What a great ending eh, you've got her back. Sorted.

My bank offer free mobile phone insurance against my account. All i do is give them my IMEI and its insured from there. Agreed data loss is something insurance cannot cover but it will be £500 or so less mones outve my pocket if insured.

On the data front if the finder of the device was to find it powered down, even if fully pasworded up to reboot, Someone could easily plug a mini usb in, hook up to a pc and check lots of stuff out. Switch your phone off and try it if you aint aware already.

Makes you think twice what data to have on the device. Especially anything that could be relative to you identity.

Anyway glad you found.

Really glad you got your baby back.

I still think we need to think about putting together a security (anti-theft/loss) suite for the N900.

Maybe a daemon which checks a webserver for an arbitrary file and, if it finds it, puts the device into retrieval mode.
This can trigger the device to

*create a file with its IP address on the server
*update the file every time the IP adress changes
*launch an ssh server and listen for a connection
*grab all (pre-specified) private data and put it into an encrypted archive (with a user pre-defined passkey)
*sync the archive with the server
*delete the data
*put the device into a power-saving mode by closing all desktop widgets, disabling bluetooth and capping the processor at 200mhz

The owner can then log in to the ssh server and
*check battery levels
*read gps location data
*use front camera
*trigger the phone to make outgoing calls/send txt/email

Maybe we could go further and have a database of IMEIs of stolen N900s. This can be installed and updated via the app manager. Snippets of code can then be provided for developers to embed into their apps which check the devices IMEI against the database and disable the app and put the device into retrieval mode.

This is just off the top of my head, but you get the idea.

A what's up Andraeseus1? Who know's man...., they may return it to you out of sympathy!?! Yeah dude..., I mean, after they use the N900 and find out how the battery life is crap-garbage ( mine last for like 3 to 6 hours), they may feel sorry for you and return it with other phone recommendations?! Naw, naw I'm being sarcastic and just kidding! Seriously..., I'm sorry for your lost! Unfornately we live in a "Fast Food Society," individuals want it now and immediately instead of striving to work hard for it! Here's some gifts that work for me for carriering gadgets, "Shoulder Holster & Hip Holster." You can get them from a site called "Thinkgeek.com." They cost 49 and 59 bucks! It has a place perfect for the N900! I've carried it in it for a year, never lost it never drop it! I carry my N900, Villiv S5 and now.....,my new "Nexus One" in the Shoulder Holster! Just ordered the Nexus One! Good luck!

Thats great to hear!!
Backup your contacts and n900 data regularly and make sure the backup works

install iamhere package to track the phone gps,location, a picture from the front camera,etc..

elepedus, if I can help in developing that application, I'd like to. I have NO coding experience, and am just a N900 user, probably with the least tech skills of anyone here (I didn't really 'do the research'!).

In any case, I love my little brick and would like to have the app that you describe on it. The only way I can help is to discuss concepts, and maybe test things.

What I'm saying is, if you lead, I'll follow! If you can take it on, send me a link to the thread you start and I'll be on board. I can probably help for an hour or two a week, for the next few months.

It's great the the OP got his phone back here, but it could have been any of us this happened to, and that's a bit scary!

Thank you very much edanto. Unfortunately I have virtually no programming knowledge either, but I will try to have a look at the 'iamhere' app mentioned in the thread and maybe speak to the devs and see what comes of it.

I have created a new thread about this. Please check out The N900 Anti-theft project