Posts Tagged ‘lost’
Using Photoshop To Protect Your iPad!
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
If you have a wifi only iPad you may think you are protected by the Apple “Find My iPad” utility, but you are not. If you lose it, or it is stolen, how will it be recovered? Remember, for the Find My iPad app to work, the iPad has to be signed into the Internet. If you don’t set a password or passcode, it is possible for a thief to go into the settings and shut off Find My iPad. If you do set a password or passcode, it is only possible for the iPad to go online if it is in a place where it has signed into the Internet before, without asking if it should. Otherwise, it remains offline, and Find My iPad can’t find it.
This means that should the police or someone else recover your iPad, they can’t find out how to contact you to say they have it, because they, too, are locked out.
This is how Photoshop or another photo editing tool can help. The iPad allows you to put an image on the lockout screen, other than the one it comes with.
Go into Photoshop and open a new document in the size of the resolution of your screen. In the case of the iPad 4 it is 2048 pixels X 1536 pixels @ 264 pixels per inch. Then add whatever colors you want or add an image as a layer. Next, find the center and use the text tool using the center-justified tool, and put in some text that identifies this iPad as yours. See the example below.
Make something that works for you, and then flatten the image. Save it as a jpeg. I used a quality of 7.
Upload it as an image through iCloud using your Photostream. Go on your iPad and open Photostream. Tap the image and when it gets smaller, tap “edit,” tap the image again so there is a checkmark on the thumbnail, tap “Save to Camera Roll.” Go into the Camera Roll, tap “edit,” tap the thumbnail, tap “share,” and then tap “use as wallpaper.” Now choose “Set Lock Screen.” Turn off your display. Reopen. Your new wallpaper should show the image you just put on your iPad.
Of course, you can do this with your 3G or 4G iPhones and iPads as well.
This way, if some thief steals your iPad and can’t break the passcode or password, anyone he or she shows it to knows it has been stolen. If it is lost, someone who finds it will be able to get in touch with you, or if the police have it, they will be able to contact you.
While not perfect, it should help you hold onto your iPad or maybe get it back.
– Gary Silverstein
We Shoot
We Shoot is a commercial product, food, industrial, and architectural photography team based in the Seattle area.