GPS

How to Find a Lost or Stolen iPhone

Aug 6 2011

How to Find a Lost or Stolen iPhone

This is a procedure that every iPhone user should follow.

Apple provide a free facility for finding your iPhone whether it’s been lost or stolen, but you need to set up the facility first.

As part of Apples Mobile Me facility, the Find my iPhone tool is provided free of charge to all iPhone users, all you need is an Apple ID.

If you don’t have an Apple ID you can easily get one through your iPhone:

  • Open the settings App on your iPhone
  • Go to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars section
  • Choose Add Account…
  • Select Mobile Me
  • Select the Create Free Apple ID option at the bottom of the screen

  • Follow the on screen instructions

If you have an Apple ID then you need to activate the Find my iPhone facility:

  • Open the settings App on your iPhone
  • Go to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars section
  • Choose Add Account…
  • Select Mobile Me
  • Enter your Apple ID and Password into the login box and press Next.
  • Activate the Find My iPhone selector

This will activate the Find My iPhone service.

To find your Lost or Stolen iPhone:

  • On a PC Navigate to https://me.com/find/
  • Enter you Apple ID and Password
  • A map will now be displayed which shows the location of your iPhone
  • If you click on the location of your iPhone you can lock or wipe it remotely.
  • You can also send a free message to the handset

By • Featured Articles, How to Articles, Software • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Jun 7 2011

How to find your nearest ATM with the iPhone

There are times when we all need to find something nearby, especially when you are an unfamiliar location, there’s a fantastic Free App called AroundMe which can help.

AroundMe uses the iPhones GPS to detect your location and checks it against a database of points of interest to see those that are nearby, perhaps you need to find an ATM or a Taxi Rank, or more importantly a hospital or you need to find a Pharmacy on your iPhone, AroundMe find those nearby and plots them on a map for you.


AroundMe can find ATM’s, Bars, Coffee houses, Petrol Stations, Hospitals, Hotels, Movie Theatres, Car Parks, Pharmacies, Pubs, Restaurants, Supermarkets, Taxis, Theatres  and can tell you the local weather forecast for the area you are in.

AroundMe provides an easy to use straight forward interface that can help you find  both the essential and the fun, it can help you plan your night out, find local entertainment or perhaps even save your life. It’s an essential App that should be on every iPhone.

To install AroundMe search for it in the AppStore.

 

By • Featured Articles, How to Articles, Software • 0 • Tags: ,

Apr 21 2011

How to get Traffic Information Free of Charge on the iPhone

The ability to receive upto date traffic formation whilst on a journey is a fantastic tool, and with it’s built in mobile data and GPS the iPhone provides the perfect device to receive traffic information.
There are several apps in the app store that will provide traffic information to your iPhone, but these tend to cost money, and the iPhone provides a great tool free of charge already installed.
The maps application that is provided with the iPhone provides access to Google maps and Google provides upto date traffic information as part of the App.
The App works well, especially when combined with Google Maps satellite images when it becomes a useful mobile route planning tool.

The image below shows the same Google map with and with out live traffic information, the different colours show the different levels of traffic.

To activate live traffic updates in Google maps, select the Options icon on the bottom right hand corner of the screen to display the Apps option menu, and Selection the option to show traffic.

By • How to Articles, Software • 0 • Tags: , ,

Feb 11 2011

How to Track your Location with Google Latitude on the iPhone

Google Latitude is a popular GPS positioning application which allows authorised users to track your location easily through the online widget on their iGoogle home page.

Google Latitude running on iGoogle

It’s taken a while for Latitude to be released for the iPhone, but with the advent of the iPhones new Multitasking operating system, Latitude is now available free of charge from the App Store.

The application doesn’t run as a service like on other Mobile Phones but runs as an application, which means that you need to keep the application open for it to work properly, which is fine as long as you have a version on the iPhone that can Multitask.

The Application uses the GPS Hardware in the iPhone to update your position on latitude at regular intervals over the mobile data networks, but it is worth noting that this does seriously impact on the battery life of the phone.

You can also use the App to track the location of your friends or colleagues that also use Latitude through your iPhone, this is useful if you need to track the location of your work teams or want to find friends for a social event.

If you are a Latitude user and can live with the shortened battery life that comes with it then, the Google Latitude App is really useful.

Latitude running on the iPhone

By • How to Articles, Software • 0 • Tags: ,

Feb 4 2011

How to find your car with the iPhone

There are times when we are in a rush, or in a strange place, or if in a big carpark when we all forget where we parked our cars, fortunatly theres an iPhone App which can help.

Take Me To My Car is a free iPhone App which uses the handsets GPS hardware to store the location of your car and then provides directions back to your car when you are ready.

When you park your car, open the Take Me To My Car App and press the Park Here function, the app will locate your position and store your location.

When you need to find your car press the Get Directions button and the App will launch the iPhones Map application preloaded with your location and the location of your car, and provides you with directions.

Why pay for Apps that can do this, when Take Me To My Car is free and works well.

By • How to Articles, Software • 0 • Tags: ,

Jan 23 2011

How to Track and Identify Ships using the iPhone and Augmented Reality

The shipping traffic on the East Coast on England

When walking along the coast line, you will frequently see ships on their voyage and there are a couple of Apps which will help you identify their, name, class and purpose.

The First App is called Ship Finder, which uses the near real time AIS maps, along with the iPhone’s technology to display all the ships in your nearby area on a top down view map or satellite image.

Pressing once on each ship will display it’s Name, Class and Current location,  and by clicking on the label will display the full profile of the vessel, including a photograph as shown below.

This App provides a solution for those with an interest in ships to learn more about the ships that they can see and also provides a great tool for tracking vessels on their journey.

The second App is called Ships Ahoy! and compliments the Ship finder App well. Using the iPhones Camera and navigation hardware it presents a real time, Augmented Reality view of the world infront of you, if there are any ships in view an information bubble will appear over the vessel displaying basic infomation about the ship. Pressing the bubble will open a new screen outlining further about the ship.

An Augmented Reality View of Ships in the Area.

Both Apps are availble from the App Store

By • Hardware, How to Articles, Software • 0 • Tags: , ,

Jan 1 2011

A Free SatNav for your iPhone (No 3g connection Required)

The iPhone has built in AGPS hardware which with the right software can be used to provide SatNav Functionality, there are several commercial SatNav applications available for the iPhone including the famous TomTom application but these tend to be expensive.

There are several free SatNav applications for the iPhones but most are dependant on having an active 3g connection to pull down the map data when you need it, this can prove to be expensive and if you haven’t got a data signal can be a problem.

One alternative application is called Navfree, which is free and stores the entire uk and Ireland road maps on the iPhone so no downloads are required during your journey. Navfree is easy to use and the navigation screens are easy to follow, and whilst it might be missing some of the extra functionality of commercial SatNav applications, eg live traffic updates, but if all you want is standard navigation then this is the perfect soltuion.

To install Navfree search for Navfree in the App Store.

By • Software • 0 • Tags: , ,