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"There is a chip in the phone that tracks it without find my iphone"

N

nouveau-apple

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 29, 2014
807
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Find My iPhone was supposed to be a feature where a person would be able to find their phone if it ever got lost. In iOS 8 there's even a feature to send Apple your last known location. But when it came time to put the feature to work, it, well, didn't.

Apple representatives and representatives at AT&T proudly tout Find My iPhone as a feature that may be able to save you when your phone finds itself in a sticky situation. Turning it on, activating Touch ID, and password protecting your phone were all supposed to help protect your information. When I activated the feature myself, I was told I was supposed to get an email updated whenever the location of my iPhone was found.

Well, it's been almost a month and the only emails I get are ones telling me that I've logged into iCloud to check Find My iPhone.

"All devices offline"

What does this mean? Where is my phone? Does it just mean that the person who took the phone never turned it on?
 
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"There is a chip in the phone that tracks it without find my iphone"


Your thread title... what are you talking about? You say that, but then the actual post doesn't mention anything like the title suggests.

In regards to the actual thread title- yeah, any cell phone that's on can be tracked via cell tower triangulation and likely other methods. What's your point though?
 
Ken Kaniff said:
"There is a chip in the phone that tracks it without find my iphone"


Your thread title... what are you talking about? You say that, but then the actual post doesn't mention anything like the title suggests.

In regards to the actual thread title- yeah, any cell phone that's on can be tracked via cell tower triangulation and likely other methods. What's your point though?
Click to expand...

This has been true for many years. There is no need for an app to locate a lost phone.

----------
nouveau-apple said:
Find My iPhone was supposed to be a feature where a person would be able to find their phone if it ever got lost. In iOS 8 there's even a feature to send Apple your last known location. But when it came time to put the feature to work, it, well, didn't.

Apple representatives and representatives at AT&T proudly tout Find My iPhone as a feature that may be able to save you when your phone finds itself in a sticky situation. Turning it on, activating Touch ID, and password protecting your phone were all supposed to help protect your information. When I activated the feature myself, I was told I was supposed to get an email updated whenever the location of my iPhone was found.

Well, it's been almost a month and the only emails I get are ones telling me that I've logged into iCloud to check Find My iPhone.

"All devices offline"

What does this mean? Where is my phone? Does it just mean that the person who took the phone never turned it on?
Click to expand...

What "chip" are you talking about?
 
nouveau-apple said:
"All devices offline"

What does this mean? Where is my phone? Does it just mean that the person who took the phone never turned it on?
Click to expand...

As you said in your other thread (not getting enough attention?), you turned off the cellular service. How exactly would you expect the phone do communicate? ESP?

As to other comments, most all phones have GPS chips built in and the carrier can "ping" the cellphone if provided with a search warrant by police. Triangulation is a pre-gps technology and AFAIK really hasn't been used in years since the embedded GPS chips provide greater accuracy.

Still requires the phone to be on and the owner to not turn off the cell service. :rolleyes:
 
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find my iPhone can't work without a network connection to locate the phone. Then if the thief has already erased the phone it doesn't matter anyway.

Again, activation lock, find my iPhone, and Touch ID are features that prevent someone from accessing the private information on your device when it comes to them being lost or stolen. It is NOT meant to help you track a stolen phone. Apple has never touted it as such. If they did, they would have a ton of lawsuits on their hands from foolish vigilantes getting hurt or killed trying to track down thieves.

Also you can forget about the police going through the hassle of using gps triangulation to locate the device. It's not worth their time or effort. Besides your phone is probably in Asia somewhere already stripped for the parts.

Not sure why you even bothered making a second topic about the same issue. The answer is the same. Your protection against your phone being stolen is to purchase insurance for it.
 
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CEmajr said:
find my iPhone can't work without a network connection to locate the phone. Then if the thief has already erased the phone it doesn't matter anyway.

Again, activation lock, find my iPhone, and Touch ID are features that prevent someone from accessing the private information on your device when it comes to them being lost or stolen. It is NOT meant to help you track a stolen phone. Apple has never touted it as such. If they did, they would have a ton of lawsuits on their hands from foolish vigilantes getting hurt or killed trying to track down thieves.

Also you can forget about the police going through the hassle of using gps triangulation to locate the device. It's not worth their time or effort. Besides your phone is probably in Asia somewhere already stripped for the parts.

Not sure why you even bothered making a second topic about the same issue. The answer is the same. Your protection against your phone being stolen is to purchase insurance for it.
Click to expand...

But I'll never be sure who my personal information is in the hands of and that's what disappoints me the most.

It's tied to my Apple ID. It's my phone. It will always be my phone.

