Prey is a service and application which runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android and can help you track down and recover a lost or stolen laptop or cell phone through a variety of means. Prey is similar to services likeLojack for Laptops and Phoenix Failsafe except it’s completely free for up to three devices. If you need more you can purchase pro accounts which deliver from five to 500 devices for $5 to $399 a month, but many personal users will be able to secure their notebooks and gadgets for free.

Prey installs easily on our test computer and within 5 minutes of marking our test Windows 7 laptop as stolen Pry had delivered an eerily accurate location, list of active connections, IP addresses, nearby WiFi access points and a picture of the thief. Because of the way Prey installs your thief won’t know it’s running and in order to uninstall it they’ll need an account password.

If you lose your laptop or it is stolen Pry can track a lot of information that will help you track it down and get it back. If you’re hunting for a lost laptop you’ll have everything you need to retrace your steps. If you are unfortunate enough to have your laptop stolen we recommend handing over your information to the police rather than knocking down the door yourself.

What can Prey Track?

• Network information (IP addresses etc)
• Active Connections
• Nearby WiFi Hotspots
• Trace Route of full connection to the Internet
• Screenshot of current activity
• List of modified files
• Running Programs
• Image from the WebCam
• Geographic Location

With all of this information you can get an eerily accurate location for your laptop. How good is it you ask? Good enough that it the Prey was able to track the laptop to my specific apartment building and placed the marker within 25 feet of my actual residence. That’s using the free version of Prey and only WiFi geo-location.

Our “thief”

To make sure that the information gets uploaded to the Internet you can configure Prey to auto-connect to unsecured WiFi hotspots when you report your laptop missing.

Screenshot of thief’s activity

Prey also provides the hardware configuration of your device, serial number and Unique Identifier (UDID) so that you can prove to police that the notebook is really yours.

Sample of Info collected by Prey

In addition to tracking your lost notebook or Android Phone Prey can perform a series of actions to annoy a thief and or convince him to send return your precious device.

Prey Actions:

• Sound an Alarm  - 30 Seconds of blaring police sirens
• Alert – Provide a popup alert and change the background to tell the thief he is being watched
• Lock the computer – Password protect the computer
• Secure – Hides emails, deletes browser cookies and stored passwords

Prey Conclusion:

Prey may not run as stealthily as some other applications, but it is hidden enough that your average laptop thief won’t find it. The application cannot be uninstalled without your Prey password which means even if the thief finds Prey he won’t be able to remove it…that is unless he formats your hard drive. Prey recognizes this shortcoming an recommends that you add a BIOS password and disable booting from an external drive to help prevent it.

While Prey may not be as hidden as the pay competition it is an amazing application and service that offers users an invaluable service at a price that you can’t argue with. Because Prey works on numerous systems, is easy to install, works as advertised and is free for up to three devices we have awarded it a Notebooks.com Editor’s Choice Award. If you have a notebook or laptop you should install Prey on it today.

How to Track Lost or Stolen Laptops for Free – Review of Prey is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

These programs will help you with the following needs and tasks.

• Auto-pause iTunes when you remove headphones
• Make it dual-monitor friendly
• Use a better Wi-Fi finder
• Tether your phone to your laptop
• Save battery power (and power out gracefully)
• Get friendly with Thunderbird 3
• Get “Back” to your Mac or PC
• Make it secure and track-able (also see our Phoenix FailSafe review)
• Turn it into a hotspot (Guide for Connectify)
• Keep your files synched

If you’re new to on-the-go computing or just want to be better at it you need to read this list of programs and make use of it. I’ve been using JuneFabric’s pdaNet to connect my netbook to the internet via the Motorola Droid for the past month and before that I used WMWifiRouter to turn my Windows Mobile phone into a hotspot. The ability to connect my notebook or netbook to the internet through my phone, without messing around with settings all day, is by far one of the coolest and helpful tips on the list!

If you have your own must have programs, like Launchy, share them with us in the comments.

Top 10 Programs for a Travel Ready Notebook is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

As we mentioned prices have dropped on many computers and new advances have lead to a wide range of notebooks being available under $600. This guide will span the range form your basic netbook, which is great for portability, all the way up to 17″ entertainment notebooks. We’ll also show you an ION netbook that has more graphical power than its peers and a few other notebooks that run from 11.6″ to 16″ and offer options like a full number keypad, thin and light styling and the ruggedness of a ThinkPad.

While there are many improvements in the capabilities of sub $600 notebooks today compared to in years past you still need to sacrifice some features to get below $600. For the most part these notebooks will not offer high end processors, beefy graphics cards, 8GB of Ram or blazing fast SSD hard drives. But, with that warning aside, these budget notebooks do offer a tremendous value for many users including students, small businesses and home users.

