Apple Watch is getting its biggest update yet this fall. With watchOS 3, we can look forward to faster apps, better messaging and new watch faces. Apple previewed some of these things during its WWDC keynote Monday, but here are a bunch we didn’t get to see.
So you forgot to activate Find My iPhone when setting up your new iOS device, and now you’ve lost it. Fear not, because thanks to Google, you have a backup service.
Simply type “I lost my phone” into Google Search and you’ll be able to locate all the devices connected to your account.
From reuniting families separated by a California wildfire to tracking down kidnapping victims, there are plenty of high drama stories concerning Apple’s location-tracking Find My iPhone/iPad feature for iOS.
Well, you can add one more to the list — as police in Bangkok recently captured a violent armed gang responsible for a string of vicious robberies in the country’s northern region — all thanks to their ill-advised decision to steal an iPad mini with the feature enabled.
Finding your iPad or iPhone is about to get a whole lot easier, even under the worst circumstances, thanks to a new app from TrackR that can locate your lost iOS devices regardless of whether or not its connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data.
The new free app called TrackR tablet, runs on both iPhone and iPad, and simplifies the way you find lost iDevices. There’s no sign in process to get into the app. Just open it up and ring your lost iPhone.
A mother used Apple’s Find My iPhone feature to track down her kidnapped daughter, tracing the teenager to a McDonald’s parking lot more than 150 miles from her home in Pittsburgh.
The unnamed daughter was being held against her will by her ex-boyfriend, who allegedly kidnapped her and bound her hands, feet and mouth with duct tape — but apparently (thankfully!) forgot to remove the victim’s iPhone.
Find my iPhone is a fantastic way to recover your iPhone when it is lost or stolen. Most of the time. If you’re Christina Lee and Michael Saba, though, you hate Find my iPhone, because it has ruined your life.
For some reason, Apple constantly reports stolen or lost iPhones as coming from Saba and Lee’s small suburban Atlanta house… even though they are nowhere near by.
There’s no doubting that Apple’s “Find my iPhone” feature can be pretty useful at times. But a recent story highlights the feature’s potential dark side — as a family was attacked after a group of people knocked on their door, erroneously claiming their lost handset was inside the family’s home.
This week’s release of watchOS 2 brings a much-needed security update to Apple’s wearable by adding Activation Lock to the device, and the great news is that you may not even have to do anything to add it.
Activation Lock has been around for a while for other Apple devices, and its purpose is to keep thieves from using them even if they manage to get ahold of your preciouses. The first version of watchOS only included basic locking features and a passkey, which wouldn’t keep smart evildoers from gaining access to sensitive data like your Apple Pay data.
Here’s how the feature shows up on the Apple Watch.
A battalion chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection was reunited with his family after they fled their burning home — thanks to Apple’s “Find my iPhone” feature.
Paul Duncan was on a job fighting a forest fire in Hidden Valley, California, when he received a panicked call from his wife saying that his family — consisting of his wife, son and two teenaged daughters — had escaped from their neighborhood when another major wildfire broke out.
There are plenty of great stories about people using the Find my iPhone feature to track down and reclaim stolen iOS devices. However, a story which emerged this week shows the tragic flipside of that phenomenon.
18-year-old Brampton, Ontario native Jeremy Cook died from multiple gunshot wounds after tracking down his lost phone, and then confronting the three men who had taken it.
Picture this: You’ve lost your iPhone somewhere, but it’s run out of juice and it’s not ringing or vibrating when you call it.
You might think you’re out of luck, but there’s one function you can enable (or disable if you’re into privacy) that will keep track of your iPhone’s last location, even when the battery’s dead.
SACRAMENTO — California just flipped the kill switch for smartphones, in a move to make iCrime a thing of the past.
Governor Jerry Brown signed into law State Sen. Mark Leno’s Smartphone Theft Prevention Act (Senate Bill 962). The law will affect any smartphone manufactured on or after July 1, 2015.
There’s some reason to hope that the kill switch will do for smartphones what sophisticated alarm systems did for cars: make stealing them less appealing than a pair of leg warmers. Car thefts plummeted 96 percent in New York City when engine immobilizer systems came into play.
Find My iPhone has been invaluable at recovering lost Apple devices, but if you’re anything like me, keeping track of where you parked the car amid a sea of concrete and sedans is even harder than remembering where you dropped your selfie machine.
Apple’s latest patent filings reveal it has been working to solve those lost car disasters with an ingenious system that could be included in the future iPhones to guide you back to your vehicle, and it doesn’t even need an LTE or GPS signal.
A U.K. man has been charged with murder after using Find My iPhone to track down and kill the thug who stole his son’s iPhone at knifepoint earlier in the day.
