Sometimes A New App Is Worth A Closer Look

Two new apps appeared on the App Store tonight. If Found and Lost Phone. Both take your personal information and turn it into wallpaper for your iPhone. Not as nice as the photo of my dog Maisy or the stock "stones" my wife is using on hers, but personal, none the less.

One is free and the other is $1.99.

I took a quick look and wasn’t intrigued. "So what if I can put my personal info on my iPhone…" I thought, "how is that going to help me get my iPhone back if I lose it?"

In both cases… "Thanks But No Thanks". Seems I missed the point.

Fortunately Dimitri just got back from a trip to Australia. Even with his jetlag- 36 hours coming back- he’s seeing things pretty clearly.

Here’s the point, he said– the app comes up with a screen that captures your personal information and then uses that info to create a photo of what you have typed in. Go in and set that as your wallpaper.

So how does it protect your iPhone, you might ask? 

There is one more step and it is the one I, and apparently lots of other folks posting comments on the App Store, missed.

You need to have password protected your iPhone. Do that and you are good to go.

Why? Because whoever finds your phone can’t unlock it. When they turn it on all they will see is the wallpaper containing your information.

Hmmm. Maybe I need to start using that password protection…

Pretty simple. Pretty smart.  I wish I had come up with it. 🙂