e-gps review

Malachi.2.15 · Thread Author #1 10-18-2009, 11:58 AM

A little background - I was using the beta for smrtguard and was happy to know that I had the capability to wipe my device if it was ever lost or stolen. I didn't use the backup feature because I have a phobia of all of my personal information going through the internet and sitting on someone else's server. When the beta ended, I dropped smrtguard...but continued to look for something with the same capability. Smart Lock & Wipe came out and interested me very much. It was followed very closesly be e-gps (and of course the contest). I didn't win either one...so...I made the choice to buy e-gps. The thing that sold e-gps to me over Smart Lock & Wipe was what I had read by the creator in the forums that it did more than erased your data...it bricked your phone. The only issue I had was that no one in the forums was telling us if this had actually been tested...so...I figured I would run it through its paces.

Setup - I'm running a verizon Tour with 5.0.0.230. Setting up e-gps is easy...establish a pin, enter your contact email address, and enable it. I backed up my apps and my data and went to work.

Test 1 - location - I sent the location command via email and received back an email that had a google map link with my lat & long in it.

Test 2 - alert - I sent the alert command and was rewarded with loud music for a period of time a little longer than a minute. There is no way to stop the music once it starts playing until it concludes on its own.

Test 3 - contacts - I actually didn't want to send the entire contents of my address book through email so I erased it and just put in a single test contact. When the contact command was sent, I did receive the contact data. It is in a funky format, but all of the information was there. I obviously didn't stress the system to see what it would do with a large address book.

Test 4 - wipe - The big money test...the reason I had purchased this software. I sent the wipe command via email, and the blackberry screen immediately locked. None of the buttons worked. After approx 10-15 minutes, the phone rebooted and came up to a white screen of death (wsod) with an app failure note and a reset option. I reset the phone, and it came back to a wsod with a load software note and no reset option. I did a battery pull and it came back to the wsod with the load software note.

Followup - I plugged the phone in and reloaded the software. I verified that once the phone was back up that my data was indeed gone (no contacts, notes, password keeper, calendar, etc). I pulled the microSD card and verified that the menu structure was there, but all the data was gone (in other words it still had "documents, videos, music" folders but there was nothing in them).

In summary, e-gps passed my test for the main reason I got it which was piece of mind. In the end, $5 is definitely worth it for the insurance it provides.

Enjoy & God Bless!

blustanger66 · #2 10-18-2009, 05:13 PM

Thank you for testing everything and reviewing this app. You just sold it for me. One question, how accurate were the gps coordinates?

Malachi.2.15 · Thread Author #3 10-18-2009, 05:21 PM

spot on.

Also...meant to include this in the original post. I haven't noticed any difference in battery drain.

scottmolson · #4 10-18-2009, 07:49 PM

Wow nice review. Thanks. Sounds like a worthwhile app.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Malachi.2.15 · Thread Author #5 10-19-2009, 06:56 AM

As a followup...I continue to send the email location command to ensure that every time I send it...I get a response. I'm testing reliability of the app to make sure that I'm absolutely confident that if I issue a wipe command...it is carried out (and testing the reliability with the alert command would get very annoying

).

So far, I've gotten a response every time (reliability is good!)...but actually having the gps data contained in the message seems to be hit or miss. I'll mess with it some more to see if I can determine when it does or does not contain the gps data. My first reaction is that if the gps hasn't been exercised recently (ie after a battery pull) the data is zeroes. After opening google maps, the data is good.

I"ll update the thread when I have more info. To me, the app is still definitely worth the price since my main reason for getting it was the wipe.

scottmolson · #6 10-19-2009, 07:19 AM

I downloaded the app. After a battery pull the app is working for me. The only thing I haven't tried is the wipe feature. Its a nice app for $5. Hopefully one I won't have to use but nice to have just in case.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Bill_Johnson · #7 10-19-2009, 02:40 PM

Great job on this review! I have been impressed with the authors communication with everyone. He is clearly working hard to bring us a must-have app at a reasonable price.

I literaly just purchased this on CrackBerry, waiting for the email to arrive with the download link, when I stumbled on your review. I thought.... uh oh.... too late now.... hope it is good!

Clearly it was!

Thanks again!

Bill_Johnson · #8 10-19-2009, 06:14 PM

As mentioned in the above post, I just bought and installed e-GPS. I have only tested the "Location" and "Alert" functions. Not interested in the "Contacts" part and, thanks to Malachi 2.15 (Interesting name choice. Just looked up that in the Bible), no need to try out the "Wipe".

I find I get the best results sending a SMS text to my phone # (As opposed to plugging in the email address). Using the email in SMS and in a regular email message seems like it is sporatic. More importantly, seemed slow to get results. In my short time of testing, SMS with mobile # plugged in with the command definately worked the best, for me at least.

Malachi.2.15 · Thread Author #9 10-20-2009, 03:33 PM

Interesting...my experience is that I get an immediate response everytime with an email to my vzw account. I've only tried texting a couple of times. The "location" command I just sent via text worked (have tried it via text a couple of times). I'll keep messing with it.

blustanger66 · #10 10-20-2009, 04:29 PM

I'm finding that the location function will not work if you are in a place where your phone cannot connect with a gps satellite. I tried it multiple times while sitting at my desk in my bedroom and the coordinates came back as zeros. I then opened Google Maps and went to a window to make sure a satellite could find me. I then tried the location function again and I received accurate coordinates.

I think this may be a pretty major flaw considering once your phone is stolen or lost inside a building, how is the location function supposed to work effectively?

Bill_Johnson · #11 10-20-2009, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malachi.2.15

Interesting...my experience is that I get an immediate response everytime with an email to my vzw account. I've only tried texting a couple of times. The "location" command I just sent via text worked (have tried it via text a couple of times). I'll keep messing with it.

Well, I am continuing to play. I find the email does work ok, but, still much slower than using the cammands via SMS text using my phone number. I'd expect texting to be faster. Email can be slow for a ton of reasons (Heavy internet traffic, my ISP is slow, who knows) Bottom line, it all works.

I am happy - great insurance for $5

Malachi.2.15 · Thread Author #12 10-21-2009, 07:36 AM

Gotcha...vzw email still works the best for me. Almost instantaneously sends back the response (100% of the time). Sounds like people need to check what works best for them.

Also for blustanger66, I'm now pretty confident of my earlier theory. After I do a battery pull, I open google maps and get a fix. I then close out of google maps. From then on the e-gps location works and is spot on. Of course not being able to get a gps signal, is a limitation of any location tracker program.

I'm most likely to wipe first and ask questions later if my device is stolen.

topherserrano · #13 10-25-2009, 10:49 AM

just confirming this works absolutely perfect for me on my verizon tour running 5.0.0.230 as i have just installed and tested it out fully.

as stated, you have to be in reach of satellites for gmaps to locate you as in any other gps app.

i love how it not only gives you the longitude and latitude, but the also sends a link with a google map of your devices exact location! i thought it only sent lat. and long from reading the initial post above.

everything is working great and am 100% happy with my purchase. great customer service to boot. this is a bargain for what the app does. if youre on the fence, GET IT. you will not be disappointed.

vt313 · #14 11-19-2009, 06:17 PM

Question? I lost my Blackberry today, I think riding the bus, and I have tried calling it several times and it appears to still be on. Is it going to be worth it for me to d/l the app now that I don't have my phone or do I need access to my phone to install/reboot? Anyone know? TIA!