Hopefully this year, Santa will be
placing a MacBook/MacBook Pro/MacBook Air under your tree. If you
are lucky enough to get one of these laptops, you will quickly
realize that they are a hot commodity. So, the last thing you would
want is to have someone walk off with it. Other than physically
locking down the machine, there is now another way to keep your Mac
safe and get some peace of mind. GadgetTrak is a theft recovery and
loss prevention solution company specializing in mobile devices. To
help keep your MacBook secure, they have released MacTrak, which is
the equivalent of a LoJack for your laptop.
MacTrak installs on your machine and
uses the built iSight camera and Wi-Fi to help locate and recover
your machine. The program allows the user to activate MacTrak from
any computer in the world and as long as the stolen Mac is powered
and connected to the Internet. It will photograph the perpetrator
and geolocate the machine and send this information to a preselected
email and also be uploaded to the user’s Flickr account.
Basically, if you own any iteration Mac
and run Leopard, then this should be the first program you install on
your machine! So let’s get a better look.
MacTrak
from GadgetTrak: Advanced Anti-Theft For OS X
Reviewed by: Tomas Ratas
Sponsor: GadgetTrak
MacTrak
from GadgetTrak: Advanced Anti-Theft For OSX
GadgetTrak’s patent-pending MacTrak for
OS X is the most advanced theft recovery solution available for Apple
systems.
Advanced
Wi-Fi Positioning
MacTrak
utilizes advanced wi-fi positioning to provide the accurate location
(10-20 meters) of your device in the event of theft, without the need
for GPS or additional hardware,
iSight
Image Capture & Flickr Integration
When
activated MacTrak uses the web camera to capture images of the thief
and uploads them with location to your Flickr account, and email.
Privacy
Safe & Tamper Proof
MacTrak
utilizes privacy-safe tracking technology. All images, location and
network data are never sent to us, only to your email and Flickr
account . GadgetTrak integrates with the OS X security framework
requiring admin privileges to remove and modify its configuration.
MacTrak from
GadgetTrak is privacy safe. When you activate tracking for your
device a signal is sent to your system, the software then gathers
location and network data as well as captures images and emails them
directly to you as well as to your Flickr account. Unlike other theft
recovery solutions no location information or images are ever sent to
GadgetTrak, only to the email and Flickr account you configure. We do
not have a monitoring center and we do not have access to the system
or files.
No Monitoring
Centers & No Backdoors
Traditional theft
recovery software requires you to contact the company to activate
tracking, all data from your system including location, images, and
other data goes directly to them before you get the information. Many
of these monitoring centers have access to your system via a backdoor
their software installs, enabling them to have access to your files
and the ability to install additional software. We feel this is an
invasion of privacy, so we design our software to empower users to
track and recover their devices with all data collected going
directly to them. If you need assistance with recovering the device
we are here to help, you can forward the data on to us if you choose
or we can work directly with law enforcement.
Simple
Web Based Activation
Remote
activation is simple. Open a web browser, or use your iPhone to log
in and click the tracking button, the next time your system connects
to the Internet the software will activate sending data and images to
you.
MacTrak from GadgetTrak is activated by
logging into your MacTrak.me account and clicking a button to
activate tracking. The next time your Mac connects to the Internet
the software will activate and start sending you emails with the
specific location and network environment of the system, as well as
use the camera to take a photo of who is using the system every 30
minutes. No additional password
prompts appear and the thief is unaware the software is tracking
them.
System Requirements: OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and higher
G4, G5, or Intel Core
Processor
MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iBook, PowerBook,
Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pro
Installation and Testing:
Since MacTrak is a download, there is
no packaging to describe. One of the nice things about MacTrak is
there are no subscription fees involved! Installation involves
opening the DMG file and then starting the MPKG file from the MacTrak
folder. In this folder, we find the installer, an uninstaller, the
MacTrak Installer Guide, the license and a 30 Day Free Trial of BakUp
for OS X. BTW, apparently GadgetTrak does not like the letter ‘C’.
Installation will ask for the License
Key which comes with the purchase of the product, your email address
and a password which you need to create for your account. The next
screen sets up the email account from which tracking emails are sent
from and to. The installation guide lists the configuration setup
for email accounts from Yahoo and GMail and ISPs – Verizon and
Comcast. Next, you will be asked to login to your Flickr account and
authenticate it. After this initial setup, the program will install
and register.
To change the email and Flickr
settings, the MacTrak program can be accessed from the System
Preferences screen. However, to make these changes, you will to
enter the administrative password. In addition, to remove the
program, you will also need to use the administrative password for
your Mac.
Now, God forbid, your Mac is stolen;
here is how easy it is to track it and hopefully recover it. First,
log onto this site – https://gt1.gadgettrak.com.
Here you will need to enter your email, password and your
authentication key. Now the tracking is activated and MacTrak will
start sending emails with the specific location and network
environment of the system, as well as use the camera to take a photo
of who is using the system every 30 minutes. The thief is unaware
this is occurring and helpless to do anything about it.
Here is a visual representation of how
MacTrak works:
The ONLY way to circumvent MacTrak is
for the thief to erase your hard drive. Luckily, OS X has a built in
deterrent to prevent that from occurring. Simply password protect
your firmware – here is the link on how it is accomplished – http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352.
One drawback of the firmware password protection is it requires the
password to use the Startup Manager, which is usually accessed by
pressing the Option key during startup. If you are like me and use
Boot Camp that becomes a bit of a nuisance. But the protection of
MacTrak is well worth it.
Also, never try and retrieve your
machine by yourself! Always involve the local authorities.
OK, here is an example of MacTrak in
action. I enlisted the help of a well known entertainer to act as
the thief for this simulation.
So once MacTrak was activated online, I
received the following email and Flickr posting. There you have it!
Grover from Sesame Street has attempted to steal my MacBook Pro!
We can see on the email and Flickr page
that I have received we get an incriminating picture captured by the
iSight camera and the External IP address, internal host IP, Username
on the Mac, Ethernet ID, Hostname, nearby Wi-Fi networks and the
Wi-Fi based latitude and longitude. In addition, GadgetTrak provides
links to the location using Google Maps and the the name of the ISP
provider of the Wi-Fi network the Mac is using. All this information
can help you and the authorities pinpoint your Mac and recover it and
hopefully bust the thief.
Summary and Comments
There is nothing bad to say about this
program. It is simple to install and use, does not invade your
privacy and can be activated at a moments notice from any internet
accessible computer. This program should be the first program you
install on your Mac. Plus the license is transferrable to another
Mac, so if you get rid of your original machine, you can reinstall it
on another Mac.
DragonSteelMods gives the MacTrak from
GadgetTrak a 5 out of 5 and our Editor’s Choice award as well.
Pros:
-LoJack for your Mac
-Simple to install and setup
-Thief is unaware it is running
Cons:
-None
I would like to thank GadgetTrak for the chance to review the MacTrak and for their support of DSM.
review#541