Gadgetwise Blog: Lost Phones Flares as the Battery Dies

Many smartphones and tablets have some kind of tracking software that allows owners to find lost or stolen gear – as long as the device’s battery is charged.

But it’s a common scenario for the battery die before they can find it.

A mobile security software suite called Lookout offers a solution to that problem with an app called Signal Flare. When a battery is about to die, Signal Flare sends its location to Lookout. You can go to the Web site to find where the phone was when it shut down.

This week Signal Flare is being added to the free Lookout app for Apple products. It has been available for Android devices for some time.

The Apple and free Android versions are very similar. They protect devices from attacks, they back-up contacts and locate lost phones both through Signal Flare and through an app called Scream, which causes the phone to emit a loud siren sound while the screen flashes.

A premium version of Lookout for Android adds protective browsing that guards the phone from unsafe Web sites, locks and wipes out the phone’s data remotely, provides a “privacy adviser” that tells you what information various apps access, and back-ups your photographs. The cost is $3 a month or $30 a year.

The product can manage a mix of devices, so a household with both Apple and Android products can manage them from a single account.