find my iphone
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Apple sued over Find my iPhone
Well this is certainly a fitting story given a recent report that Apple remains the top target for patent trolls. GigaOM is reporting that a nonpracticing entity based out of Texas is suing Apple, alleging that services such as Find my Friends and Find my iPhone infringe upon their patents. The company in question is called Remote Locator, and per usual, information regarding ownership interests in the company and the patent itself are hard to come by. Notably, Apple isn't the only one being targeted by this particular patent as several other suits have been filed against Google and carriers as well. The invention itself is US Patent 5548637, which covers a method for "locating personnel and objects in response to telephone inquiries," and describes a system for using infrared transmitters to route calls to individuals or objects in large buildings like a hospital. Remote Locator is requesting a jury trial, and with respect to damages, is seeking an injunction and payment for past infringement. Patent trolls in recent years have become an increasing nuisance in the tech sphere, and with Apple holding billions upon billions in the bank, it makes sense why they're often targeted. Unfortunately, though, patent trolls have also taken to suing and arguably shaking down small-time developers who often lack the resources to adequately defend themselves against what are often frivolous lawsuits. The flurry of lawsuits filed by Lodsys in recent memory serves as a stark example. Thankfully, the Obama administration has taken notice of the patent troll phenomenon and has proposed some new guidelines that will hopefully serve to lessen the impact of patent trolls. All that said, we'll keep an eye on this case and see how Apple responds.
Daily Update for August 22, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Find My iPhone app updated, doesn't work for non-devs (Updated)
Apple today released updates to the Find My iPhone and Find My Friends apps. While Find My iPhone 2.0.3 features a slightly new (and iOS 7-like) design, there's also one small issue -- users are reporting that the update doesn't provide the desired functionality (locating lost Apple devices) unless you just happen to be a developer. So for the time being, if you're not a developer, don't install the update. Find My Friends 2.1.1 also includes the ever-popular "Bug fixes and stability improvements," but doesn't appear to have gained any flat design elements. Update: Well, that was certainly quick. As of 3:30 PM ET, various source report that Find My iPhone is no longer displaying the previous error message, which was ""Developer Account Required. You must be a registered iOS developer and have iCloud configured on iOS 7.0 Beta to use this version of Find My iPhone."
Parenting Tip: Using Find My iPhone to locate a misplaced iOS device
We've read countless stories about Find My iPhone and how it has helped police recover a stolen iOS device. The service is great for this type of field work, but did you know that Find My iPhone can help you find an iOS device that's been misplaced around your house? If you are a parent of little ones, you undoubtedly have experienced that frustrating moment when you need to leave for an appointment and can't find your iPhone. You remember placing your phone on your desk, but it's now missing because your tot has snatched it and casually tossed it aside. You try to interrogate your little one to find out where he or she left your iPhone, but all they do is point to their cup or the potty. One easy way to locate an iPhone that's been stashed in a toy box or dropped behind the couch is to use the "Play Sound" feature of Find My iPhone. It's a no-frills locator beacon for your iOS device. To find your phone, you need to login to iCloud on your computer by going to icloud.com and entering your Apple ID credentials. After you login, you can click on the Find My iPhone icon to view all your iCloud devices, including your missing iPhone, on a map. You can also follow the same procedure described below using the Find My iPhone app on an iPad or another iPhone. Once you have found your iPhone on the map, select it to open a small box with the name of the device and details about when it was last located. You can then click on the "i" in the corner of this box. This "i" stands for information and clicking on it opens a small window with several options to let you locate or lock down a missing device. In this article, I am focusing on the "Play Sound" option that'll let you play a sound on your missing device. When you click or tap on "Play Sound," your iPhone immediately starts beeping with a loud, resounding beep. It continues to beep until you find your device and turn off this beacon. This beeping sound is loud enough that it won't be muffled by a couch cushion or anything else that may be hiding your iPhone. It's not the traditional usage of the Find My iPhone service, but it works well for iPhones and even iPads that have gone missing in your house or car. I've used it successfully dozens of times since this feature debuted a few years ago.
