The news was made public as the company gears up to release iOS 4.2.1, which it said will go live later today.

The Find My… facility has to date been part of the Mobile Me, Apple’s £59-a-year email and device data syncing service. Find My… allows you to locate your device – assuming, of course, it’s connected to the internet – and, if necessary, wipe or lock it remotely.

Anyone who owns an iPhone 4, iPad or fourth-generation iPod Touch can now make use of the service by downloading a free app to a second iDevice, Apple said.

Of course, that’s as useful as tits on a bull if you only have one of these iDevices, so we hope Apple will also make the service accessible through the web, as MobileMe is.

iOS 4.2.1, meanwhile, brings the iPad into operarting system parity with other iDevices, and implements both AirPrint – Apple’s universal wireless printing tech – and AirPlay, its revamped media streaming system. ®

Anecdotal evidence from developer David Smith of Cross Forward Consulting (via Silicon Alley Insider) suggests, however, that the program may not be cost-effective for developers, as a test ad campaign resulted in low click-through and conversion rates for an app priced at only $0.99.
From August 19 through August 25 I ran a campaign on the newly released iAd for Developers platform for our Audiobooks Premium app. The results were, to say the least, disappointing. For all the promise of selling your apps directly within an advertisement, it appears that so far this is not a viable way to drive traffic and create an economically sustainable promotion. For $1,251.75, my campaign generated a total of 84 downloads, thus a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) of ~$15. For a $0.99 app, those economics just can’t work out.

The remainder of the post details the process of signing up for an monitoring the iAd for Developers, and while Smith was pleased with the professionalism of Apple’s iAd staff and the ease with which he could monitor his campaign, the return on investment was simply nowhere near what would be required to be viable. While an application carrying a higher price tag or significant in-app purchasing content might stand a better chance of seeing a profitable ad campaign, conversion rates would likely be even lower for a more expensive application.
Given that the cost for the campaign is entirely based on clicks, we designed our banner to try and provide the audience with all the basic information they need to understand what Audiobooks is and whether they might be interested in purchasing it. This lead to a more textual treatment than a graphical one. Since we don’t pay for impressions we only wanted truly interested people clicking on the advertisement.
Apple’s iAd program utilizes a “targeting system” that helps identify which users might be most likely to respond to and purchase a given application, and for that reason, Apple’s staff encouraged Smith to continue the campaign beyond the first few unsuccessful days in hopes of refining that targeting and boosting yields. Improvement was non-existent, however, and the campaign was canceled after six days and only 84 downloads on over 2 million impressions.
Smith also performed a comparison campaign using the same banner ad on AdMob’s network, finding a click-through rate over five times higher than that for iAd, and with AdMob’s cheaper cost structure, Smith’s cost-per-click was over six times cheaper on AdMob than on iAd. The reason for the significant difference in click-through rates between the platforms is unclear, especially considering the widely-held belief that the iAd program would offer a “premium” branding that would be more enticing to users than traditional banner ads.

But what about the iPhone as an essential business tool? For mission-critical enterprise applications that require a robust and secure operating system.

To help launch your quest for mobile productivity, here’s a list of useful tips, applications, sites and more to keep you moving forward while you’re moving around.

1. Stay organized. The Economist magazine wrote, “Zoho is the most comprehensive suite of web-based programmes for small businesses …”.  Now that it’s available for the iPhone, you can bring your office wherever you go. Torch also offers a project management app that lets you organize all of your communication, files, tasks and more in one place.

2. Send email. The iPhone supports both Web-based and corporate email systems, including Microsoft Outlook, so you can stay connected no matter your location. You can even sync your iPhone with your PC email by using the IMAP application. And if you get frustrated by having to compose emails in portrait view, turn things around with one of the apps in this review of wide-format email apps. Wide Mail Keyboard and MailType are additional offerings in this category.
3. Manage tasks. Strange but true: the iPhone doesn’t come with a Tasks app. But you can create to-do lists in your notes, or you can use apps like 43 Actions (allows updates via email, Twitter or Jott) or do.Oh.

4. Leverage productivity tools. Create and manage charts using Charts; create, view and share presentations with Keypoint; and export your PowerPoint slides to your iPhone using Mac Office 2008.

5. Track time and expenses. The iPhone version of Harvest allows you to track your time, enter expenses and more.

6. Calendar your time. If the iPhone calendar doesn’t do it for you, try Google’s or 30Boxes’.

7. Take notes. There are lots of choices here, including GlueyNotes, Evernote, RemoteNote, Thumb Jot and of course the one that comes standard with the iPhone.