DISQUS

peggyduncan · 4 months ago

JB, I don't think I want a technology on my computer that's recording everything I type. Sounds like that's what would happen whether it's me typing or the thief. I have the Lojack on my beloved laptop.

ericks12 · 4 months ago

Small detail I went to the website and noticed it is spelled "GadgetTrak" without a "c". Great writeup by the way, nice to see an unbiased comparison.

Peggy you may also want to look at this page regarding privacy:
http://gadgettrak.com/products/pc/privacy/

davidlocke · 4 months ago

Computer users should know that everything they do is recorded even without any application doing so. Every file, every graphic, every command, every keystroke end up somewhere on your disk drive. Police forensic applications can uncover all of it. Likewise, cellphones, GPS devices, digital cams, anything with a memory. All of it is recoverable.

Even deleting things will only mark the content as "deleted," but the content remains until it is overwritten by another file. That overwriting is a random event. If the header has not been overwritten, the content of the file can be recovered to the degree that a given segment of that content was not overwritten.

The best practice is not put things like account numbers on your machine. If you use your computer that way, by all means protect your machine. Given the falling prices, these extra services will exceed the price of the machine very early in the life of your machine. The value of the machine itself will fall while your valuation of that machine increases as your content accumulates on the machine.

Name · 3 months ago

You should take a second look at Lojack as I think you missed some key features. I looked at the same options you did and I bought the Lojack premium edition on my new Macbook Pro. Not only does it do everything the others do, but they have a recovery team that works with the police and provides them will all of the location and user info collected from your stolen laptop. All the other services will only email you the info and expect you to work with the police yourself. Also, the premium version comes with a $1000 guarantee and on PCs (i have it on my HP laptop as well), the technology is built in to the bios so LoJack cant be delete by the thief..

Will Noble · 3 months ago

If price is the consideration, then you've made the right choice with GadgetTrak.

However, Awareness' product comes in the clear price/performance winner if you want proactivemonitoring and recovery of your laptops in a corporate environment - which is where Awareness Technologies' product is targeted.

While it's possible to get 'most' of the features of a commercial-grade product from something which targets consumers, it's important to remember that there are many issues confronting business data security - including the recovery of the asset, and the prosecution of those responsible. Often, insurance requirements will demand this.

JB · 3 months ago

I want to thank everyone for their comments on this Love Your Laptop blog post. I still have not made my ultimate decision yet on which service I should choose. I am leaning toward GadgetTrack but many of you have made your cases for LoJack for Laptops and Laptop Cop. Keep the comments coming. I will be making my decision very soon.

cheap computers · 3 months ago

This information is so revealing, it can be used to get law enforcement involved and significantly increase your chances of successfully recovering your laptop.