iOS 8 introduces a new feature to the Find my iPhone and Find my iPad functionality on iOS devices, allowing users to select a "Send Last Location" option that will notify Apple of a device's last known location when the battery drains to a critical level.
Currently, if a device is lost with Find My iPhone on and the battery drains and it cannot be located, iCloud will display the last known location for up to 24 hours, but after that, there is no way for end users to determine the last location of a device.
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It appears this new Find My iPhone feature will authorize Apple to store the last known location of an iOS device after 24 hours have passed, potentially allowing customers to contact the company for location information after it is no longer available on iCloud.
The new option can be found in the iCloud section of the Settings app, listed under a new entry for Find My iPhone (or iPad). Tapping on Find My iPhone gives an option to enable the feature and to enable Send Last Location. With iOS 7, Find My iPhone was bundled into the rest of the iCloud settings, with a simple toggle to turn the feature on and off.
(Thanks, John!)
Top Rated Comments
(View all)That's impossible if the phone is off.
Yes, but presumably he meant as part of the shutdown process :)
I was mugged a couple of years ago and my iPhone 4 was taken. By the time I got to a computer to look up where it went, it was nowhere to be found. We always figured the crook was smart and turned the phone off as soon as he took it.
I set a "notify when found" alert 2 years ago, and nothing. :mad:
That's impossible if the phone is off.
Perhaps send the last known location as soon as the iPhone detects the hold of the sleep button to shut down? While the shutdown screen appears and the thief slides to power off it's plenty of time to finish the sending process.
A nice feature indeed!
There should also be an option to remove the "Airplane Mode" button from the lockscreen. Because a thief turning on Airplane Mode means "Find My iPhone" won't work.
Yes, I've already sent these suggestions to Apple.
Does this mean Apple can track a dead device? Or is that silly?
It reports where the device was just before it died.
Having spent months looking for an iPod Touch (long after it died), only to find it slipped between bed frame & mattress, having "last known location" would have been very helpful, or at least comforting to know it was somewhere in the house.
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define critical level? 20% the battery warning comes on and the battery indicator goes red.
"Critical" is "battery is about to die, system has about 1 minute left to shut everything down safely, report last known location, and enter deep hibernation; user interaction is now disallowed in favor of maintaining system integrity; uncooperative threads will be terminated immediately."