Tech Talk: Tracking your iPod

With the world becoming more and more digitized everyday, the chances that you or someone you know owns a USB flash drive, iPod or digital camera is growing tremendously.
But what happens when that electronic storage device turns up missing?
Losing a USB device can be a tremendous blow to many.

Whether it’s several thousand pictures, songs, or important files for work, data loss is everyone’s worst nightmare – and that’s on top of losing your favorite iPod or device.
Mat Mullen felt that sting this past summer when one of his devises was stolen.
“Over the summer, my iPod was stolen from my car,” Mullen said. “I was really upset that Apple couldn’t trace my iPod through their system with the serial number, so I decided that if they weren’t going to help then I should start a company helping others out.”
Upset with his loss, Mullen went to work and released ihound software this past month to stop future loss of digital data and devices.
“That’s pretty much it, I never wanted to lose an iPod or USB device again,” he said.
The free software is a simple program that can be downloaded and installed on your iPod, flash drive or digital camera.
Once the software is installed, a custom named file (the default file name is, “MyPasswords”) is left in the root directory of the drive. The software is also setup to auto-run if the drive is accessed from My Computer.
When the application is opened, the software generates a report which is automatically sent to the ihound website. The website then records the ISP (Internet Service Provider) location, GPS coordinates, the computer’s name and ISP address.
An e-mail is also sent to the corresponding e-mail address, alerting the user that the device has been tracked.
Once a report has been generated, the user can login to their account and print a report to take to the local authorities. Police can then contact the ISP and track the computer’s location to retrieve your device.
“Since we’ve only been open to the public for two days, we haven’t heard any success stories yet,” Mullen said shortly after the software’s release. “However during our private testing, we did do some successful tests of our own. I traveled to New York City for a meeting and loaded our software on 10 different flash drives and then dropped them all over the Subway. Out of those 10, we successfully tracked eight of them. While we didn’t intend on trying to recover them it was pretty cool to see where the devices ended up.”
The program isn’t 100-percent fool proof or guaranteed, but it is a huge step in the right direction.
Technically, the program only works if the “finder” clicks to open the correct file and will only track the device from a Windows PC, with an Internet connection.
But software does make itself very enticing to the finder. Using special icons, file names and setting itself up as an auto-run feature on the drive, it’s very unlikely the “finder” won’t attempt to run the software.
“This is the next best thing to a silver bullet,” Mullen said. “Recovering lost or stolen items is never going to be 100-percent successful, but with the help of our software it sure is a big step towards recovery. We intend on fine-tuning our product during the beta phase with user input to make it increasingly better, which will hopefully increase ihound’s recovery success rate.”
Another thing to keep in mind is that the program doesn’t lockdown your device or restrict the finder from accessing your information. Even if the finder does access the application, they can continue using the device and browsing through your files and information.
Of course, if your information is that sensitive, you probably don’t want to store it on a removable device to begin with.
The software is rather customizable, making it very user friendly.
Before downloading the software from ihoundsoftware.com, users can customize their copy of the software to keep track of serial numbers and other identifying marks. Just be sure to enable tracking on the device, under “Edit Device Profile,” before you download the software. The current default option is set to leave the tracking option turned off. If tracking is not enabled, the software is rather pointless.
Once the tracking is enabled users can then customize the file name, icon and a “Return to” message, which can be set to open in a pop-up window anytime someone runs the software.
Hopefully this message alone will spur most honest people to return the device to its proper owner.
Mullen said regardless of having the software installed or not, it’s still important to back up your data.
“I’ve learned the hard way far too many times,” Mullen said. “Losing a device like an iPod is never fun, but it’s a lot better knowing that you have your music or videos backed up.”
Mullen did admit that the company may begin charging $1 per device in the future.
“Right now it’s free,” Mullen said. “We plan on always offering a free basic version where users can track up to one device. The $1 per month per device is still getting worked out. We feel that customers often own more than one USB, thus in order for us to create revenue we might start charging a small fee in the next couple of months.”
However, for the price, the added security and peace of mind is definitely worth it.

Download the free software at: www.ihoundsoftware.com.