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For those worrying about selling/buying an iPhone with this activated there is little to fear. When you go into settings and "erase all content and settings" you cannot do it without getting past a prompt to turn off find my iPhone--and you need to provide your iTunes ID password to do so. So once the iPhone has rebooted--wiped like factory new--it will allow the new owner to register it to a new Apple ID.

I have tested this on my iPhone with iOS beta 1.




Michael
 
For those worrying about selling/buying an iPhone with this activated there is little to fear. When you go into settings and "erase all content and settings" you cannot do it without getting past a prompt to turn off find my iPhone--and you need to provide your iTunes ID password to do so. So once the iPhone has rebooted--wiped like factory new--it will allow the new owner to register it to a new Apple ID.

I have tested this on my iPhone with iOS beta 1.




Michael

Thank you! Glad we have confirmation, I knew Apple had something like that and wouldn't miss an obvious case of resale. They benefit greatly from it
 
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

Please read The following post which mostly confirms my understanding of how this feature will work.

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.

elpamyelhsa essentially confirmed how many of us following this thread assumed this service would work, based on the limited, and vague details currently provided by Apple.

To be clear, I fully understand the multiple ways to erase an iPhone, I am just failing in communicating that. What I was trying to say, was it doesn't matter which way the phone is erased. If Find my iPhone was installed and configured when the device was erased (Remotely, DFU Mode, iTunes, ETC), it will require the iTunes account it was registered with, to re-activate the phone.
 
I've never understood why law enforcement was angry at Apple over iPhone thefts. Maybe they should do their freaking jobs and catch thieves? I'm all for Apple making their products harder to steal, but how lazy are cops anyway? Just goes to show you personal responsibility is always better than the police since they will do nothing to save you and your property.

Cops don't like anything vulnerable to theft, includes Cars with bad security system, Cars with keys in visor, Open Garages, Houses with doors unlocked. iPhone is no exception. As is with reduced workforce they have enough things to deal with.
 
ami missing something? i steal your phone, i go to apple.com and click "forgot apple id password" it resends it to your email which i get on your phone, or i can now change it so you can't access the phone via find my iphone. and now i am free to do what i want
 
Cops don't like anything vulnerable to theft,

I'd be more sympathetic to the cops if many of them actually bothered to do their jobs. Perhaps in NYC and larger cities they might make a half-hearted effort to track these things, but in the suburban areas where myself and friends live, most police departments will not give you the time of day if you report a stolen iDevice.

2010 was a pretty bad year for me for thefts: my MacBook Pro, dSLR camera and iPhone were all stolen, and a friend of mine has her iPhone stolen as well. All told we were out nearly $10,000 that year. Three separate instances, three separate mid-sized cities, three separate police departments were involved. In all cases, we had plenty of tracking information: serial numbers, Find My iPhone location data for the phones, even surveillance video for the MBP and camera. And even presented with this information, the cops did squat. Statements were taken for the more expensive items, but they even viewed reporting the iPhone thefts on paper as a waste of their time. I came away from the whole experience learning that if you ever find anything of yours stolen, or damaged, or vandalized, you're just SOL. There is absolutely no use in calling the police. They'd rather not have to deal with the theft at all, because it means having to record a crime statistic that makes them look bad. Make no mistake: the law enforcement folks in New York aren't concerned about this being a public safety issue, so much as it makes them look bad because their crime statistics have gone up. So, hide/lock/keep your stuff better, and take out an insurance policy. That's the best you can do.

The only reason I can think of for DA's being "angry" at phone manufacturers for "not doing enough," is that they want a psychological deterrent, not one that actually permits them to do something effective if they take the effort. Unfortunately, unless we mandate somehow embedding the serial number in every molecule or every phone built, that's just not going to happen. Thieves WILL find a way.



I welcome the effort Apple is taking... but I'm not optimistic as it to it doing a whole lot, unless police departments are more willing to use the data to recover stolen items.
 
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I've never understood why law enforcement was angry at Apple over iPhone thefts. Maybe they should do their freaking jobs and catch thieves?

Probably because phones (and marijuana:cool:) are petty, they have bigger fish to fry. For device makers to not get on board with a concerted anti-theft solution is irresponsible, and apple stepping up is good news. The point is to deter in the first place. If the right anti-theft solution comes along, there could come a day when we can leave our home or office knowing that all our electronics can be tracked and disabled without fail.
 
Sure, my point is that I highly doubt this feature will be impenetrable.

It doesn't have to be impenetrable. It just had to deter your typical scumbag from stealing Apple products.