Recent Apple thefts include high-speed NYC chase, Colorado storefront smash-and-grab
Apple devices keep their value, which makes them an attractive target for thieves. Two recent stories highlight how both individuals and Apple stores are vulnerable to theft. One report involves a movie-like high-speed chase, while the other one features a well-timed smash-and-grab heist. The New York Times has a fascinating story about a thief who stole an iPhone from an unsuspecting lady waiting on a corner. He snatched the iPhone from her hand and took off into the crowded streets of Flushing, Queens. She called police who tracked the culprit using Find My iPhone. They hunted him down by car and by foot, finally locating him on a subway car. The thief was identified when the police placed a call to the stolen device and it rang in his back pocket. In a completely different type of theft, employees at an Apple store in Colorado Springs, Colo., were surprised when they arrived for work on Sunday morning. Instead of a typical opening, the employees were greeted with shattered glass and a store that had been turned upside down by thieves. The photo below was supplied by TUAW reader Dan Mosqueda, who also tipped us about this latest smash-and-grab incident. It shows the front of the store boarded up with black-painted plywood. According to a report by KKTV-11, robbers drove their car into the glass front of the Apple store and made off with an undisclosed amount of electronics. An employee at a nearby store observed the aftermath of the theft and said, "It seems like this was very calculated because they obviously knew when to come here, when the security would not be around." The police are reviewing the surveillance video for information on the car and people involved in this crime.
Find My iPhone updated with driving directions
Apple has released an update to the Find My iPhone app that allows users to track their lost or stolen iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or Mac. The 2.0.1 update adds some UI tweaks to the button layout. Now the Play Sound, Lost Mode and Erase buttons appear separately from the map view. A bigger feature, however, is the new ability to quickly get driving directions to your lost device. Simply tap the green car icon on your device's item label in map view and you'll be taken to iOS 6's Maps where you will be shown pre-plotted driving directions from your current location to your device. Then again, it is iOS 6 Maps, so you could get lost trying to find your lost device... Find My iPhone is a free download (and still needs a more all-encompassing name).
Find My iPhone leads L.A. cops to cache of stolen goods
It's another case closed for Find My iPhone. Hollywood police, along with the owner of a stolen iPhone, used the free app to track down the device and ended up nabbing four robbers in the process. CBS Los Angeles reports that an LAPD helicopter helped officers locate the thieves in a parked car on Santa Monica Boulevard early this morning. Inside the vehicle, they found the phone in question along with other devices and wallets also stolen by the crooks over the weekend. The fact that the ne'er-do-wells hadn't thought to turn off the iPhone leads us to believe they weren't exactly master criminals. [Via CNET]
Apple updates nearly every app for iOS 6, sneaks in key GarageBand, iPhoto and Podcasts updates
If you didn't already know that iOS 6 was out in the wild, Apple just delivered a torrent of mobile app updates to make it perfectly clear. Virtually every app that isn't preloaded now has explicit iOS 6 support to keep it running smoothly, and some of the upgrades are thankfully more than just skin-deep compatibility tweaks. Among the highlights are Podcasts' new subscription list syncing through iCloud, ringtone creation with GarageBand and iPhoto support for 36.5-megapixel image editing on the latest devices -- you know, for that moment you need to tweak Nikon D800 photos on an iPhone 5. We're including direct links to a few of the juicier updates, but we'd recommend checking AppleInsider's comprehensive list to see everything that you're missing.
