My friend's Ipad was stolen today. I'm just wondering if there's any way to track it. He didn't register the ipad on itunes or signed up for Mediame.. however he does have the serial number of the ipad. I'm wondering if apple or the police can track it down.. I also heard the ipad has a built in GPS that can help identify the exact location of where the ipad may be, and also the facial face recognization feature built-in that will send a pic of the thief to the owner if he uses the ipad. Can the ipad also be tracked if it's turned off? His ipad is 3G 64gb. I don't think you need wifi/3G for GPS to work right? As long as the ipad is either turned on/off, you can still track it? Sorry for all the questions. I just want to help my friend out.


Any help or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Unless your friend has a receipt with his (her?) name on that has the serial number of the iPad on it, this is probably going to end up being a very expensive lesson.

You should have them turn in a police report, but it is my guess that the iPad has already been fenced or is at least on eBay or CraigsList somewhere.

You could call Apple and tell them what happened. Eventually, sooner or later, someone is going to have to register the iPad in order to use it. Let's assume your thief does this, but what is the likelihood that they are going to give their real name and credit card number?

In order to be tracked, one would need to register the iPad then sign up for a 3g account and then sign up for the MobileMe service. It is doubtful that the thief would go through all that trouble, but then again, thieves are not always know to be the smartest people on earth!

And there is no facial recognition on the iPad since there are no cameras.

Sorry!

My friend did file a police report, but I doubt the police will do anything unless there's solid proof.

My friend does have the serial number. Can he sign up for mobileme now w/ the serial number and track down the ipad or at least stop the thief from using it? What about the built-in GPS? It should pinpoint the exact location of the ipad even if the ipad is on or off?

What if the theif decides to do a factory restore? Are we doomed?


Sorry for all these questions.. my friend is heavily depressed and I'm trying to help him out. I don't know too much about iPads, but as always, appreciate your response and help.

I agree that the thief plans to fence it, not use it. Some sap will buy it and then run afoul of it being stolen.
You don't need a 3G plan for either GPS or the MobileMe Find My iThingie to work. I have a 3G unit but have never had a data plan and all those things work fine.
Factory restore will not alter the serial #.

Sorry about your friends loss! As a public service announcement the "Find my iPhone" app is now free and does not require a MobileMe account. So you might thing about downloading that and setting up your iDevices.

For you friend - if he as a 3G model and an active account me may be able to get some help from ATT. If he has documentation AND the UDID / EIN numbers for his ATT account then they might be able to brick the thing or track it remotely. 2 things he should also do IMMEDIATELY:
1 - change his iTunes account passwords and contact Apple and let them know the device was stolen in the event that someone could access and charge anything to his iTunes account.

2 - contact ATT and let them know the device was stolen so that he is not liable for any data charges...what if the thief leaves the country and runs up data charges?


I would suggest he get a police report.

My Ipad was just stolen last night! How did this turn out for your friend???

Originally Posted by TJK

Sorry about your friends loss! As a public service announcement the "Find my iPhone" app is now free and does not require a MobileMe account. So you might thing about downloading that and setting up your iDevices.

For you friend - if he as a 3G model and an active account me may be able to get some help from ATT. If he has documentation AND the UDID / EIN numbers for his ATT account then they might be able to brick the thing or track it remotely. 2 things he should also do IMMEDIATELY:
1 - change his iTunes account passwords and contact Apple and let them know the device was stolen in the event that someone could access and charge anything to his iTunes account.

2 - contact ATT and let them know the device was stolen so that he is not liable for any data charges...what if the thief leaves the country and runs up data charges?


I would suggest he get a police report.

A. If MobileMe's 'Find my iPhone's app wasn't downloaded and toggled on in settings/mailcontactscalenders/addaccount/mobileme, then it won't show its location on a map. Enabling a passcode is recommended to prevent a clean install/wipe.

B. Even if this was not installed and enabled ahead of time, your iTunes account information is masked out almost entirely, so a thief would still not be able to gain any access, and because a password is required to purchase an app, etc, there's little worry about there - for those who do have MobileMe's find my feature, you can enable and/or change the passcode remotely, and wipe the data off the device if desired.

Sorry for your friend's loss.

Originally Posted by TJK

Sorry about your friends loss! As a public service announcement the "Find my iPhone" app is now free and does not require a MobileMe account. So you might thing about downloading that and setting up your iDevices.

.

Thanks for pointing out the fact that it is free now

just out of interest, if one had a pin on the ipad and it was stolen, surely no one could access the ipad without the pin? i think even if you do restore it, you still require a pin?

How long to crack that with a computer? 10 seconds?