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Comment by Paul Feely on December 24, 2010 at 1:41am

In your iPhone, look on the back, There should be the apple logo, then some small text. The IMEI should be in the small text.

If you cannot read it, try in the SIM tray if it is an iPhone 3G

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Comment by Dean on December 23, 2010 at 6:43am

This is actually a little confusing and intriguing now after Apple has only mentioned the iPhone 4, iPad, and some iPods  http://www.apple.com/ios because its quite unlike Apple to include a feature on a device and not brag about it.  Perhaps since I have an iPhone 4 and we share an Apple ID and can sync the same applications without buying them twice it made some sort of difference, or less likely the US got the shaft again when it came to something iPhone related (doubtful I think).  I've just tried to sign into Mobile Me using our Apple ID and password to verify there wasn't some mistake and sure enough I don't seem to have an account.  I also have specifically not wanted mobile me in the past as I didn't previously see it as a good value because I felt I would get dependant on the cloud storage and then be paying a ransom to Apple when other storage services are cheaper, and storage was more of the appeal than anything.  My wife also has not felt she had wanted it.  

 

I have upgraded the 3G, not yet jailbroken, on the same Apple ID, and it also has Find My Phone available and I've just enabled it.  You go to "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" select "Add Account", select "Mobile Me", it asks for your Apple ID and password then you save it and it verifies with checkmarks.  When that's done there's a toggle switch to turn it on and a prompt comes up clarifying that this enables find my phone and that it enables your device to be displayed on a map.  You hit okay, and then its sort of hard to miss but you hit save again in the top right of the screen and its done.

 

I think you should ask around and if you find other people with 3G phones and 3Gs phones have gotten find my phone for free (it could be a glitch in my account or a regional thing since I live in Australia, then you might want to assess if the other services involved with Mobile me are worth the expense, and if not then it can't hurt to ask for a refund.

 

 

By the way, further to the coolness of the Find My Phone service, I have 3 phones but only 2 sim cards and I was still able locate all three just now despite them not having a sim card.  The one without one I sent a message to make noise and it worked despite it having been sittting there for a while with the wifi presumably off... perhaps the wifi just goes into a low power listening mode though.  Not sure.

 

As for further promoting your article though, the service being paid or otherwise, it really has turned out to be a good service.  I expected to see a hit to battery usage but I have not noticed anything whatsoever, and this is something that I would usually notice.  I wish the price would come down on the rest of mobile me because I would possibly then use it.

Comment by Dean on December 23, 2010 at 5:27am

Yes.  It should set up the same way it does in the iPhone 4, however it was only enabled in the most recent 4.2 firmware update. Where this gets confusing is that if you have an iPhone developer's account, you might have had the last beta or the GM version of the 4.2 software and perhaps iTunes didn't notify you of an update?  If you plug the 3Gs into iTunes and check for updates and there are none, then in the 'Settings' app, go to "General-> About" and verify that you are running the 4.2.1 firmware and not just the 4.2 firmware, in fact, her phone says 4.2.1 (8C148a) to be specific.  The firmware file is on her computer and I don't have direct access at the moment or I'd give you the exact file name of the firmware image as well.  To be additionally clarify, it is not a jailbroken phone.  Its just a normal firmware and I set that part up for her and have tested the location services on both our phones using the website and the app.

 

There was a last minute upgrade in the version number of the 4.2 firmware however after just now plugging her phone into my machine (which again doesn't have her firmware file on it or I'd be more helpful) iTunes, on a Mac anyway, is saying it has version 4.2.1 installed.  If you only have 4.2 then perhaps that's the problem.

 

I coincidentally sat at the computer because I am considering upgrading the 3G to 4.2.1 as well.  Its a jailbroken phone and will be if I upgrade.  I'll be losing a feature if I do but if I decide to then I'll let you know if the 3G also has the feature on firmware 4.2.1

 

 

Comment by Robert Siciliano on December 23, 2010 at 3:27am

Dean, please confirm: my wife's 3Gs as well as my own iPhone 4.....Its working for free on a 3gs?

Comment by Dean on December 23, 2010 at 12:54am

Find my phone was free with the latest firmware upgrade on my wife's 3Gs as well as my own iPhone 4. I have a 3G that I use as a nightstand iPod and as a travel phone and I think that when it was on the recent firmware that it it had the service enabled free as well but I can't remember all that well now. I'd go look but I've downgraded it to a 3.1.3 firmware for better and more manageable multitasking.

It sure is a good feature and I'm glad Apple decided to give it to people who didn't need the other services that mobile me provided. A thief can always just turn the phone off but there's a lot of honest people out there.

Something else I've done recently, is to name my phone using contact details for my home telephone number, so when someone goes into the settings and "about" it has my name and phone number there. Plugged into iTunes it truncates the info but you can still notice that its there. Now that I've typed this I think I'll go to the trouble of making a custom wallpaper image with my contact info watermarked on it. Another thing is to put an "If found" note inside the iphone case if you use one.