“Apple’s Find My iPhone app (free) has been updated to add the ability to get driving directions to your iPhone, iPad or Mac’s location if you’re running it on an iOS 6 device,” Matthew Panzarino reports for TNW.
“The update would apparently make it easier to track down your device by car if you’ve lost it,” Panzarino reports. “In addition, the new version of the app allows you to play a sound, enter Lost Mode and erase your device using separate buttons in the map view.”
Panzarino reports, “To me, driving directions makes more sense in the Find My Friends app than it does here, as I’d much rather be driving to my friend than dragging my schlubby self to a thug’s house to recover my iPhone. So hopefully we’ll see it make an appearance in that app.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you suspect your iPhone has been stolen, put it into Lost Mode*, then tell the cops and show them the app. Don’t use the directions to drive right on over and risk being shot in the face.
*Lost Mode locks your missing device with a 4-digit passcode and can display a contact phone number on the lock screen. While in Lost Mode, your device will keep track of where it has been and display its recent location history when you check in with the Find My iPhone app. Note: Find My iPhone must be enabled in the iCloud settings on your iOS device for you to locate it with the Find My iPhone app.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
What’s the chance that Apple maps will direct you to Mildura, Aistralia?
Was thinking something similar, in that one’s over eagerness to confront the perp and get your phone back would be the last thing to worry about! But calling AAA without the aid of your phone because you’re lost would be.
You would be surprised how many people still use the Find My iPhone app to find their friends. (or kids)
Or to spy on their fiancé….Having been on the spied-upon end.
Find my iPhone on a phone is pointless to be configured with your own account. The wife and I have find my iPhone eah signed into the other’s account so we can find each others phone.
If you have to be concerned about whether your spouse can see where you are or if you feel you need to track your spouse you have bigger problems than any phone can solve.
I want to be able to extract GPS data form the location found in Maps and Find my iPhone or the address, I hope I can at least extract the address with this update.
Some times, I want to book mark and address of where the iPhone has been (I use another iPhone to track my car) and I can’t copy that info neither from iCloud or from the other iPhone using “find my iPhone”.
Now they just need a “Find a gun, knife, or baseball bat” mode.
MDN,
A coworker’s iPhone was stolen out of her hands (at work). She immediately went on “Find my iPhone” and started tracking the guy (who never left a 4 block radius about 4 blocks north of us). She flagged down multiple police officers over the next hour, explained her story, told them that not only could she identify the guy, knew exactly where he was, knew his name, and knew his address, none of them would help her. Their excuses ranged from “too busy” (well, why did you stop in the first place?) to “it can’t be proven that its your phone” (ummm….yeah, it can) to “we don’t want to accuse the wrong person” (ummm…we can identify him).
Sometimes a baseball bat upside the head in a dark alley is just what Street Justice called for.
Loved your story and thoughtful post right up to (but not including) the last paragraph.
Excellent! When u show up to collect ur stolen iPhone I can kick yer ass and get a second free idevice!!!
Not when you looking at my 45 you won’t.
Either way you have your way of looking at it and I have mine, allot of criminals that commit petty crimes like this forget that more and more of us that are professional trained in combat or Law Enforcement don’t wear uniforms and we look like anyone else on the street, some retired, some off duty, some back from the Far East so take your chances and steal and remember whatever the outcome you chose your path.
Think about it, do you really think you would forget your lesson after being apprehended.
And I really don’t see this as a joke, but anyway you slice it civilians and non trained personnel should NOT use this to find a stolen device and only of they are escorted and accompanied by a trained Person that are bonded and/or by Law Enforcement personnel.
A life is not worth a device that can be replaced, so common sense first and foremost.
Merry Christmas.
Is The author is an idiot, or an I missing something here?. All my friends in find my friends show up with an info icon. I click it and I get an address that the person is near. I scroll down and click on directions to get directions to that location
Common sense plays a big part in finding my iPhone. If someone stole it, call the police. If you just simply lost it get the directions and see where it takes you. If you think there’s a safety risk then again call the police. Common sense people.
What I want to know is why Apple has not yet added the requirement of a pass code in order to shut down an iPhone. This way, if a thief steals my device, they won’t be able to immediately shut it down, therefore giving me a chance to track it. A friend of mine was caught up in an armed robbery, and he and the people that he was with all got their iPhones stolen (along with their money). Had this option then available at that time, then the thugs would have been tracked had they kept the iPhones in their possession. Why won’t Apple add this feature?
+1000
It would be nice if the find my iphone app in general would continually update the location instead of hitting refresh. Now that you can get directions to a lost device, you’ll have to continuously switch back to the find my iPhone app to update its current location and then re-route to it over and over if the device is on the move.
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