Derek Grant reportedly used Apple’s tracking software to locate the nearby thief after his son was robbed on his way home from work at McDonalds. When Derek confronted the thief and demanded he return the iPhone, the thief blinded him with a knife to the eye, which Grant says caused him to lash out in self defense and kill him.
This poor soul on the Apple discussion forums has just lost his iPhone, in Bangladesh of all places. He’s asking how to block the thieves from accessing his personal data.
Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have Find My Phone enabled on the device. He’s out of luck, in Bangladesh of all places.
You, though, you’re lucky and now have warning: iPhones are among the most stolen items in urban areas. Here’s how to keep your personal data safe on a stolen iPhone or iPad.
Activation Lock is a new feature in iOS 7 that allows you to remotely wipe all the data on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch in case it gets lost or stolen. It’s such a great idea that 78 percent of iPhone users have it enabled.
After Activation Lock is enabled remotely, your iPhone will display a message for you with details on how to return it to you. This is a great feature.
When you get the device back, all you need to do is enter your Apple ID (and password!), and your iPhone or iPad will reactivate, give you a fully functional iOS device again without letting anyone else use it in the meantime.
But where the hell do you enable this feature?
The redesign of Apple’s iWork and iLife apps received all the attention at today’s keynote, but Apple isn’t totally neglecting some of its lesser-used apps. Apple released an update for Find My iPhone this afternoon that brings a redesigned interface to the security app to bring it inline with iOS 7’s UI.
Find My iPhone allows users who misplace their iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mac to use another iOS data to find the lost device and protect your data. The redesign seems to be purely aesthetic as all of the core feature remain relatively unchanged. Users can still remotely lock devices, wipe data, view battery charge, and even get driving directions to a lost device.
The free update is available in the App Store now.
Update: Looks like Podcasts and Movie Trailers have also been updated with new iOS 7 UIs.
Source: iTunes
This article first appeared in Cult of Mac Magazine.
Apple devices are on the most wanted list for thieves who snatch smartphones and tablets out of the hands of distracted commuters in big cities.
This type of theft is so easy and generally without consequence that it’s become known as “Apple picking.” The Cupertino company has been on the forefront of trying to curb these crimes, dating back to the Find My iPhone app in 2010 and the new Touch ID fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5s. Apple has also added a new i0S 7 feature called Activation Lock, which many are dubbing the “kill switch.”
“As a consumer, I love the idea of a kill switch for the device that I, as the owner, can invoke, but giving that type of power to my carrier is another thing.”
In doing so, Apple has responded to further pressure from authorities who are inundated with cases involving iPhone and iPad crime. (See our investigation into lost and stolen iPhones on Craigslist for more.) But prosecutors in New York and San Francisco, where about half of all crimes involve smartphones, were initially lukewarm on the feature but say they are now optimistic after seeing it in action.
The industry insiders Cult of Mac sounded out, not so much.
“To really make this work, the ‘kill switch’ would need to be wired to carrier networks, so that as soon as the device’s IMEI shows up on the network, the device is disabled by the carrier,” said Tom Kemp, CEO of Centrify, a company that provides unified identity services across data center, cloud and mobile for businesses. “As a consumer, I love the idea of a kill switch for the device that I, as the owner, can invoke, but giving that type of power to my carrier is another thing.”
As smartphone use grows — nearly half of Americans own one — so has iCrime. According to recent comScore data, Apple owns almost 40 percent of the smartphone market, more than its next closest competitors Samsung and HTC combined, with 23 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively. But part and parcel with Apple’s success and their distinctive design aesthetic is the fact that Apple products are an easy targets for a quick snatch-and-resell.
“How much would mugging decrease if your wallet was worth $0? Essentially, that’s what Apple is doing with its new kill switch feature – making your smartphone worthless, ideally. But, who is it really worthless for in the end?” said David Anderson, director of product for smartphone insurance company ProtectYourBubble. “Smartphone thieves often resell stolen devices on the secondary market…Unknowing consumers will purchase devices from sites like eBay and Amazon to cut costs but (will) end up receiving a ‘killed’ device in the mail.”
Companies that survive on tracing stolen gadgets are also not worried that the kill switch will sound the death knell for their businesses. “Unfortunately for consumers, Apple’s tracking and other anti-theft measures are also fairly easy to disable. People are going to continue to steal iPhones and hackers will find a way around the kill switch. It can be as simple as jailbreaking the phone,” said Ken Westin, founder of GadgetTrak. Most of GadgetTrak’s customers are tracing Apple devices — check out the live map — and use of the service has led to a few spectacular recoveries like this one from Kansas to Mexico.
Which brings up another point: whether Apple should be partnering with authorities rather than potentially enabling users to pursue their stolen iPhones
Maybe Apple should be partnering with authorities rather than enabling their customers to pursue their stolen iPhones.
