14 DAY TRIAL // An 8-year old from Tennessee helped bust some burglars that had stolen roughly $350,000 in goods. The tech-savvy child did all the work using Apple’s simple “Find My iPhone” application.
When his family’s Apple devices got stolen, Landon didn’t wait for the cops to find the bad guys. Instead, he downloaded Find My iPhone – an application designed by Apple in Cupertino, California, to locate iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch players on a map – and used it to see where his family’s goods had been taken.
“Landon, you didn't like the idea of your stuff being taken,” asked CNBC’s anchor. “What made you decide to look on the Internet and discover there's an app for that?”
Slightly intimidated, Landon took a deep breath and replied, “I don't really know. I just wanted to find my iPad, so i just looked it up and I found this app.”
“You found this app and you were able to actually pinpoint where your old iPad was.” What do you see on the map? How detailed was it?”, Landon was asked.
“Well, it just showed a big building, so when you went to the satellite view, it showed like a hotel. And when you zoomed in, you could tell it was the Ambassador Inn,” Landon replied.
When he returns to Tennessee, Landon will be greeted by his town’s mayor who will give him the key to the city.
Find My iPhone is an application developed by Apple Inc. with the sole purpose of locating iDevices. The service has recently been extended to include Macintosh computers as well.
As Landon himself explained, the software is capable of pinpointing a device anywhere on the globe, as long as the device is connected to the Internet (wirelessly, or even via a cable connection, in the case of a Macintosh computer).