These aren't advanced techno savvy thieves guilds 90% of the time. Won't take much to knock them off their game.
 
ami missing something? i steal your phone, i go to apple.com and click "forgot apple id password" it resends it to your email which i get on your phone, or i can now change it so you can't access the phone via find my iphone. and now i am free to do what i want
Yes you are missing that the iPhone is locked, either remotely or by a passcode.



Michael
 
So Near And Yet

While all efforts to make a product worthy of being dismissed by thieves are worthy, the idea could be carried out to a greater level of certainty.

Don't all phones have unique electronic serial numbers? That would make them vulnerable to being discovered and located anywhere in the world, if only the support software were part of the world's cell systems.

If they don't, let's start now.
 
i am sure thieves will find away around it.. but hopefully idiots who steal phones for a quick turnaround may be less likely with this in place
 
Yes you are missing that the iPhone is locked, either remotely or by a passcode.



Michael

so i am missing nothing then.. to circumvent this theft protection all one has to do is change the victims apple id password before they have a chance to lock the device.

it takes about 30 seconds to change an apple id password..
 
so i am missing nothing then.. to circumvent this theft protection all one has to do is change the victims apple id password before they have a chance to lock the device.

it takes about 30 seconds to change an apple id password..

Good lord. You didn't really think that through, did you?

If all thieves think like you then what Apple has come up with is overkill. :D



Michael
 
Sure, my point is that I highly doubt this feature will be impenetrable.

Very few things in life are impenetrable, but see my answer below.

I don't think this will be much of a theft deterrent, because thieves will just visit the nearest basement where a big bearded nerd shorts this with that and the phone is fresh as new. Or just erase the chip storing AppleID information and the phone is again like new. Or replace the chip. They will find a way.

Every cell-enabled device, whether from APPLE, SAMSUNG or any other maker, has a unique IMEI number. If the will exists, and that is the big IF, there is no technological reason why this couldn't be made 100% foolproof. It has worked for satellite dishes for 10 years now, and they use a similar electronic serial number system. All you have to do, is make it so complicated, that the potential gain is outweighed by the effort required.
Then this whole snatch-and-dash problem would all but disappear, or at least be made pointless.

.....Most thieves understand risk - if they're taking something for a possibility of no gain at all, they'll tend to avoid that.

And that would be mission accomplished.
 
So do I now need to notify Apple whenever I intend to sell my iPhone? :confused:

maybe. but wouldnt be that big of a deal...cant have it both ways

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Sure, my point is that I highly doubt this feature will be impenetrable.

where did anyone say it was?

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So what if the phone is wiped and reactivated before the user gets the chance to do what ever is needed to prevent the reactivation?

you cant code for everything. if you fail to enable the service, or initiate a remote wipe, what do you expect anyone to do?

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Need some more details because i need to be able to sell my phone when i buy a new version.

so, do you REALLY believe apple would introduce a feature that prevents resales. really?

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it will effectively kill the used market quite likely

oh dear god. what...is...wrong...with you. apple will single-handedly kill used iphone sales? REALLY??
 
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This is a great new feature.

btw in iOS 7 even when you "Sign Out" of Find iPhone it gives you a message that it's still active.

Not sure why no one in this thread has mentioned preyproject.com which works similarly and is also useful for laptops, and cannot simply be erased by a thief.

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See preyproject.com and also the device-locator app, which does that photo snapshot thing of the thief. I have them both installed on my phones, and prey on my laptops and phones.

Here is what I think would be cool: If the phone has been locked remotely and the person tries to turn it on, using the motion sensor and everything else in the phone, it best determines when the thief is using and looking at the phone. It then takes a pic using the front camera all in the background and sends it to an email address associated with your iTunes account.

This would provide entertaining pictures for the picture thread.
 
so i am missing nothing then.. to circumvent this theft protection all one has to do is change the victims apple id password before they have a chance to lock the device.

it takes about 30 seconds to change an apple id password..

how would you know the answers to my security questions? or the key if using double authentication on iOS devices?

oops, you wouldnt. try again.
 
All I want to know is this: if the feature is active (a thief DFU/restores a stolen phone), and it prompts for the login credentials... Can I, as the owner, still TRACK the phone? So, basically until it's removed from my iCloud find my iphone, it's trackable? Even after a restore/DFU?
 
It won't stop them completely but it may deter the resale a bit. Especially with thefts that ship them overseas to be used on other networks.

It will still open up the market for parts though. Just take it apart and sell the case, screen, battery etc and dump the logic board. Still quite of value in those other parts, especially the LCD screen.
 
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