Giving your kids a mobile phone or a smartphone can be a slightly unnerving experience. You can’t be certain whether they’ll accidentally rack up your bill with messaging charges or data overages. Some parents try to avoid buying a mobile device for their kids for as long as possible. However, there are some highly valuable advantages to your child carrying around a mobile phone, especially a phone running the Android operating system.
When you search through the Android market, you’ll discover a number of very useful surveillance apps. There are three in particular that are especially useful for parents that would like to keep a close eye on their kids to ensure their safety.
Imagine being able to check in at the house while you’re away from home, just to make sure the kids are okay. Wouldn’t it be useful to peek in to make sure that the babysitter is doing his or her job? What about listening in while your teen is at a party? Surveillance can really put your mind at ease.
The following three mobile surveillance apps for the Android will help make sure your kids are safe even when you can’t be with them.
Use M-Spy to Listen In
Have you ever heard those urban legends that the CIA or NSA can connect to any cellphone in the world and hear what’s going on in the room? Well, with M-Spy from the Android Market, you can do that too. After you download and install M-Spy to your phone, all you have to do is set up a PIN number, and the phone is immediately enabled to act as your own personal audio bug no matter where it is.
This is one of the easiest surveillance apps that you’ll ever use. Once M-Spy is running on the Android phone, all you have to do is leave it wherever it will have good coverage of a room. If you ever want to listen in, all you have to do is send the phone an SMS message with the PIN number and the phone number for it to call.
If you text “5555 call 16035551212″, the system will call the Android phone without ringing it, and then it will call the phone number you’ve entered in the message. When you pick up the phone at that number, you’ll hear everything that’s going on at the other end. Here’s the SMS calling my own Android phone without ringing it.
Get it by scanning this QR code with your Android phone’s camera.
Use the Android as an IP Webcam
While audio is useful, it would be even more useful if you could position your Android phone to monitor your home while your kids are being cared for or home alone. Using the IP Webcam app on the Android Market, you can transform your Android into an IP webcam. Setup is a cinch. All you have to do is run the software!
When the software is running, it immediately starts transmitting. If you want to see your new Android webcam server, just open up a browser and type in the IP address listed at the bottom of the setup page. To access from outside your home network, configure port forwarding on your router.
As you can see, you have lots of options to view your Android webcam. Click any of the options, and you’ll have a clear view to everything your phone can see from wherever you placed it. Here’s my phone spying on my Pug as she sleeps in the living room.
Get it by scanning this QR code with your Android phone’s camera.
Remotely Sense Motion, Movement or Sound
One of the most advanced remote surveillance apps is RL Watcher. This application lets you enable your phone to remotely sense movement, sound or even just the slightest motion of your phone.
Each remote sensor can be individually enabled so that you can receive a notification any time each sensor is tripped. Notifications of any activity can be via SMS, e-mail or by phone. For example, you can set the phone up so that if it moves, it’ll call you at any phone number and you can listen in to whatever is going on where the phone is situated.
Did you ban your teen from using their car? Put your Android phone in the car while you’re at work, and it’ll call you if the car starts moving. Put it in an empty room, and it’ll email you when there’s movement in the room. The possibilities are endless.
You can set up the phone to capture screen shots, video or sound whenever it’s triggered by one of the sensors. Here, I’ve set up the phone to sense motion. It sends you an alert when the sensor gets triggered and it’ll even attach the snapshots.
This is probably one of the most flexible and feature-filled surveillance apps that can really help with any of your remote parenting needs. Monitor your new teen driver or make sure your kids aren’t throwing a party while you’re away from home – your remote Android surveillance unit can really set your mind at ease when you’re a parent.
Get it by scanning this QR code with your Android phone’s camera.
Can you think of any other useful ways to use these awesome surveillance apps? Share your ideas or other useful apps in the comments section below.
Image credit: peterfeije
Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
Similar MakeUseOf Articles
- The 5 Games You Should Be Installing On Your Android Mobile Phone (15 comments)
- Map Your Adventures With a Free GPS Mobile Tracker for Android (13 comments)
- How To Install Google Android On A Windows Mobile Phone (38 comments)
- How To Capture Screenshots With Your Android Mobile Phone (14 comments)
- 6 Cool Android Apps to Make Use Of Sensors on Your Phone (6 comments)
- 10 Best Sites To Get Free Backgrounds For Your Mobile Phone (8 comments)
- Turn Your Mac Into Sync-Central with SyncMate [MakeUseOf Giveaway] (33 comments)
- Top 3 Sites To Download Windows Mobile 6 Freeware (33 comments)
- Top 3 Cool Secret Mobile Phone Tricks (1 comments)
- Things You Need To Know Before Buying A Google Android Phone (38 comments)
No comments:
Post a Comment
[Please do not advertise, or post irrelevant links. Thank you for your cooperation.]