As you know, a couple of months ago we released a new client for the iOS platform. Exciting moment it was. The following weeks we got lots of feedback — both good and bad, some of it very constructive — and the app was also featured on a number of respectful tech sites on the Internext.

So everything was going just fine and dandy until one day the app suddenly dissapeared from the phase of the App Store without giving any trace. What the –?

Well here’s what happened.

We pushed a new release containing a number of fixes and UI improvements and Apple not only rejected the update but unanimously decided to take the whole app down. Funnily, though, the app was rejected for stuff that hadn’t even changed from version one.

We thought this would be a quick process — which is why we didn’t blog about this until now — but it’s already been more than a month so we though it would be good to give everyone the full scoop on what’s going on.

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Over time we’ve been getting an increasing number of emails from people who’ve managed to recover their laptops, tablets or phones thanks to Prey. The stories are really amazing (some of them simply out of this world!). So we’ve decided to create a new section on our website and put them all together in one place.

Of course, all of the stories are published with full permission from the owners, and without any kind of censorship or editing from our side (besides removing names and references to accurate locations). Additionally, we added a contact form for those who want to let us know about new stories, so it’s easier for us to put them together.

There’s still a load of stories that we need to process, but we already have a bunch of them for your reading pleasure. So hit the “Recoveries” link on the top and have a look!

Months ago, when we began drawing sketches, trying to imagine what the iPhone client for Prey would look like, well it sure looked easy-peasy. It really did. But when we actually put our hands into it, we bumped into a number of things we had to sort out to make Prey work the way we wanted to, and of course, without breaking any of Apple’s rules. So it took longer than expected but the work is now done, and the wait finally over.

Prey is now available for iPhones and iPads at the App Store. Open source, for free, tested and ready to kick some burglar butt. Check it out.

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Hey everyone, glad to be posting once again over here. It’s been a while since I hit the “New Post” button on this blog, and god it feels good. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up on what we’ve been up to these last few months.

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Good news Ubuntu users! If you already upgraded to Ubuntu Natty Narwhal (11.04) then you’ll be able to install Prey directly from Ubuntu’s official package repositories. We’ve been working side by side with the Debian devs so now you’ll be able to find Prey in Ubuntu’s Software Center or get it by opening up a terminal and typing the famous one-liner:

$ sudo apt-get install prey

The package is listed on Ubuntu’s universe repository so be sure to enable it through Synaptic it (Settings > Repositories > check Community-maintained Open Source software) if you want to use it.

Now, there’s a few differences between the official Prey version and the one bundled in Debian and Ubuntu. Keep on reading!

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Yup, it’s here.

It took as a bit longer than expected but the iOS client is ready to run in the wild, and we want you to help us try it out. If you have an iPhone running iOS version 4 or above, you can be one of the first to see Prey running on Apple’s platform. You’ll also get a Personal Pro account for a whole year and we’ll only ask that you fill in a form a week or two after installing the app.

Want to give it a shot? Then send us a Direct Message through Twitter with your registered email address (the one associated to your Control Panel account). If you get a DM back from us then it means you were one of the selected few who made it!

Update: Registration is now closed. Thanks everyone who signed up!

0.5.2 is out! A while ago we pushed this release update which includes a couple of security enhancements, lots of code cleanups and a small fix for On-Demand mode, as some people were having trouble switching back to On-Interval after going to stand-by mode. Lets take a deeper look at the changelog:

• Response encryption: Prey now supports 128 bit AES decryption for response bodies, which means that all data sent by the Control Panel will be encrypted with a salted secret key, rending theoretical man-in-the-middle attacks impossible. We’ll be deploying this gradually during the next days!
• We also added a check to prevent malitious code execution through config values in the response XML. (Issue #85)
• Better way of knowing if On-Demand is still active or not, using timestamps from the keepalive pings sent by the server. This should fix the issue that prevented some users from switching back to Interval mode.
• Lots of code cleanups, removed duplicate or unused stuff. We’re also switching backticks for $() calls, which is much easier to read.
• Small improvements to the auto update process.
• Initial support for Prey to be run as a non-root user. On Ubuntu we were able to run as a third user with some sudo permissions. Once we get it working on Mac we’ll switch over and not run Prey as root any more (yes, we heard you guys).
• Support for SMTP servers which don’t require authentication. Simply leave the SMTP user/pass fields blank and you’re set. Passwords with spaces should also work.
• Added a simple SMTP user/pass verification routing in check mode (Standalone users).

That’s about it! For the full commit list check out the comparison view on Github. As always, any questions or comments are welcome.

Happy hunting!

We’ve been getting lots of questions regarding our new release for Android, so we though it’d be better to write them all down on a post. As you know, 0.5 for Android included a couple of new features, and that’s mainly because we’re using some of the new stuff Google’s been packing in the Android OS.

This means that some of the new features from 0.5 won’t work on phones using Android prior to 2.2. Initially we thought it’d be better to remove support for older phones altogether — as you wouldn’t get the real deal –, but your requests have once again made us change our minds: Prey 0.5 will run on older phones as well. We just pushed an update that lets 1.5, 1.6, 2.0 and 2.1 Android users download and update Prey from the Market as usual.

Ok, now that everyone’s on board, let’s head on to the good part!

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Today is a good day for Prey users.

As you all know, one of the biggest differences between the PC and the Android version of Prey is about the way it’s activated. On PCs, Prey wakes up every X minutes and asks the server whether it should send a report or perform any actions. On Android phones, however, Prey doesn’t need to check as you can “push” that activation signal by sending an SMS message from another phone. In other words, while on phones you can locate your phone the very instant you want to, on PCs there’s always a lag that you need to wait for.

Turns out today we’re putting and end to that.

Prey 0.5 boasts a new “On Demand” mode which lets you request a report and trigger actions instantly from the Control Panel, even faster that you can say crack-a-lackin’. No kidding.

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Update: 0.5.1 was just pushed. Fixed an issue regarding password on Standalone mode and checks for On Demand mode.

Good news for all Prey users. Version 0.5 is available for download and ready to roll. Codenamed “Cloud Strife”, 0.5’s changes include:

• On Demand support for laptops/desktops (via a secure, persistent TCP connection) and Androids (via Google’s Cloud To Device messaging system).
• Updated Lock for Mac to make sure it triggers deactivation of module on Control Panel when successful password is entered.
• Offline actions support: You can now force the actions to be kept running even if the device goes offline.
• CronService for Windows optimizations and fixes (read note at the bottom!).
• Android: Lock module support for 2.2+ Androids. You need to grant permissions on your phone after updating, otherwise it won’t work.
• Android: can now reassign current SIM as the valid one, so you don’t need to disable the SIM lock function to stop getting alert messages when switching SIMs.
• Windows Lock binary rewritten in C#. Better focus management. Task Manager disabling works as it should in XP and Vista/7 as well. As we’re not bundling WinLock.dll any more, there shouldn’t be any more false positives.
• Mac Geo Module: support for weird chars like slashes.
• Mac & Windows screenshot grab in JPG which is lighter than PNG. Reports should get faster to destination now.
• New strategy for capturing webcam shots in Linux (waaay better image quality and lightness). Thanks to everyone who helped on this.
• Linux: Change the delay to give wifi time to work when using autoconnect (thanks Drew!)
• Linux: When using autoconnect mode in the config, Prey will use the network with the strongest signal available (again, thanks Drew!)
• Fixed file sending in SCP mode (screenshot, picture). (#76)
• Mac installer fixes. You shouldn’t get any more “Unverified” states anymore.
• Removed rubbish on Mac/Linux log files.
• Linux: Fixed Wifi device getting (using iwconfig now).
• Linux: Lock module should work on distros with Python 3 installed.

And a couple of other smaller fixes too.

Important: On Windows, running Prey as a system service –rather than at user-level — should not only be the default option but the way of running Prey on Windows, so we’re deprecating it on next release. If you’re still running at user level we strongly encourage you to switch modes. You don’t have to if you don’t want, but Prey will refuse to auto update until you do. :)

That’s it. Hope you enjoy 0.5 and, as always, happy hunting!