Absolute Software, which says it has recovered 29,000 devices in 100 countries to date, recently launched a partnership with Samsung and says one with Apple is very possible. They work with police and discourage people from trying to get their gadgets back, rogue style.
“Deactivating a device with Activation Lock so that an unauthorized user is unable to use it or sell it can have a positive impact on deterring theft. However, the value of this capability is limited and could lead to encouragement of owners trying to recover devices from thieves themselves,” said Ward Clapham, vice president of recovery services at Absolute. “Self-recovery can be dangerous – even fatal. The best case scenario is for the user to rely on trained professionals to work with law enforcement to recover the device and pursue any criminal charges that may result.”
iPhone users who keep their smartphones mute in their pockets out of fear may find the new service makes it once again OK to stumble down a crowded sidewalk while checking email.
The iWatch might be a really popular theft target.
“With the kill switch, you will no longer feel unsafe using your iPhone on a city street. The kill switch makes the iPhone a much less desirable target for thieves — they’ll have to go back to nicking gold watches and fancy handbags,” says Dave Howell, founder and CEO of Avatron Software, which makes a number of productivity apps. “With this feature, Apple is responding to rising iPhone theft rates, but the company may also been preparing for the launch of the iWatch. The iWatch might be a really popular theft target. The kill switch is a neat, thoughtful feature but it won’t move the market-share needle.”
Howell, a former Apple software engineering manager whose team includes a number of veteran Mac programmers, says he doesn’t have any inside knowledge about the kill switch but that the service fits into Apple’s general ethos.
“I know Apple’s been working hard for some years to make iPhone as safe as possible…Apple has always garnered a reputation for designing for the benefit of users, even when it hurts sales. Certainly preventing theft will put a dent in replacement iPhone revenues.”
This article first appeared in Cult of Mac Magazine.
We’re a few weeks away from the final release of iOS 7, but it looks like Apple is starting to prep its non-stock apps with an iOS 7 update. This morning Apple released an update for Find My iPhone that comes with a new icon more fitting for iOS 7.
A few bug fixes were tossed in, but early reports claim the update has broken the app for non-developers, so we’d advise against updating right now. The new Find My iPhone icon was also added to the beta.iCloud.com homescreen, but hasn’t been updated on iCloud.com yet.
With less a month to go until Apple unveils its new iPhones and the release date of iOS 7, the iCloud beta site just received a redesign to bring it more in-line with iOS 7’s UI.
Apple has replaced the old iCloud app icons for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, and Find My iPhone with their counterparts from iOS 7. Along with the new icons, Apple has redesigned the UI of each app with the updated look of iOS 7 as well.
Take a look:
The number one rule when it comes to stealing an iPhone is to turn off Find My iPhone and restore iOS to factory settings. Every good thief knows this, but there are so many clueless ones who don’t; the latest of whom is a charming douchebag from Dubai named Hafid.
Hafid likes to cruise around various locales of the UAE and pose the shit out of them. What he doesn’t know is all his profound selfies and other photos on his stolen iPhone are being uploaded to the original owner’s Dropbox account. And she’s posting them all on Tumblr:
I am not a psychic, but I have a good idea where you and your iPhone parted ways.
If you’re desperately seeking it on Craigslist, chances are you lost your device – or had it stolen – over the weekend, especially at night. And probably at some fun destination – shopping, the beach, a bar – or heading there on your usual means of transportation (the car, a gas station or parking lot, or bus).
We all know that Samsung loves to copy Apple more than anything in the world. It’s embarrassing And while most of the copying has been limited to hardware, Samsung’s decided to step up its game on the software front, too.
Yesterday Samsung introduced its version of Apple’s iTunes Store, except it’s got a really bad interface and even worse name. They’re calling it “Samsung Content & Services“, and with a little magic pixie dust, Samsung hopes its customers will think it’s as good as the App Store or Google Play.
iPhone use and dating don’t really mix very well. Even if you follow our Gentleman’s Guide To Using Your iPhone On A Date, you’ll still probably do something really dumb if you try to pull out an iPhone on a date. Their feelings might get hurt. Heck, your feelings might get hurt. You’re both going to walk away more sexually frustrated than ever. It’s a bad idea.
Yes, there are apps out there that can help you get some action on Valentine’s Day, but the regular apps on your iPhone are probably going to destroy the hard work you put in.
Here are five stories that should encourage you to just leave your iPhone at home on Valentines Day.
Apple’s Find My iPhone led San Francisco police on a 90MPH car chase last night which ultimately led to the arrest of three suspected armed robbers.
My normally sleepy neighborhood in San Francisco has been plagued recently with a string of violent and scary armed street robberies.
For the last week or so, a gang of violent perps have been robbing people of gadgets like their iPhones at gunpoint. But last night, an iPhone hit them back.
