One More Tap

Apple made an excellent job, opening up MobileMe’s Find My iPhone feature to the masses. Find My iPhone accounts are free, and can only be created using any iPhone 4, iPad or iPod touch (4th Generation or later) running iOS 4.2. Once you create an account using any of the aforementioned devices you will be able to use your Apple ID login to enable Find My iPhone on your other devices running iOS 4.2.

Here’s a quick rundown on how to set up Find My iPhone on your device:

1. Upgrade to iOS 4.2 if you are still running an older version of iOS. At the time of this posting, iOS 4.3.2 is already available. If you have never created a MobileMe account before, then you will need to create the account using an iPhone 4, iPad or iPod touch (4th Generation or later).
2. Tap on the Settings icon, scroll a little further down and choose Mail, Contacts, Calendar.
3. Next, tap on Add Account, followed by MobileMe.
4. Enter your Apple ID credentials into the fields provided. Your Apple ID is usually the same login you use when purchasing from the iTunes Store. If you need to create a new account, then tap on the Create Free Apple ID button located at the bottom of the screen. MobileMe users can simply enter your me.com or mac.com credentials into the fields provided.
5. You will need to verify your account to complete the setup. Take a peek in your email inbox, as Apple will be sending an email with a link that you will need to click to properly verify your account.
6. Once you have verified your account, return to the MobileMe screen you were previously in and switch on Find My iPhone. Click on Allow to verify that you really want to enable this feature.

If your setup is correct, you ought to be able to sign in to Apple’s me.com website and give Find My iPhone a test drive. You may also want to download Apple’s free Find My iPhone app from the iTunes App Store to help you locate your devices on another device.

Officially, this is the instructions that Apple has made available for everyone interested in Find My iPhone. However, anyone who understands iOS knows that this setup has its weaknesses. If a criminal gets hold of your device, he can simply disable cellular data on your device and render Find My iPhone inoperable. The best way to secure Find My iPhone is still via a passcode lock.

written by xcool \\ tags: Find My iPhone, How To, iOS, Location, MobileMe, Passcode Lock, Restrictions, Set Up

I thought I’d upgrade my iPhone 3GS (which was recently semi-retired, but has since found a new home in my wife’s handbag) with iOS 4.2.1, since that is the first version to ever support Find My iPhone. I wanted to be able to locate the phone (and thus, my wife) if required.

So, I went ahead and search for the direct download, knowing that Apple would not be offering the said firmware anymore from within iTunes, now that iOS 4.3.1 is out in the wild. I found a couple of sites, and managed to grab a copy. However, upon trying to perform the upgrade, I was greeted with Error 3194. Yes, the darned error code which basically means that you can’t install that particular version of iOS onto your device because Apple would not allow you to do so anymore.

The story behind this is, Apple would stop signing older firmwares whenever new ones are made available. Signing is a process that happens when you install new versions of iOS onto your device, whereby iTunes checks with Apple’s servers and ‘signs’ the installation. I’m not about to jailbreak my device, so I went ahead and installed the latest firmware, which is 4.3.1 (build 8G4).

Anyhow, since this post relates more to direct downloading the firmware from Apple’s website (Apple continues to offer older firmwares, although they wouldn’t sign it, I am not sure why), we’ll stay on topic and provide you with the locations. You are free to do whatever you please with the IPSW files that you download, which I know most of you will use it to jailbreak older devices.

iOS Firmware – Direct Download Links

written by xcool \\ tags: Direct Download, Firmware, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, IPSW, Software Update

Here’s a tool that I recently used to do some crazy stuff on my iPhone. Now when I say crazy stuff, this means things that Apple would usually not allow you to do, that is if your device is not jailbroken.

Before I continue, I’d like to say that I am not a jailbreak person and that I would never jailbreak my device. Okay, I actually jailbroke my original iPhone 2G so that I can use it outside of AT&T’s network, that’s all.

Apple designed the iPhone to be more interaction, less interruption. You interact more with the phone’s functions and apps that you download from the App Store – you don’t actually need to see what’s under the hood, or how the file system looks like.
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written by xcool \\ tags: file system, Hacks, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch