I assume you mean if someone takes the phone from you while you are using it, unlocked? Or do you mean (unlikely) carrier unlocked) ?
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iOS 7's 'Activation Lock' Delivers Cautious Optimism to Officials Concerned Over Mobile Device Thefts
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I assume you mean if someone takes the phone from you while you are using it, unlocked? Or do you mean (unlikely) carrier unlocked) ?
It's important to remember that zero theft is a nice goal, it is not the optimum one. Apple could employ biosensors and release a toxic nerve agent whenever an unauthorized person tried to use the phone.
Walmart could have a security guard on every aisle, or assign one to every customer to follow them around the store. They could get a lot closer to zero shoplifting that way, but the cost (in wages for the guards, and lost sales from offended customers) might be higher than the cost of the shoplifting itself.
It's in Apple's interest to reduce theft, because customers who lose a phone before their contract is up may find the cost of an unsubsidized replacement to be higher than they are willing to pay, and they will look at other options.
It is not failure if Apple doesn't reach a goal of zero iPhone theft. Their goal is not zero theft at any cost. Their goal is significant reduction, at minimal cost.
They should disable power off feature so you can track phone until battery dies. On top of that, if you have a passcode on phone, don't allow it to be turned off unless its unlocked first. These two features would screw theifs pretty bad.
My girlfriend dropped her phone at Safeway and we noticed an hour after we got home. Thankfully the idiot that found it didn't know how to use it. We tracked it to his house and got it back. He was trying to keep it since we put it in lost mode and he just need to press call button to return it. Got really lucky since it was a brand new 5 32gb.
My girlfriend dropped her phone at Safeway and we noticed an hour after we got home. Thankfully the idiot that found it didn't know how to use it. We tracked it to his house and got it back. He was trying to keep it since we put it in lost mode and he just need to press call button to return it. Got really lucky since it was a brand new 5 32gb.
Quote from Apple web site: "new security features in iOS 7 make it harder for anyone who’s not you to use or sell your device."
There is a difference between a standard wipe (Settings --> Reset --> etc..) and a REMOTE wipe, and that's the trigger here
great points altogether, but near zero thefts is the outlandish goal of attorney general NYC
"Schneiderman, along with San Francisco district attorney George Gascón, will question Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft officials in New York about why they have not yet developed technology that renders stolen mobile devices inoperable, eliminating the incentive for theft."
Blocking RF isn't really that hard. You can actually layer various foils over a phone and prevent them from sending or receiving RF. Or quite simply carry around small metal boxes / cases that would prevent RF from being sent.
So do I now need to notify Apple whenever I intend to sell my iPhone?
My guess is that you just need to turn off the lock, perhaps by logging out of iCloud before wiping it. You'll have to enter your password to do so and thus they can validate that the owner is releasing the phone.
Or something similar
i really do not understand most of the posters here.
The feature is dead simple.
You enable activation lock before your phone gets stolen.
It works the whole time, great no problem at all.
Some one steals your phone, whatever he does (not even DFU, Restore), the activation lock cannot be resetted without your username and password.
So the phone is literally useless because you can't go online with it.
You want to sell the phone, disable activation lock.
You want to buy a phone, ask the seller if he disabled it, if not well he cheated you, like someone who sells you a brick instead of a phone is cheating you.
Just simple, clever and easy to use. Dont try to make it more complicated than it is
The feature is dead simple.
You enable activation lock before your phone gets stolen.
It works the whole time, great no problem at all.
Some one steals your phone, whatever he does (not even DFU, Restore), the activation lock cannot be resetted without your username and password.
So the phone is literally useless because you can't go online with it.
You want to sell the phone, disable activation lock.
You want to buy a phone, ask the seller if he disabled it, if not well he cheated you, like someone who sells you a brick instead of a phone is cheating you.
Just simple, clever and easy to use. Dont try to make it more complicated than it is
I understand that, he is discussing erasing the phone in an attempt to gain access to it, not remote wipes.
You are not understanding that the intent of this software is to prevent people from simply erasing the phone (from iTunes, from the phone or otherwise) (like people currently do) to bypass gaining access to it.
