New Patent Suggests Improved "Find My iPhone" Solution, But One That Might No Longer Be Necessary
June 16, 2011
A new patent filing suggests Apple could eventually release something best described as “Find My iPhone” Part II. This patent involves technology that would help individuals secure their data more effectively in case their iDevice is stolen, according to Patently Apple. Still, we wonder if it is even necessary.
First filed in Q4 2009, the patent request was originally submitted soon after the first version of “Find My iPhone” was revealed. It includes neat tricks to secure and retrieve data from a stole iDevice.
Currently, “Find My iPhone” only allows a user to wipe all of the information off an iDevice in the event it is stolen. This is unfortunate, since whatever data wasn't first synced to iTunes would be lost permanently.
Calling the wiping of data both inconvenient and time consuming, Apple suggests methods that would include increased security levels whereas “files or other content stored on the mobile device could be selectively protected.”
As such, users could one day “preselect certain files to be protected in the event their device is lost or stolen and introduces ways of securely scrambling information instead of wiping it out to make retrieval easier.”
In other words, the protected data would be scambled, making it of little use for a thief. Yet, if and when its owner recovered the iDevice, this data could be quickly recovered and the user would not face a complete loss of data.
Naturally, this is an interesting concept. Not only does it secure data in the event an iDevice is stolen, but it provides an easier way for restoration.
Still, we wonder if the technology will ever see the light of day, or if it even needs to.
After all, with the advent of iCloud, all of our data is saved and updated automatically to a cloud. This means, in the event an iDevice goes missing, iCloud provides an easy solution to recover this information and place it onto a new iDevice. And this happens whether or not the original iDevice is recovered.
Therefore, this new "Find My iPhone" Part II solution could prove no longer necessary.
What do you think? Leave your comments below.
