Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Activating Find My Mac
The old way of finding your MacBook Air consisted of scouring every nook and cranny that you visited before
losing the machine and calling up various lost-and-found departments to see if anyone's turned it in. The new
way to find your MacBook Air is a great iCloud feature called Find My Mac. (You can also use this feature
through Find My iPhone, an iOS app that you can download to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch through the
App Store.) Find My Mac uses known wireless access points and hotspots to locate the computer. You can also
use Find My Mac to send a message to the MacBook Air, remotely lock your MacBook Air, and, in a pinch, re-
motely delete your data. The next few sections provide the details.
To ensure that a thief can't mess with your MacBook Air, configure OS X to require a password when it wakes from
sleep mode. Open System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, click the General tab, and then unlock the preferen-
ces. Select the Require password check box, and choose Immediately in the pop-up. You should also select the Disable
automatic login check box. Finally, click Advanced and then select the Log out after check box. Use the Log out after
pop-up to choose a relatively short timeout period, such as 5 minutes.
As I mentioned, Find My Mac works by using nearby wireless signals to triangulate the MacBook Air's current
position. This triangulation is turned off by default, so you need to turn it on if you ever plan to use Find My
Mac. Here are the steps to follow:
1. Pull down the Apple menu and choose System Preferences.
The System Preferences window appears.
2. Click iCloud.
3. Select the Find My Mac check box, as shown in Figure 7.1.
System Preferences asks whether Find My
Mac can use the location of your MacBook Air.
4. Click Allow.
5. Click Show All to return to the main System Preferences window.
6. Click Security & Privacy.
7. Click the Privacy tab.
