HOW TO FIND A LOST IPHONE

Hint – it isn’t LoJack.
Apple recently bought a company that will enable your iPhone to determine where you are within a building. It could be a big deal for advertisers and an even bigger deal for shoppers looking for a restroom or the nearest Orange Julius inside an unfamiliar mall.

Despite Apple's original debacle with its maps app, the excellent hardware and clever software packed inside this device – as well as some third party apps – make it easy to find a lost iPhone.
Apple offers its ‘Find My iPhone’ app. There are two important preliminary steps for using this application. First, you must be using iCloud. Get that going in your iPhone settings. After that, go to your settings again and turn on ‘Find My iPhone.’

Now you can find you iPhone with any computer that's online, or any Apple device with the application installed. On a computer, use a browser and navigate to www.icloud.com. Log onto your account and click on the ‘Find My iPhone’ icon. Your phone's location will be plotted on a map. There are three more options. First, you can make your phone put out an audible alert signal. Second, you can lock and continually track your iPhone with the ‘Lost Mode’ option. Finally, you can erase all the data on your iPhone if necessary.

There are a couple more apps worth mentioning. If Found allows you to put contact information on your iPhone's locked screen as well as cool graphics. If you have a first generation phone without GPS, this might be your best bet for getting your phone back. iHound sends push alerts to your iPhone notifying people that it has been lost or stolen. It also makes alarms loud when the iPhone has its volume turned down. There's an optional automatic ‘geofencing’ alert system that sends notifications to a variety of social media. Users can also erase their sensitive data.

If Found costs $0.99. iHound costs $3.99 for the app with an additional subscription charge. With all of these options, it's not hard to find a lost iPhone and protect your data. And, just like these products do a great job protecting you from the headache of a lost iPhone, LifeProof cases protect the iPhone itself from a long list of threats to its physical wellbeing.
Here's what you need to remember:

• Set up iCloud to use Apple's ‘Find my iPhone’ software system
• Enable ‘Find my iPhone’ on your device
• Check out Third Party apps like If Found and iHound
• Give your iPhone protection from physical abuse with a LifeProof case