Find My Mac Goes Live For Developers

[koobcamuk]

It's not perfect. I wonder how it is tied to the service? Serial Number would be funny. Sell your Mac and constantly annoy the buyer by locking it.

Joking aside, if it's software based, it is still better than nothing. A tech-savvy thief may know to disable Airport immediately, but at least it is still one small extra chance of recovery.

I think it's more to do with data protection than recovering a stolen laptop.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

Find my Mac?
Intergrated Recovery utility baked into the firmware on new macbook airs?
.....

Ladies and Gentlemen..
Welcome to the next generation of stolen mac recovery.
​

 

[tayshon]

Could have used this two weeks ago when my door was kicked in and my Macbook decided to walk off along w/ a other electronics.

Same here, .....

 

[stevenlangley1]

I think it's more to do with data protection than recovering a stolen laptop.

I can see that, but it just seems odd that they wouldn't make it to where you could use both features while locked. Oh well.

 

[heisetax]

Why wait?

Everyone should always do a 1-pass (Zero data) erase. I do a 7-pass anytime I sell a computer and a 1-pass when I buy it a pre-owned machine.

But seriously, this will be even better if 3G/4G/LTE is added to future MacBook Airs or Pros. I rarely take my MBP out of the house, but I can see this being helpful for students and those who are always on the move.

Laptops have had this capability for years & years new. Why have you waited so long? Just remember that laptop computers have been around a lot longer than the new 3 G iToys.

 

[StoneyG]

That's pretty nifty. Now they just need a "Find My Guitar Pick."

Musicians holla back.

I'm picturing a future application that shows, on Google maps, a blue pulse that reveals a huge mound of lost guitar picks, pens and lighters.

 

[winston1236]

Useless. Who is gonna return a mac after it is lost or stolen?

i dont want them to return it, i want to locate it and ill find them

 

[justinfreid]

I wonder how easy it is to defeat a remotely locked Mac, such as putting it in target disk mode. Until I know more about how it works I wouldn't consider that a way to protect my data on a lost Mac. I'd wipe out the entire drive instead.

That's an important element of the Find My Device service, and anytime someone besides you has physical access to your device your data is at risk.
Hopefully Apple will release a Knowledge Base article that comprehensively defines the service.

 

[bombrider]

Pretty great. What's the bet we'll be seeing Macbooks released next year equipped with LTE?

 

[wackymacky]

I wonder how easy it is to defeat a remotely locked Mac, such as putting it in target disk mode. Until I know more about how it works I wouldn't consider that a way to protect my data on a lost Mac. I'd wipe out the entire drive instead.

when you boot up, it goes straight to the passcode screen, i tried booting off disks, target disk mode, it won't accept it.

So what's it doing? Setting the firmware password? Will a hard RAM removal/ PRAM reset overome this like it does in pre lion OSX?

Plus a four digit numerical code? WTF that's not exactly secure.

 

[wackymacky]

I think it's more to do with data protection than recovering a stolen laptop.

Data protection comes from encryption not a pass code.

Now that's an idea, rather than remote wipe, remote encrypt! (Yes it will take a while, but so will a remote wipe if done properly)

 

[littledude8209]

I wonder how easy it is to defeat a remotely locked Mac, such as putting it in target disk mode. Until I know more about how it works I wouldn't consider that a way to protect my data on a lost Mac. I'd wipe out the entire drive instead.

Trust me - its quite difficult if you have a firmware restore password on. I locked my mac with this, and for some reason the mac did not recognize my passcode. So i thought i would just wipe it and restore. it won't let you boot up from another drive. it will constantly ask you for your 4 digit passcode. had to take it to the apple store, they then had to boot up from a snow leopard install disk, and from terminal wipe my firmware, and then reset the PRAM to get it to fully boot up from the install cd. was a nightmare, and took 2.5 hours out of my life where i was a bit concerned i would have a very expensive paperweight ~.~

 

[DCJ001]

Sorry to hear it.

There's LoJack for Mac, but I rarely people mention that they use it.

I think it's more to do with data protection than recovering a stolen laptop.

Prey and Hidden have been working well. I've read about Prey working to show pictures of the people using stolen MacBooks, and helping to recover the MacBooks and make arrests.

Google: Prey stolen MacBook - for more information.

 

[Simplicated]

Just wondering, why are they still calling the service Find My iPhone (as shown in the title bar of the screenshot)? It's time for them to rename it to Find My Device.

 

[wackymacky]

Trust me - its quite difficult if you have a firmware restore password on. I locked my mac with this, and for some reason the mac did not recognize my passcode. So i thought i would just wipe it and restore. it won't let you boot up from another drive. it will constantly ask you for your 4 digit passcode. had to take it to the apple store, they then had to boot up from a snow leopard install disk, and from terminal wipe my firmware, and then reset the PRAM to get it to fully boot up from the install cd. was a nightmare, and took 2.5 hours out of my life where i was a bit concerned i would have a very expensive paperweight ~.~

Please don't give your self to much of a sense of security doing this, as you said some Joe Blogs at the Apple store did it.

To perform this action from scratch you need is aprox 3 min on Google,
One small screwdriver, 5 min-10min time hands on the machine of time, and no you don't really need a genuine SL install disk.

My 10 yo son knows how to do this. (he also knows how to change a distributor cap and re-gap sparkplugs on my car, but that's another story.)

 

[ViviUO]

If only I could log into icloud.com with my dev account of two years.

 

[redsoxunixgeek]

It's been working for 2 weeks, ever since Developers had access to get 10.7.2

 

[koobcamuk]

My 10 yo son knows how to do this. (he also knows how to change a distributor cap and re-gap sparkplugs on my car, but that's another story.)

He sounds amazing.

 

[wackymacky]

He sounds amazing.

Some of the time he is amazing, though a lot of the time he is trouble. Get's it from me, I supose.

 

[sam011989]

If you have FileVault 2 activated so you're prompted for the pass key immediately at boot, can you still use this to track your laptop or something?

....or is this another potentially awesome feature that is automatically killed with FileVault encryption?

 

[Rusty33]

Useless. Who is gonna return a mac after it is lost or stolen?

I would return a lost/misplaced computer if I happened across it...wouldn't you?

 

[ScottishDuck]

I can't see how they can make this work without people maliciously wiping other peoples macs.

 

[rajid]

Undercover?

I've been using Undercover on all of my laptops for years now. It's a one-time cost and works well behind the scenes such that I usually forget it's there.

 

[Minhthien]

This maybe a bad move for Apple! Ex:
1. Your Macbook got stolen.
2. You located where it is and come to the location.
3. After you confront the *&*^ who stole your macbook.
4. He beat the *!)@# out of you and take your wallet too!
5. Lawsuit files against Apple!

 

[plexdk]

I would pay for "Find my keys".. that will change everything...