If you haven’t set up iCloud and Find My iPhone yet, now is a good time to do so. This friendly reminder comes to us from a recent New York Times article, which details the story of a police officer using iCloud to bust an iPhone thief and return the iPhone to its rightful owner using none other than the free Find My iPhone service:
The ace up the sleeve of Officer Garland, an avid Apple consumer was something called “Find My iPhone,” a free 5.4-megabyte piece of software, or app, that he had on the iPhone in his pocket.Punching in the victim’s Apple ID … he quickly determined by the location of a small gray phone icon on a digital map that the robber was near Eighth Avenue and 51st Street.As Officer Garland and his partner drove there, the signal source shifted, closer to Eighth Avenue and 49th Street. There, a man later identified by the police as George Bradshaw, 40, of New Lots, Brooklyn, stepped outside a Food Emporium.Officer Garland pushed the “Play Sound” button on his phone. Instantly, a pinging beep — not unlike the sound of a submarine’s sonar — began emitting from Mr. Bradshaw, 20 feet away.
The victim later identified the robber and got her iPhone back.
So have you configured iCloud and Find My iPhone yet on all your Apple gear? It’s easy to do, read Apple guide on setting up iCloud and follow the instructions below to enable the specific Find My iPhone (or Find My iPad and Find My Mac) feature. You’ll need iOS 5 or later on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or OS X 10.7.2 or later on the Mac.
Setting Up Find My iPhone (or iPad)
You will need an Apple ID, iOS 5 or later on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, and iCloud setup.
- Launch the Settings app
- Locate and tap on “iCloud” – if you are asked for an Apple ID you haven’t setup iCloud yet
- Near the bottom of iCloud settings, look for “Find My iPhone” and switch to “ON”, allow the app to use location services
It’s that easy to turn on, but you’re not quite finished yet because you will want to also install the Find My iPhone app for iOS. The Find My iPhone application is a free download on the iOS App Store, and lets you locate the iOS devices or Macs on a map, send messages and pings to the devices, and even remotely wipe them of their data.
Setting Up Find My Mac
Assuming you already have iCloud enabled in OS X 10.7.2, setting up Find My Mac is very easy:
- Launch System Preferences
- Click on “iCloud”
- Click the checkbox next to “Find My Mac” and then click “Allow”
The Mac will now be accessible via the iOS Find My iPhone app in the device list, and can also be pinpointed on a map using the iCloud.com website.
Source: MacOSX Daily
Source: MacOSX Daily