So, what happens when they do connect it to iTunes and perform a restore? Why wouldn't I be notified? Obviously the thief removed the Sim card, or hasn't turned the phone on yet.

It might be stolen, but it's still lost. I'm lost.
 
nouveau-apple said:
But I'll never be sure who my personal information is in the hands of and that's what disappoints me the most.

It's tied to my Apple ID. It's my phone. It will always be my phone.

So, what happens when they do connect it to iTunes and perform a restore? Why wouldn't I be notified? Obviously the thief removed the Sim card, or hasn't turned the phone on yet.

It might be stolen, but it's still lost. I'm lost.
Click to expand...

The bottom line is, find my iPhone could be better. It's not. Security on the iPhone could be better. It's not.

I see no reason why I should be able to do icloud and fingerprints locks on my phone yet require none of that to turn it off.

I see no reason why pulling the sin from my phone should matter one bit. The phones are still able to call emergency services (911 for us in the states) regardless of SIM card. They can, in theory, transmit any number of info without this. It just won't necessarily be tied to an account (service provider).

Obviously the latter would be much harder for apple to accomplish than the former. But still, I can steal a phone, turn it off, and immediately dump it for parts. Sure an iPhone 6 might only get me $100 or so. Junkies shoot eachother dead for less lol.
 
lordofthereef said:
The bottom line is, find my iPhone could be better. It's not. Security on the iPhone could be better. It's not.

I see no reason why I should be able to do icloud and fingerprints locks on my phone yet require none of that to turn it off.

I see no reason why pulling the sin from my phone should matter one bit. The phones are still able to call emergency services (911 for us in the states) regardless of SIM card. They can, in theory, transmit any number of info without this. It just won't necessarily be tied to an account (service provider).

Obviously the latter would be much harder for apple to accomplish than the former. But still, I can steal a phone, turn it off, and immediately dump it for parts. Sure an iPhone 6 might only get me $100 or so. Junkies shoot eachother dead for less lol.
Click to expand...
How exactly would you like Find My iPhone to be better?

How exactly would you like Apple to accomplish magic data transmission without a SIM card. Yes, it can call 911 on the old voice-only network. I do not think there's a way to receive/transmit the data necessary for a FMiP ping. Just as you say, there's no provider without the SIM, so where exactly would this data go? And what about plugging in to iTunes you say? All you have to do is disconnect your Mac/PC from the Internet and load up some new firmware on the phone (presuming it's not locked out with a FMiP passcode) -- can't transmit its location if there's no network access.

If your phone gets stolen and stripped for parts, there's little you can do. If the phone gets stolen and it's either never turned back on or it's shipped overseas, there's little you can do. FMiP works great if someone isn't being smart after they steal your phone. But if the thief has any clue whatsoever, you'll never see your phone again. But at least it'll be worth less to the thief to discourage the theft in the first place.
 
xraydoc said:
How exactly would you like Find My iPhone to be better?

How exactly would you like Apple to accomplish magic data transmission without a SIM card. Yes, it can call 911 on the old voice-only network. I do not think there's a way to receive/transmit the data necessary for a FMiP ping. Just as you say, there's no provider without the SIM, so where exactly would this data go? And what about plugging in to iTunes you say? All you have to do is disconnect your Mac/PC from the Internet and load up some new firmware on the phone (presuming it's not locked out with a FMiP passcode) -- can't transmit its location if there's no network access.

If your phone gets stolen and stripped for parts, there's little you can do. If the phone gets stolen and it's either never turned back on or it's shipped overseas, there's little you can do. FMiP works great if someone isn't being smart after they steal your phone. But if the thief has any clue whatsoever, you'll never see your phone again. But at least it'll be worth less to the thief to discourage the theft in the first place.
Click to expand...

I'm talking about it being better immediately after it has been taken. Most phones aren't stripped for oarts moments after they are stolen. Plugging into iTunes already doesn't allow changes without iCloud unlocked. I posted how odd it is that I can easily turn an iCloud locked phone off without being promoted for passcode.

I don't buy that, without a sim, a phone is rendered completely incapable of connecting to a network. My understanding is that is simply the choice of the networks. And this is also why I pointed out that it wouldn't be easy (read: would take more effort than only apple) to have it connect.
 
It could happen again and I wouldn't know how to make things different. My carrier actually offers their own service, free, which can track the phone's location. But I don't know how it compares to Find My iPhone. If there would've been a different outcome.

When I lost my phone, Find My iPhone was no help.

Edit: And actually, now that it's been a month, cellular service unpaid, I can't even log into my T-Mobile account it says it's been cancelled.

The drama.

xraydoc said:
How exactly would you like Find My iPhone to be better?
Click to expand...

There's jailbroken apps that do better.



