps On Your Smartphone.

If you’ve never installed an application on your phone, don’t worry. It’s amazingly simple to download and install apps on your smartphone. You might be surprised to know that there are thousands and thousands of FREE apps that you can download and use if you would like to. There are also premium apps that you can purchase if you choose to. The iPhone App Store has a reputation of having a lot of apps that you have to pay for and the Android Market has a reputation of having more free apps. I haven’t really spent any time verifying this theory, however, so it may be just a bunch of hype to gain popularity for Android powered devices. Many of these premium apps have “lite” versions that are actually free so you can try the app to make sure that you like it before deciding to purchase it.

Where To Get Apps For Your Smartphone?

If you have an iPhone, the most popular place to get apps is in the Apple Apps Store. Here’s a link to that site for you to use: Apps Store
If you have a Google Android powered cell phone, most people get their apps from the Android Market. You’ll find that here: Android Market
If you have a BlackBerry, you’ll want to get your apps at the BlackBerry App World. Here’s a link to it: BlackBerry App World
For you Windows Phone owners out there, you’ll find your apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Here’s the link for it: Marketplace
Palm owners can find their apps here: Palm Software
You Samsung phone owners will want to go here: Samsung Apps
LG owners can go here for their apps: LG App Store

If I didn’t list your particular phone, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any apps available for it. Just do a Google search with the brand of your phone followed by the word “apps” (e.g. “Palm apps”) and you’ll quickly find the website that you should use to download apps for your particular brand of phone.

Will You Need A Data Plan?

It’s worth pointing out that you’ll need a data plan in order do download apps directly from your phone’s mobile browser. If you don’t subscribe to a data plan, you may be able to download the app that you want to use directly to your computer and then transfer it to your phone using Bluetooth or a USB cable.

I should also point out that some apps such as certain mobile spy applications require that you have a data plan. If you don’t know what a data plan is, you can think of it like your Internet connection for times when you are out and about and you’re not able to connect to the Internet via a Wi-Fi hotspot. Just because you own a smartphone that is capable of connecting to the Internet, that doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to do so. You’ll have to pay for an Internet connection for your phone and this connection is affectionately known as a “data plan”.

Any apps that upload information collected by the application to a web based server for you to have access to later will require that your phone have a data plan. Additional, apps that download data from the Internet will need some form of an Internet connection. This connection can either be a data plan or a Wi-Fi connection (if you happen to be near one).

When you are looking at the apps that you might be interested in installing on your phone, you will see a list of “permissions” that the app will need in order to function properly. If an Internet connection is listed as one of the required “permissions”, you will know that in order to use that particular application, you’ll need a data plan or a connection to a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Are There Additional Costs Associated With Using Applications On Your Smartphone?

This is a great question and it’s one that is worth paying very close attention to! Many of the apps you use will be free. Having said that, there will probably be some apps that you will find to be so useful that you won’t mind paying a one time fee to purchase them. I shouldn’t forget to mention that there is yet another classification of applications that you will need to pay a monthly subscription fee if you would like to use them.

For example, the Life360 family safety GPS application has a free version as well as a premium version that you’ll have to pay a monthly fee for if you want access to some of the premium features like “Registered Sex Offender Monitoring”. In my opinion, this is a perfect example of a fee based app that I don’t mind paying a monthly fee to be able to use it.

Okay, are you paying attention? If you’re not, put down your cup of coffee and focus for just a minute because what I’m about to tell you could potentially save you a bundle of cash! Applications that need a data connection “could” potentially run your cell phone bill up into the stratosphere!

A few years ago, I heard a story of a Canadian man who thought he was being clever by using his cell phone as a modem for his computer. He went absolutely hog wild with this new found “cheap” Internet connection (I believe he was paying $10) and downloaded a whole bunch of HD movies to his computer. Well, apparently he didn’t read something in the “fine print” and he ended up racking up a whopping $85,000 cell phone bill! I later heard that his cell phone company took pity on his stupidity and reduced his bill to somewhere around $3,000. This is, of course, and EXTREME example of what we’re talking about here but I think it does a good job of making my point.

Let me give you a more realistic example of how a smartphone app might end up costing you a lot of money if you’re not careful. One of my most favorite apps for smartphones is the Pandora Internet Radio application. As a matter of fact, I don’t even listen to the regular radio anymore. This app streams the songs from my favorite bands right to my cell phone. I’m actually listening to Jason Mraz “I’m Yours” on Pandora right know. I love this app because it streams high quality music to my phone and there are NO COMMERCIAL INTERRUPTIONS! If you use this app, you’ll get nothing but music and it’s actually the kind of music that you WANT to listen to.

