Find My iPhone: Almost Needed It, Glad It Was There

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I came tremendously close to disaster at CES two years ago. While in the cab to the airport my 13″ MacBook pro slipped out of my bag. I got out of the taxi and went into the airport. My MacBook did not. At security I realized I did not have it with me. Worse yet, it was not password protected. I freaked. Fortunately I was able to contact the cab dispatcher. Ten minutes later my driver, a tremendously awesome and honest guy, was back at the airport. Disaster averted.

Fast forward two years. Judie and I had just finished meeting with Gear4 at the Wynn Hotel. [Their new stuff is awesome, and we will be writing it up soon.] We were almost to the Venetian for our requisite 2nd day in a row lunch at Noodle Asia (it is yummy), when I realized I did not have my bag. No biggie, right? No biggie as long as you don’t mind losing your iPad, Canon G11 and brand new HTC Titan! I ran back while Judie tried to call the front desk. [BTW, I forgot to wear my Striiv today, so my impromptu run wasn’t even recorded. What’s with that?]

While I was running, I pulled out my iPhone and launched the Find My iPhone app. Because I had wiped the phone the day before I left, I needed to add my credentials. I finally got to the front desk. The bag wasn’t where I left it. The guard hadn’t seen it.

Then, at the very same moment two things happened. First, the woman at the front desk waved me over. Second, my iPhone beeped and showed me where my iPad (and bag etc) were. It was five feet away, behind the front desk where they had out it for safe keeping. The folks at the Wynn were awesome, but if they had not been, or if someone had walked away with it, I would have still known exactly where it was.

If you don’t have the app on your iOS device get it. NOW. You never know when it might save the day.

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About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.