LoJack, Orbicule Undercover, Adeona???

[mclmk8d]

I bought a Mac Book Pro for my son who is off to college for Sound Recording and Technology. Being in a dorm, both he and I are worried about theft. I read about Lo-Jack, Orbicule Undercover and Adeona, and was wondering if anyone has first hand experience with either of both of these. Any help is much appreciated.

I will most likely be buying a MBP for myself in the near future..as a teacher, it is what my school district uses and I love them. I've read various rumors regarding macbooks and MBPs...any new info out in the last couple of days?

 

[sn00pie]

I've been looking into Orbicule myself, but since I'm in Canada, I'm not sure how reliable it will be to have a company in Belgium looking over my Mac 24/7.

It's around $39 with student discount so yeah, definitely not a bad price for the security of your $1300 purchase.

These small things are going to add up like crazy for me, and being a student, I'm on a budget, so it has to be important!

So far with the MacBook, I'm planning on buying AppleCare, Incase Hardshell, iWork or Office 2008 and Undercover if it's worth the price.

 

[zephead]

I bought Undercover not long after I bought my MacBook. I haven't actually had to use it yet (thankfully), but it's good to know it'll send screenshots and network info, take iSight pics, and pull off a few other tricks if it ever does get stolen.

 

[jaikob]

I've been looking into Orbicule myself, but since I'm in Canada, I'm not sure how reliable it will be to have a company in Belgium looking over my Mac 24/7.

It's around $39 with student discount so yeah, definitely not a bad price for the security of your $1300 purchase.

These small things are going to add up like crazy for me, and being a student, I'm on a budget, so it has to be important!

So far with the MacBook, I'm planning on buying AppleCare, Incase Hardshell, iWork or Office 2008 and Undercover if it's worth the price.

You will enjoy the incase hardshell

 

[Tex-Twil]

Hello,
I will soon buy a MBP and I'd like to protect it against theft as well. I was reading about undercover and it looks good. I'm not sure what is the scenario when an Apple protected by Undercover gets stolen. The FAQ says :

Undercover is the world's first theft-recovery software that will send screenshots of your stolen Mac at regular intervals

this is nice but who is the person that gets the screenshots. Is it the owner of the Undercover software ?

The network information enables us to work with the network administrators of the ISP the thief is connected to. Since ISPs consider computer theft as network abuse, they will uncover the thief's identity.

This means that an ISP would actually tell who an IP belongs to. IMHO, the law about the ISP's rights changes from country to country. Even if Undercover says that they work "worldwide", I doubt that they can force an ISP to give the associated identity to an IP.

Together with law enforcement, we work to recover the Mac.

So there is a guy from Undercover in every country and they will call the cops and work with them to get the mac back ???


Thanks for you help,
Tex

 

[sn00pie]

The more I've looked into it the more less likely it seems to me that it would help incase of a theft. Besides, who knows when someone from Orbicule could be watching you through your iSight camera.

 

[Tex-Twil]

Hello,
FYI, I contacted directly Undercover to ask them my previous questions. Here is the answer:

Dear ....,

Thanks for your interest in Undercover!

To answer your questions,

1- "Undercover is the world's first theft-recovery software that will
send screenshots of your stolen Mac at regular intervals"

Who is the person who actually gets the screenshots? Is it the owner
of the notebook (i.e. me) or is it you ?

We receive the screenshots, and then choose the useful ones, and send them to you and the police. You will always be the first to receive information, and we always add you as cc when communicating with the police and the ISP provider.

2-"The network information enables us to work with the network administrators of the ISP the thief is connected to. Since ISPs
consider computer theft as network abuse, they will uncover the
thief's identity."

This means that an Internet Service Provider would actually tell who
an IP belongs to. I think that the law about the ISP's rights/duties
changes from country to country. Do you have specials agreements to
collaborate with ISPs?

The ISP won't disclose this information directly to us, but it will share the information with the police.

3-"Together with law enforcement, we work to recover the Mac."

So does this mean that once a notebook is stolen, undercover employees
take care of everything and contact the authorities to try to recover
the notebook? Undercover works "wordwide" so does it mean that you
will collaborate with authorities all around the world?

Yes, we do work woldwide and communicate with the police, however, we expect you also to help us communicating with the police. This would include giving us details, handing over documents when we do not have a police e-mail, etc.