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

manas.tech

311–320 of 349 posts

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

#311
post #216

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…

Sad? Non-violent crime such as parking tickets, littering, playing the music too loud and petty theft should not involve armed officers showing up. This presents needless chances for escalation. The “defund the police” movement was onto something - but it has to be spelled out. - offload many of their jobs to metermaids and other ticket-issuers and keep armed POLICE for things like robberies, no-knock raids, breaking…

> The “defund the police” movement was onto something - but it has to be spelled out. - offload many of their jobs to metermaids and other ticket-issuers and keep armed POLICE for things like robberies, no-knock raids, breaking up fights and arresting violent criminals etc.

This is hugely different to what I understood from anyone in favour of defunding the police to mean.

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

#312
post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple can access your account, they can see any device location the same as you. Which means that three letter agencies also have access

This is true of literally everything with a modem in it. Tracking via tower triangulation has been around for 20 years or longer. Also the entirety of your browsing history is tracked and logged by your ISP and also given to three letters agencies. And companies like Google give basically unrestricted access to all your data. Nothing is private anymore.

> Also the entirety of your browsing history is tracked and logged by your ISP

Presumably a) this is websites, not web pages, and b) a VPN negates this?

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

#313
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you need a second rule: "Don't go in any direction that makes the number go down." That way, when you're on top of it, you know to stop.

No you don't. Go in the upward direction implies don't go in the downward direction

I don't agree that that wording is as precise as you think it is. if you move in the direction where the signal goes up, when it stops going up, you are still moving in the same direction. Move "so long as the signal goes up" would tell you to stop, but it wouldn't tell you the direction, is the type of clarity I'm looking for.

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

#315

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…

Opposite anecdote. I had my phone stolen from the gym. I showed up with the police and the guy denied having it - ended up he was telling the truth.

Then I saw the phone was at someone else’s house right by the one I showed up to the following evening. I used public records to track down the owner and he said it was a rental. He called his tenants and they said they didn’t have it. They were also telling the truth. Once I told them where it was stolen they said that another neighbor actually worked at the gym.

He did have my iPhone and returned it once his manager told him to. I worked at the gym part time as a fitness instructor.

This was back in the iPhone 4 days admittedly when Find My relied on GPS.

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

#316
post #310
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can; the thief just didn’t get to do that because they were busy getting away in a non-conspicuous way. But even turned off, “Find my” stays active these days (although you can no longer make it ring, I believe).

Yeah but turning on airplane mode does disable find my

It doesn’t, as far as I know (or rather, it might turn off the ability to ping the phone, but passive Bluetooth/Find my cloud location should still work).

And even if it does, turning on Airplane mode is not possible anymore for a locked phone.

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

#317
post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd just have to have IDs repeat, and software that could tell the difference based on signal strength. If you have two on the same ID that have different RSSI, show them as two tags. You'd have to do some guesswork though to figure out what's going on but it would be better than nothing, and you might be able to get the size down below what CR2032 allows.

But why only send a single byte if you can send a full UUID within a rounding error of the same resource usage? If you want it to be compatible with most smartphones, you'll need Bluetooth LE anyway, and that already uses at least 10 bytes on header fields for broadcast packets.

I suppose it is effectively a rounding error unless you change the actual protocol.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some trivial way for the manufacturers to add ultra low speed non-bluetooth data to the Bluetooth chips though, so you could have 2400 baud IDs with microwatts of power.

But it's probably not worth it since I suspect the real power drain on airtags comes from the high update rates and maybe the 2 way communication.

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

#318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just do a chargeback then

I'm in the middle of a problem with an item either mid-delivered or not delivered, with unresponsive retailer. I started a dispute with my credit card company, but yesterday they emailed to tell me that they had "concluded their investigation" and that the item had indeed been delivered. No further information. Just "it was delivered, you owe the retailer". Apple Card uses Goldman Sachs for the bank and the customer…

You could try telling them you will cancel the credit card and not pay the last bill unless they reverse the charge.

When it goes to collections, at least in the US, you can tell the collection agency that the charge is in dispute, and they have to leave you alone.

If the bank then puts a ding on your credit report, you can dispute it with the credit reporting agency.

At some point, someone decides this is too much of a waste of time and pays up.

If you go this route, read up on your rights and the exact process.

One early step is sending them a letter via registered mail saying the charge is invalid because you never received the item. That carries more weight than a phone call, and usually routes to a different department. It might solve the problem on your own.

Make sure the letter makes it clear you understand your rights and know what the CFPB is.

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

#319

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 se…

People Who forget their phone are perhaps more likely to not configure anything.

I can think of a number of ways to improve the finders experience. Give the provider something to configure. Say a dedicated helpdesk number where I report finding your phone and you can report losing it. Perhaps with a pin matched to the phone.

Say the finder manages to unlock it (0000) they can create a facinating phone bill. If reported as lost the provider can at least cap the bill at something more usual until your id is fully validated.

Could create an app for registered lost and found spots. Then can do all kinds of magic.

Having 1000$ bricks sitting on shelves looks kinda..dumb?

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

#320
post #139

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…

Lucky there. UK here. A couple of years back I had a macbook pro delivered to me. It was delivered to the correct number on a different road. The POD had a photo of the front door and the person. I recognised the front door as it was on a local estate. Phoned delivery company up (DPD) and they said that they delivered it to the correct location and wouldn't do anything about it. Went round there and the guy said "um,…

I wonder whether you are a screenplay writer rather than an Engineer.
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