Android App Spotlight #31: Lookout

Price: Free ($2.99/mo or $30/yr for advanced features)
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With how much we are using our smartphones nowadays, more and more of our sensitive information is sitting, unprotected, on our phones. What happens if someone steals your phone, or you lose your phone, or you accidentally erase all of your Google contacts? I'm not going to lie - my backup strategy is largely throwing it up into the cloud and hoping the Big G holds onto it, but anyone who's serious about backing up (and we all should be) knows that the key to protecting your data comes in redundancy, so while Google will probably keep everything nice and neat for you, it's no guarantee. Furthermore, with the future of computing being these little handheld computers, you're going to start seeing some viruses that target the platforms, and given Android's unfettered Marketplace, how can you make sure the apk you're about to install isn't going to steal all your information? Oh, and another thing, what if you misplaced your phone in your apartment and can't find it?

There's a solution for all of these things by way of Lookout, an app that combines signature antivirus protection, data backup, and lost phone services. I've been using if for the past six months, and I'm generally pleased.

Every time I download an app, and every week (the frequency can be changed), my system is scanned. While it's only signature-based scans (it's looking for pre-defined malicious code, so zero-day vulnerabilities are still a threat), but I haven't had a virus yet! That's probably specious reasoning, though, as I don't know if any viruses have actually been reported on Android. Still, each of these components can be disabled individually, so you can turn it off if you don't like it.

The app can also back up your calls, contacts, and pictures on a frequency of your choosing. The calls and contacts backup are just a source of redundancy for CallTrack and Google Contacts, respectively, but it's good to have that extra safety net. The pictures, though, is new, and something that I find useful, though be sure you choose to back those up during a time of night when you're plugged in, because I imagine that takes some juice. You can restore your data onto another phone if you so choose.

There's also a locating service that allows you to track your phone's location from the Lookout website. You can ping your device at any time, and it reports back with a Google Maps overlay. You can also choose to make your phone "scream," which signals a loud alarm on the phone, and remotely wipe or lock your phone.

The ability for remote wipe and lock is coming in the paid version of the app, which is being released on November 16th. Once that paid version is released, it's also moving some of the features available in the free version - mostly the data backup features - into the paid version, but until that paid version is released, you can still grab the free app and be grandfathered in on the backup services.

I would have happily paid a one-time fee for the app, but with the subscription model they're adopting ($2.99 a month or $30 a year), I don't know if I'm willing to pay that much for the remote wipe capabilities. Add to that HTC's new website which will provide much of that functionality for their phones for free, and I don't know if this was the wisest decision to make pricing-wise. Regardless, there's going to be a version of Lookout running on my phone for some time to come, giving me considerable piece of mind.