Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia iTunes, iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV iPhone Security via iCloud

One of my daughters just got an iPhone 4S and I was quite pleased about the security features (like remotely installing a key, location finding, et cetera) until I saw that these require either another IOS device (she doesn't have one) or OSX Lion on her laptop.

Unfortunately she is OSX Snow Leopard and a change to OSX Lion would mean the loss of Rosetta, with a subsequent loss of important applications.

She has a backup drive partitioned for Time Machine and a Super Duper clone. My first thought is that she re-partition the drive for those two, and a third for an OSX Lion installation. On the OSX partition she could also have the applications needed to initiate any iPhone security functions if the need ever arose.

Does this sound like a reasonable approach and, if so, are there any perils or pitfalls?

Thanks

What does your daughter have on her laptop that runs under Rosetta and cannot easily be replaced by a newer release or another app that runs without Rosetta? Unless your daughter runs Lion almost exclusively there will be very little or no benefit to be gained from iCloud, so that becomes an exercise in futility.

If nothing else, couldn't she keep her music "up there?"

The iTunes database is different.

She has Office 2004 which can be replaced but only by spending much more money to replace something that already does everything she needs. She also has Quicken - the same rationale as well as the fact that the replacement is not as functional as Quicken, so it's more money to get less. She may have others and I will check - she's at university in another city.

However, if she could simply use the iPhone security features from her backup drive, none of this would be necessary......I think.


I may not have been clear enough in describing my plan.

She does not need Lion or the application updates for anything she does with her laptop. She only needs Lion in case she ever has to use the security features available for her new phone.

Therefore, she would only use Lion if her phone was lost or stolen and she wanted to enter the four digit code, use the locator, et cetera. The backup drive partition would have the OS and the security applications, and she would boot from that drive. Lion would not be used for any of the other applications she uses with 10.6

After using the security functions she would do a restart to 10.6.

Does that change anything or am I not understanding something?

Are you saying FREE is much more expensive than your current investment in the now antiquated Office 2004?

Have you by any chance looked at NeoOffice or its somewhat slower and less comprehensive sibling OpenOffice.org? Either is a good replacement for the Microsoft product and while donations to the projects are appreciated they are not required for a fully functional copy.

I think the software is only antiquated at the point it can't do what you need.

I'll never say that free (or a developer's fee) is more expensive from a monetary point of view. However, from a "potential problems" point of view, the cost could be huge.

My daughter is in the third year of her studies and well settled into the exchange of papers, examinations, et cetera, with students and teachers who all use Microsoft Products. Most are on PCs and what she has, works.

I think it would be unwise to throw in the wrinkle of learning a new product that may or may not work well with those she's been exchanging with - particularly if any other person might need to make some change to the way their software works. I'm just not going to roll those dice.

So, I would like her to have the benefit of the advanced iPhone security but it can't be at the cost of potentially disrupting studies.

In terms of that objective, was I on a right track?

ryck,

I hope this is not a false trail for your daughter. She might try these steps first to see if her computer can be used rather than another iPhone or iPad to take advantage of Find My iPhone.

See the Customer Review posted by Dan & Amanda at App Store - Find My iPhone.

I used this Macworld article to set up Find My iPhone in March 2011: How to set up Find My iOS device on your iPhone and iPad.

I am running Mac OS X 10.6.8 on a MacBook Pro. I am using iTunes 10.5 and iOS 5.0.

I just tested signing in with my free Mobile Me account.

That done, it took me to a page which said: "To use Find My iPhone, go to icloud.com. You can now use this account to log in to iCloud. No change is required for your devices."

I clicked on "Open icloud.com" and entered my Apple ID and Password.

Another page loaded showing a map and a list of My Devices: Dianne's iPhone.

I clicked on Dianne's iPhone.

I clicked on the "i" (information circle) on the map for Dianne's iPhone.

I could select from: Play Sound or Send Message, Remote Lock, or Remote Lock.

ryck, here is a correction:

Change - to - I could select from: Play Sound or Send Message, Remote Lock, or Remote WIPE.

Thank you, dianne. I appreciate the time you've taken. If it all works, it will certainly be a much more elegant solution than re-partioning a backup drive.

I want to prepare a step-by-step for my daughter, using the information you've provided and some from the other sources. She's busy with studies and will appreciate not having to figure it out.

I have spent some time going the the links provided and find that I can't learn about some things (like opening an iCloud account) because I am 10.6.8 but I believe that doesn't matter because my daughter will be able to do that part using her phone.

Using my simple-minded logic that makes sense because, if her phone is the one needing to be contacted in a security situation, it should be the one initiating the original contact.

Hope the iPhone connection ideas work.

Failing that . . . and adding to joemikeb's remarks:


When using the free NEO OFFICE or OPEN OFFICE applications, files can be saved in .PDF format - thus suitable for swapping with her PC colleagues.

Even better NeoOffice and Openoffice.org can not only read Microsoft Office files, including .docx and the like, they can also save files in the Microsoft Office format including some MS Office for Windows features that are not handled in Microsoft Office for Mac. There are occasional glitches with heavily formatted files but in general the translation both ways is pretty good.

Belated thanks, dianne.

My daughter was home over Christmas and demonstrated the working security features...entering a code remotely, locating the phone...and it all performs extraordinarily well. And, of course, she gets to keep her current OS (10.6.8) with the applications on her laptop.