find my ipad

Two 'find my ipad' stories June 2014 - February 2015

iOS 8 How-to: Set up and Use Find My iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Sarah Guarino Feb 28 2015 - 9:00 am PT

Find My iPhone was first released in June 2010 initially for the iPhone. Now, Find My iPhone allows you to track the location of your device, be it an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, in case it gets lost or stolen. This is a great benefit because when you locate your device using Find My iPhone, the device makes noise until it is found and will show you were it is located using Apple Maps. Recently, the police used Find My iPhone to track and save a woman’s life. However, Find My iPhone did require the device to be turned on and connected to the internet in order for it to work completely. New with iOS 8, you have the option to automatically send the location of the device to Apple when the battery is critically low. In this how-to I will discuss how to set up Find My iPhone, and how to use Find My iPhone.

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New iOS 8 feature makes it easier to track missing devices

Mike Beasley Jun 3 2014 - 5:40 pm PT

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A new feature in Apple’s iOS 8 software might make it easier for users to track down missing or stolen devices. The setting seen above can be found in the Find My iPhone panel of the device’s iCloud settings, and enables the phone to automatically send its last known location to Apple’s iCloud service if the phone’s battery is almost dead.

The data will apparently be stored for 24 hours after the phone’s battery dies, so even if the phone is no longer turned on users can at least have some idea of where it was active.

Of course, there’s still a chance that thieves could just turn off the device before the battery reaches a critical level and avoid being caught by this feature. Perhaps a future update will allow the phone to send this information as part of its regular shutdown process, but for now it’s at least a step in the right direction.