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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > iPhone, iPad & iPod > What countries does Find My iPhone work in?

What countries does Find My iPhone work in?
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Cold Warrior
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Jun 26, 2009, 01:20 PM
 
I'm wondering if Find My iPhone on mobileMe works in your country. US is an obvious yes. I'm particularly interested in Europe, the Middle East, and Russia, locked or unlocked.
     
richwig83
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Jun 26, 2009, 01:22 PM
 
UK works!! :-)
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King Bob On The Cob
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Jun 26, 2009, 01:30 PM
 
Originally Posted by Cold Warrior View Post
I'm wondering if Find My iPhone on mobileMe works in your country. US is an obvious yes. I'm particularly interested in Europe, the Middle East, and Russia, locked or unlocked.
If Google Maps works there, you can get a data connection, and the phone can talk to the GPS satellites, I don't think there's any place it will not work.
     
JKT
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Jun 26, 2009, 01:31 PM
 
It should work everywhere that GPS works. In other words, everywhere. Whether or not the web site will is another matter but I haven't heard of it being blocked anywhere, even in those countries (China) that like to censor the web.
     
Cold Warrior  (op)
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Jun 26, 2009, 02:10 PM
 
Originally Posted by richwig83 View Post
UK works!! :-)
Is the UK really Europe?
     
richwig83
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Jun 26, 2009, 07:06 PM
 
Originally Posted by Cold Warrior View Post
Is the UK really Europe?
Good point... we like to keep out distance!
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Spheric Harlot
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Jun 26, 2009, 07:35 PM
 
Unless it works to your advantage.
     
Simon
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Jun 27, 2009, 03:38 AM
 
Originally Posted by richwig83 View Post
Good point... we like to keep out distance!
Yeah that's working great for your currency. LOL

Back on topic, I know that I could not GPS to work in the Chinese outback when I was there about a year ago. I have no idea if they jam the frequencies or what, but it was simply impossible to get any location information on my iPhone. To check the iPhone we also took out a Garmin GPS receiver. Nothing. So I wouldn't expect it to work in those areas. Not that you'd ever want to go there in the first place though.
     
pete.z
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Jun 27, 2009, 04:45 PM
 
Works like a charm here in the Netherlands.
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Cold Warrior  (op)
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Jun 27, 2009, 06:50 PM
 
Originally Posted by pete.z View Post
Works like a charm here in the Netherlands.
thanks.
     
ghporter
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Jun 27, 2009, 06:58 PM
 
I'm pondering MobileMe's usefulness... Is this a "very important function" that a new iPhone user (me) should know about, or just a "oh that's where I left it" utility?

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
frdmfghtr
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Jun 27, 2009, 08:11 PM
 
I wouldn't call it "very important" nor a "oh that's where I left it" function. Maybe if you have a family of iPhones and track them all to keep tabs on everybody's whereabouts (for whatever reason). For chuckles and grins...if you turned it on for your phone then shipped it somewhere...that would give new meaning to "real-time package tracking."
     
- - e r i k - -
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Jun 28, 2009, 07:16 PM
 
Yes, it works everywhere.

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Simon
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Jun 29, 2009, 02:35 AM
 
Originally Posted by - - e r i k - - View Post
Yes, it works everywhere.
Apart from places that break GPS. Or don't allow cell tower triangulation.
( Last edited by Simon; Jun 29, 2009 at 02:50 AM. )
     
ghporter
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Jun 29, 2009, 08:24 AM
 
Originally Posted by Simon View Post
Apart from places that break GPS. Or don't allow cell tower triangulation.
GPS is hard to "break" in a technical sense-if you have a clear sky, you can locate anywhere. Of course that means that inside my home (with foil-lined roof sheathing) GPS is "broken," as well as many places with really dense foliage overhead. But I've gotten good tracks on handheld receivers through airplane windows-better than I've gotten in many airports, in fact.

As for "don't allow cell tower triangulation," isn't that done IN the phone and thus not subject to some outside entity allowing it?

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
Simon
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Jun 29, 2009, 02:37 PM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
GPS is hard to "break" in a technical sense-if you have a clear sky, you can locate anywhere.
Sorry Glenn, but that's incorrect. Read my post above. I have been to places where there was no way you could receive a GPS signal. Not with an iPhone, not with two different types of GPS receivers. I don't know exactly how they do it, but my guess would be the Chinese jam the 1.6 GHz L1 band used for GPS reception. The devices then only pick up noise (in fact GPS is mainly noise and receivers use very fancy algorithms to filter out the surprisingly weak signals from a huge background of crap) and can't determine a position.

The point is, had I lost my iPhone in such a place FMiP would not have worked.

As for "don't allow cell tower triangulation," isn't that done IN the phone and thus not subject to some outside entity allowing it?
No. Shut off the data connection, go to some place you've never been to and you'll quickly learn it's not done IN the iPhone alone. What the iPhone does is correlate the cell tower identifier with an online database. If the Chinese made sure their cell towers are not in that database or they scramble the identifier that would explain why cell tower triangulation doesn't work in China. At least not in some parts.

Bottom line is that while I'm sure FMiP will work in most places, I have been to places where I know it won't work. And I wanted people to know that China (or at least parts of it) is such a place. If you lose your iPhone or its gets stolen, that's definitely not where you want it to happen.
     
ghporter
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Jun 29, 2009, 04:12 PM
 
I missed your post about your trip to China. And while I don't doubt your report, I'm having a hard time figuring out how one might jam the kind of signal GPS uses, in the frequency band it uses over any large area. One of the particular design criteria for the system was that it should be available in spite of terrestrial interference sources. So if they're doing this on purpose, they're working VERY hard at it. And whatever they're doing is not particularly healthy for people, other animals, and even plants... I think I'll give such regions a wide berth for a number of reasons.

I hadn't thought through the cell system triangulation process; in order to do it all in the phone, it would require that the database of tower identifiers to be IN the phone...way too much data for it to be a practical solution.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
Simon
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Jun 29, 2009, 04:14 PM
 
I don't plan on going back there anytime soon either, I can assure you. And not just because of the broken GPS.
     
JKT
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Jun 30, 2009, 04:45 AM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
And whatever they're doing is not particularly healthy for people, other animals, and even plants...
The Chinese government doesn't exactly have a very good track record when it comes to caring about the health of the environment or its people.
     
Simon
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Jun 30, 2009, 05:17 AM
 
Originally Posted by JKT View Post
The Chinese government doesn't exactly have a very good track record when it comes to caring about the health of the environment or its people.


British understatement at its best.
     
   
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