Whether you’re looking for a gift to give away or a gift for yourself here are 10 notebooks under $600 that fit the bill.

Basic Netbook: Samsung n130 with Failsafe

Price: $299

A basic netbook is great to toss in a bag and take wherever you are going. Whether you’re heading to school, the coffeeshop or across the country the small size and sturdy build of the Samsung N130 make it a great choice. Unlike many other netbooks the N130 has a matte screen which makes it easier to use outside and cuts down on glare from overhead lights. You can also purchase the Samsung N130 with Failsafe, a service that lets you track down a lost or stolen laptop and even recover files, which makes it perfect for a forgetful person on the go.

Entertainment Netbook: HP Mini 311

Price: Starts at $399

Basic netbooks often choke when you try to perform a demanding task, like watching HD video, but the new ION powered netbooks like the HP Mini 311 make use of a new graphic processor to do provide a better computing experience. An ION powered notebook such as this can watch HD videos, edit photos faster and even handle Call of Duty (if you turn the graphics settings WAY down). When Flash 10.1 comes out netbooks like the Mini 311 will be able to stream Hulu without you feeling like you’re watching a poorly dubbed kung-fu flick. For more information check out our HP Mini 311 review roundup.

11.6″ Thin and Light Ultraportable: Acer Aspire TimeLine AS1810

Price: $599 ($549 model also available)

If a netbook is too small, but you don’t want to jump up to a full size laptop than the Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810 may be the perfect fit of form and functionality. Without adding significant size or weight to your bag the TimeLine AS1810 gives you an Intel Core 2 Duo processor which is more powerful (and will let you do more than a typical netbook. The trackpad on this model also allows you to use gestures to pinch, flick and swirl for easier navigation. Keep reading for detailed specs and reviews of the Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810.

13.3” Ultraportable Notebook: HP dm3z

Price: Starts at $529

The HP dm3z’s brushed aluminum chassis and slim shape may give off the appearance that it couldn’t possibly fit into a gift guide for notebooks under $600 but HP is able to sell this notebook for just $529 and it typically includes 3GB of Ram and a 320 GB hard drive so it isn’t skimping on features. Aside from the aluminum chassis, another feature that sets this notebook apart from the others on this list is that the dm3z is powered by a mobile AMD processor. Even though the dm3z has left the netbook screen size, like the smaller computers, it lacks an optical drive so if you may need to purchase an external one.

14″ Notebook: ThinkPad SL410

Price: $499

If you’ve had the pleasure of using a ThinkPad at work you know that, as a whole, the ThinkPad line of notebooks are sturdy and provide a user friendly layout. The ThinkPad SL410 shares these same attributes with its big business brothers, but what is different about the SL line of ThinkPads is the price. Aimed at a small business buyer these ThinkPad’s start at $499, yet still retain many of the features you have come to love. If you want a ThinkPad, whether for work or play, this is the cheapest you’ll find one.

15.6″ Budget Notebook: Gateway MD 7309u

Price: $399

Notebooks in the 15.6″ screen size are quickly becoming the new budget notebooks, and that’s the category that this Burgundy colored Gateway MD 7309u falls into. With a Dual core processor, 3GB or Ram and a 320 GB hard drive it isn’t a screaming machine but it will fit the needs of many computer users. One area that you sacrifice when purchasing a budget 15.6″ notebook is portability. Sure, it won’t throw your back out to take it from place to place, but if you really need a big screen to haul around town then a thinner lighter notebook would be a better buy.

15.6″ Thin and Light: Dell Studio 15z

Price: $599

If you want a decent sized screen and portability than the Dell Studio 15z is just right for you. Following the tradition of the Z line computers, like the Dell Studio 14z we reviewed, the Studio 15z offers a lighter notebook and better battery life thanks to a low voltage processor ($30 will get you a faster Intel Core 2 Duo processor if you need the speed). The Studio 15z differentiates itself from the other thin and light notebooks in this list by including an optical drive so that you can watch a DVD or backup your files to disk without the need for an external drive.

16″ with Blu-Ray: MSI CR600-017

Price: $599

If you’ve been holding out for a good deal on a Notebook with Blu-Ray than the MSI CR600-17 is the notebook for you. Packing a 16″ screen this new notebook from MSI offers the cheapest portable Blu-Ray experience to date. While the retail price of this notebook is $649 and technically places it above our $600 limit it is routinely available for $599 from retailers like Fry’s. The only downside is the lack of a Core 2 Duo processor, but if you want Blu-Ray and a big screen than this is a small sacrifice to make.

