Monday, June 25, 2012

Episode 50: Can't find my phone

Hi Everyone,

I know that we never misplace things in life and definitely not an iPhone. Did you know that there are tools to help you find your iPhone and tools that you should consider to help protect your iPhones/iPads.

Where did I put the phone?
“Find My iPhone” is a service that you can use to help find your iPhone/iPad. Everyone should have “iCloud” setup on your mobile device. All you have to do is enable “Find My iPhone/iPad” to launch this free service. If you have multiple devices (iPhone/iPad) and you misplaced your phone, just launch “Find iPhone” (available at the app store if it’s not on your device) to send a message, see where you placed it or even lock and remote wipe the phone. From a computer, go to icloud.com and login with your Apple ID and password.

The great part is that even if you had set your phone to vibrate or volume to low, the sound it plays is loud. If in the event that your phone is stolen, you can remote lock and remote wipe your phone, protecting your information on your phone. Which brings us to my next tip security.

Are you protecting your information?
If you don’t protect your phone with a passcode, you can’t protect the information, photos, videos, etc on your iPhone/iPad. If you are like me and don’t have a passcode to open your phone, at least enable restrictions and passcode protect location services.

Go to Settings\General\Restrictions\Enable Restrictions (you’ll have to create a passcode here…don’t forget this passcode) \Location\ and select “Don’t Allow Changes”

This will help keep location services locked on your iPhone/iPad. If your device is stolen and turned off. You can still send a lock or remote wipe command to the phone (Find iPhone app or iCoud). As soon as it is turned on, it will lock down or wipe the info (depending on the command you sent). If it was a wifi device like an iPad, the same thing will apply as soon as it connects to the internet. This is the only drawback of not protecting a wifi only device with an opening passcode. Until the device connects to the internet, they have access to your personal info on that device.

Take a snapshot (press the On\Off button and Home button and the same time) of your “About” screen to store your serial number and IMEI number (you’ll have to scroll up to see both on the screen at the same time and make sure to upload the photo to your computer or cloud). The IMEI number is what your service provided will need to blacklist your device from their network.

Turn your printer into an AirPrinter
Okay, you have plenty of regular printers at home and no AirPrinter to print from your iPad/iPhone. Sure there are apps out there that will print from the app, but you want to print from your web browser or your document that you’re reading. Well, if you have a wifi network at home and a shared printer on your network, you can turn your printer into an AirPrinter. Go to Netputing and download their AirPrint Activator. It works on my Mac network. If you have PC’s at home, let me know if the universal driver works on your network.

Our favorite app of the day: Temple Run Brave ($0.99) It’s like the free version of Temple Run, but based on the movie Brave. Lots of fun…I see Susie playing it all the time…LOL.

Hope you enjoy these tips. Don’t forget, if you have a great tip or app, pass it on.

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