8-20-2011 Update – Sadly, it seems that it was too good to last. I just heard a commercial on Pandora. It was a short commercial but it was still a commercial. I’m not going to get too broken up about it since they don’t seem to be playing very many commercials. It’s definitely nothing like 30 minutes of music and 30 minutes of commercials that you get if you listen to the radio.

8-26-2011 Update: I just heard a brief commercial message from Pandora that said that for $36 a year you can get Pandora without ads. I don’t know yet if this means that you won’t have to hear commercials or if it simply means that you won’t see ads displayed on your smartphone screen. When I know more I’ll update you then.

Sorry for those distractions but I like to pop back into my posts from time to time and update them when I learn more information about what I have reported. Now, let’s get back to the article.

Here’s where you can run into trouble when using a program like this. If you use apps that stream music, video, or in some other way, transfer a lot of data, your cell phone bill “could possibly” get to be quite huge without you even realizing that you cell phone was leaking money like a hole in the Hoover dam. I personally pay for an unlimited data plan on my phone so I don’t have to worry about this but if I didn’t and I listened to Pandora for several hours, my cell phone company would absolutely love me because they will happily bill me for the additional data charges when I go over my monthly allotted data allowance.

If you don’t have an unlimited data plan, you can still use apps like Pandora or even Netflix but ONLY use them when you are in a location where your phone is connected to the Internet via a Wi-Fi connection and not when your phone is only capable of transferring data via its data plan. Note that if you have children who are on your family cell phone plan, it’s definitely worth taking the time to drive the importance of this message home to them. In most cases these days, you can log into your account on your wireless service provider’s website and monitor how each member of the plan is using their phone.

What Else Should You Know About Downloading Apps?

My current phone is an HTC Thunderbolt that runs on the Google Android operating system so I get most of my apps from the Android Market. If you have an Android phone, you might be interested in reading my article about downloading apps that aren’t in the market. You can find it here: Android Apps Not In Market. Basically, you want to make sure that you download apps from reliable sources and not places like torrent websites if you choose to get apps for sources other than the Android Market.

Many iPhone owners want to be able to use apps that aren’t available in the Apple Apps Store so they perform a procedure known as “jailbreaking” to liberate their phone from the clutches of Apple. It’s important that you realize that Apple really scrutinizes the apps that they allow in their Apps Store for both quality and malicious intentions. If you decide to jailbreak your phone and download apps that are not officially sanctioned by Apple, you should first consider whether the app is coming from a trusted source before you go crazy and install just any old piece of software onto your iPhone.

How Long Does It Take To Download and Install Applications?

When I’m able to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi, it only takes a few seconds to download most apps from the market onto my phone. When I’m connecting to the Android Market through Verizon at 3g speeds (4g isn’t available where I live yet), it doesn’t really take that much longer. After the app has downloaded, it automatically installs on my phone automatically so I don’t have to worry about learning the process of installing each particular app onto my phone. The process is very similar for iPhones and most other smartphones.

I have installed some other apps that were bit more tricky to install such as the Swype keyboard. In my opinion, this is the best texting app for Android so I didn’t mind jumping through a few hoops to get it installed on my phone!

When Should You Start Downloading Apps?

If you’re new to smartphone’s or you haven’t really gotten into downloading apps yet, you probably don’t realize what you’re missing. My suggestion to you would be to go to one of the resources I listed above and browse through all the great apps that are available for your phone. Believe me, once you start using apps on your phone, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without them!

Thanks For Visiting!

I trust that this article has answered any questions that you might have had about what apps are and how they work. If you have any friends who think might benefit from this article why not tell them about it. If you click on the “Facebook Like” button that is located below the title of this article, all of your Facebook friends will see the link to this article on their wall. It’s easy to do and they’ll thank you for it later!

Revolutionary New GPS Phone Tracker Software Can Be Remotely Activated

2011-11-25T06:21:05Z

Today I have decided to write about something that I haven’t talked about before on my website. Many of you know that having too many apps running on your phone at a time can decrease the run time of your battery.

For example, I usually turn off some of the features on my phone when I don’t need them to improve battery performance. The phone that I’m currently using is an HTC Thunderbolt and there has been lots written about it’s poor battery performance. There are settings that you can adjust on most smartphones that will improve the performance of your battery but that will be the topic of another article that I’ll soon post on my website.

Some people claim that leaving a GPS app running on your phone all the time can drain your battery faster. I think that it’s important to clear the air about this subject. The truth is that whether a GPS cell phone tracking app will run your battery down faster if it’s running on your phone really depends on how the app functions. Some apps such as Google Latitude, continually calculate the location of your phone so that anytime your friends want to see were you are, they can simply look at the Latitude app that is running on their phone and see your current location. In this case, it’s a good thing that the app is running all the time.

Some programs such as the InstaMapper phone tracking app are fully configurable by the user. By default, the app is programmed to transmit it’s location every five seconds. I’m currently testing the app to see if setting the duration to a longer time span between reporting the phone’s location will actually save on battery power. I’ll update this post when I have my results.

I guess what I’m getting at is that if the app is programmed in such a way that it is constantly using the GPS receiver while it’s running, the battery may run out sooner. If the app is designed to activate the GPS receiver at predetermined time intervals and then calculate it’s coordinates, the battery will most likely last longer. At least that’s my understanding. If you can activate the software remotely when you have misplaced your phone, the tracking software will never be using extra resources and causing a drain on your phone’s battery.

So, now that I’m done rambling, it’s time to talk about remotely activating cell phone tracking applications. I have to be honest. At the moment, I’m not entirely sure which apps support this capability. I am, however, in the process of compiling a list of tracking applications that can be remotely activated and my goal is to update this post every time I find a new one.

List Of GPS Tracking Apps That Can Be Remotely Activated

InstaMapper

This is a free tracking app that features remote SMS tracking activation. You do have to enable this feature in the settings screen on your phone if you want to use it. Once you have enabled it, the app doesn’t have to stay running on your phone all the time. This can be very handy! After all, you probably don’t need to use the tracking app while you have your phone with you.

With InstaMapper, you can install the app and as long as it’s installed and configured properly on your phone, you can start the app simply be sending a SMS text message to your phone. This message must have the phrase “GPS_TRACKER_START device key” included in the body of the text message. You’ll need to replace the words “device key” with the 13 digit code that you received when you signed up with InstaMapper and added your phone to their system. Once you send the text message to your phone that contains the activation text string, the tracking software will instantly start running on your device. It will probably take the phone a few seconds to determine it’s location but once it has done that, it will start transmitting the location of the phone to the InstaMapper web based GPS tracking interface.

You can turn the tracking software off by sending a text message containing the string “GPS_TRACKER_STOP device_key” to your phone. If you only want to get the location of the phone one time, you can send a text and include the string “GPS_TRACKER_FETCH device_key” in the message. This feature will launch the app, transmit the location of the phone one time, and then close the app.

Where’s My Droid

This app doesn’t have an online interface in which users can login and check the location of a particular cell phone. It’s simply an app that features the ability of the user to send a text message to the phone that contains what the designer refers to as an “Attention Word”. When the user sends this attention word to a smartphone in the form of either a text message or an email, the GPS coordinates and address of the phone will be returned to you in the manner in which you sent the attention word. Note: The Where’s My Droid App must already be installed on the phone. It’s not possible to install this mobile GPS tracking app simply by sending a text message or an email.

Be sure and check back soon as I’ll be continually adding more applications to the list of programs that support remote activation. If you would like to be notified when I do so, you can subscribe the the RSS feed for my site by clicking here: Click Here to Subscribe to Free Cell Phone Tracker RSS Feed

Before you go, perhaps I might recommend a couple of other articles that you might enjoy reading such as Call My Cell Phone From Computer or Best Texting App For Android.

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Let Me Show You When The Best Time To Use A GPS Logger App Is!

2011-11-25T06:21:41Z

Let’s change things up a bit today and talk about a free cell phone tracking app that’s a bit different than what we usually talk about here at www.freecellphonetracker.net.

Most of the apps I write about fall in one of two categories. Those that people want to use for catching a cheating spouse such as SpyBubble and those like Google Latitude that people simply use for keeping in touch with their friends.

This phone tracking app is a bit different but I still like it and I think you will too. This isn’t the kind of tracking app that you can simply jump onto any computer that might have an Internet connection and see the location of the phone displayed on your computer screen.

If you’re looking for an app that will do that, I suggest that you check out my comprehensive list of cell phone locator applications that is found on the homepage of this website.

What Is The Purpose Of This App?

