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iPhone thief thwarted by MobileMe sync

by Brett Terpstra Dec 17th 2008 at 9:30PM

To say that MobileMe hasn't made everyone happy may be a bit of an understatement. We don't generally hear from the satisfied customers, but we have received a fair amount of email from dissatisfied users of Apple's "cloud computing" solution. Given the barrage of negativity, it's nice to hear a positive take now and then. TUAW reader Rob had just the thing ...

While at the dry cleaner one day, Rob's iPhone was stolen. He immediately chalked it up as gone forever, and proceeded to purchase a brand new one that same evening. It was the next day when unfamiliar contacts began to appear on the new phone. The (not-too-bright) thief was unwittingly supplying him with names and phone numbers of his or her closest friends, via the magic of MobileMe synchronization from the stolen phone to the cloud and eventually to his new phone. "It didn't take long for me to realize that MobileMe was leading me right to the thief!" wrote Rob.

Thanks to the fact that he caught on to it before he'd had time to remotely disconnect his account, MobileMe provided the groundwork for a little social engineering. Rob made quick work of wrangling a name and phone number from the provided contacts, supplying the police with everything they needed to get Rob his phone back. By the end of the night, he had his original iPhone in his possession.

There you have it, a MobileMe success story! Sure, this doesn't make up for the problems which have plagued MobileMe, but it's a great story. The recovered phone is "pretty much brand new," according to Rob, and is currently up for auction on ebay.

Thanks for sending this in, Rob!



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To say that MobileMe hasn't made everyone happy may be a bit of an understatement. We don't generally hear from the satisfied customers,...
 

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IDOFKFKID

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January 07 2009 at 4:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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January 07 2009 at 4:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
oil painting

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January 07 2009 at 4:34 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
oil painting

Abstract meaning of the term refers to understand the thinking of people in the activities of things factor in the appearance and give up on the nature of the factors taken. Used in the field of art, it is an abstract art, abstract, and abstract concepts.



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January 04 2009 at 11:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lin

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December 29 2008 at 5:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
SysRq

Haha, that's great. Buddy of mine had his iPhone stolen recently, if only he had gotten MobileMe. Shouldn't Apple be using this story to market MobileMe, seeing as how many fail to see its usefulness? Just a thought.

Cheers,
~SysRq

December 28 2008 at 7:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
YourAppleTrainer

Reminds me of the girl that had her MacBook stolen and used Back to my Mac to remotely spy on the thief and get her computer back.

I guess one thing to remember is that people who steal consumer electronics are generally pretty stupid.

December 19 2008 at 2:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Exile

hmmm the thief must of wanted the iphone bad.
must of went to an apple store and asked for a usb power adapter to connect it

December 19 2008 at 2:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Exile's comment
Rob

You know, Exile, I never even thought about that. They probably had an iPod of some sort, because they clearly knew their away around iTunes. When the officer returned it, I didn't think to turn it on while he was there. When I DID turn it on, the thief had already wiped the phone clean, set it up in their name, and put an unlock code on it. I had to take it to ATT to get it reset, which was actually fun because one of the guys at the ATT store was there the night I came by to try and by a replacement iPhone, so I got to tell him the rest of the story.

December 19 2008 at 9:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kenc29

So, can I assume that doing the passcode lock would have been bad in Rob's case? I mean, if you had set the passcode lock, then the thief had tried to unlock it 10 times, that would have wiped the device, right?

December 18 2008 at 9:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to kenc29's comment
Rob

Well, the scary thought for me was, "what if the thief had just started deleting my contacts one at a time?" MobileMe would have really caused me some headaches, although I suppose for us Mac users, we could use Time Machine to restore order fairly easily.

December 18 2008 at 11:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael

I signed up the first day it was available, originally called iTools. (Don't remember how long ago that was?) While there have been issues throughout the years, the sync abilities have been great and indispensable; keeping my Mac, me.com and my iPhone all in sync. That service alone has been worth the annual fee.

December 18 2008 at 8:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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