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"Track my iPhone" helps owner recover "lost" phone

akonradi said:
Chasing someone down in an unfamiliar neighborhood, probably running, carrying a laptop. You have to watch the screen, watch what's in front of you, and refresh the page constantly while at the same time looking for the person. Chances are you'd have a bit more on your mind... I'd love to see someone in a video doing all of the above...
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If you were in a fight, and you were telling some girls at a bar about the events during it, you'd bs slightly (i.e. I beat the other guy up). Same applies here - if you are telling a story to geeks, you bs slightly ;)

Good story though.
 
Kilamite said:
If you were in a fight, and you were telling some girls at a bar about the events during it, you'd bs slightly (i.e. I beat the other guy up). Same applies here - if you are telling a story to geeks, you bs slightly ;)

Good story though.
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exactly, cuz im going to walk through the ghetto with my laptop running around in circles trying to find my phone, then shake his hand...:rolleyes:
 
No way....

/dev/toaster said:
I wonder how long it will take for someone to use the MobileMe finder service for bad things. For example, catching a cheating wife. It would be so damn simple to wire up a car charger to the tail lights of a car and put the iPhone in a secure location inside the trunk. Not perfectly accurate since you won't get the GPS signal in the trunk but tower based triangulation will be fine for searching for a car in a few block radius.

I am willing to bet the first time its used in a really evil way, Apple will be forced to put some sort of restrictions on it or even turn it off.

Very cool feature though, I am happy to see it worked out for ya. Personally, I would have called the police and had the punk arrested. What he did was very unacceptable and he will do it again unless he is taught a lesson. You got lucky and got the phone back, the next person he jacks it from won't be so lucky.
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No, but I can see a lot of girlfriends and wives getting iPhones as gifts now.
They will be so proud of getting it and then bragging about their cheating ways to their girlfriends and then bam.

I can't wait to read THOSE stories. I'm a sucker for the truth will prove out.
Call me sentimental. :p
 
Power problem #1

twynne said:
Great story. On a related note I recently submitted a suggestion to Apple that they allow the phone to be passcode locked via MobileMe. If you could lock the phone and send a message requesting contact that really discourages the 'finder' from keeping it and makes it impossible to disable Find my iPhone from the phone itself.

If it remains missing after a certain period of time you could then take the more extreme step of wiping the phone. It would be even better if Apple would enhance the firmware so that the personal info is wiped but the phone remains passcode locked (and therefore useless to the finder).

I can't believe Apple didn't think of this to be honest!
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Problem is a thief can just dump your sim card and then it's all over. My friend works for a firm that is doing this via the hardware and rolling out their solution.

No matter what a thief does, they can track it.

The biggest weakness with this is that once your phone loses power, it can't be located.

But we can still rely on the stupidity of thieves for a while. This guy who stole the phone, I would have had his job or made him pay me $50 on the spot. Or I'd probably beat his ass on the spot.
 
Romanesq said:
Problem is a thief can just dump your sim card and then it's all over. My friend works for a firm that is doing this via the hardware and rolling out their solution.

No matter what a thief does, they can track it.

The biggest weakness with this is that once your phone loses power, it can't be located.
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True, but it's still better than relying on a simple message begging for someone to call you! Also unless someone is familar with the iPhone it would take them a while to work out how to get the SIM out.

This also holds up if the phone loses power as (if the finder intends to keep it) they'll ultimate charge it up... at which point it'll still be locked.

Not sure if any of the unlocking methods will bypass passcodes...
 
sure....

twynne said:
True, but it's still better than relying on a simple message begging for someone to call you! Also unless someone is familar with the iPhone it would take them a while to work out how to get the SIM out.

This also holds up if the phone loses power as (if the finder intends to keep it) they'll ultimate charge it up... at which point it'll still be locked.

Not sure if any of the unlocking methods will bypass passcodes...
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Actually sending the plea to return the phone actually makes the thief feel even safer so that's a better way to go too.

Almost sorry I mentioned the sim issue. We can enjoy the inevitable stories of stupid iPhone thieves though. There will be plenty no doubt.

Thank you Steve! :apple:
 
Romanesq said:
Actually sending the plea to return the phone actually makes the thief feel even safer so that's a better way to go too.

Almost sorry I mentioned the sim issue. We can enjoy the inevitable stories of stupid iPhone thieves though. There will be plenty no doubt.

Thank you Steve! :apple:
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Apple should really have tried to do something at hardware level - so that regardless of what SIM is inserted that phone (by serial) is registered to its original owner unless transferred by the owner. Makes me wonder if carriers can actually see hardware details of the phones attached to their networks... even if so I guess it would require them all to cooperate (ideally worldwide) to identify theft.
 
/dev/toaster said:
I wonder how long it will take for someone to use the MobileMe finder service for bad things. For example, catching a cheating wife. It would be so damn simple to wire up a car charger to the tail lights of a car and put the iPhone in a secure location inside the trunk. Not perfectly accurate since you won't get the GPS signal in the trunk but tower based triangulation will be fine for searching for a car in a few block radius.

I am willing to bet the first time its used in a really evil way, Apple will be forced to put some sort of restrictions on it or even turn it off.

Very cool feature though, I am happy to see it worked out for ya. Personally, I would have called the police and had the punk arrested. What he did was very unacceptable and he will do it again unless he is taught a lesson. You got lucky and got the phone back, the next person he jacks it from won't be so lucky.
Click to expand...

Guns don't kill people.

People kill people.

It will never be shut off because of a scenario you present in your post above.
 
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