Filed under: iPhone, MobileMe, iPod touch
Find My iPhone now works in Mobile Safari
Apple's MobileMe site at me.com used to be completely useless on the iPhone or iPod touch in Mobile Safari -- you'd get a splash page telling you to set up your contacts, calendars, and mail accounts, but that was about it. No webmail access, no direct access to galleries, iDisk, or even Find My iPhone. Apple introduced standalone apps that addressed some of these shortcomings (iDisk and Gallery), but there was still no way to access Find My iPhone unless you resorted to workarounds.
Things have improved somewhat with the new MobileMe page. Instead of simply admonishing you to set everything up on your Mac or PC, MobileMe now provides you with a link to instructions for setting up mail, contacts, and calendars. There's also links to download the iDisk and Gallery apps from the App Store. What's most useful about the change is you now have the ability to use Find My iPhone from an iPhone.
This might seem dumb at first -- "If I have my iPhone in my hand, why do I need to find it?" you may ask -- but if your household has multiple iPhone users and one of them leaves an iPhone at a pub, until now your only option was to dash home and try to find it on your computer. Now, you can access all the Find My iPhone features right at the moment your friend or significant other gets that wide-eyed, "I just misplaced a paycheck worth of electronics!" expression on his or her face. You can send an immediate message to the iPhone to get that loud, pinging submarine noise, which just might help you find the iPhone before you even leave the pub.
Find My iPhone is still only available as part of a yearly $99 MobileMe subscription.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dave Wood said 3:39PM on 2-19-2010
This is awesome news. Find My iPhone is worth the MobileMe cost alone.
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robogobo said 3:57PM on 2-19-2010
agreed.
trayser said 3:56PM on 2-19-2010
While it works, it is very slow and inelegant right now.
Navigating the multiple iphones' positions doesn't work well when you swipe fingers.
It looks awkward right now.
It would have been better if there is a dedicated app for that. Call it "Find my iphones"
(note the plural)
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macserv said 1:31AM on 2-21-2010
Agreed... They made standalone apps for Gallery and iDisk, but not for this?
Chris said 4:17PM on 2-19-2010
It's interesting that the login screen is not mobile friendly. Frankly, I'm disappointed with MobileMe. It hasn't lived up to the Apple standard. Instead of fixing, they use duct tape and gorrilla glue to hold it together. Very disappointing.
y2kemo
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milkmage said 4:15PM on 2-19-2010
so i lost my phone, but thank god I'd be able to locate it if I had it?
woot.
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jay said 4:19PM on 2-19-2010
Wait wait wait.. if you're using mobile safari to find your iphone, then how are you using mobile safari to begin with? A PARADOX!
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mikeyrogers said 4:57PM on 2-19-2010
With a different iPhone?
phonehome said 5:06PM on 2-19-2010
I have needed to do this twice when one of us left without our phone. This is indeed useful.
However, the MobileMe mobile site login is terrible and it took forever, but at least I got an idea of where the other phone was.
But the interface is awful. They should make an app for this! "Phone Finder" comes to mind.
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pozzy said 5:06PM on 2-19-2010
Or try something like taptrace or iscrut for a buck.
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Gregg Palmer said 5:13PM on 2-19-2010
Does this mean I can find myself if I have my iPhone & mobile me? Elsewise, I would surely be lost....
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starq said 5:33PM on 2-19-2010
" ...and one of them leaves an iPhone at a pub ..." Aka: Shotgun Willies
Disabling "Find My Husbands iPhone" now.
Thanks for the tip Steve.
;-)
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Sean Ferguson said 5:42PM on 2-19-2010
My company published an app recently that provides a native iPhone interface to this called FindMePhone. Apple unfortunately rejected it from the App Store, as it uses unsupported methods of accessing MobileMe (cause they don't provide any!) - but it is available for jailbroken phones in both Cydia and Rock Your Phone.
See http://www.technivations.com/iphone/findmephone for details.
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Dale said 5:44PM on 2-19-2010
If you own enough iPhones that you would get use out of Find My iPhone on an iPhone, maybe you have other issues. :D
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YodaMac said 12:55PM on 2-22-2010
My wife and I both have an iPhone. How is that an "issue"?...
Nick said 7:24PM on 2-19-2010
Am I the only person that doesn't give a frack about this in comparison to the GAPING functionality hole of NOT being able to access your mobile me contacts in mobile safari?
Imagine I've lost my iPhone (something I've done more times than I'd care to admit — let's just say I'm on iPhone #6)... friend X I'm with has his. I need to call friend Y, who friend X does not know. Suddenly, Mobile Me is nothing more than another alliteration.
I've been a Mac user all my life. I miss the days of MacAddict and MacUser. If I have one frustration with Apple (and obviously I don't have just one), it is this: in their quest for feature-perfection (and their choice to consistently play it safe - yes, i said it) they avoid use-perfection with the patience of an old teacher winning a long game of chess despite losing numerous key pieces. Copy and paste or a camera in the iPad are both perfect examples of this. "Planned obsolescence" looks a lot better in your (their) bank account than it sounds or feels.
Yes, I'll probably still get an iPad. Yes, it might be magical someday, if there's an app for that (of which there will be many). But I think the press' reaction to the iPad's marketing should be a warning sign to Apple execs. Apple has always been behind the curve in many areas (nobody's perfect). The last thing anyone human should ever do is call themselves magical. That's the press' job, if you're lucky.
In summary: Apple routinely misses little details like this in the quest for a simpler and easier to use system. In the big picture, they get it. But sometimes they miss the forest for the trees (or am I saying the trees for the forest?). I just want to turn my brightness down and disable 3G and push without clicking and swiping six different ways to sunday.
p.s. The best part of this UN-implementation on Mobile Me is that when you launch it, you have the opportunity (for about 5 seconds) to see the REAL mobile me interface, and you can even click on your contacts. It then redirects you back to the mobile safari page that tells you how to setup your contacts. Exactly what I didn't want to do. Oh, the irony.
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YodaMac said 12:54PM on 2-22-2010
uh... I guess the point is that you can now login to MobileMe from your friend's (spouse's, etc.) iPhone and FIND YOUR PHONE. I'm pretty sure finding your phone will also let you find your contacts...
Perhaps you're the one missing the forest because you're focused on one tree. There are others that are just as nice...
Roberto said 11:20PM on 2-19-2010
If I lost my iPhone, the closest smartphone around me would be BBs and Droids. It'd be more useful if the site was compatible with those... just saying.
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