Compromised iCloud password leads to nightmare (updated)
Updated. Former Gizmodo writer & current Wired Gadget Lab staffer Mat Honan is having a pretty bad day. As you can read on his Tumblr post (not to mention elsewhere), hackers compromised his iCloud account. They used that access to reset his iCloud password, reset his Gmail password, gain control of his Twitter account (which in turn gave them access to Gizmodo's Twitter feed and 400K followers) and generally wreak mayhem. Unfortunately, Honan's iCloud account was tied to his iPhone and iPad, which both had Find my iPhone/iPad turned on. In the attackers' hands, the FMI utility was turned against Honan and both devices were remotely wiped. It got worse: his MacBook Air had Find My Mac enabled, which meant the hackers could erase his SSD... and they did. Honan's iCloud password was unique to that service, but it was also only seven characters long and hadn't been changed in years. [This turns out not to be a key to the puzzle, see update #2 below.] Given the many points of exposure when iCloud accounts are compromised -- and the potential risk of serious consequences if remote wipe utilities like Find My Mac are controlled by malicious actors -- we recommend using a memorable but strong password for iCloud. (Strong and unique passwords are a good idea in general, but while Google's accounts have options for two-factor authentication with SMS or the Google Authenticator app, iCloud doesn't.) [Honan was targeted by a hacker group that had previously gone after high-profile Twitter users, which is an unlikely scenario for most of us. However, the risks of an unintended or malicious data wipe if you lose control of your iCloud password are real whether you're an Internet celebrity or not. –Ed.] The easiest way to come up with a strong password is to use a tool such as Diceware, but as our Twitter followers point out you do need to be able to enter your iCloud password quickly and easily on iOS devices if you plan to install or update App Store apps. It's not always simple to balance security and convenience, but it's important to consider the risks before you go with an easy-to-crack password. Unfortunately there's no easy way to segregate the Find My Mac feature from the other Mac iCloud features like Photo Stream, Documents in the Cloud and Back to My Mac; if there was, you could have a 'shadow' iCloud account used only for that, with no email or App Store exposure at all. You can, however, set up separate iCloud accounts for email, calendars and contacts and/or App Store purchases -- but that rapidly defeats the "all your data, anywhere" advantages of iCloud in the first place. A toggle switch to disable Find My Mac's remote wipe capability could also it a little more consumer-friendly, with a separate PIN code to turn the feature off or on; alternatively, with FileVault 2 Apple could replace the drive wipe with an encryption/lock pass to prevent thieves from accessing the data. But the odds of encountering a determined hacker clan set on wiping your computer remotely are arguably far lower than those of losing your MacBook to carelessness or theft; good backup strategy plus Find My Mac is a better choice for the latter risk. Our sympathies to Mat; we wish him luck in recovering his data and piecing his digital life back together. Update: Mat reports that he is working with Google to restore his account access (and, since his phone was linked to his Google Voice number, his ability to receive and send text messages) and has a Genius Bar appointment today to review his options for data recovery on his MacBook Air. Update 2: Mat has determined that the hackers did not brute-force his password or cobble together answers to his security questions; they apparently did some clever social engineering on Apple's support reps and managed to wrangle a password reset without those answers. Mat told his story on TWIT Sunday and will detail all the machinations in a story for Wired that comes out on Monday. He has contacted Apple corporate and PR to give them an opportunity to address the policy issues brought to light by this incident.
David Pogue's iPhone lost, searched for, found, world safe for kittens
Are you sitting? You'd better be sitting down for this one. Go ahead, we'll wait -- safety first. Sitting now? Ok, here we go: David Pogue lost his iPhone. Don't worry, don't worry! It's ok -- he found it eventually. Pogue, author and personal tech columnist for the New York Times, lost track of his iPhone on an Amtrak train back from Philadelphia, and after searching for it on the train he discovered that it had been taken and powered down. Later, Pogue's phone reappeared online, so he was able to spot its location. After he tweeted out pictures of the location via Find my iPhone, Gizmodo tracked down the house corresponding to the GPS signal, and the local Prince George's County police stopped by to see what they could do. We hate to spoil the big reveal (which Pogue has posted to his NYT blog), but the happy ending is that David Pogue has been reunited with his iPhone, and all's right with the world once more.
