You know, we might be inclined to disbelieve this exciting tale of derring-do if it weren't for the highly improbably heroics and ingenuity displayed by its three protagonists -- you just can't make this stuff up. Probably. Kevin, Ryan and Mark were in Chicago minding their own nerdness out at Brickworld when Kevin left his iPhone behind at a dive bar. When they went back for it just minutes later the phone was gone, and instead of calling the cops like a bunch of suckers, Kevin and co. did the
right thing and pulled out a Sprint 3G dongle and a MacBook Pro. Unfortunately,
Find My iPhone couldn't get a lock on his phone at all -- it was either off or out of data range. The next day at lunch he finally got a delivery confirmation message from me.com, which kicked off a wild, dangerous chase into the wilds of Chicago. We won't spoil the ending for you (he finds the iPhone), but Kevin does raise a couple good points about the service functionality: you need to pull up MobileMe on laptop to use the service (instead of perhaps another iPhone), movement updates aren't pushed, ringer volume impacts alert volume whether the phone is on vibrate or not, and there should be an option for controlling the phone in more nefarious ways like taking pictures. We're glad it all ended up well, but those moments of Lego bliss that Kevin and his friends missed out on are gone forever.
[Thanks, Tristan W.]
posted June 23rd 2009 12:42PM
Summarizing, the service works if, and only if, you have:
1. The proper mobile equipment;
2. No love for your life;
3. Equally reckless friends;
4. A thief that scores very low IQ.
Seriously, how stupid an phone thief has to be not to remove the SIM card immediately?
flickrDOTcom/photos/whitakerz/3652760684
it is now possible to use your iphone to find someone else's iphone.
There's a new app in the App Store that let's you perform some of the functions of Find My iPhone but doesn't require a subscription to Mobile Me.
The app's called TapTrace. Check it out.