The Daily App: Find My iPhone

Whether you're responsible for just a single phone or those of an entire company, there are likely to be times when you'll need help finding one. For such times there's Find My iPhone, a free app from Apple that instantly locates any iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mac that can take steps to help you find or disable it or to erase its data.

To find a misplaced device, it must first have Find My iPhone installed and enabled in its iCould settings. To find that phone, simply install Find My iPhone on another iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mac and sign in with your Apple ID. The tool displays the whereabouts of the missing device on a Google Map and offers options for playing a sound, displaying a message, locking or remotely wiping the device.

It will play a sound at full volume for two minutes, even if the device was set to silent. This particular feature offers students, travelers and other public-place dwellers an immediate (if unsubtle) method of thwarting would-be phone thieves or pranksters.

Find My iPhone requires an Internet connection and comes with a few additional limitations. To locate an WiFi-enabled iPad, iPod Touch or Mac, it must be connected to a registered WiFi network. Macs must not be asleep. An account with iCloud or MobileMe is required, and the tool requires iOS 5 or OS X Lion 10.7.2 for iCould users or iOS 3.1.3 for users of MobileMe.