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

manas.tech

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

#251

Post by bonton89 »

gauravphoenix wrote: post #55

This reminds me of the kind of hack I came up with, almost 20 years back. I used to work in Bangalore, and now and then, we would have a power outage in the evening that lasts for a few hours. I was single and used to live alone. I did not want to go home from the office and find myself without power. So how do I find out there is power at home? During those days, there were no IOT devices so checking them is that's…

I used the same trick recently where a long power outage had me staying at my relatives until power was restored. My answering machine doesn't work without power but the phone does so if it doesn't pick up I know the power is out.

Since the central office switch is usually powered by generators I was used to the phone always working even during outages. But I found that the landline phone only stays functional for only a day now. I believe the deployment of fiber to the node means there are battery backups at the nodes that only last that long.

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

#252

Post by neckro23 »

paddez wrote: post #233
theshrike79 wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes you can, there's an official Apple app to do it: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trac... And a 3rd party tool that does even more: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.seemoo.at_t...

This does a different thing What OP means is that I cannot purchase an Airtag/Chipolo, and then subsequently find that Airtag using the Find My Network with my Android device. I can identify airtags around me with that App, but I cannot locate a missing Airtag.

I was about to correct you saying "icloud.com works on any browser, even an Android phone", but then I went and looked and you can't locate AirTags (or people) using the Web version of Find My, just Apple devices. An odd omission on Apple's part.

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

#253

Post by anamexis »

baz00 wrote: post #212
Angostura wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a small note, but your contract is with the retailer - if it's not delivered, tell Apple or whoever. It is up to them to get the goods to you.

Try that with most retailers and the conversation ends at delivered. Your only option is to hit them with a summons and that's not a guarantee. So with due respect that reality doesn't exist. One reason I buy stuff from Amazon mostly is they are big enough to eat the issues and I put enough business through one service to be a customer worth keeping. Everyone else, not so much. I won't go into how shit Apple are on t…

In the US, I’ve had to do this probably 5 times, and each time the retailer sent a replacement.

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

#254

Post by Reubachi »

jen729w wrote: post #129

Back in the mid-90s my dad lost his car keys. Turns out they were in his dressing gown (we’re British) pocket, in the wardrobe. So he bought one of those keyrings where you whistle and it beeps. This was a Saturday and we were visiting my grandparents, his parents. He told his dad, by now with a mild case of the Alzheimers, that he’d got this thing and that “you beep and it tells you where your keys are”. Well my gra…

Am I crazy? are beep/whistle interchangable?

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

#255

Post by aembleton »

meetingthrower wrote: post #241
semireg wrote: post #107

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…

Ok we have opposite situation than stolen headphones. We found some on a trail in the woods. They are "Alan's Airpods". We connected to them from our nearby house, hoping he would come by using Find My. There is no other way to contact them that I can see?

You could take them to a police station and hand them in.

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

#256

Post by neves »

I've had this exact same problem last week while going to Mount Roraima https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Roraima

If I had just read this message before. This is an ingenious solution. He created a thetering wifi network with the same name and password of a network the phone would recognize. When there's a connection, it means the phone is near:

"I’ve used my own phone’s tethering feature to create a wifi network with the same name & password as my cousin’s home network - and we started walking around the place. We made sure the other guy helping us with the search had his own wifi off, to avoid false positives, and waited to find a new connection to the hotspot. And it worked! The connection was made when walking nearby the parked truck, but it turns out that the phone wasn’t in the truck - it was lying on one of the ATVs that was parked by its side."

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

#257

Post by WanderPanda »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #189
petemir wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gradient ascent?

Or gradient descent if you mentally negate the number in question. It's the same thing.

I think hill-climbing rejects updates that would worsen the objective while gradient descent usually doesn‘t

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

#258

Post by neves »

layer8 wrote: post #181
okr wrote: 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...

In Brazil the thief menaces you till you give him your password

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

#259

Post by manwe150 »

theendisney2 wrote: post #59

In my job I regularly wonder how to get a found phone laptop or notebook back to their owner. The notebook is the easiest. The apple laptop the most stupid. I have the locked laptop i have my iphone you would think, with the closed eco-system, there to be some magic ritual i can perform for the laptop to register on the owners "find my device"???? Or at least let me type a number for them to call? Sometimes, (if i ch…

Do they usually have guest account access disabled, and would that help if enabled? I once saw a theory that guest account access can help because it grants the third party the ability to connect it to any WiFi network, allowing it to “phone home”

On iPhones, there is the ability to get the medical id (their name and emergency contact) from the Lock Screen too, if people set that up. I set my notifications privacy setting to show preview only when unlocked, so that it won’t show names of my contacts or one-time PIN codes texted to me

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

#260

Post by mustacheemperor »

koheripbal wrote: post #219
joshstrange wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you go buy a bunch of lottery tickets afterwards? Cops doing their job when you give them the entire breadcrumb trail is incredibly rare. I have many stories from friends and that I’ve seen online of the cops refusing to do anything even when you can guide them directly to the location of your stolen property. I’ve personally experienced their lack of competency when they refused to follow up on stalking/harassme…

Stolen property with an address and evidence will always get actioned. It's easy and rewarding for them. Online or telephone stuff won't. It is much more complex and requires system knowledge. It's that simple.

That is contrary to my experience tracing a stolen MacBook Pro to a specific apartment over find my and being told by the San Mateo police I could file a report if I really wanted to, but not to expect anything to happen.

I’d expect it depends on the context of your jurisdiction, and so really is not that simple.

(I never got that MacBook back).

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