Last fall, the U.S. national database for stolen cell phones went live. The goal of the database, which was a joint venture between several carriers, was to make it harder for stolen handsets to be activated on US networks.
But according to a new report, the database is having little effect on the growing rate of cell phone thefts. And law enforcement officials are starting to look at handset makers to come up with a technological solution…
Imagine you are awoken in the middle of the night by someone pounding loudly at your door. It’s a man and his girlfriend, and they’re upset because someone just stole her iPhone, and the Find My iPhone app led them straight to your house. Now imagine this is a regular occurrence.
Unfortunately for Wayne Dobson, he doesn’t have to imagine. Due to a glitch in Sprint’s location-tracking services, phone finding apps have been sending owners of missing iPhones and other handsets, as well as police, to Dobson’s home in North Las Vegas for the past two years… Read More
Apple’s iPhone for thieves is like a bar of gold with earbuds. The smartphone has been blamed for a rise in urban crime, been the target of mafia heists – even fostered one iPhone owner to launch an online sting operation. Now comes word thieves have found a more direct route to your iPhone – your identity.
Identity theft is now the hottest way to buy an iPhone and stick you with the bill. The key is instant credit used by Apple to provide online financing to purchase an iPhone, Mac or other iDevice. The typical bill from ID theft of Apple products averages between $1,500 to $2,000, according to a fraud investigator who talked with Reuters… Read More
Apple’s underappreciated Find My iPhone app (BTW, shouldn’t it be called ‘Find My iOS Device’ instead?) has seen some clever uses that went a long way toward retrieving stolen iPhones and iPads. But punk trombonist Nadav Nirenberg took it to the next level when he posed as a women in order to lure an unsuspecting thief who stole his iPhone into a trap. According to media reports, holding a hammer in his hand, Nadav was patiently awaiting for the thief to arrive at his apartment to arrange an exchange… Read More
That iPhone you’re carrying on the New York City subway, well someone else likes it: thieves. Indeed, the Apple device is so popular with Big Apple thieves the mayor is blaming the gadget for a rise in the city’s crime rate. Mayor Michael Bloomberg told his radio audience some tactics for preventing your iPhone becoming the 3,891st Apple device stolen in 2012. Among the suggestions: tight clothes… Read More
Yesterday, buried amongst updates to a slew of Apple developed apps, was an update to Find My iPhone. With the update comes a new look and feel, that’s similar to Find My Friends, and a new Lost Mode to help track down lost iCloud enabled devices.
Apple has made it really simple to go about tracking a lost device, protecting the data from prying eyes, and communicating with whomever may have found said device.
Check inside, as we go hands-on with the new Find My iPhone, along with a detailed video showcasing the new Lost Mode. Read More
With today’s release of iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2, Apple has updated its Podcasts app with support for iCloud subscription syncing. Just a few minutes later, updates to Apple’s other apps went live in iTunes, including iLife and iWork apps and utils like Find My Friends, Remote, AirPort Utility and more. With so many third-party apps being updated for iOS 6 support as we speak, you may want to prioritize your downloads. Here’s what’s new in Apple’s own updated apps for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad… Read More
Apple’s Find My iPhone service is rather convenient for finding a lost device, but it falls short in theft prevention. See, thieves have figured out by now they simply need to shut down a stolen device to stop Find My iPhone.
Cabel Sasser thought of an interesting solution – a “Shutdown Requires PIN” feature in iOS Settings – and carrier AT&T’s also been tackling this problem for some time.
It looks like the nation’s leading carrier, which sold 17.5 million iPhones last year, has indeed come up with an effective remedy that might keep iPhone thieves on the grid longer: a block list of sorts on the network end… Read More
This isn’t the first time that Apple’s Find my iPhone service has helped to recover a lost device, but with Christmas involved in this particular story (as well as a resoundingly happy ending) we thought we would share it.
At around 3:30am on Christmas morning, a Westlake Village man was awoken by the noise of a burglar stealing Christmas gifts from his house. Amongst them was an iPad, which had, thankfully, already been activated and set up with an Apple ID. After a short foot chase the thief got away, but not for long.
The next morning, the owner of the iPad set about tracking the device and discovered that it was only a few doors away… Read More
Here’s a little lesson to all the would-be criminals out there: If you are going to break into your ex-girlfriend’s house, don’t leave your iPhone behind as evidence. While most of us consider that common sense, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Mr. Jason Scott Davis.
The 34-year-old Northern Californian is in custody as the prime suspect of a late-May home invasion. Authorities arrested Davis after discovering his iPhone in his girlfriend’s bathtub the night of the robbery… Read More
We love these types of stories on iDB. When the iPhone is used to thwart criminals, it’s always fun to read about.
The story of Lilli Gordon and her missing iPhone details how the smartphone’s GPS was used by authorities to track down the thieves and Lilli’s stolen valuables. Hopefully stories like this will teach would-be-prowlers that smartphones aren’t the best items to steal… Read More
This is one of those stories that makes you scratch your head. How does a stolen iPhone end up finally phoning home after moving almost 8,000 miles away from its owner?
In a testament to Apple’s genius Find My iPhone service, Cabel Sasser uncovered his stolen iPhone two weeks after it was stolen and transported 7,830 miles away. That’s some good detective work. Read More
Another one of these stories that fall under our newly-created FML category.
You’ve most likely heard about Apple’s Find My iPhone app, which when installed on an iPhone or iPad, allows you to track the location of the device in the eventuality it would get stolen. In short, that’s a great app that allowed many people to recover their stolen iPhones.
The problem is this app can also come back to bite you, or rather to punch you, as 27 year old iPhone owner Brent Johnson was unfortunately able to verify not too long ago… Read More
A few minutes ago, we explained you how to set up Find My iPhone on your iPhone 4. Technically, the newly free Find My iPhone only works for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch running iOS 4.2. There is however a trick to make this work on older devices.
The funniest part is that Apple is even telling you how to bypass their own rules… Read More
The news just fell that iOS 4.2 will be available later today iOS 4.2 is available for download. One of the big news about iOS 4.2 for iPhone is that it’s coming with a free access to the Find My iPhone feature, which was previously part of the $99/year MobileMe.
Now that Find My iPhone is free, I’m wondering what makes it compelling to still pay 100 bucks a year for MobileMe, a service that you can pretty much substitute for free by Google Sync.
This being said, here are instructions on how to set up Find My iPhone on your iPhone, no strings attached… Read More
