How to use Find My Mac in iCloud

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Apple's Find My iPhone service has long been a feature of MobileMe. So long as you have push email enabled on a MobileMe address, this service pings the handset, retrieving its location from the internal GPS chip and plotting it on a Google Map.

Should your iPhone be stolen, you can then send a message to its screen, or lock or wipe the handset and prevent anyone from getting hold of your sensitive data. Sadly, it doesn't go so far as allowing you to disable it entirely, to prevent it being sold on.

With MobileMe being retired in favour of iCloud, Apple has now rolled out a similar retrieval service for the Mac, Find My Mac. While none of Apple's current laptops feature 3G, it's a relatively trivial matter to plot a user's position from their IP address, so, as long as whoever has your Mac is online, finding them should be easy. Watch our video tutorial above, or read on to find out how to use Find My Mac.

Activate Find My Mac

As it could potentially give away your location to anyone who has your Apple ID credentials, and would also enable Apple to track your movements, Find My Mac is disabled by default. Activate it through 'system preferences' and then 'iCloud'. Click the check box beside 'Find My Mac' and confirm that you want to authorise it to lock or wipe your Mac remotely.

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