Apple updated the Find My app today, finally allowing third-party products to use Apple’s Find My network. This secure and private network is made up of hundreds of millions of Apple devices. Device manufacturers can now build products that utilize the service, and customers can use the Find My app on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS to locate lost or misplaced items.
“For more than a decade, our customers have relied on Find My to locate their missing or stolen Apple devices, all while protecting their privacy,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Now we’re bringing the powerful finding capabilities of Find My, one of our most popular services, to more people with the Find My network accessory program.”
Find My Products
Belkin, Chipolo, and VanMoof are all reportedly releasing products with the new Find My technology early next week.
VanMoof’s newest e-bikes, Belkin’s SOUNDFORM Earbuds, and the Chipolo ONE Spot item finder are the first accessories from third-party manufacturers that work with Find My. Lost your wheels? Leave your earbuds in the car? Can’t remember where you left your gym bag or keys? Now you’re covered.
Global Finding Network all in One App
Many people are familiar with the Find My app. Usually it’s because they lost their iPhone and wanted to put it in Lock Mode. This allows you to display a message with an alternate contact number for someone to reach you and (hopefully) give your phone back.
But how does it work?
“The Find My network extends these capabilities by locating missing devices even if they can’t or don’t connect to the internet. The Find My network is a crowdsourced network of hundreds of millions of Apple devices that use Bluetooth wireless technology to detect missing devices or items nearby, and report their approximate location back to the owner. The entire process is end-to-end encrypted and anonymous, so no one else, not even Apple or the third-party manufacturer, can view a device’s location or information.”
So, what are your thoughts? What products would you like to see on the market that can be located at a moment’s notice? Let us know in the comment section below!
Related Links
Find My needs to work with Tile location devices.
This may not be a popular suggestion with this demographic, but the possibility of locating stolen firearms would be a boon. Partnering with a handgun accessory manufacturer, and especially one that already involves technology, such as lasergrips or red dot sights, and not having any external indication that the device included owner operated location technology would be a responsible owner’s insurance against theft. On discovering the theft the owner could provide LE with the location data and the firearm and potentially the gun-thief could be secured. I’m not familiar with this functionality of Apple, but if the owner could be notified of any relocation of a firearm from its “home,” that would be another great aid to thwarting theft or misuse by others who’d somehow gained access to the weapon.
how do you ‘disable’ a lost iPad if the “Find My” App was not turned on?
I would like to see a version of Pages that is the equal to the rich featured and intuitive 09 Works version.
A HomeKit that is not full of bugs and resets itself automatically when the dreaded “no response” error occurs.
I would like to see Apple buy the program Gimp, which is far more powerful than Preview.