Does the “Find My iPhone” App Really Work?

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What’s the best way to begin a trip to New York City with your spouse? If your answer is “Lose your iPhone!” then you probably hate technology. Unfortunately for me, that’s exactly what happened, though I don’t think my wife thought it was all bad, since I was prevented from checking email, social media, Words with Friends, etc. during a weekend intended for our anniversary celebration. That being said, I was not excited about losing a $600 device. Upon the realization that my iPhone was missing, my wife and I spent nearly an hour searching throughout the hotel, but were unable to find it. I had to come to terms with losing my all-in-one information machine that I occasionally use to make phone calls. As a consolation, we decided to give up and grab a slice of New York’s famous pizza.

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During dinner, I remembered that I had previously installed and configured the “Find My iPhone” app developed by Apple. It was pretty painless to configure, and to be honest, I assumed that I would never use it. I quickly borrowed my wife’s phone and logged into the app with my credentials. The app allows you to view the GPS location and battery life of any of your pre-registered Apple devices (assuming it is turned on and Location Services is toggled on). To my surprise, my iPhone was still somewhere in our hotel and we were able to view its precise location via the app. We finished our pizza and headed back to the room. Upon arrival, I pressed ‘Play Sound’ on the remote device option in the app and sure enough, I was able to locate my phone which was hidden behind one of the telephones in our hotel room! Without this feature I would have undoubtedly left my phone behind and spent another $600 on a new device. I thought this feature was particularly useful because my ringer was turned off (which was the reason I couldn’t accomplish the same thing by simply calling it). The app also allows you to send a remote message to the screen of the device, such as a phone number, to assist with retrieval. There is also an option that allows you to erase the content of your device remotely if you believe it has been compromised (thankfully I didn’t need this option).

I highly recommend that any of you iOS users install this app if you haven’t already. It is very simple to configure (Simply go to Settings -> iCloud -> Find My iPhone and toggle the button on). You can then login to the app from any iOS device or web browser to locate your device if you misplace it. This app proved to be extremely useful and saved me enough money to buy a cocktail in the Big Apple.

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About the Author

Ron Novak leads the Commercial and Non-Profit customer verticals as a part of Segue's leadership team with the guiding principles of innovation, exceptional customer support, and customer value. His diverse experience in Information Technology has been formed through a consistent desire to understand the total picture with respect to information exchange, security, and the end-user experience. Ron is currently focused on leading development of Mobile Technologies to help businesses reach their customers in exciting new ways and supporting Non-Profits in better serving their members. Mobile application development is a natural extension of Segue's capabilities in Web development; Ron is applying this Segue experience to rapidly develop exceptional applications at low cost. Under his strategic direction, Segue's Mobile Application Development Team has grown from a small two-person operation to a cohesive development team that is releasing capability-specific mobile apps for Android and iOS platforms. Read more from Ron Novak