MacResearch

In 'Showcase' reviews, the reviewer is the developer. No claim of objectivity is made, but it’s a chance for the developer to show off his/her app. Here, software developer, ex-postdoc, Peter Schols talks about his professional journey and presents Undercover, a Mac OS X application that uses a variety of slick tricks to help recover your stolen mac (see end of article for a discount for MR readers).

About two years ago, I decided to turn my hobby into a living. I quit my job as a postdoc at the K.U.Leuven Biology department and started Orbicule, a brand new Mac software company. When thinking about an inaugural development project, I was reflecting on the challenges we faced at our lab, which is almost Mac-only. As Mac OS X had become quite mature and many third party apps were available, one of the biggest problems at that time had nothing to do with the Mac itself, but rather with protecting it: our department had been plagued by computer theft. At the same time, I was reading on rumor sites that Apple was planning to add built-in iSight cameras into its laptops. Things started coming together and I decided that we would create the first Mac-only theft recovery application...read more...

. We also figured that the software should use the built-in camera to snap pictures of the criminals. Placing our bets on the built-in iSight rumors turned out to be a good idea, as Apple released their first MacBook with a built-in iSight. Undercover 1.0 was released about two weeks later, and it was the first native and universal theft recovery app for the Mac (entirely written in Cocoa). In addition, it was the first theft recovery app on any platform to snap pictures of the thief. The same goes for its ability to transmit screenshots from the stolen machine.

On top of these new features, we also added a plan B, as we are completely dependent upon the local police for the recovery of the stolen Macs. If recovery of the stolen Mac fails for any reason, plan B will simulate a hardware failure by gradually making the screen darker until it becomes unusable within 30 minutes. This should urge the thief (or someone who purchased the Mac from the thief) to take the Mac to an Apple store. This, in turn, should trigger a fullscreen message, alerting the Mac technician that the Mac had been stolen and that they should contact us.

From the very beginning, it was clear that Undercover would be popular among Mac users: it clearly showed that computer theft was not only a problem at our university, but worldwide. For us, the real test came when people began reporting thefts. The combination of data gathered by Undercover (screenshots, network information and iSight pictures) turned out to be really effective. For example, many thefts are inside jobs. Having iSight pictures of the thief has enabled our clients to solve thefts without the need to involve the police. Having screenshots of the stolen machine is very helpful as well: in many cases thieves are entering their name, address, phone number, social security number, ... on a web form. Needless to say, this makes it extremely easy for us to find the stolen Mac's location. Readers interested in reading more recovery stories should have a look at our recovery page. Some clients even wrote their own recovery stories, check our weblog.

In the meantime, we recovered about 75 stolen Macs. For 2006, we attained a recovery rate of 96% for all stolen Macs that were connected to the internet. When counting all stolen Macs - including those that were never connected to the net - we reached 70%. The numbers for 2007 are not in yet (as some cases are still pending), but we will post the numbers on our weblog.

We have now released Undercover 2, which is not only Leopard compatible, it also has many under-the-hood changes. As a result, it requires even less memory than the first version and it's even more aggressive when it comes to transmitting information. Undercover 2 is available from the Orbicule website. It costs $49 for a single user license and $59 for a household license. Full-time students can buy a license for $39. Undercover 2 is a free upgrade for all registered 1.0 users.

As a special offer to MacResearch readers, we are giving a 10% discount on the first 100 single user or household licenses. Simply enter the MacResearch coupon code: 34355B85D on our Kagi web store when purchasing.