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"Find My iPhone" epic fail - how to steal an iPhone
- Thread starter CaptSaltyJack
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3 Seconds, 30 times a day. 30 Day's a month, 12 month's a year = 32400 seconds = 9 hours a year entering the passcode of your iPhone.
Finding something on the ground or in a taxi does not make anyone a thief--you lost it and its your responsibility -- nor is it even dishonest. It's great if the finder is able to return it to you somehow but they are under no obligation to do so -- and in fact if the iphone is locked its probably impossible for them to even find you. Picking your pocket and taking your iphone IS true theivery.
It's a little irritating when people lose something valuable and start ranting on these forums about "thieves". Reading posts like this makes me believe that if I ever found an iphone anywhere I'd simply walk it to the nearest garbage can and throw it in. God forbid some maniac fanboi has already reported it stolen.
Maybe a one hour pass code timeout is good. Think of it this way: 15 minutes doesn't make much sense. If you're somewhere and you were JUST messing with your iPhone 15 minutes ago, you're not likely to leave it behind in a cab or something. Chances are you haven't been paying attention to it for at least 30-60 minutes, right? Of course this point is moot if someone snatches it out of your hand. Then you'd just find the nearest computer, log into me.com, and remote wipe.
Seriously?
Obviously not everyone who stumbles across an iPhone in a taxi is going to keep it. But some people will. And that's what this thread is about. I am specifically talking about a case where your phone is EITHER stolen or you lose it and then someone decides to keep it. The "FMI" option under mail settings is not protected in any way.
LOL
Find My iPhone should definitely be a feature set from your me account, rather than your handset.
What happens if you have multiple iPhones, anyway?
I've had a passcode on my iPhone since I bought it, and I promise it's not that big of an inconvenience (I've even turned off the "Message Preview"). It helps keep your private information, well, private, and respects all your contact's privacy also by not allowing someone to see their numbers, addresses, etc.
You do realize that another "flaw" in the Find My iPhone system is that whoever steals it can just do a restore and remove all the data, though, right? So you'll never really have a foolproof way of stopping a determined thief from stealing your iPhone (hopefully you can see where they live before it's wiped), but at least with a passcode a stranger doesn't have your photos, contacts, email messages, and text messages.
You do realize that another "flaw" in the Find My iPhone system is that whoever steals it can just do a restore and remove all the data, though, right? So you'll never really have a foolproof way of stopping a determined thief from stealing your iPhone (hopefully you can see where they live before it's wiped), but at least with a passcode a stranger doesn't have your photos, contacts, email messages, and text messages.
The way I see it, this is whole Find My iPhone thing doubles as a convenience. If I can remotely wipe my phone, and locate it, I shouldn't have to set a password. It's kind of annoying to type your code in every time you want to use the phone.
I knew it would work like this, they need to allow us to set a code to turn off certain features.
Perhaps Apple thought you would be smart enough to pass code lock your phone on the lock screen?
When you click on the "Help" page for Find My Phone, it actually mentions specifically that Apple encourages you to simply turn on the passcode lock.
My complaint has been so far, I can't get MobileMe to actually find my phone... And if it fails, you have to leave the page and then go back to it (annoying) to have it try again!
Find My iPhone is for lost phones, remote wipe is for stolen phones. Two different features for two different purposes.
Think about it: what are you going to do with the Find My iPhone feature to recover a stolen iPhone? Barge into the thief's house and demand it back? Have the police barge in for you? I'm pretty sure if I went into my local police station with my MacBook and showed them where my phone was on a map, they'd probably look at me like I'm insane. Plus, by the time they got around to checking it out, the battery in the iPhone might be dead and the thief could have moved it (unless you're counting on the thief to charge your phone for you while you search for it).
Jesus ****ing Christ. Some of you people are as useless as tits on a nun. You just look for crap to complain about. "Unlocking my phone that takes too long and hurts my fingers."
perhaps they wanted users to passlock their phone, but I for one hate typing in a code to do anything, a separate code for accessing "settings" or something would be a better solution for all parties.
Yeah, it was called putting on your shoes and hoofing it to wherever you think you lost it.
Totally agree.
You know what else sucks?
Apple couldn't figure out a simple way to make the phone traceable when underground or powered off. WTF is up with that? Seriously Apple this feature is u.s.e.l.e.s.s!
You know what else sucks?
Apple couldn't figure out a simple way to make the phone traceable when underground or powered off. WTF is up with that? Seriously Apple this feature is u.s.e.l.e.s.s!
Yeah. Sorry if we can't all get hired into the iPhone feature design department and have direct influence on the decisions made. The best we can do is voice our opinions here and maybe get heard. After all, what good is usability if the users aren't happy with it? At least this discussion might have some sort of impact. Your post was the only thing in this thread that's pretty much useless.
The "Find My iPhone" option should be protected somehow, period, either by the pass code, or by the MobileMe account password. It just makes sense.
Were you going to do anything better in those 9 hours?
On average a person farts 14 times a day. Including the pause before, if it feels troublesome, these can take 1-4 seconds each. So you're already wasting 2-3 hours of your year.
My point?
Nothing.
Ha!, sounds like a good idea. I hate when people touches my phone and starts changing my settings. I hate it.
You guys who insist that thieves won't be on to this vulnerability are simply in denial.
Thieves aren't idiots, they will do a google search and find out in 5 seconds how to turn the feature off.
Apple needs to do the smart thing and patch this up so that you can only turn the feature off on the phone by inputting the mobile me password on that screen.
You should not need to lock your entire handset to protect that obvious item of administration.
Thieves aren't idiots, they will do a google search and find out in 5 seconds how to turn the feature off.
Apple needs to do the smart thing and patch this up so that you can only turn the feature off on the phone by inputting the mobile me password on that screen.
You should not need to lock your entire handset to protect that obvious item of administration.
Totally agree.
You know what else sucks?
Apple couldn't figure out a simple way to make the phone traceable when underground or powered off. WTF is up with that? Seriously Apple this feature is u.s.e.l.e.s.s!
You're joking right? How would any device be locatable when it's off? As for underground, it can do that now with wifi/tower triangulation.