Apple tests new iCloud beta features
Developers who are enrolled in the iOS 6 beta are now able to see a new iCloud Beta portal at beta.icloud.com that is complete with new versions of Calendar and Find My iPhone, as well as two new iCloud additions -- Reminders and Notes. The expected timeframe for the general release of the new iCloud features is the same time that iOS 6 launches -- this fall. Changes that are apparent in the beta (according to a post on MacRumors) include a revision to Find My iPhone that shows the approximate battery life of the device you're trying to find, a web version of the iOS Notes app complete with yellow lined paper, a web version of the iOS (and soon OS X Mountain Lion) Reminders app. Apple announced during the WWDC 2012 keynote that more than 125 million people now use iCloud. It's good to see that all platforms -- OS X, iOS, and the Web -- will have nearly identical apps by this fall.
NYPD meets FMI: Cop nabs iPhone thief in NYC
Don't walk past police with a stolen iPhone in your boot. According to the New York Times, a quick-thinking police officer and Apple's Find My iPhone managed to retrieve a woman's stolen iPhone. The woman was in a handbag store in Manhattan when a thief allegedly held her up at gunpoint and took her iPhone. After searching the immediate area, NYC police officer Robert Garland entered the woman's Apple ID on his own iPhone and used "the iCloud feature" (we're going to assume that means Find My iPhone) to track the phone. Once they had arrived at its apparent location, the suspect walked past with the iPhone beeping in his boot. He was apprehended and the iPhone returned to its rightful owner. Well done, Officer Garland! For another lost-and-found NYC iPhone story, check out Newsday's LIRR report.
TUAW Best of 2011: Vote for the best iPhone utility app
The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you -- the readers -- and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We'll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often! TUAW is asking for your votes for the best iPhone utility app of 2011. Since a majority of nominations were from the wrong categories, and some were even for the wrong platform, a straw poll of favorite iPhone utilities was taken with a sampling of Web luminaries and makes up our list of candidates. The nominees are Flashlight (sale priced at US$0.99, regularly $1.99), Apple's Airport Utility (free), Skyfire Web Browser ($2.99), 1Password for iPhone ($5.99), and the app that has saved a lot of iPhones, Apple's Find My iPhone (free). And now, let the voting begin! The results will be announced on December 26, 2011. %Poll-72269%
Daily Update for December 12, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Home invasion suspects caught with iPhone's help
A Chicago thief and his accomplice may regret stealing an iPhone during a series of home invasions. In one robbery, the suspect took an iPhone after he pistol-whipped a woman and two men and then forced them into a bathroom. The suspect was apprehended after police used a GPS app to locate the stolen phone. The report doesn't mention what GPS app they used, but it's likely Find my iPhone or a third-party competitor. Apple hasn't released any stats on the number of people using the Find My iPhone service, nor how many devices have been recovered thanks to its presence. Judging from the news reports and the tips we receive, the list of recovered devices is probably long. I've enabled Find My iPhone and Find My Mac on all my Apple products just in case I ever need it, have you?
One family, two Find My iPhone adventures
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, an Australian family has recently gone through not one, but two adventures related to stolen iPhones. While on holiday at a Hilton in Fiji, the family's mother, Fiona Donohoe, had her iPhone ripped off by a hotel concierge. In a move worthy of a featured spot on Dumb Criminals, the theft was discovered and the iPhone recovered after the concierge accidentally synced all of his/her own contacts with Donohoe's MobileMe account. After that it was presumably simple to track down the thief, who has been fired from the Fiji Hilton and jailed for six months. Only two weeks later, 13-year-old Tahira Donohoe had her iPhone stolen while at school. She and her father used the Find My iPhone app on his iPad to track the thief's progress along a bus route for a while before deciding to give up the chase and let the police deal with it. They walked into a police station, set the iPad on the counter, and reported a theft in progress. Police caught up with the thief shortly thereafter, and when they were at first unable to find the stolen goods, they asked the Donohoes to ping the phone using Find My iPhone. Once the telltale sonar sound went off, police recovered the phone, arrested the 13-year-old thief after a brief chase, and brought everything in to the station to sort things out. The Donohoes did not press charges against the young thief. The Herald reports that the Donohoes had already replaced the iPhone stolen in Fiji before that phone was recovered, so they now have an extra iPhone. Hopefully they can hang on to all of them from now on. Find My iPhone is available for free from the App Store and does not require a paid MobileMe account if you have an iPhone 4, any iPad, or a fourth-generation iPod touch. Once iCloud launches, the service will presumably be free for all users on all devices. Find My iPhone is hands-down the first app that should be installed on new iOS devices and the first service you should enable.
