Back in the days when you lose the standard mobile phone, the loss is limited to just the hardware. The new owner would probably just remove your SIM card and put in his or her own and no one would be the wiser. But with smartphones, this situation presents a larger set of problems.

For starters, you will lose all your precious data: music, photos, apps and contacts. Getting a new phone would mean you have to start recollecting all these items from scratch. If hearing that gives you a headache, let me remind you that the person who has located your iPhone will also have access to all your online accounts: social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, personal emails — and if you are one of the many people who do their banking online, better change those passwords quick. In any case, identity theft has been made easier these days since your smartphone now carries your online identity.

While it is almost impossible to prevent you from dropping or misplacing your iPhone, it is possible to reduce the effects (and pain) of losing your iPhone and the contents within forever. Here are 10 useful apps (3 of them with step-by-step guides on how to use them) which can help you turn the tables in the event of your iPhone going MIA.

Recommended Reading: Top 10 Security Tools For Your Smartphone

Find My iPhone

Find My iPhone app allows you to use another iOS device to locate your missing iPhone on a map, protect your private data, display a message, play a sound at full volume (for few minutes) even if your missing iPhone was set to silent, and remotely lock your device. [Free]

To Use Find My iPhone Before iPhone is Lost or Stolen

1. Upgrade your iPhone to iOS 5 or above.
2. Register an iCloud account (Apple ID).
3. Install Find My iPhone app.
4. Turn on Find My iPhone by tapping Settings > iCloud > Find My iPhone. Tap Allow to confirm this option.

Locate Missing iPhone with Find My iPhone:

As long as your Find My iPhone is turned on on the lost/stolen iPhone AND it’s connected to the Internet, you will be able to find your iPhone’s current location.

1. Visit http://iCloud.com/find.
2. Sign in your iCloud account using Apple ID.
3. Click on the Find My iPhone button.
4. Choose Locate an iPhone device if you have set up more than one iOS device.
5. Your lost/stolen iPhone’s location will show on the map if your device is online.
6. If your iPhone is offline, you can set an option to receive an email whenever your iPhone is connected to the Internet.

GadgetTrak

GadgetTrak app increases your chances of recovering your lost or stolen iPhone by generating location reports, sending a discreet message to your device, and snapping a photo of the thief with the built-in camera. With its restriction on "Deleting Apps", the thief will not be able to delete GadgetTrak from your iPhone. [$3.99]

Install GadgetTrak Before the iPhone is Lost or Stolen

1. Purchase and install GadgetTrak.
2. Tap the GadgetTrak application icon on your iPhone to launch the app.
3. Create an account and sign in.
4. Set a passcode for GadgetTrak to prevent others from changing your settings or seeing the tracking status.

Recovering Lost/Stolen iPhone with GadgetTrak

1. Visit http://trak.me to enable tracking.
2. Select your device to log in.
3. Once logged in, you’ll see your iPhone plotted on the map.
4. Click the "View" button then select "Tracking Reports" on the top.
5. The Camera allows you to snap a photo with a one-time fee of $0.99.

Device Locator

Device Locator allows you to track the location of your misplaced iPhone, sound an alarm on your lost or stolen iPhone, take a photo of the user remotely and send a message with sound. There’s no monthly or yearly fees involved. [$3.99]

Use Device Locator Before the iPhone is Lost or Stolen

1. Purchase and install Device Locator.
2. Launch the app by tapping the icon.
3. Create an account in https://device-locator.com.
4. Customize the settings in your iPhone.

LoJack Your Stolen or Lost iPhone with Device Locator

1. Visit https://device-locator.com and login to your account.
2. Set it to emergency mode and lock the application from the web application.
3. Track your iPhone’s recent location history, including the most recent position on a map.

More Apps

iHound

iHound helps locate and keep your iPhone safe with remote locking, remote data erasing, location tracking and siren alerts playing. It’s a free download but users are required to subscribe at least 3 months which costs $3.99. [$3.99/3 Months]

If Found+

If Found+ replaces your iPhone background wallpaper with a message if you have lost your iPhone. Even if your iPhone is locked with a passcode, a good Samaritan can reach you if he/she finds your phone. [$0.99]

Mobile Spy

Mobile Spy allows you to monitor your iPhone in real time by providing reports of incoming and outgoing calls, SMS, GPS locations, contact list, e-mails, website URLs, photos and videos. [$99.97/year]

Phone Trace 4

Phone Trace 4 tracks your lost or stolen iPhone’s real-time location reports and provides you with the new number of the person who is holding on to your iPhone. It also can send emails, SMS and some commands remotely. [$7.99]

Motion Alarm

Motion Alarm plays a customized alarm to alert you or the unauthorized iPhone holder when a preset level of movement is reached. It also provides GPS tracking so you’ll be able to receive a position report in your email Inbox. [$1.99]

Navizon

Navizon marks the positions of your lost/stolen iPhone with a real-time and accurate live locating system. [Free]

Find My Friends

Besides Find My iPhone, the Find My Friends app can be used as an iPhone device tracker as well. By using your family members’ or friends’ iPhone (which has been accepted and added previously), you’ll be able to see your iPhone’s location on a list or on a map. [Free]

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4. Top 10 Security Tools for Your Smartphone

Downloading your collection of data stored within Google products can be a tedious job, especially when you have been using Google for years across many different applications. With hundreds of files and photos already uploaded, downloading them one by one is hardly an idea worth considering.

Instead of scrolling and surfing page after page of your Google accounts and downloading each file, one after the other, be it the data and files from Google Docs, Google+, Buzz, contacts or even your photo album on Picasa, consider the alternative: Google Takeout.

Takeout is a web application provided by Google, specifically to let you access all of your data stored within Google products, and to download all of it at once. This tutorial will guide you on how to access your stored data and download it to your computer.

Access Takeout

To start downloading your data, go to Takeout and log in with your Google account’s username and password. You will need to log in again although you have already logged in to your account from a different Google product, as this is extra protection for your data.

Download your data with Takeout

After you have logged in to Takeout, you will see a list of Google products you probably have used before. Now in this page, you will have two options to download your data:

1. To download data from specific Google product, click on ‘Choose Services’; OR

2. To download all data from all Google products, click on ‘Create Archive’;

a. Download data from specific Google product

To download data from a specific Google product, simply click on the link ‘Choose Services’ and you will be given another list of product. Now click on any one or more product to download the data.

When you click on any one product, Takeout will present something like a ‘digital card’ with insight to files you’re about to download. You will be shown a number of files and the estimated total size.

Now click on the ‘Configure…’ bar to check or change the file format before you proceed to download.

You will be given an option to change your file format. Simply click on the dropdown menu of each file type to change the format, and click on ‘Create Archive’ to start the download.

After you click on the ‘Create Archive’ button, Takeout will start preparing your files. How long this step takes depends on the size of the files within. Once it is completed, click on the ‘Download’ button to download your files into your computer.

b. Download all data from all Google products

If you choose to download all the data from all the Google products you have every used all at once, click on the ‘Create Archive’ button, as shown below.

Once clicked, Takeout will automatically process your files for downloading, without the option to change the file format. When the process is complete, click on the ‘Download’ button to proceed.

Your Google Data

Your downloaded data is organized in one root folder in zipped format. To open your data and files, simply unzip the folder.

If you download data from more than one Google product, you will see a number of sub-folders, and these sub-folders contain your files as kept by Google.

Conclusion

We have been using Google products for years across many web applications and knowing that, the number of our files stored in Google may have increased beyond a measly few hundreds. Therefore when we need to check or download these files, it starts becoming a hassle. Takeout has made the process of downloading these files much simpler.

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