Lost iBook

[bitznbytes]

A friend of mine had her g4 ibook stolen and I'm wondering what options she has in terms of trying to recover it. If the person who has it decides to use it and/or update software is there any way for apple to track or trace that?

Thanks in advance,
B

 

[gauchogolfer]

You can report the theft to Apple, along with the serial number, but there's no real way for them to track it remotely. If the thief brought it to an Apple Store for service, maybe they would catch it. For your information in the future, there are programs out there that will report in if stolen and subsequently connected to the Internet. A savvy thief would presumably wipe the HD clean, so it's questionable how much use it actually has.

 

[WildCowboy]

Unfortunately the answer is most likely "no." There are methods for attempting to track computers, but they fail most of the time due to people being behind routers, spoofing MAC addresses, etc.

Using a service like Undercover can be a good option, but you have to do it before it gets stolen. After the fact, there's not much you can do.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

You can report the theft to Apple, along with the serial number, but there's no real way for them to track it remotely. If the thief brought it to an Apple Store for service, maybe they would catch it. For your information in the future, there are programs out there that will report in if stolen and subsequently connected to the Internet. A savvy thief would presumably wipe the HD clean, so it's questionable how much use it actually has.

Actually you can lock the firmware so that you cannot wipe the HD. Well then a very savvy thief could of course just change the HD, so...

 

[WildCowboy]

Actually you can lock the firmware so that you cannot wipe the HD. Well then a very savvy thief could of course just change the HD, so...

The vast majority of thieves aren't that savvy though...

 

[p0intblank]

Was there anything about the iBook that sticks out? Any dents or anything?

The best thing you can probably do is keep an eye on eBay and Craigslist. It's doubtful it will show up on there, but it has happened before.