iOS 7 Helping to Keep Thieves at Bay this Thanksgiving Holiday.

iOS 7 Helping to Keep Thieves at Bay this Thanksgiving Holiday.

iPhone and iPad thefts skyrocket during the heavy traffic holidays like Thanksgiving. Here are some tips to thwart any would-be-thieves. Scenario: you put a passcode on your phone and assume that’s enough to make it secure since it’s enough of a hassle for yourself. However, if somebody takes the phone shortly after you’ve just used it, it won’t require a code immediately. A smart thief may go immediately to disable services that may help you remotely lock, wipe or find your phone.

However, iOS7 has a new feature called Activation Lock. This is enabled simply by enabling Find My iPhone. This is done by going to Settings>iCloud>Find my iPhone. Now if somebody wishes to disable the feature they would need to enter your passcode. This gives you time to get to a browser, log in to icloud.com and find your phone. Not only will you be able to see where it is, but you can lock it remotely if it wasn’t already. You can also make it play an unstoppable alarm (say if it’s still in the same airport as you) and place a recovery message in the hopes somebody will want to return it to its owner. With the new security features in iOS7 a properly secured phone that is stolen is completely useless to a new would-be-owner.

If you don’t have iOS version 7 yet we highly encourage you to obtain it by connecting your device to iTunes.

We hope this has been a helpful tip. The team at OMG wishes you a happy Thanksgiving Day and safe travels!