iphone - what do I need to know?

[chamonix]

Each person in the family has a playlist on iTunes for just "their" songs, etc. so every single item isn't on every single device.

Find My iPhone is helpful for another reason: you can hop online and see where your daughter is at any given time. so, if she says she's going to the mall, she better actually be at the mall, lol. Or for safety...if her car dies somewhere in the dark and she doesn't know where she is, you can find her--of course, she could just send you a dropped pin too...if she's conscious (horrible thought, sorry!)

Make sure she sets it to use wifi whenever available (like at home) to save using up the data plan (if not unlimited). Wifi should be faster anyway.

If you have multiple apple devices on one iCloud account, make sure to turn off the things you don't want to share across devices...more than once I have been woken up by my husband's reminders when he's in a different time zone; once my daughter deleted all the bookmarks on her iPod touch and they disappeared from all our devices...so I lost all the bookmarks on my iPhone and iPad. If you have Photostream turned on you can see the pictures she takes almost immediately....you get the idea.

Apps I recommend besides find my iPhone: a flashlight app, a weather app like weatherbug so she can check the radar and for lightning nearby, free Pandora app for music...

 

[laughinplace199]

Great advice. Thanks everyone!

She got the phone last night. Today she transferred her songs from her ipod to her phone and she has purchased a few apps. She's on and having a lot of fun with it so far.

We haven't looked into icloud yet, but that's on the "to do" list.

 

[bellebud]

my limited knowledge...

dd had an iphone. I received a 'warning' email from a friend that the gps locator enables anyone to hover over a pic that was taken from the phone and posted on-line, and it shows on a map where the pic was taken. I went on dd's facebook, hovered over a pic she took when she was home, and our address on a map was right there. I turned off the gps locator feature immediately.

Then, dd was playing football outside and put the phone on the bumper of my car, wanting the phone to be safe. DH unexpectedly had to run somewhere, took my car, dd forgot about the phone being on the bumper, and the phone was lost. We looked best we could the whole 8 miles dh had driven. And the 'find my phone' feature couldn't work, because I turned off the gps tracking.

someone suggested that if she had synced w/ her imac, or had an icloud account, we MAY have been able to turn on the gps locator remotely, but she never did these things, so we couldn't try. don't know if it would have worked.

There is NO insurance coverage for lost or stolen phones. Just be aware of this. I wasn't. I bought extra coverage, which I thought covered everything. My fault for misunderstanding. Only damage is covered, which is great, but...

so we're waiting for our next upgrade in Dec for her to get another phone.

 

[Princess Dolly]

Another vote for the Otterbox case. We ordered ours from Amazon online and they are much cheaper than buying them at a retail store

My family shares an iTunes account so that we only have to buy apps one time and they can be shared between our iPhones and the kids iPod touches. The accounts for messaging, iCloud, find my phone, etc are separate from the iTunes account.

Hope that helps!

You can share apps even with different iTunes accounts. You just have to sign in with the other's account info and download the app. And then music can be shared over home sharing (we have two different computers). Works for us. He has his iPhone and an iPod Nano. I have an iPhone, iPod Touch (got it before the phone) and an iPad.

 

[Princess Dolly]

my limited knowledge...

dd had an iphone. I received a 'warning' email from a friend that the gps locator enables anyone to hover over a pic that was taken from the phone and posted on-line, and it shows on a map where the pic was taken. I went on dd's facebook, hovered over a pic she took when she was home, and our address on a map was right there. I turned off the gps locator feature immediately.

Then, dd was playing football outside and put the phone on the bumper of my car, wanting the phone to be safe. DH unexpectedly had to run somewhere, took my car, dd forgot about the phone being on the bumper, and the phone was lost. We looked best we could the whole 8 miles dh had driven. And the 'find my phone' feature couldn't work, because I turned off the gps tracking.

someone suggested that if she had synced w/ her imac, or had an icloud account, we MAY have been able to turn on the gps locator remotely, but she never did these things, so we couldn't try. don't know if it would have worked.

There is NO insurance coverage for lost or stolen phones. Just be aware of this. I wasn't. I bought extra coverage, which I thought covered everything. My fault for misunderstanding. Only damage is covered, which is great, but...

so we're waiting for our next upgrade in Dec for her to get another phone.

Were the pics posted on Facebook? You could have shut off the location through Facebook and still left the GPS locator on. Actually you can just shut off location servies all together for the camera and leave in on for other things. Go to settings, location services. It's not all or nothing.

And there is insurance coverage for lost and stolen phones if you buy it through your carrier. Apple+ won't cover it, but the insurance you can purchase through the carrier can (depending on which plan you purchase).

 

[bellebud]

Were the pics posted on Facebook? You could have shut off the location through Facebook and still left the GPS locator on. Actually you can just shut off location servies all together for the camera and leave in on for other things. Go to settings, location services. It's not all or nothing.

And there is insurance coverage for lost and stolen phones if you buy it through your carrier. Apple+ won't cover it, but the insurance you can purchase through the carrier can (depending on which plan you purchase).

Thanks for that info on the gps and facebook. I'm going to check her facebook and remember the info for her next iphone. I need all the help I can get w/ todays technology!

our carrier is Sprint, and they said no coverage for lost/stolen.

 

[Princess Dolly]

Thanks for that info on the gps and facebook. I'm going to check her facebook and remember the info for her next iphone. I need all the help I can get w/ todays technology!

our carrier is Sprint, and they said no coverage for lost/stolen.

With AT&T I could have bought that coverage (I didn't). I didn't realize other carriers didn't have that option.

I'm the IT person in our home (DH can't be bothered), so I have done a lot of self-learning.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Batteries are not user replaceable. If you need a backup battery (like for a full day at WDW or elsewhere), you need to have a charger of some sort with you.

 

[usd2bmd]

I too use the find my iPhone app to know where my daughter is sometimes and I have successfully used it when my daughter left it on the bus. I sent it message and tone to it so they could find it on the bus.

 

[manning]

I do not pay extra for texting.

I would get a protective case of some type & I would also consider insurance if your carrier offers it.

You may be texting iPhone to iPhone using IMessage. I know that is free.

 

[SideshowBob]

Another Otter Box vote ... also, I love the "find a friend" app but need multiple Iphones. I am able to see location of my kid's phones so I know if they are home or out and about .. even where they are during trips. They think a little "big brother" like but hey, I'm payin' for the phones.

 

[Princess Dolly]

You may be texting iPhone to iPhone using IMessage. I know that is free.

Well free in the sense that it doesn't count as a text. But you need to be on WiFi or it goes against Data Usage.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

You can PROBABLY use Google Voice and get free texting.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

Another Otter Box vote ... also, I love the "find a friend" app but need multiple Iphones. I am able to see location of my kid's phones so I know if they are home or out and about .. even where they are during trips. They think a little "big brother" like but hey, I'm payin' for the phones.

You don't need another iPhone to use this app. Just type in icloud.com into your internet browser and sign into your apple account. iPad's work as well, if you have one.