OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 Adds 'Find My Mac'

[Apple Big Mac]

Will there soon be cases of Macs getting remotely wiped by hackers who have been able to get into people's iCloud accounts?

Also, the person who said the grey lock screen looks like EFI is wrong. It's a variation of the new Lion login screen.

 

[taxiapple]

Will there soon be cases of Macs getting remotely wiped by hackers who have been able to get into people's iCloud account?

Tell us what you think.

 

[Apple Big Mac]

I think having that amount of power over iDevices and now Macs in this single area makes for a very tempting target. A target that uses single factor authentication and which most people probably don't use the greatest passwords on. I could see iCloud being phished and people getting their Macs remotely wiped very easily.

 

[HydroMan]

I got burgled last month and they stole my iMac I want to try this out, only problem is I will have to buy another Mac ...

 

[luci216]

This reminds me of an article I read on USA Today about a kid that had such a software (3rd party) on his stolen MBP and was able to take photos of his thief and eventually caught him despite the police's lack of cooperation.

Do macs have GPSs in them in order to be able to locate them in the same manner as the iphone?

 

[Apple Big Mac]

No. It's not using GPS. It's based on the network the Mac is on.

 

[AidenShaw]

Will there soon be cases of Macs getting remotely wiped by hackers who have been able to get into people's iCloud accounts?

Oh, that sounds like fun!

 

[ten-oak-druid]

This reminds me of an article I read on USA Today about a kid that had such a software (3rd party) on his stolen MBP and was able to take photos of his thief and eventually caught him despite the police's lack of cooperation.

Probably this story:

Stolen Macbook Recovered via Tweets, Photos of Thief

The pay service is called "hidden".

 

[Mal]

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.

Commonly true. I will say that where I work, we've had a total of about 15 laptops stolen (fortunately not recently), including 3 by fraud. One of those stolen by fraud was turned into a pawn shop, and they reported the serial numbers to the police during the holding period (they are required by law to report the serial numbers of all electronics and not sell them for I think 14 days until the police have a chance to check if they were reported stolen). We never heard anything about the others, including the other two taken by the same people, even though we were able to identify the people who had the one that was found with great detail and pictures.

jW

 

[DocNYz]

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?

Hahah I haven't heard anyone use the word "villains" in a while.

maybe a dumb question but if someone stole a mac i assume they could just insert OSX disc and reload. And speaking of reloading can I download 10.7 and then create a disk image so I can do a fresh install instead up update the os?

Has anyone in the Dev program tried this? I'd really like to know if making a disk image and/or physical disk to boot from is possible, it would make life a lot easier for me and many people.

And on another note: Both spaces (as we knew it) and "Tap to drag" is gone... Lovely.

This better not be ****ing true.

Might be missing something but you'd think the cops would rather take these kinds of calls. What's the normal success rate of tracking down a thief vs being handed an easy bust where the criminal is actually located for you on Google Maps and who's bust might lead to the solution of other crimes?

Yeah I don't know where you live but cops don't give a **** about things like this, or major crime, or pretty much anything except staying out of danger and resenting the people they're supposed to be "protecting and serving."

Great, so when the FBI raid my place looking for incriminating documents, I can wipe the computer even after they've taken it

Hahah seriously.

 

[sicn]

This better not be ****ing true.

Check it for yourself (if you have a dev account), it's gone.

 

[caspersoong]

Nice. It needs more security so that people can't just bypass the lock after using Find My Mac.

 

[Heilage]

Check it for yourself (if you have a dev account), it's gone.

So, they changed Spaces, and now they have removed it?

 

[sicn]

So, they changed Spaces, and now they have removed it?

Well, Spaces is gone from the Preferences, the only way to make use of additional virtual desktops is by clicking applications to full screen mode (so it doesn't seem like you can arrange the additional virtual desktops as you like any more).

What's worse is the missing "tap to hold"...... !!!!!

 

[Heilage]

No. No. No. Full screen mode isn't a remotely usable equivalent of Spaces. Full screen mode means no productivity and difficult multitasking. What utter crap.

I'll look into this.

 

[sicn]

No. No. No. Full screen mode isn't a remotely usable equivalent of Spaces.

