Apple's newest iOS social tool, Find My Friends, really should be called Find My Friend's iPhone. Basically an inversion of Find My iPhone, the original cloud-based locator app, this latest option tracks the GPS of invited buddies and lets you know where they are – assuming, of course, that their trusty iOS devices are at hand.
Getting started is as simple as signing in with your Apple iCloud ID and sending out a few invites. Once your pals get back to you – that is, if they're keen on having you know their whereabouts on a moment's notice – you’ll see their locations begin to populate your list and world map.
As we've come to expect from Apple’s iOS offerings, Find My Friends has a fair amount of gloss applied to its otherwise clean interface, though the faux leather aesthetic is a tad garish. And the options here are fairly limited: you can check in on the people you're following and invite other friends into your circle, and selecting a follower brings up his/her current location and any contact into you have listed.
It's easy to point fingers at privacy issues with Find My Friends, but it's actually quite secure, as expiration dates can be added to invites, plus a slider quickly hides your location from the world. The app's password protection kicks in after a short period of inactivity, so your friends won't be peeped by anyone who borrows your phone. Since it's iCloud based, however, families who share an Apple ID won't be able to follow each other until they open individual accounts. And though FaceTime and messaging are incorporated within the app, it doesn't allow for in-app texting or directions.
The bottom line. Find My Friends isn't quite as essential as some Apple releases, but it does what it's supposed to do: bring us all a little closer together.
iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 5.0 or later
Simple interface. Solid privacy settings. Effortless socializing.
No internal texting or directions. iCloud requirement shuts out families who share an Apple ID. Leather UI is a bit ugly.
app_addict
November 18, 2011 at 5:30am
I'd like to express my gratitude for this article. Why? Well, because despite having it installed since what was it... October 12th or so? When iOS 5 hit public availability, this is the first time I've been able to glance at what lies beyond that initial login and invite screen! Let's break this down, just quickly with simple statistics:
% of my friends who own an iPhone or similar iOS 5 eligible device: 30-40%
% of those eligible devices that they have taken the hour or two to upgrade to iOS 5: 20%
% of those few who actually fit both above criteria and have this app installed (after my trickery/incessant nagging: 5%
% of those matching all above criteria that will accept an invitation, even a temporary, 30 minute one (late on a Sunday night where I know exactly where they are... at home): 0.00%#1 reason cited for refusal to even allow a test run of a few minutes? Fear of "big brother".
#2 reason cited? Their wives may discover its existence, giving them 24/7 access to their whereabouts. Even for the most faithful, non-shady "good guys" I know, this fear makes "big brother" seem like a chummy, close family member, respected and idolized as their role model.Conclusion: this app, while a great idea (and even the ability to STOP your location disclosure to all parties at the mere flick of a switch; was doomed to failure before it hit the ground, because of general ignorance, fear, and marriage.
Lesson: privacy, or loss thereof is one of the first and foremost concerns on the minds' of these device owners. To download and enable this app is, in their eyes, opening the back door and inviting big brother and anyone else to track them (and following that idea, their activities as well). To voluntarily allow this to happen by installing such an app is absolutely foolish.Reality: these same people have Find My iPhone installed, allow location tracking in nearly ever app that asks permission... and foolishly believe that even if "location services" are disabled they are safe from big brother or any type of personal tracking or geotracking methods as a whole. How naive. How uneducated. Even after "real life" is explained to them, regarding their fears... There remains a staunch refusal to accept that "maybe it's not too much worse than what goes on as I use my phone on a daily basis!"
I don't know who is most worthy of becoming the scapegoat in this situation. Privacy concerns are very real and very understandable. Privacy should be of great concern in an increasingly "social existence" (whether you like it or not!) — though I think that the age-old media scare tactics are in full force here only reinforcing these already grave concerns. The real problem? The failure of each individual to self-educate and find the truth that exists somewhere between what the boob tube tells them and the truth about those privacy concerns, and how real those concerns are.
Ultimately, I think that leaves us with our most fitting scapegoat in this tempest of fear and paranoia surrounding my friends — and likely yours. Married life. There is no greater fear instilled in a man's heart than the possibility of suffering a woman's wrath upon his fragile being. Women... nature's most fundamental source of unrelenting fear in man. One of life's eternal mysteries: How do we constantly ruminate over and chase after our self-admitted reason for being; allthewhile fearing it with the deepest terrors the human mind dare experience.
Answers to which... We shall never know.
I'll also never get a first-person look at this cool app, unless I track myself, which isn't much fun; I'll spoil that one for any of you would-be desperate peers of mine who have considered sinking to that low just to test out an app. :D
P.S. I'm glad I'm not the only one to be a bit set aback by the "unconventional" leather theme to this app. I've attempted to find any logical connection between this look and the functionality of this app and my closest (admittedly joking) correlation would be leather=cowboy/rodeo=wrastlin' up yer friends, keepin the herd in check, lest one stray from the rest... ;) That's its purpose, no?! To track your friends down? For them to become human prey, for you to intercept and ----???!! I am getting brief recollections of that movie (probably plural, movies) where rich people paid to literally hunt humans as game in competition for some prize or grandiose title. No worry, the hunted were given a respectable head start before the pursuit began; the tracking party taking off on 4-wheelers or something equally advantageous to nullify the generosity of the up-front "head start" afforded to them.
Take that premise, apply it to this application... I think we may have a window into the psychology that fuels the minds of the reluctant participants! Now I can sympathize, sorta. If I watched that movie again; definite compassion. To bad I don't recall the title — or if it was merely a deranged personal fantasy, haha...
