LoJack for Macs

[jrocks]

Im about to purchase an entry level macbook pro for college this fall and I thought it would be a great idea to have LoJack on it. I wasn't sure if LoJack existed for Macs but I found out it does, which is awesome. My question is then does anyone on here have LoJack for their mac and have you ever recovered it? I guess it doesnt matter if its a pc or mac. Does Apple have their own type of LoJack recovery service? This seems like something that would be great to have on an almost 2k macbook pro on a college campus. Anyone have thoughts or words of wisdom? Thanks!

 

[synth3tik]

I use "underCover" here It costs a little more, but these guys do all the work for you. Including getting a physical address to the IP that the computers on, taking pics with the isight, and taking screen shots. I haven't had to activate it yet thankfully, but I feel a lot safer.

 

[mainomega]

I've been torn on which product to buy. So after weeks and months of wanting one but not knowing which to choose... I haven't bought one yet.

edit: the reason I havent gone with Orbicule is that they dont state how many laptops they have actually recovered.. and since they are a small company compared to the other services... :/

 

[synth3tik]

edit: the reason I havent gone with Orbicule is that they dont state how many laptops they have actually recovered.. and since they are a small company compared to the other services... :/

IMO anti-theft software is like 3rd party insurance. You won't know how well it will work until something bad happens. Orbicule does not state the amount of laptops recovered, but then again, how accurate would those numbers be, just like how accurate are the testimonials? It would be great if someone (whether on a blog, in the paper, or in a Mac magazine) could get some real numbers and compare companies side by side.

When I went with Orbicule I was also looking a another one (can't think of the name) and I just felt better about UnderCover.

 

[Doctor Q]

I've been trying to collect the known facts in this thread.

 

[deadpixels]

what! now thieves can't make a living anymore??

 

[zephead]

+1 for UnderCover. I have it on my MacBook and I really like how they set the whole thing up.

 

[Cristobol]

+2 for undercut, there's no yearly fee, just the one $40 fee and you have it. You might have to pay for some updates later on, but not the one for leopard I e-mailed them. (This is their exact wording) -

"When you update for Leopard, you would have to update Undercover as well. Orbicule plans to release Undercover 2.0 as a free update for both Tiger and Leopard. There are no annual fees associated with Undercover. However, we can not promise that all our future updates will be for free."

I think it's more cost effective than lojack, 100 dollars for 4 years that's crazy.

 

[Sun Baked]

I sort of liked the login script that emails the photo of the user during every login.

 

[ScottDrummer]

the theft sensor is a good idea, however it seems pointless as you cant close your lid. is there a way to keep just the motion sensor active when the mac is in sleep?

 

[Cristobol]

I e-mailed them again with a couple of question and this is what they said:

"Undercover only runs on OS X, not on Windows. If you boot in Windows, Undercover won't be running and thus it won't do its work.
There are several solutions: 1) Parallels or 2) a Windows specific theft recovery app installed on the Windows partition."

Thought that was interesting. I don't get what the person who posted before me was saying. Can you try to explain it? I mean if your computer was stolen, you would have undercover, so I don't get why having it work while it's a sleep is a big deal. If they steal it you still have undercover. I think it's more designed for when your in the library or cafe and you turn around to talk to somebody.