How to Use the Device Locator Service
This service has grown into a set of device recovery tools that allow you to apply your creativity to locate and retrieve the device.
Jump to a specific section- Basics
- Transferring Information to the iPhone Application
- Taking Photos
- Polling Intervals
- Sending a Message to the Device
- Audible Alarm
- Application Lock
- Google Latitude Integration
- URL Forwarding
Basics
The application that runs on the iPhone is designed to be completely hands free. Once it has been installed and the user has logged into the account, it should never have to be opened again. All configurations is done from within the web-application located at https://device-locator.com. This information however, does not get instantly transferred to the application running on the iPhone.
Transferring Information to the iPhone Application
Information changed on the web-application such as poll interval can take some time for the application running on the iPhone to pick up.
The application running on the iPhone communicates with the web-application when it sends location information to the web server. In doing so, it also retrieves the configuration of the application from the web-application. If the poll interval is set to tower switch and you switch to emergency mode, the emergency mode will turn on during the next tower switch.
If you have the device at hand and would like to send its location right away, simply opening the app will trigger it to send its location and retrieve any new information such as the polling interval.
Taking Photos
You can take a photo by sending a push message to the device and then "viewing" the push message. There are two ways to send a push message. To send a push message, you can either use the alarm or manually send a push message.
After the photo is taken you can login to this website, select the device and then scroll down to the "Photo Taken" section. There will be a link to view the photo. Click the link to load the photo. If the photo seems to be empty or broken, this indicates that no photos have been sent by your device.
Known Issues: The camera sometimes fails to trigger. Sometimes the camera capture screen does not disappear. When this happens you can try sending another push message or remove the app from the multitasking bar and open it again. This only occurs on the iPhone 3GS.
Polling Intervals
The app by default will record locations while you move from one location to another. If the phone is lost, you can select "Emergency" mode to record a location every minute. In order for the phone to go into "Emergency" mode, the phone must ping a location. You can also send a message to the phone to trigger a location to be recorded.
You can use the Tower Switch interval or the emergency mode. During normal operations, you should use the Tower Switch interval. To recover a missing device, you can turn on the emergency mode. Once the next tower switch occurs, the phone will turn on emergency mode and report its location every minute.
Sending a Message to the Device
The application allows you to send a push notification to the registered device. If your device has properly registered for push notification, you will see a "Push Msg" link after you login. From this link you can send a message to the device and select the type of sound the message will make.
If you do not see the "Push Msg" link after you login, this means that your application was not setup properly to do push notification. Please ensure that you have enabled push notification from the settings menu. Push notification was added in version 0.9.3.
Audible Alarm
You can enable an audible alarm which will get triggered within approximately 15 seconds. This alarm only works if push notification has been setup properly.
If you see the message "Push Not Available" in the "Alarm" column, push notification was not been setup properly. Please ensure that you have enabled push notification from the settings menu and that you are using the newest version from the App Store.
Application Lock
You have the ability to lock the application running on the iPhone from the web-application. If you have setup the application properly, you can lock it and no one will be able to make any changes to the application running on your iPhone.
The application lock state will only be picked up when the iPhone application sends its location. The amount of time it takes for the new state to be picked up depends on the poll interval.
Google Latitude Integration
Once the iPhone application has properly registered, you can login to the web-application and visit the settings page for that device. In there you can click on the link "Turn On" next to where it says "Google Latitude Integration".
This will send your device's location to Google Latitude every time our service receives an update. Google Latitude can record your location history for a very long time. It can also be used to share your location with friends. Please visit Google Latitude for more information on how to utilize this service.
URL Forwarding
URL forwarding is an advanced feature. If you are not a web developer, you will not be able to make use of it.
The URL you specify will have the parameters replaced with the appropriate values and will be executed each time our service is updated with your device's location. The URL is associated with the device and each device can be configured independently.
Back to device tracking.