We wouldn't really say we "have it together" when it comes to remembering where we put our keys / phone / small children, so Apple's announcement of the
Find My iPhone service for MobileMe users came as quite a relief. The service just went live, and with a quick toggle of a preference pane in iPhone OS 3.0 the phone is fully prepared for all sorts of lost and found scenarios -- along with acting as an incredibly intuitive (if pricey) stalking mechanism. Find My iPhone works exactly as advertised, giving us a fairly good location estimate from within our lead-lined underground fortress, and sending annoying messages to the phone complete with sound, even when the handset is switched to silent, though unfortunately the sound is a sort of sonar ping that strikes us as incredibly difficult to locate, unless of course our phone is taken by whale. The only other problem is that both the location function and the message service took a couple minutes to track down our iPhone -- not a deal breaker, but we don't know what the hangup could be. After the device is pinged, a confirmation of the event was sent to our MobileMe email address. A live, enthralling video demonstration is after the break.
posted June 9th 2009 7:16PM
Or just don't lose your phone. Are iPhone users this fucking stupid that they need to have Apple show them where their phone is?
Stop being such a douche. People misplace their devices, it doesn't mean they're stupid, it just means they're human. It's a useful little feature. I don't think it's the kinda feature that needs to be highlighted in a WWDC keynote, but then again I also don't think that the addition of copy&paste 2 years too late is something to be proud of - Apple should've quietly slipped it in in the patch notes and that's it.
As stated earlier in the thread, there's a lot of free software for WinMo that does this too. Are WinMo users so fucking stupid that they need apps to tell them where their phone is?
Want to stalk your ex by planting an iphone in her purse? iPhone has an app for that.
Glocks use magazines
Hey cj100570, I was just about to post that lol. M1 Grand's uses clips lol.
Doesn't that mean someone can just turn off the locate me feature from the phone's setting and walk away with your phone?
Well, if you were at all worried about losing your phone, you would add a PIN to unlock. If they can't get to settings, they can't turn it off.
See this is why they need a "Cancel" button. What if he doesn't want to give the phone back? Now he has no other choice but to give it back.
I am still not sold on this functionality as useful for other than a misplaced phone.
If my iPhone was stolen and I was able to initiate the software and track down the "general area" where it was located. I would still feel like I would have little recourse when confronted with the individual that found/stole/bought the phone (of someone else). Would I call the cops? Would Apple employees in pastel colored shirts jump out of a van and nab the phone back?
You answered your own question. You know where it is, you can call the police and get them to assist. Simple.
Now there have been some really good questions here..
1 - What happens when the phone is off?
2 - What happens when the sim is removed and a new one inserted?
3 - If you enable the feature in the phone, what's to keep someone from turning that off?
Well obviously this is mostly for cases of a misplaced iphone rather than a stolen one.
I just tried it on my iPhone 3G...the GPS was very fast, much more accurate than in the video, and the alert was sent nearly instantly. I am also inside a building, although not far from a window.
I don't know why no one else has mentioned this, but what about FindmyI? If you have a jailbroken iPhone (which is super easy to do) you can install this application that sits in the background ready to be activated. It's free to set up and will display the general location of the phone until you pay $2/ month to get accurate information. It will also display messages on the phone that WON'T go away unless the message is deactivated from the website, not the phone. After my girlfriend had her phone stolen this was the first app I installed. We don't plan on paying for the accurate tracking until the phone actually shows up missing.
This is actually the best new feature. Does anyone know if there is an equivalent for S60?
The best feature ONLY when you lose or have your iPhone stolen
Sooooooo, Find My iPhone is apples answer to other cell phone service insurance plans that are about 10$ a month (up to $99 replacement fee when lost)? Seeing that Applecare can become useless to an extent.
So instead of calling insurion reporting that my iPhone was dropped into the pool or stolen and have it replaced with a new/refurb unit, I can just make my iPhone loud and track it down to a sexual offenders home that will be aggravated by my text message saying "Hey fuckface, gimme back mah iPhone!! Who you tryin to kid?"
Of course if it was dropped into a pool or something like that, the feature is pretty much useless, as well as the applecare and mobileMe
No. This is Apple's answer that let you hunt down the fucker that stole you phone and pop a cap in his ass, yo.
i wonder if this can work with the ipod touch with wifi
I think it can...
http://help.apple.com/mac/1/help/?nav=pgs/acct_51.html&content=pgs/acct27901.html
woah that is pretty awsome, thanks gillberg1111
Would the text function still work if the SIM inserted is different i.e. does this service track down the phone via IMEI and then find the phone number?
Im not sure, but it does have this message if you use the data wipe option:
This will permanently delete all media and data on your iPhone, restoring it to factory settings. This will not suspend your wireless service. Once wiped, your iPhone will no longer be able to display messages or be located. Learn more.
So I think it does not track via IMEI.
Does anyone know if you have a MobileMe Family Pack can you find the location of the iPhones synced with your sub accounts from the master account?
I just tried it out, and its pretty sweet.
why is it when apple comes out with something new, yall WinMo douches come out of your moms basement and say "WinMo has had that shit since like the beginning of time" yet NO ONE has ever heard of it let alone use it. And do you know why no one has heard or used said WinMo program. I'm not making guesses but it may be because it either a shitty program or it doesnt work.
It might be because WinMo is mostly used by buisnessmen who use their phone for uh, buisness, and don't have time to fiddle around with third party programs.
Since the iPhone is more of a toy for teenagers, it makes more sense that people pay more attention to features other than email.
i used said program on my previous winmo phone. it worked very very well. i discovered it by reading xda dev forums, where it was posted. sure, not everyone may have heard of it, but xda developers has 1.6 million members and god knows how many non member readers, so thats quite an audience..
Okay, so as a Windows user (not saying anything bad about OSX), I have little use for the MobileMe service. But my wife does have an iPhone 3G and has lost phones in the past. So... the obvious question... can I join MobileMe AFTER she loses the phone and still use this service to find the phone?
You need to activate the Mobile Me on the phone, so no, you can't buy it afterwords and use the tracking feature.
So what's stopping the thief from turning off the phone/ripping the sim card out and just wiping the drive when he gets home?
nothing, that is why this service is useless. Real thieves aren't going to leave any personal info on the phone for a second. Swipe, power off, and then return to their farraday cage lair to deactivate it.
dude where's my iPhone?
So what happens if someone takes out the sim card. Will it still work??
I bet my iPhone will be in the browns home... they just moved to the neighborhood.
Does this work if the thief wipes the firmware and inserts another SIM.....no? Well then this is useless. Most iPhone thieves are savvy enough to wipe the device.
Funny, I always knew that calling someone a "jerkface" will make them more inclined to obey you.
Does this work if your phone is off?
I am generally anti-iphone, but this is one superb feature/app. Totally dig it!
and if the phone is stolen and the SIM card has been replaced, will this still work?
I hope jailbreaking enables this without a mobile me subscription.
Iphone on me.com tracking my "lost" iphone. proof of concept. flickrDOTcom/photos/whitakerz/3652760684/
Cylay is better than MobileMe, you can using Cylay to lock,locate,wipe iPhone via internet or SMS.
www.cylay.com
Cylay can send warning SMS if someone changed SIM card.