Use GPS to Track Your Mobile Phone

As technology advances, so the features that are packed into mobile phones increase.

Global Positioning Satellite, or GPS receivers, are now common in the top end mobile phones, bringing with them the ability to add map and navigation software to your mobile phone.

This means that you can easily and immediately find your location and see it shown over a satellite image, or road map plan. The technology also includes turn by turn navigation, that will guide you with voice directions to your desired location.

The GPS system uses a number of different satellites to determine the location of the receiver, giving your mobile the ability to know where it is in the world. Because of this, you can, with the addition of some simple software, have a mobile upload its location to a central website. This can be helpful if you want to keep track of family members, or monitor the location of a number of friends, for example if you are due to meet up, but are travelling separately. Alternatively you could use this to be able to trace your phone if it is stolen.

Phonelocator is one free application that will help you do this, and is available for Symbian S60 mobiles (mainly Nokia phones). After registering on their website, the software can be set to run in the background when you turn your mobile on, and send updates on its location at intervals you define.

Phonelocator then provide an interactive map that shows the location of all registered phones, and the last time the location was updated. If you do not want your phone's location to be shown publicly, there is the option to make the location private, only showing your mobile after you have logged into the site.

With this installed and running you can see where your friends are, or if your phone is stolen, where its last known location was.

If you are really concerned about your mobile being stolen, you may also want to consider antitheft products, that allow you to remotely lock a phone or delete personal information stored on it, just by sending a SMS text message to it. This technology often comes bundled with mobile antivirus software but for a small cost could help you protect access to your photos, emails and other data, and possibly help recover your lost or stolen mobile phone.