Sony takes on ‘Find my iPhone’ with My Xperia beta release

While Android may have matured into a versatile and powerful mobile operating system, it’s hard to overlook its lack of a first-party “Find my iPhone”-esque service for lost or stolen devices. Sony is stepping in to offer its own take on the concept with My Xperia, a service designed for owners of its particular flavor of Android phones. Sony says My Xperia will help users locate their devices and protect their data — once you’ve activated the app in your phone’s settings, you can log in with your Google account at Sony’s portal and perform a number of actions. You can locate the device on a map and force it to play a notification sound (which will override silent mode and also activate the display).

For more dire situations, you can lock the phone and pop up a message with your emergency contact info, or you can remotely wipe both the internal storage and any SD memory installed. Unfortunately, this is rolling out quite slowly — for starters, the beta will roll out to those in Nordic countries who are using “select” 2012 Xperia smartphones. It’ll start with the Xperia Acro S and Sony’s targeting Q2 for a global rollout. As for those who are eligible for the beta, Sony will push a notification out to users, who can then install the service though Sony’s built-in Update Center.