Those rumors about free MobileMe for everyone? Not so much, but Apple did gift iOS device users with at least one component on Monday, as the Find My iPhone feature is now free for everyone with iOS 4.2.
Macworld is reporting that Apple is making the formerly MobileMe-only Find My iPhone feature free to all with Monday’s release of iOS 4.2. The service, which was previously only available to MobileMe users paying $99 per year, allows iOS device owners to find their lost or stolen units from either the Me.com website or Apple’s own free Find my iPhone iOS app.
Getting the Find my iPhone service is simple: After you’ve updated your device for iOS 4.2, open the Settings app and tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars and then tap Add Account. Tap on MobileMe and you’ll be prompted for either a MobileMe username or your Apple ID, which is the same username and password you use to make purchases on iTunes.
If you don’t have an Apple ID yet, you can create one right at the same spot. After Apple verifies your login, you can then turn on Find My iPhone and feel safe knowing that if the worst happens, Apple’s technology will help you recover it. Just make sure you actually turn the feature on from each iOS device before you go losing it -- otherwise you’ll be up the creek without the proverbial paddle if and when that fateful day arrives.
Should the worst happen, you can simply log in to Me.com or use another iOS device with the free Find My iPhone app so locate the lost device. Once found, you have the option to display a message or play a sound to help track it down (or warn thieves that you’re on to them), and if it looks like the device has fallen into nefarious hands, you can choose to remotely lock or wipe the device to make it useless to others. Remote Lock allows you to add a lock code to prevent others from accessing the device, while Remote Wipe nukes all of your data from the device before it can be accessed by others.
While Find My iPhone is one of those features that really should have been free to all iOS device owners from the start, it looks unlikely that Apple will be sharing more paid MobileMe features with everyone -- but let’s not sound ungrateful this close to Thanksgiving, right?
Update: Macworld is now reporting (also noted in the comments below) that Find My iPhone is only free to owners of recent iOS hardware -- iPhone 3G and 3GS users will still require a MobileMe subscription to use it, unless they first set up their Find My iPhone account on an iPhone 4, as noted on Apple's website.
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J Keirn-Swanson
November 26, 2010 at 6:36am
I have an iPad and an iPhone 3G, and after setting up my iPad first, i was able to set up my 3G and it apparently works just fine.
0-172
November 22, 2010 at 10:52am
It doesn't come out until ten. Which is about eight minutes away now.
purplemaizenjm
November 22, 2010 at 9:49am
here in nj I did not get upgraded yet and I am still waiting.. The Apple store told me it did not come to the East coast yet. and I am Pist.
redparkz
November 22, 2010 at 7:58am
not all iDevices. Only iPhone 4, iPod touch 4G and the iPad will be able to use this feature without paying for the mobileme account (see http://www.apple.com/ios/ )