Ken Kaniff said:
Your thread title... what are you talking about? You say that, but then the actual post doesn't mention anything like the title suggests.

In regards to the actual thread title- yeah, any cell phone that's on can be tracked via cell tower triangulation and likely other methods. What's your point though?
Click to expand...

But I think there actually is a chip in the phone that track it without find my iphone. And with this service that I mentioned above, it's this:

lookout-logo.png

https://www.lookout.com/features/missing-device

That's what Apple representatives need to be touting. Not Find my iPhone.


Sooo

Is that better than Find my iPhone? I think it is.

It even has a theft alert feature that takes a theft selfie, which I would've loved. Find my iPhone doesn't have that. You can actually use that to prosecute.

But I didn't know about this service until after my phone went missing then it was too late.
 
Last edited:
nouveau-apple said:
I think there actually is a chip in the phone that track it without find my iphone.
Click to expand...
It's called the GPS chip. Do you not read the posts replying to your questions or do you just not comprehend them?

And with this service that I mentioned above
Click to expand...

How will that work when the phone is switched off, the cellular service cancelled, the SIM removed, and/or the phone wiped?

App looks handy if you have someone trying to break into your phone, say a roommate or someone you otherwise trust not to do such stuff, but otherwise it suffers from the same vulnerabilities as FMiP. You'll need to jailbreak to get past those vulnerabilities.

Or better yet keep up with your stuff and don't leave valuables unattended. :D
 
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nouveau-apple said:
But I think there actually is a chip in the phone that track it without find my iphone. And with this service that I mentioned above, it's this:

Image
https://www.lookout.com/features/missing-device

That's what Apple representatives need to be touting. Not Find my iPhone.


Sooo

Is that better than Find my iPhone? I think it is.

It even has a theft alert feature that takes a theft selfie, which I would've loved. Find my iPhone doesn't have that. You can actually use that to prosecute.

But I didn't know about this service until after my phone went missing then it was too late.
Click to expand...

This is very similar to find my iPhone, and tracks it the same way. If you look in their FAQs it says

In order for Lookout to successfully locate the device, your phone needs to be powered on and have a data connection (through your carrier or WiFi). If you receive an "Error Connecting" message, one of these requirements may not be in place. After you request a Locate, we will try to contact your device and a Locate command will be queued to run.
Click to expand...

The only thing it does different is it takes a picture and sends it to you, but it can also be uninstalled assuming your phone is not locked. And if your phone is locked and no data connection the thief still won't be able to connect to a wifi network and have it phone home.

I don't see why anyone on an iPhone would use that service over Find my Phone.
 
lordofthereef said:
Junkies shoot eachother dead for less lol.
Click to expand...

lol indeed
[doublepost=1499080770][/doublepost]
nouveau-apple said:
It could happen again and I wouldn't know how to make things different. My carrier actually offers their own service, free, which can track the phone's location. But I don't know how it compares to Find My iPhone. If there would've been a different outcome.

When I lost my phone, Find My iPhone was no help.

Edit: And actually, now that it's been a month, cellular service unpaid, I can't even log into my T-Mobile account it says it's been cancelled.

The drama.



There's jailbroken apps that do better.





But I think there actually is a chip in the phone that track it without find my iphone. And with this service that I mentioned above, it's this:

lookout-logo.png

https://www.lookout.com/features/missing-device

That's what Apple representatives need to be touting. Not Find my iPhone.


Sooo

Is that better than Find my iPhone? I think it is.

It even has a theft alert feature that takes a theft selfie, which I would've loved. Find my iPhone doesn't have that. You can actually use that to prosecute.

But I didn't know about this service until after my phone went missing then it was too late.
Click to expand...

Lookout is for android. We're talking about iPhones.
 
fifiandfootsie said:
lol indeed
[doublepost=1499080770][/doublepost]

Lookout is for android. We're talking about iPhones.
Click to expand...
Actually no one is really taking about either anymore, since this thread is nearly 3 years old. Just so you don't waste your own time, make sure you check the date of the thread before responding.

Sometimes the "similar threads" section can recommend posts from many years back, which can be a bit misleading if you're new here.
 
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nouveau-apple said:
But I'll never be sure who my personal information is in the hands of and that's what disappoints me the most.

It's tied to my Apple ID. It's my phone. It will always be my phone.

So, what happens when they do connect it to iTunes and perform a restore? Why wouldn't I be notified? Obviously the thief removed the Sim card, or hasn't turned the phone on yet.

It might be stolen, but it's still lost. I'm lost.
Click to expand...

Ur phone is still sitting in the same place u lost it. Battery is dead. No one stole it. No big conspiracy here. U lost ur phone.
 
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