Find My iPhone App Review
According to ‘Times Best 50 iPhone apps for 2012’, Find My iPhone is the best ‘must have app’ for any iPhone user. The app basically let users use another iOS device to find their iPhone and protect the data, in case they’ve lost it somewhere. Find My iPhone app is free of cost.
How Find My iPhone App Works?
Your Find My iPhone app must be enabled in the iCloud settings on your device for you to locate it with this application. Once Find My iPhone is enabled, it’ll silently run in the background.
Now, if you’ve lost your iPhone, you can track it down by downloading and installing the Find My iPhone app in another iOS device, to which you still have access (could be your friend’s iPhone or iPad), and sign in using your Apple ID. The app will help you locate your missing iPhone on a map. However, the app does not plot the route up to the device; better integration with iOS Maps app would have been great.
The Find My iPhone app uses a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi data, and cell tower data to locate the missing phone. As it relies on multiple technologies, accuracy of phone location is more or less precise. Even if the device is lost inside a building wherein GPS contact can’t be established, still the app will manage to find its location by relying on cell tower data/WiFi or both. Conversely, it goes without mention that one needs to have Location Services enabled on their iPhones to use all three services.
Using Find My iPhone application does not seem to have much a negative effect on the battery life, which is a positive. And thanks to its Apple origins, Find My iPhone app has one killer feature; the ability to remotely delete the phone contents if you suspect that the device has fallen into wrong hands. The app also lets you remotely lock down the phone, play a loud sound, or even display a customized message on the screen.
In order to use the app, iCloud account (available free with iOS 5 or OS X Lion) or MobileMe account is required.
Final Thoughts
Find My iPhone app delivers precise enough results; however, the missing device must have its Find My iPhone feature as well as the internet switched ON for it to be successfully tracked. Verdict: Must have.
Category: Free iPhone Apps
