iOS 7 preview: Activation lock aims to keep out the crooks

Find my iPhone - also referred to as Find my iPod or Find my iPad on those devices - has always been a great way to help you find your phone or tablet under a sofa, in another room, or even at a restaurant, coffee shop, theater, or similar public place. It's been great for lost devices. Stolen devices, not so much. Now, with iOS 7, Apple is addressing theft with what they hope is a powerful new deterrent - activation lock. With Talk Mobile 2013 security week underway, lets see how it stands up...

Here's what Apple has to say about Find my iPhone for iOS 7 in general:

Losing your iPhone feels lousy. Thankfully, Find My iPhone can help you get it back. But if it looks like that’s not going to happen, new security features in iOS 7 make it harder for anyone who’s not you to use or sell your device. Now turning off Find My iPhone or erasing your device requires your Apple ID and password. Find My iPhone can also continue to display a custom message, even after your device is erased. And your Apple ID and password are required before anyone can reactivate it. Which means your iPhone is still your iPhone. No matter where it is.

And here's what Apple's show off so far:

• Find my Friends will, following the launch of iOS 7, sport a newly redesigned iOS 7-style interface. ('Natch.)
• There's a Lost Mode which track down your iOS device and shows its approximate location on a map, much as it always had. There are also handy buttons to enter Lost Mode, and well as to play a sound and to remotely wipe the device.

• If a thief wants to try and disable Find my iPhone, or wipe the phone to disable tracking, activation lock will force them to enter your Apple ID and password first, and if not entered, prevent any software tampering with the tracking.

• If you remotely wipe a device, you can re-activate it using activation lock and your Apple ID and password as well.

iPhones and iPads are valuable targets for criminals and activation lock looks like a good way to make the devices less attractive. While it probably won't do much to slow down crooks who want to grab iPhones and iPads for parts, anyone hoping to resell a functional device now has to worry about circumventing activation lock as well.

Activation lock has already been put through its paces by the San Francisco District Attorney which is promising, though we'll have to wait and see how it performs, long term, before we have any idea how successful it in the real world.

Still, doing something is far better than doing nothing. Kudos to Apple for trying to make iOS devices higher hanging fruit.

Activation lock ships as part of iOS 7 this fall. The updated Find my Friends app will presumably be released at the same time as well.

• Find my iPhone: Everything you need to know
• iOS 7: Everything you need to know
• iOS 7: Discussion forum