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Alongside yesterday's announcements related to OS X Lion, Apple pushed out a fourth developer preview version of the next-generation operation system set to make its public launch next month. Among the new features in this build of Lion is "Find My Mac", a feature similar to the one already in use for iOS devices.

Evidence for Find My Mac functionality in Lion had been building, but the actual service is now finally showing its face. One user has provided screenshots of the system in action, showing first of all how Find My Mac can be enabled in System Preferences, revealing that feature allows users to lock the screen of a lost machine while allowing guest access only to Safari in order to help facilitate recovery of the machine.

find_my_mac_dialog.jpg




The user also reveals how his MacBook Air could be located using the Find My iPhone app on his iPhone, offering the option to simply to play a sound or send a message to whoever may have found the machine or remotely lock or even wipe the machine.

find_my_mac_found.jpg




And finally, the user shows what happens to a machine once remote lock has been initiated, displaying a gray screen with boxes to input the security code to unlock the machine.




OS X Lion is set to debut sometime next month as a Mac App Store exclusive priced at $29.99. The full suite of iCloud features is not set to debut until this fall alongside iOS 5, but some features such as purchased music/app/book histories are already rolling out and Find My Mac will presumably follow suit next month.

Article Link: OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 Adds 'Find My Mac'
 

Stevesbodyguard

macrumors newbie
Feb 17, 2011
27
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

aurichie said:
Can I ask how MR was able to secure exemption from the NDA?

It's because they have so little info about the goings on at Apple their only chance of telling us anything we care about is to violate their non disclosure agreements. Its sites like this that kept the iPhone 5 out of the developers conference...and earthquakes, bombs, 4G, and Osama bin Laden.
 

marksman

macrumors 603
Jun 4, 2007
5,764
5
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

Why do you think Mac Rumors is a prty to the developers NDA?
 

Aduntu

macrumors 6502a
Mar 29, 2010
599
1
The user providing the screenshots -- assuming they are a registered developer -- is subject to the developer NDA, not MacRumors.
 

njaremka

macrumors 6502
May 11, 2010
494
0
how would this work? wouldn't a laptop need either gps, cellular data, or be located within a public wifi area in order to be found? no current mac has gps antennas, do they?
 

TallGuy1970

macrumors 6502
Jun 16, 2010
323
0
Finding my mac is one thing. Actually getting police interested enough is another.

Case in point - http://thisguyhasmymacbook.tumblr.com/

This guy gave the police all the information they needed to find the person who stole his laptop. The police did nothing until this guy's story went viral and was picked up by the national media. One call from Good Morning America and guess what? Police miraculously arrested the laptop thief.
 

314631

macrumors 6502a
May 12, 2009
909
0
iDeaded myself
You assume they signed an NDA. Why would they need to?

To get early access to the code to write articles? There are tons of bloggers who have done this. A lot of them are all ignoring the NDA and posting all kinds of stuff all over the internet.

Apple should at least terminate "developer accounts" of those who violate the terms they agreed. In the past Apple would really have made an example of some people.

I'd be very surprised if people on the MR staff don't have access to the developer program.
 

wackymacky

macrumors 68000
Sep 20, 2007
1,546
53
38°39′20″N 27°13′10″W
how would this work? wouldn't a laptop need either gps, cellular data, or be located within a public wifi area in order to be found? no current mac has gps antennas, do they?

I guess that when OSX 10.7 calls home it informs apple of the machines IP address, though, it would be up to the telco to provide it which may need a search warrant?
 

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
how would this work? wouldn't a laptop need either gps, cellular data, or be located within a public wifi area in order to be found? no current mac has gps antennas, do they?

Many wifi networks know where they are. My wifi-only iPad can be found using 'find my iPhone' because it knows what network it's on. It's not exact but it's good enough to realize "oh, I accidentally left it at my mom's house when I left."

And really, the map function isn't all that important most of the time. When another family member has been using my iPad I usually have no clue what room it's in. I could wander around the house or I can just use the 'find' feature to make it play a sound.

It's super useful and I'll love it when I can do this with the Macbook too.


Apple should at least terminate "developer accounts" of those who violate the terms they agreed. In the past Apple would really have made an example of some people.

Ok, you figure out who captured those screen-shots and I'm sure Apple would love to hear from you.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,775
7,497
Los Angeles
What if my guest thief prefers Firefox or Chrome? :p

Seriously, allowing guest access is a nice feature because sometimes the people who find lost computers are trying to return them, not steal them or their data.

You can already do something similar yourself, by setting up a guest login and putting a file with your "if lost" contact information on that account's desktop.
 

lighthouse_man

macrumors 6502a
Mar 13, 2005
611
10
Finding my mac is one thing. Actually getting police interested enough is another.

What the police usually does in such cases is print you a copy of your complaint with which you can get the insurance, if you're covered, to cough up some money. They don't consider investing money and manpower to go after a laptop or phone thief, unless maybe they work in a very small community.
 

trims

macrumors regular
May 11, 2011
232
79
Nottingham, UK
Remote Wipe might be useful - e.g. if you lost (or had stolen) a MacBook which contained sensitive or confidential (financial or medical?) data.

But can't see how Remote Lock helps? The felon could simply wipe the disk and reinstall OS X. Maybe we're counting on villains being too dumb to do this?
 
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