Why can’t the police track my stolen iPhone? And if they won’t track it, how do I find my stolen iPhone?

The police probably have better things to do than find lost iPhones, but thankfully, most newer iOS devices have GPS built right into them, including the 3G versions of the iPad, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. With these devices, you can use the Find My iPhone feature in MobileMe to track down the exact location of your device. Fortunately, for non-MobileMe users, Apple now allows anyone with an Apple ID to do this too. To learn how to set up Find My iPhone without a MobileMe account, check out this page on our site: bit.ly/ml_iphone.

Send a message to your phone with alternate contact info. Or the promise of cash.

After you have set up your Find My iPhone account and signed in on your various iOS devices, you can visit me.com (or download and use the mobile Find My iPhone app on another iOS device). You’ll see a list of activated devices. Click any of these devices to query it for a location. Once a GPS location has been nailed down, Find My iPhone will show you on a map where your device is hiding.

Clicking on the blue dot gives you additional options. Display Message or Play Sound will allow you to send a message to the device, such as an alternative number to call you on, a reward, or whatever other words you might want to share with whoever stole your phone. You can optionally specify that your device make a loud beeping sound, which is useful if your phone is lost in your house. The Lock option will allow you to set a passcode lock on your device, preventing others from using it. In the worst-case scenario, you can use the Wipe command to remotely remove all of your personal information from the device.

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