If you send this by e-mail to Steve, you will get an: "We don't agree"... I don't think they are going to change it considering Lion is coming in a month.

 

[Heilage]

If you send this by e-mail to Steve, you will get an: "We don't agree"... I don't think they are going to change it considering Lion is coming in a month.

It's kinda sad that they are removing features that directly lowers my productivity, but I guess I have to adapt or move to a different platform.

EDIT: Just watched the keynote, it turns out that Spaces is still there, you can still make desktops and assign apps to them, it's just the approach to doing it that is different.

 

[mijail]

No. No. No. Full screen mode isn't a remotely usable equivalent of Spaces. Full screen mode means no productivity and difficult multitasking. What utter crap.

I'll look into this.

There are and always have been, well before Lion, a number of apps that do offer full screen mode precisely for better productivity.

 

[KnightWRX]

There are and always have been, well before Lion, a number of apps that do offer full screen mode precisely for better productivity.

Depends on the tasks to accomplish. If you're concentrating on a single task in a single application with a lot of information flow, a full screen window will enhance productivity (less scrolling and searching around). If you're concentrating on a or multiple tasks that require interaction between many different applications, that's where multiple smaller windows overlapping or in a mosaic will be superior (less tabbing around windows to get information).

And yet again, a 3rd scenario : A single task or multiple task that requires interacting with multiple applications that have a lot information flow. What solves this ? Something Microsoft never got : Virtual Desktops. Hey look at that, Apple's Spaces (of course, Apple was quite late to the game on that one, but they got there and better late than never).

That's the beauty of choice and I don't see how Apple implementing a better "full screen" mode in this day of Windowing systems is a negative. It's now up to developers to make the best use of it and for users to use it at the proper times depending on their workflow and habits.

 

[jacksonbloggg]

Lion

Overall, despite the removed parts, Lions definitely a step forward and will be much better/easier/more efficient to use, and maybe you'll learn to live without spaces eventually. Hopefully! :L

 

[Heilage]

Depends on the tasks to accomplish. If you're concentrating on a single task in a single application with a lot of information flow, a full screen window will enhance productivity (less scrolling and searching around). If you're concentrating on a or multiple tasks that require interaction between many different applications, that's where multiple smaller windows overlapping or in a mosaic will be superior (less tabbing around windows to get information).

And yet again, a 3rd scenario : A single task or multiple task that requires interacting with multiple applications that have a lot information flow. What solves this ? Something Microsoft never got : Virtual Desktops. Hey look at that, Apple's Spaces (of course, Apple was quite late to the game on that one, but they got there and better late than never).

That's the beauty of choice and I don't see how Apple implementing a better "full screen" mode in this day of Windowing systems is a negative. It's now up to developers to make the best use of it and for users to use it at the proper times depending on their workflow and habits.

Updates on this, Lion doesn't remember (at least not right in the Beta) where you put an app, so you need to allocate it to a space (or make new spaces) every time you reboot your computer. It takes a while to get back into the flow then, which is ironic considering the keynote where they talk about getting right back to work.

 

[mengel02]

Mac mirroring via AirPlay

Any news or references to iMacs/Macbooks mirroring wirelessly via AirPlay?

 

[sicn]

Overall, despite the removed parts, Lions definitely a step forward and will be much better/easier/more efficient to use, and maybe you'll learn to live without spaces eventually. Hopefully! :L

Jacksongbloggg: http://jacksonbloggg.blogspot.com/

I agree that Lion is much faster than Snow Leopard, but REMOVING features aiding productivity and ergonomics is not acceptable (I know I will get bashed by people telling me I should move to Windows and so on).

I am a definite power-user. I use my computer almost exclusively to build software (Java, C/C++ and Objective C) and to run my business, hence, I use my Mac on average 12 hours every day. Being a developer and a business owner, I usually have at the very least 10-15 windows open at any time, having to physically push down the Trackpad is a killer from an ergonomic point of view. I don't even see the reason why they would remove it. The spaces thing I can live with, but the Trackpad thing is a reason enough for me to be very suspicious about the promised delightfulness of Lion.

 

[pondosinatra]

I like how in the presentation the one guy at several points had to repeat his pinching gestures for it to work properly....

 

[frjonah]

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.

This is awesome!