Tough finding your lost or misplaced smartphone? You have a way now ..
NEW DELHI: Ordering a Hyderabadi biryani to home from a stall half a kilometer away from the apartment complex this writer stays in on Sundays is standard practice. So, it was on a hot June Delhi noon that I decided to call up the stall and put a home delivery order for three plates of the delicious biryani. No food apps like Zomato or Swiggy. Just a direct call to Alam Biryani Stall which is very much near home. Who wants to go out under a hot June sun in Delhi, anyway?
As usual, Raju came to deliver the food. After I took out my phone and asked Raju the number to which I have to digitally transfer the money, he realized that he lost his smartphone — somewhere on the way while he was on his bike, he said. He was in tears. It looked like he lost all his wealth. Data, contacts and what have you? However, I managed to call Alam Biryani Stall since I had their number and transferred the money.
Then, one day, Ghanshyam, the graphics supervisor in my office with whom I coordinate with for a lot of work over WhatsApp remained unreachable on a crucial deadline day. On reaching office, I came to know that he had lost his smartphone while on way to office and he was busy contacting the service operator to block his number and get a new SIM card.
In both the cases of Raju and Ghanashyam, I realized that they didn’t have any way of recovering their precious smartphones.
Which is where MiFon, the Singapore-based lost phone tracking app comes into the picture!
“Over 150 million phones are lost or stolen every year. For many in emerging countries like Bangladesh, it takes as much as five months to buy their smartphone and losing it directly impacts their livelihood MiFon protects users’ smartphones from being lost or stolen,” Abhijit Barua, Founder and CEO of MiFon Labs, said after his app tied up with Bangladesh’s second largest mobile phone operator Robi Axiata.
With this tie-up, Robi’s over 40 million subscribers in the South Asian nation will remain secured of their smartphones.
“We are always looking for innovative technologies to ensure hassle-free digital lifestyle for our subscribers and community”, said Avinash Mathur, Robi’s Vice President, Data and Device.
“MiFon’s app-based service solves an everyday problem faced by our subscribers while protecting the smartphones. Smartphones being the gateway to accessing the fast-evolving digital society, we are excited to partner with MiFon Labs as it protects the very gateway,” Mathur said.
MiFon is an award-winning complete protection service for the user’s data, phone and family. The company, based in Singapore, is backed by Silicon Valley-headquartered venture capital firm SOSV VC and accelerated by Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX).
Available on Google Play Store, MiFon protects your smartphone and the personal data stored in it.
“You can never put a price on your phone, data or family’s protection. MiFon ensures you never have to. It’s not only the most comprehensive mobile security suite but the only one that works even if the internet is breached,” Barua said.
According to Barua, most security-focused apps are advertisement sponsored or come from the Windows PC era and do more harm than good as they are resource inefficient or divulge private information to push pesky advertisements. In addition to risk of privacy, most of them have more useless features that are like placebos.
“Internet is optional for MiFon’s critical security features to work and that makes real good sense for people in Asia and Africa where internet connectivity is not always good,” Barua said.
What all can it do apart from providing security?
Consider you have misplaced your phone. Just send an SMS using MiFon’s “smX” remote control feature from any other mobile and you will get a map showing where the device is.
“MiFon also helps you solve some common irritants like finding your phone if it is below your car seat or under a pile of clothes,” Barua added.
“All you have to do is set off the siren that the app has from another phone that has MiFon or through an SMS or through the MiFon portal mifon.mobi,” Barua, who has a rich experience in the telecom sector, explained, adding many of the app’s over 10,000 users regularly use this feature.
MiFon users can smartly use the siren feature, to make the misplaced phone ‘wail’ at full volume, even if it was set in silent mode and it works even if either phones are not connected to the internet.
Another interesting feature is “Thiefie”.
If your stolen phone is with an unknown person and he or she tries to open it, the device will quietly take a picture of that person and send it to your email so that you can report this as evidence to police.
At a time when women’s security is a paramount concern, the app can also help women in distress. You can press the SOS button on the app and the device will discreetly send a “distress message” to any of your trusted numbers.
Your phone will also take a photo of the person threatening you and send an email to the other phone so that a friend or relative can come for rescue.
The app also helps keep track of your family members.
“MiFon configured on all phones in a family enables the full visibility of the whereabouts of each member for their safety. A mother can be comforted by knowing where her daughter has reached at 7 p.m. Even knowing the phone battery drained off at 6 p.m. can reduce worries,” Barua said.
So, next time, you buy a smartphone, first check if the device has the MiFon app included in it. After all, it will be the phone’s smartest insurer!
