Hi, i was wondering do you guys know if the MobileMe "find my iphone" function works thru SIM card or serial? What if they restored the phone by now already and obviously can't turn on "find my iphone" under mobile me cus they can't log in without knowing the account info. i know it requires gps. I'm pretty sure the thief had taken the sim card out already. im asking this because a buddy of mine got his iphone 4 stolen and he can't seem to remember his log in info for mobile me through firefox.
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Find my iphone?
- Thread starter mikeee
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"There's a magic button on every iPhone a thief can use to disable remote wipe and LocateMe; it's called the SIM eject button."
"A perp can disable all of the MobileMe features by simply yanking the SIM card out or deleting the MobileMe account from the phone. They can also perform a software wipe right on the phone, which means your data gets erased, however that means you can no longer track where it is without carrier intervention."
"A perp can disable all of the MobileMe features by simply yanking the SIM card out or deleting the MobileMe account from the phone. They can also perform a software wipe right on the phone, which means your data gets erased, however that means you can no longer track where it is without carrier intervention."
Interesting. Mobile me works on both my iPad (wifi only) and my old 3GS (sim removed) so I don't believe those statements are entirely correct. I do believe once the phone is wiped it would no longer be tracked, but hopefully one would have tracked it as soon as the theft took place or shortly thereafter.
I see the service more effective for those of us that misplaced our devices, not had them stolen with malicious intent.
As I currently use the MobileMe trial and have Find My iPhone activated myself I did a bit of googling and did not come up with any real sensible explanations, other than what I quoted above. I should have made that clear when making my first post.
scirica, just as you point out only a truly daft thief would keep the iPhone as-is with SIM in it. Reminds me of the guy who says his iPhone got stolen and the lady thief connected with him via Facebook =9
scirica, just as you point out only a truly daft thief would keep the iPhone as-is with SIM in it. Reminds me of the guy who says his iPhone got stolen and the lady thief connected with him via Facebook =9
Once again, SIM is not necessary for tracking. Tried to make that clear above. They would need to restore or wipe the phone.
that's why you lock and remote wipe the phone as soon as you know is gone, to avoid any workaround, if that fail you can Call carrier and report the EDID as stolen so it gets blacklisted, That doesn't stop the thief to sell it internationally but it is a start.
so if they already did a firmware restore ...the phone is gone for sure? ugh
You don't even have to restore, just disable the feature LOL
check this article out: http://gizmodo.com/5288618/whoever-...ust-turn-off-find-my-iphone-location-tracking
Totally.
It blows my mind that Apple made it a toggle on the phone itself to turn this on or off. Why couldn't it be a "hard" setting when connected to iTunes on the summary page of the device? That way it couldn't be disabled on the iPhone/iPad itself without connecting to a computer to sync and then it would wipe the phone, anyway...
Apple already does something like this with "VoiceOver" on the iPod Nano, for instance. This setting can only be controlled via iTunes.
MobileME works as long as a connection to the Internet is available. So if the only connection was via 3G/Edge, then removing the SIM would work. It would start working again the minute the phone was connected to WiFi.
As long as MobileMe and FindMyiPhone were enabled on the phone before it was stolen, and as long as it hasn't been wiped in some fashion, it will show in the app (or on the web) when it connects to either 3G or any wifi--even on a protected network. My wifi only iPad shows just fine on our WPA2 encrypted network, so long as it's turned on and connected.
The only time FindMyiPhone failed us was when my husband left his iPad in the car. The iPad overheated and shut off. When he finally figured out where he'd left it, he brought it in to cool down. When it finally turned back on an hour later, it got the sound alert I'd sent to it. It also showed up on my next search for it.
So the SIM isn't critical. Connectivity of some type is required though, and if they wipe the phone or simply turn off the function, FindMyiPhone becomes useless.
The only time FindMyiPhone failed us was when my husband left his iPad in the car. The iPad overheated and shut off. When he finally figured out where he'd left it, he brought it in to cool down. When it finally turned back on an hour later, it got the sound alert I'd sent to it. It also showed up on my next search for it.
So the SIM isn't critical. Connectivity of some type is required though, and if they wipe the phone or simply turn off the function, FindMyiPhone becomes useless.
when you say wipe the phone, you mean something such as a iPhone firmware restore?
I'm fairly certain it's easier than that--"erase all settings" on the phone itself would probably do it. But yes, a firmware restore will also take it off.