This GPS phone tracking application falls into the category of a “GPS logger” and not necessarily a “GPS tracker”. GPS Logger For Android is really a no frills “bread crumb” type tracking app. What do I mean by that, you might ask? Well, if you remember the old fairy tail Hansel and Gretel from your childhood, you might remember them worrying about getting lost so they decided to leave a trail of bread crumbs that they could follow when they were ready to go home.

A GPS logger is very similar to leaving a trail of bread crumbs but you don’t have to worry about the birds eating all of the breadcrumbs and your precious trail disappearing.

Why Would You Want To Use A GPS Logger?

There may be situations when you would like to know where a particular phone may have been carried over a prolonged period of time. Let’s imagine that one of your children is recovering from a problem with drugs and you want to give them the freedom to go out and enjoy life but you also want the ability to check up on them from time to time to make sure that they aren’t hanging out in any of the old bad neighborhoods that they used to hang out in when they were using drugs.

You could install this GPS Logging application and check up on them at the predetermined time interval of your choosing. Let me explain how you would do that using this app. You simply configure the application to calculate its location every so often. The setting for this is called “Time Before Logging”. You’re going to be choosing how many seconds you would like to pass by before the app logs its GPS coordinates again with this setting. The closer you set this to zero, the more detailed the tracking log will be but the battery will run down faster too. If you want the app to record its coordinates ever hour, you would input “3600″ (60 seconds in a minute multiplied by 60 minutes in an hour) in this field.

Next, you would want to configure the app to automatically email you updates of the GPS log that the app is keeping track of for you. You can set this to be as low as every five minutes to as high as every eight hours. When you configure the auto email settings for the app, you’ll need to give the app access to an email account that it can use to send these auto updates to you. I simply entered the login username and password for my Yahoo Mail account. Just to make sure the app worked like it’s advertised to work, I set the time interval to every five minutes and waited. I was pleasantly surprised that in five minutes on the dot an email arrived in my inbox that contained a zip file of the GPS log for the last 5 minutes.

So, if you have the need to track a cell phone but you don’t necessarily need to be able to log in to a website and see the exact coordinates of the phone at any time, you might consider using GPS Logger For Android. It’s free and it works really well!

GPS Logger For Android Download Link

Here’s a link that you can use to download this cool app: Click Here To Download GPS Logger For Android

Thanks for your time today. I appreciate the fact that you chose to spend it hanging out on my website. If you’re still craving more information about cell phone tracking technology, have a look at my article called Locate a Cell Phone Position Free or maybe What Are Apps And How Do They Work.

How I Call My Cell Phone From My Computer To Find It When It’s Lost!

2011-11-25T06:22:24Z

We’ve all done it. Just when we need our cell phone the most, we realize that we can’t find it.

If you have a mobile phone tracking installed on your phone and it’s one of the apps that has the ability to send a signal to your phone to make it ring, you can use the app to help you find your phone. I don’t know about you but most of the time when I misplace my phone, it’s simply buried in a couch cushion or in a pile of laundry.

One option that many people don’t think of when it comes to finding a lost cell phone is using their computer to place a call to their phone which will make it start ringing. A lot of people have given up their home phones for the convenience that cell phones offer so picking up their land line phone and calling their cell phone just isn’t an option.

If you happen to be in in this situation, there’s no need to panic because you can actually use a computer that is connected to the Internet to place the call. Best of all, it’s actually FREE to do this. When you think about it, not many things are actually free these days.

There are a few services that you can use if you have the need to call your phone from your computer. When I need to call my cell phone from my computer, I use a service called iCall.com.

Option Number One

There are a couple of options you can choose from when using service. The first is the web based service from iCall. With this option, you can make calls that are up to three minutes long anywhere in the US or Canada for free. You won’t even have to install any software. All you need to do is click on the link that says “iCall for the Web”. I should point out that this web based service seems to be a little buggy and it’s still in the beta testing phase.

Option Number Two

The other option is to install iCall’s free software on your computer. After you download and install the software, you can begin making free phone calls right from your PC. All you’ll have to do is dial your cell phone number with the iCall software and in a second or two, your phone will start ringing. Then, all you’ll need to do is wander around your house listening for your ringing cell phone.

The next time you misplace your phone, you might try calling it from your computer to help you find it. If you’re like me, you could go crazy trying to remember where you left it. If you call it from your computer, you’ll be able to find it in no time flat!