Big Screen: HP G71 17”

Price: Starts at $569 ($589 with HDMI out)

The HP G71 notebook is a great find for anyone who wants a big screen on their notebook but doesn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for all the extra room. When it comes to big screen notebooks they aren’t meant to hauled around all the time, but as a desktop replacement the G71 works well. For an extra $20 you can add an HDMI connection which will make it a snap to hook up to your HDTV giving you an even bigger screen to use. Keep your eye open on Black Friday when you can find the HP G71 at Staples with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor for $598 and at Walmart with a slower processor for $398.

Affordable Power: Toshiba L505-S5993

Price: $579

The Toshiba L505 is available in several configurations, but the current model on sale at Amazon offers the best value for your dollar. The Toshiba Satellite L505-S5993 comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (2.1GHz), 4 GB of RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive and a 15.6″ screen. One little plus to the L505 that most notebooks don’t have is a full size number keypad, making this a good gift for an aspiring accountant or number cruncher in your family. The only thing you need to consider before buying the L505 is that it only has a 2-3 hour battery life so if you are on the go for extended periods you may want to put an extra battery in the stocking.

Holiday Gift Guide: 10 Notebooks under $600 is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Phoenix Technologies, notably known for making Bios software, has a new service call FailSafe that helps you track the last place your laptop connected to the internet, retrieve or delete files and even disable the computer completely.

Locating

When it comes to locating your laptop FailSafe provides several ways to track it down, including;

• IP address general location with IP
• GPS
• Webcam
• Wireless SSID Name

The Dell Studio 14z we tested was not equipped with GPS and Dell has not enabled the Webcam feature so we will focus on the other locating and data protection options.

Every time your laptop protected with FailSafe connects to the Internet a great deal of information is logged to help you track it down in the event that it has been lost or stolen.

When you tell FailSafe to locate your laptop you’ll be able to see when it last accessed the internet, its IP address, ISP, general location and if connected via Wifi the name of the wireless network.

If you are simply trying to track down your laptop this may give you a clue as to where you left it.

While you won’t be able to see the exact location of your laptop without GPS, the ability to see the name of the Wireless network it is connected to and the IP address will help you in any recovery attempts you make. Thanks to the IP address college students may be able to ask their network administrator to track down what room a missing laptop is connecting from.

If you prefer not to play detective then FailSafe will coordinate with local law enforcement to track down your lost or stolen laptop for $39.95.

Protecting

On top of locating your laptop FailSafe offers several easy to use protection options to help you keep your private data safe.

Once you’ve logged into the FailSafe dashboard from another computer you can retrieve important files that you don’t have backed up. The “Retrieve Files” option will let you recover files the next time the computer connects to the internet without the thief knowing that you are doing anything.

The retrieval process does have limitations and shouldn’t be used to replace a full-scale backup solution since it can only recover files up to 5 MB and 25MB worth of files at a time. You also need to know the location, file type or name of a file which presents a challenge. You can use wildcards like, *.* to recover all files from a directory or *.doc to recover all documents but you cannot browse contents of the drive.

You can also delete files in a similar manner if you just need to keep a document away from prying eyes. After you select files to delete FailSafe will remove them the next time your computer connects to the Internet.

After deleting and recovering all the files that you need you can also disable the computer so that it is useless to whoever took it. You can customize the message that is shown on screen to tell the individual how to return your stolen laptop. When you are reunited with your laptop you can enter a code and gain full access to your laptop again.

Details

Since the FailSafe service enjoys a close relationship with your notebooks BIOS, its part of it, FailSafe continues to work even if a new hard drive is installed. It will also continue to work if Windows is reinstalled by installing behind the scenes.

The FailSafe service is currently available on Select Dell Notebooks as part of the CompleteCare service package and on the Samsung Go Netbook. After your initial purchase you can extend your subscription to the FailSafe service by paying $39.95 for an additional year or $79.95 for 3 years. You can also purchase support plans in the event you need help with the FailSafe service.

Pros:

• Built into Bios.
• Remotely retrieve or delete files.
• Great deal of information about laptop location.
• Cooperation with Law Enforcement for stolen laptops.

Cons:

• Must know where files are located or what they are named.
• Limited to 25 MB for each file recovery.
• Must purchase with your new computer.
• Bundled with Dell CompleteCare.

Bottom Line

The FailSafe service provides several useful features to safeguard your laptop and the information you keep on it. Even with the limitations on file recovery; FailSafe provides users with useful features and assistance in tracking down a lost or missing laptop.

FailSafe is limited by the fact that you can only purchase it with a new computer and when purchased from Dell, you must purchase it as part of Dell CompleteCare package. But, if you’re already looking for accidental coverage then FailSafe is a strong laptop location and protection service.

Hopefully, in the future, you’ll be able to purchase the FailSafe service direct from Phoenix at any point in your laptop’s life.

Review of Phoenix FailSafe: Track Down Lost Laptops and Data is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.