Find My iPhone helps find Chilean plane crash site
We've seen many stories of iOS owners using Find My iPhone to retrieve a lost or stolen device. But this may be the first time, the technology was used to help find a missing airplane. Last week, a military airplane disappeared off Chile's Pacific coast and all 21 people aboard were killed instantly in the crash. Four bodies were recovered soon after the accident, but the exact location of the crash site remains unknown. As part of its recovery effort, the government has turned to technology to help locate the wreckage and remaining victims. Besides sonar equipment, Chilean officials are also using GPS co-ordinates provided to them by a relative of one of the victims. The victim had an iPhone that reported its GPS location to Apple's Find My iPhone service. The phone presumably remained on up until it hit the water. This last location may help the government retrieve the missing fuselage. Once found, Chilean officials could determine the cause of the crash and hopefully bring closure to the relatives of the victims. Our thoughts go out to all who were affected by this tragic accident. [Via 9to5 Mac]
Apple updates Find My iPhone app
Apple has pushed out a minor update to the Find My iPhone app. The app allows users to track their iOS devices right from their iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Today's update doesn't bring any major changes to the app -- just "stability improvements" -- but it does seem to find devices quicker than the previous version for those of you running the iOS 5 beta (at least on my iPad 2). I was personally hoping this update would enable you to track your Macs running Lion, however that is still yet to come apparently. Hopefully when it does, Apple will rename the app to something that describes all the devices its capable of finding. "Find My Devices" anyone?
Apple offers Find My Mac for beta testing, wants to play Cops and Robbers
Ever misplaced your hard earned MacBook Air or had an entire project vanish at the hands of a dirty thief, only to be gone forever? Well friends, the time is coming soon for the Find My Mac feature to provide a highly sought after sigh of relief, Find My iPhone-style. Apple has released the software into the wild for registered iOS devs, with the only other requirements being OS X Lion and an iCloud subscription. Using WiFi networks to locate your missing appendage via a web browser or iOS device, the location tool offers you a number of anti-theft options -- send a threatening message, lock down the machine remotely, or even wipe the machine's drive clean. Perhaps we will see this security detail launch with iCloud in fall, which was also released in beta form earlier this week.
Apple iCloud and iWork beta for iOS hands-on
We've had a few weeks to get accustomed to iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion, but one headlining feature has been notably inaccessible since it was unveiled earlier this summer. During his WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs touted iCloud as a service that will sync many of your Apple devices, for free. Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even Windows computers can synchronize documents, contacts, calendar appointments, and other data. You'll also be able to back up your iOS devices remotely, use an Apple-hosted email account, and store your music in the cloud. Well, this week Apple finally lit up its cloud-based service for developers, letting some of us take a sneak peek at the new service. Apple also announced pricing, confirming that you'll be able to add annual subscriptions with 10GB ($20), 20GB ($40), or 50GB ($100) of storage 'atop your free 5GB account. We took our five gig account for a spin, creating documents in Pages, spreadsheets in Numbers, and presentations in Keynote, then accessing them from the iCloud web interface to download Microsoft Office and PDF versions. We also tried our luck at iOS data syncing and the soon-to-be-controversial Photo Stream, so jump past the break for our full iCloud hands-on.%Gallery-129793%