Resources: www.icall.com

Don’t Miss This Serious Warning About Downloading Android Apps Not In Market!

2011-11-25T06:23:55Z

One of the claims to fame that Apple cherishes is that all of the apps people get from their App Store have been “verified” by Apple.

Ironically enough, their stringent standards is one of the reasons the Google Android operating system has recently surpassed the iPhone OS in popularity. I believe that one of the main reasons that Google has edged out Apple in the smartphone operating system race is because Google has embraced their “come one, come all” philosophy when it comes to allowing apps into the Android Market.

The Android OS has always been considered “open source”. If you’re not familiar with this term, allow me to enlighten you. Makers of open source software embrace the philosophy that all software should be free for people to use. In Google’s case, the software to develop applications is actually free to download and use. This philosophy of acceptance seems to be the main reason that the Android Market has the reputation of having more free apps than the Apple App Store has.

How Developers Get Their Apps In The Android Market

It’s very easy to get your app included in the Android Market if you are an app developer. All you have to do is pay a one time $25 “application developers registration fee”, agree to the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement, and you can upload your app to the Market.

How Developers Get Their App In The Apple Apps Store

It’s a bit more difficult for an app developer to have their app included in the Apple Apps Store. All programs that get included in the Apps Store is closely scrutinized by Apple.

Many people prefer the Apple iOS because it is build a bit differently than the Android OS. The Apple iOS is designed so that no apps have the ability to alter anything on the device. This is known as being “sandboxed”. The apps can run on Apple devices but they aren’t free to modify other apps or files on the device that is running the Apple iOS. This is the main reason that there have been relatively few attempts to develop viruses for these devices.

Why Do More Android Apps Have Viruses?

Now let’s take a look at the Android OS. Apps that are run on Android are not “sandboxed” and the developer is free to design them to have permission to access and modify other files on the device. Are you starting to see how Google’s “open arms” acceptance policy might possibly cause problems for users? It would be quite easy for a slime ball developer to hide a virus or some form of malware inside a seemingly harmless application. This is why it’s a good idea to run some kind of security software on your Android powered devices. The software I use is called Lookout Mobile Security. They have a free version as well as a premium version. The premium version offers more protection and features for only $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year.

Benefits Of Getting Your Apps In the Market

One benefit of only using apps that you get from the Android Market is that Google has a rating system in place. If someone uploads an app that causes problems for it’s users, they will quickly report the problem to Google and the app will be removed from the market if it is determined to contain malicious code. If the apps in the Market were all verified by Google to be free from malware or viruses, there wouldn’t be so many free apps available for users to download and use.

Why Don’t All Developers Put Their Apps In The Market?

There are some app developers who are mavericks and they don’t want to pay $25 fee or allow Google to have any control over their app so they attempt to distribute their apps outside of the market. While most of these apps are safe, they don’t benefit from the huge number of people providing feedback about the usefulness or stability of the software. The way I see it, Android apps not in the Market pose an even greater risk because there aren’t any safeguards or rating systems in place at all. Every single person who downloads the app may get a virus but since there isn’t any governing organization such as the Android Market to report the problem to, you won’t have any way of knowing that the app is actually dangerous.

Do I Use Apps That Aren’t In The Market?

The only times I’ve downloaded any Android Apps not in the Market was when I downloaded the Swype Beta keyboard and I only felt comfortable doing this because the developer is well known and trusted. I didn’t have any problems with it at all but I wouldn’t feel comfortable downloading just any old app from a site that didn’t have a very good reputation.

I guess I should say that I wouldn’t feel comfortable downloading “free” apps that aren’t in the market. Oftentimes people who are trying to put malicious code on your phone will attempt to lure you in with free apps. Those who are charging for their apps generally want to protect their reputation so they are unlikely to put harmful code in them. I guess the main thing that you need to determine is whether the source can be trusted or not before you go wildly downloading apps from just anyone.

The ultimate decision of whether or not to download non market Android Apps is up to you. Whether you get your apps from the market or not, I strongly advise that you use a good security tool on all of your Android powered devices and configure some form of automated backup utility so that you can always retrieve the precious data that you keep on your smartphone should your phone become infected.

Thanks so much for reading my article. One of the most popular articles on my site is about catching cheating wives with GPS tracking technology. You should check it out if you have time. It’s called Catch A Cheating Wife or Husband. I believe that one of the reasons it has become so popular is because GPS mobile spy technology has advanced so far that using it can make catching a cheater very easy to do.