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How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

manas.tech

191–200 of 349 posts

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#191
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could have indeed but that would be his risk if he didn't obtain proof of purchase or take an invoice or sales receipt from me. Paperwork exists for a reason.

Right. The point is that it would require a full police investigation, interviews, etc... In my view at fault in these cases is the delivery company, they are in a hurry and don't bother doing a proper job. If they would be forced to eat the cost, this wouldn't happen anymore. Basically they are outsourcing their job to the police force.

AFAIK I pay for taxes to get a police force that does this no?

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#192
post #39

Ha, last winter I lost my phone while snowboarding in the last 300-500m before mountain base. I noticed because I was listening to music with my airpods when I got to the bottom the music had gone silent. Thankfully I had my Apple watch with me, so I immediately got off the board and start running uphill while incessantly spamming the "ping my phone" button. At some point I saw in the watch screen it briefly connecte…

Was he stealing it? I found a phone on the slopes last year, but I gave it to the liftee - figured I'd let them figure out how to get it back to the owner.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#193
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with all the hate Apple gets in the tech sphere, they do have a lot of very handy features in their products.

IMHO the volume of hate isn't so much once you calibrate for Apple setting high expectations for its products, and Apple selling these products by the metric crap-ton.

Thought: hate for a product is at least partially a factor of who buys it - or, more precisely, how often you see dickheads with it.

Self-infatuated people are attracted to premium brands, and entitled people and premium brands are both more visible than the converse. Hands up if you've never been cut up in traffic by a BMW? Likewise, when someone cuts in line at a cafe and then sits down with a macbook, it's going to sensitise you to the failings of Apple

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>a good police force What do you expect the police to do in this situation? They can't just walk into people's homes over your word. OP at least had a noise which in the states I assume is probable cause or something. And even then they'd have to come back with a warrant but got the headphones because the suspect felt defeated. Your situation is bizarre, the helpless feeling of knowing where your stolen item is and n…

> OP at least had a noise which in the states I assume is probable cause or something. Isn’t a signal that is within a few feet of the door you want to enter good enough? It’s more authenticate than some random noise - you know it’s your device and not some random device emitting find my data. Sounds like policing or judicial approach is outdated. If a police officer sees the stolen goods inside via a window, they ca…

It's not a random noise if you can trigger it. Better to have the signal and the controlled noise if possible. You can't see the RF waves in the same way as sight. It is possible that the RF is ducting or has some other propagation phenomenon. And that's assuming you are even able to connect to the device and not just viewing it's location through the network, which could have precise location issues. Two sources are better than one.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#195

Find My came to the rescue when my wife unknowingly dropped her phone during a pullover to take some pix. The turnout was on New Priest Grade, the best way to Yosemite from our home. Next morning, after the frenzied "Where's my phone" search petered out, we remembered Find My. No way, I thought. Rural road, many miles away, etc. Which new phone would you like, Dear? Find My immediately found it 43 miles away. My wife…

I have a couple of Tile fobs from before Apple moved into the space. They're still good enough for checked bag tracking while flying (at least to confirm the bag has made it to the terminal). Tracking is pretty limited without the subscription, but enough to sanity check. It would also work as a "last seen" location, which might be enough for your example (you don't need the network unless your device moves).

Find My should also give you a push notification if you leave a device somewhere? But you'll get false positives if you turn off Bluetooth.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#196

On a somewhat related note, due to the ongoing war in Israel, GPS is being heavily jammed to deter terrorist drone attacks. An intriguing side effect of this is that services like "Find My Phone" and AirTag are experiencing disruptions. This interference sometimes results in devices appearing to be located in neighboring countries, hundreds of miles away from their actual location. Here's an article detailing the jam…

In Korea too “Find My” is disabled.

As soon as I landed my family member couldn’t see the AirTag I carry anymore, nor my phone.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#197
Find My is great. I hid an AirTag in my bike, which got promptly stolen (as bikes tend to be in London): I had near-zero hope but police _actually_ was keen to retrieve it, it evolved into a multi-week adventure where they tried to retrieve it several times but the thief just rode away. Ended up finding it in a shady bike shop, with a fresh new coat of bright silver paint.

I was skeptical when I bought the airtag, I thought I'd just lose a bike _and_ an airtag, but now I can't recommend it enough!

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#198
post #181
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then? You can not turn it on again, without also activating the beacon. I wonder if stolen iphones have any value except for hardware parts.

1) Faraday cage. 2) If the thief knows or can guess your passcode, you are screwed, because they can take over your iCloud: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/04/19/apple-responds-to-iphon...

they don't have many guesses to do that, how would they know the code given almost everyone unlocks via camera?

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#199

I had AirPods Max stolen from our car a few months ago. A week later they popped up on Find My a block away. I hopped on my bike and tracked to a small apartment building. Using Find My will show you a “warmer … warmer … colder” kind of UI and whenever I lifted my phone to a particular window (shades drawn) Find My would say “Nearby.” I called the police and they were genuinely excited to knock on the door. A guy ans…

How close did you have to be to the window for it to say “nearby”? With my airtags you have to be within several metres.
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