Smartphones suck

The forum for ranting, raving, complaining and praising
Post Reply
tlombard
tl;dr
Posts: 5053
Joined: May 21 09, 12:41 pm

Re: Smartphones suck

Post by tlombard »

When I thought I left my phone in an Uber after getting home from the bar the other week I ran into similar problems trying to get the phone back. I realized my phone wasn't in my pocket as soon as I got in the front door of my building but of course the driver had already pulled off as I was unlocking the door.

Long story short, a girl was parking in front of my building when I went back outside and she let me try to sign into my Uber account from her phone. I remembered my password but it still insisted on sending a text to my phone to verify that the device I was using was OK and not somebody who stole my account info. I appreciate that but that makes trying to get your phone back if you leave it in an Uber extremely more difficult and time consuming. Since a text to my phone wouldn't do anything for me the only option would be to wait until the next morning when I got to work so that I would have a proper phone for the driver to call me back at and hope that a later passenger didn't pocket it.

Happy ending though. I gave up when I couldn't get into my account but she suggested that she call my phone from hers and the phone was actually in the street right behind her rear tire. Some how she didn't run over it when she parked and I'm not sure how.

User avatar
Hoot45
Perennial All-Star
Posts: 4008
Joined: October 8 14, 11:41 am

Re: Smartphones suck

Post by Hoot45 »

I recently lost my Android at Cherokee and Gravois (no, I wasn't there buying drugs). So I got my first experience with that platform's version of "Find My iPhone". Long story short, it was excellent. I was able to log in to my phone from a computer, lock the phone up even beyond than the standard security, and then beam messages to it while tracking its exact location. I watched as it traveled north from the Grand Metrolink, thinking I would never see this phone again.

Turns out, a homeless veteran found the phone on the street. Picked it up before hopping on a bus, saw the message (which included my wife's phone number), and he called to say he had it. We ended up meeting with him - I gave him some money for being a good samaritan - and then we drove him the rest of the way North to his destination in North County. This was the day before Veteran's Day.

It was a Veteran's Day Miracle! And way to go, Android.

tlombard
tl;dr
Posts: 5053
Joined: May 21 09, 12:41 pm

Re: Smartphones suck

Post by tlombard »

Awesome story!

I once used the Find My Phone app only to find that it was in my bathroom between the wall and toilet. I was not sober when I got home the night before.

User avatar
wart57
just can't quit you.
Posts: 25242
Joined: April 18 06, 4:33 pm
Location: Lost

Re: Smartphones suck

Post by wart57 »

I use the find my iphone ap to track my wife and kids.....

Big Brother is watching....

User avatar
Swirls
gone fission
Posts: 8308
Joined: December 11 07, 4:15 pm
Location: South Korea

Re: Smartphones suck

Post by Swirls »

Awesome story, Hoot.

User avatar
lukethedrifter
darjeeling sipping elite
Posts: 37434
Joined: October 17 06, 11:19 am
Location: Huis Clos

Re: Smartphones suck

Post by lukethedrifter »

Hoot45 wrote:I recently lost my Android at Cherokee and Gravois (no, I wasn't there buying drugs). So I got my first experience with that platform's version of "Find My iPhone". Long story short, it was excellent. I was able to log in to my phone from a computer, lock the phone up even beyond than the standard security, and then beam messages to it while tracking its exact location. I watched as it traveled north from the Grand Metrolink, thinking I would never see this phone again.

Turns out, a homeless veteran found the phone on the street. Picked it up before hopping on a bus, saw the message (which included my wife's phone number), and he called to say he had it. We ended up meeting with him - I gave him some money for being a good samaritan - and then we drove him the rest of the way North to his destination in North County. This was the day before Veteran's Day.

It was a Veteran's Day Miracle! And way to go, Android.
Renting some new living room furniture?

Freed Roger
Seeking a Zubaz seamstress
Posts: 26227
Joined: September 4 07, 1:48 pm
Location: St. Louis

Re: Smartphones suck

Post by Freed Roger »

I thought my eyes were open about this, but this article opens them wider. NY Times: Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret

The benefits of giving up your location on your phone, for maps, weather, whatever - are they worth it? It isn't really regulated who can buy your location, and what they will do with your info. NY Times had no problem figuring out who a location dot was by looking up a few spots the person frequented, or where he/she spent the night most often.

Crazy ramificatons. Think I heard how political data miners were using it, tracking location of travelers to/and from Iowa Caucuses for example. That almost seems benign compared to this. - a kook could figure a lot of things out about kids whereabouts etc(who undoubtedly have apps that use location).

What am I going to do about it? Turn off locations on all apps? Not sure.

User avatar
IMADreamer
Has an anecdote about a townie he overheard.
Posts: 12654
Joined: December 6 10, 1:09 am
Location: Illinois

Re: Smartphones suck

Post by IMADreamer »

Freed Roger wrote:I thought my eyes were open about this, but this article opens them wider. NY Times: Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret

The benefits of giving up your location on your phone, for maps, weather, whatever - are they worth it? It isn't really regulated who can buy your location, and what they will do with your info. NY Times had no problem figuring out who a location dot was by looking up a few spots the person frequented, or where he/she spent the night most often.

Crazy ramificatons. Think I heard how political data miners were using it, tracking location of travelers to/and from Iowa Caucuses for example. That almost seems benign compared to this. - a kook could figure a lot of things out about kids whereabouts etc(who undoubtedly have apps that use location).

What am I going to do about it? Turn off locations on all apps? Not sure.
The location thing is a conundrum for sure. In the summer time there is a group of people here that like to go out to the middle of no where and race. It's obviously illegal as hell and we have questioned whether not only should we be turning off our phone's location data, but not taking the phones at all.

When we protested last summer we didn't bring our phones, but I did bring a deactivated phone to record video incase something happened.

Online
User avatar
ghostrunner
Hall Of Famer
Posts: 28725
Joined: April 18 06, 9:40 pm

Re: Smartphones suck

Post by ghostrunner »

Freed Roger wrote:I thought my eyes were open about this, but this article opens them wider. NY Times: Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret

The benefits of giving up your location on your phone, for maps, weather, whatever - are they worth it? It isn't really regulated who can buy your location, and what they will do with your info. NY Times had no problem figuring out who a location dot was by looking up a few spots the person frequented, or where he/she spent the night most often.

Crazy ramificatons. Think I heard how political data miners were using it, tracking location of travelers to/and from Iowa Caucuses for example. That almost seems benign compared to this. - a kook could figure a lot of things out about kids whereabouts etc(who undoubtedly have apps that use location).

What am I going to do about it? Turn off locations on all apps? Not sure.
I have most apps set to Never track, a few "While Using" the app, and navigation apps plus a few others are set to always. I also don't go anywhere interesting.

User avatar
Secret Weapon
Perennial All-Star
Posts: 8397
Joined: May 12 06, 7:09 pm
Location: CoMo

Re: Smartphones suck

Post by Secret Weapon »

It's kind of cool to be able to go to your timeline map and look at all the dots of the places you've visited. You can go to the dots for when you were on vacation and see exactly what you did those days and take a look at the photos you took. It is kinda creepy, but kinda cool at the same time.

Post Reply