Finding My “Friends”
December 1st, 2011, 12:29pm by MikeBy now I’m sure you’re all familiar with “Find My Friends,” Apple’s app that allows you to see where your friends (with iDevices) are. They do a pretty good job with privacy and such, but it can still be a little strange to know that people know where you are. I think it would be great for impromptu finding of your friends (like if you’re all trying to meet somewhere, temporarily allowing access to everyone). And for families, it’s fine — Joanie and I have it set up so we can find each other.
So last night, Joanie lost her phone, my old 3GS. The phone was out of juice, so even though we sent texts and called, nothing went through. Called the restaurant where she’d been, and no sign of it. And Find My Friends doesn’t work on a dead phone, obviously. However, this morning at 5am, it showed up in East Boston, not a great part of town, and not near where she lost the phone. So the person plugged it in to charge.
At 7:45am the phone had moved to a new location — about 3-4 miles away, in a warehouse-looking building near the interstate and a bunch of train tracks.
We looked up the street address in Google Maps, and strangely, it was the location of a place called “Modern Mac Repair.” It looked so sketchy on Google Maps I assumed it must be some guy named Mac who strips cars, but no, it was actually a Mac repair place that has Yelp reviews (most recent was a year old).
Needless to say, we tried calling the phone (went to voicemail), texting (delivered for a while, then stopped). We tried calling the Mac repair store, but there was no answer (their hours are listed as starting at 10am, so no surprise there).
Since then, we’ve looked at the call log on the AT&T website — the phone was being used for calls to Boston and Indiana (1 minute each — probably calling people who were asleep and leaving messages). After 8:01, there were no more calls — coinciding with when the messages stopped, and the location was no longer being updated. So our best guess is that they’ve now erased the phone and taken out the SIM.
In the meantime, I got in touch with the Mac store — they guy seemed super-nice, and told us that there are 30 units in their building, but that he’d try to find out what he could (including posting my name and number and a description of the phone on their “internal Facebook.” I’m not optimistic, but I also don’t think this guy is behind it.
So, bottom line: it’s fun to be a detective, but this app doesn’t do anything to actually help you get your phone back, unless you (a) call the police and hope they care, or (b) get in touch with a person via the phone and confront them. The Find my Phone app is much more functional (allows remote lock, wipe, and messaging to the phone), but doesn’t actually help in recovering the phone or the data on it.
Lesson: Set up wireless sync or iCloud sync, and keep your hands on your phones! At the end of the day, I think Joanie will end up with a new phone, which we were planning on doing soon anyway.
December 1st, 2011 at 5:41 pm
That sucks Joanie. Sounds like you need a contract free AT&T phone to tie you over until you can get a subsidized iPhone in 3 months. Might I suggest a Focus S? You can get a used one on eBay for ~$130.
http://www.ebay.com/ctg/Samsung-SGH-i917-Focus-Black-AT-T-Smartphone-/100046848?_dmpt=Cell_Phones&_pcategid=9355&_pcatid=801&_refkw=samsung+focus+at%26t&_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A5848&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
Or a used Pre might only cost you $30 or so and they can sometimes last 3 whole months. š
December 1st, 2011 at 9:48 pm
If you’re willing to unFranken it, I’ve got a mostly working Pre2 that would work on AT&T.
December 2nd, 2011 at 9:38 am
This does make me think I should enable the lock screen on my phone. It’s pretty worrisome what someone could do with all the data (and automatic logins) on a stolen smartphone.
December 2nd, 2011 at 6:53 pm
In conclusion, we went to the AT&T store here in Brookline, where they gave Joanie the upgrade to a 4S 2 months before she was due — on the condition that she add insurance to her plan ($7.50/month after company discount) and buy 2 accessories (and get one free). So, for $309 all-in (incl tax on the full, unsubsidized amount), Joanie walked out with a new phone, for $150 less than the Cambridge AT&T store was going to charge.
So, we’re pretty satisfied! Buying a holdover phone, then a 4S, would have cost us around $260 after taxes, and Joanie would have had a crappy phone for 2 months.
December 2nd, 2011 at 7:01 pm
What a crazy disconnected 48 hours! Now I have a super cool white phone with a purple case.
I tried to get a discounted new phone from 2 ATT customer service reps and from a different ATT store and they all said absolutely NO, under no conditions. So it was worth trying over and over again.
December 2nd, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Awesome. all’s well that ends well.
December 3rd, 2011 at 11:50 pm
Great story – now Joanie and Emily have the same phone! Someone was telling me that there’s an iPhone app that will take a picture of anyone who incorrectly tries to unlock your phone in addition to tracking its location and use. That might have been handy in this instance…although not sure what you’d really do with a picture of the thief either…and I guess it would’ve required Joanie to have pw locked the phone…