Once the phone is erased, it will require your Apple ID to re-activate it, if Find my iPhone was configured on the device when it was erased (whichever method was used).
Doesn't really matter since it would be blocked from reactivating the phone in iTunes. They have just wiped a brick
It seems people don't even realize you can remove a device from the FMi list if you need to sell it or something:
---
Remove your device from Find My iPhone
1. Sign in to icloud.com/find using your Apple ID (the one you use with iCloud).
If youre using another iCloud app, click the iCloud button to switch apps.
2. Click Devices, select the offline device you want to remove, then click the Delete icon .
The Delete icon appears only after Find My iPhone has tried and failed to connect to your device (this may take a few minutes).
Note: You can also click the Remove from Find My iPhone button in the devices Info window.
3. When asked to confirm if you want to remove the device, click Remove.
---
Remove your device from Find My iPhone
1. Sign in to icloud.com/find using your Apple ID (the one you use with iCloud).
If youre using another iCloud app, click the iCloud button to switch apps.
2. Click Devices, select the offline device you want to remove, then click the Delete icon .
The Delete icon appears only after Find My iPhone has tried and failed to connect to your device (this may take a few minutes).
Note: You can also click the Remove from Find My iPhone button in the devices Info window.
3. When asked to confirm if you want to remove the device, click Remove.
From the sounds of it,it's part of find my iPhone. So it is a go the moment you signed into iCloud and hit that switch on
Nope. Cause the device serial, perhaps even UDID and apple Id are linked in the activation server. If you can't log into the proper ID, you can't activate the phone. DFU or not.
That's part of the point.
then when you try to active it, it prompts you for the Apple ID the phone is associate with.... FAIL. It will also pop up a message about being lost if the original owner choose to send the phone one.
Moot.
Turn off the phone all you want. If the user as find my iPhone they can lock it as soon as you turn it back on. DFU it and it not reactivate in iTunes unless you know the right credentials. Until then it is blacklisted just like carriers do with IMEI/MEID
Yep, that sounds about right I think. It would also prevent some douche from selling the phone on eBay and then remote locking it while it's in transit or something making the phone completely useless to the buyer. I'm sure it'll get hacked soon but, at the very least, this is a nice step in the right direction for the casual phone thief.
Been playing with this new lock today in iOS 7 and happy to say your wrong. When you enable iCloud and choose to have find my phone enabled, as you would when setting up your phone, it seems to link your device on Apple's server to your Apple ID.
You can turn off iCloud or Find My Phone with your iCloud password at any future date if you would like to sell it
But if you don't provide the password to disable this service, and the device is DFU or wiped and any manner you would like, when you try to start the phone up it will try and activate with Apple servers and this will fail if it is still linked to an account that you don't have a password for. This would of corse render the phone useless until the account details are entered.
Because Apple resisted. they made money on theft. Almost every theft equals a sale of a replacement phone. Why would Apple want to reduce that.
OK, now they fear that the government might mandate some kind of anti-theft system. So they would rather not have that happen.
I think you are missing the part that there are two distinct times you will be asked to login:
1. When you erase the phone --> Yes, right now, anyone can hit erase, but with iOS 7 you will be required to login using iCloud to erase it, regardless were from (remotely or local)
2. When you activate the phone after erasing it --> This part, from what I understood, were it will be different: If it was a remote wipe, you will be required to login, if not, you will activate the phone with no login.
So in a typical scenario were someone sells a phone on ebay, they can do step 1, step 2 can be done by the new owner, no need for the seller to 'activate' the phone using their own iCloud id.
Either way, we are both discussing an upcoming product neither one of us has seen. so we'll wait and see
Too my knowledge many have tried activation hacking of iPhones for years and not been successful since the very early basebands.
Yeah, I think that's the point most people are missing. It's not a phone side lock, it's an Apple side lock. When you lose a phone you only have to "lock it/wipe it" before the thief has the ability to (re)activate it with a new account. It doesn't matter if it's online or offline, once locked by the owner then it can't be "activated" by another. ( at least this is my interpretation of this function )
Now, a thief could avoid this if there was a functional activation bypass, but this is a huge step up from where we are now.