[HN Gopher] Did you lose your AirPods?
___________________________________________________________________
Did you lose your AirPods?
Author : RockRobotRock
Score : 1014 points
Date : 2024-08-23 23:54 UTC (23 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (alexyancey.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (alexyancey.com)
| uberman wrote:
| My kids loose theirs all the time and I say use find my but
| apparently that does not work if they are in the case at least
| according to my kids.
| RockRobotRock wrote:
| I was surprised they didn't have any idea how to use Find My.
| That and their iCloud account was all kinds of messed up.
|
| I think we take for granted how easily these things come to us
| as tech people.
| disillusioned wrote:
| I'm more surprised that there's not a way to message the
| owner (or whomever has Find My registered for the airpods)
| without revealing their full information, but I guess that's
| a bridge too far, and they figure that Find My is good
| enough.
| exikyut wrote:
| How was their iCloud account all kinds of messed up?
| RockRobotRock wrote:
| Didn't remember their password, may have been logged in
| with their mom's account, etc.
| latchkey wrote:
| This is also someone who loses stuff...
| firesteelrain wrote:
| They aren't completely wrong. You just can't use the speaker
| feature to play a sound. But Find My will still work
| rconti wrote:
| If I remember correctly, my airpods pro (an older model) only
| show the last location _my_ phone saw them, which I think
| means, last time they were actually paired.
|
| I believe newer ones can be found 'anywhere' like an airtag.
| uberman wrote:
| My kids must have the old ones as they echo what you
| describe
| deaddodo wrote:
| Newer models, the case will make a ping sound when you tap on
| it.
| temp_account_32 wrote:
| That's weird, I use Find My for my AirPods case a lot and it
| does the "X feet away" thing as I get closer
| charrondev wrote:
| It's better with the newer AirPod models. The older ones are
| bad enough that I have an AirTag attached to my AirPods case.
| tpmoney wrote:
| Only recent generation AirPods have an AirTag embedded in the
| case. Older models were limited to trying to play a loud
| sound from the bud if they were out of the case, and IIRC
| nothing useful for the case itself.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| Find nearby is a godsend.
| lxgr wrote:
| That was true for the initial model(s), but at least the ones I
| have now can be found (and audibly pinged!) in the case as
| well.
|
| It even works for the case without the AirPods in it. That part
| is definitely new, since the original cases didn't have any
| wireless hardware in them (and depended on at least one AirPod
| being in it to report their battery level, for example); the
| new ones have their own Bluetooth/UWB chain.
| kernelsanderz wrote:
| Some heroes don't wear capes. They wield scripts, API calls, and
| a bit of luck.
| the_arun wrote:
| 100%
| ivanjermakov wrote:
| I feel like you should've been more careful with your question,
| unlawful people might answer that they lost AirPods although they
| didn't.
|
| Unless you have a way to verify they're truthful owners, I would
| ask something like "I have something that might belong to you,
| did you lose anything in the past few days?"
|
| EDIT: I missed the part about verification, my bad.
| groby_b wrote:
| I mean, he said right in the article that they verified they
| paired.
|
| Also, despite all the press hysteria, "unlawful people" aren't
| so common that a bunch of 80 messages will automatically bring
| them out of the woodwork. Most people are decent.
| noahchen wrote:
| I disagree. The suggested message is so generic, that it looks
| like spam, even to the person who lost the airpod. Also, the
| author said they verified that the airpods could pair with the
| owner's device
| chrisfosterelli wrote:
| > "We confirmed that the AirPods paired, which wouldn't be
| possible if they didn't belong to them."
| RockRobotRock wrote:
| Totally good point. I wanted the question to be direct without
| coming off mysterious or creepy. I knew people might lie, but I
| took a chance and figured the amount of liars would be
| manageable.
|
| If I hadn't gotten lucky in finding them in <10 texts, I may
| have abandoned the idea. Only one other person tried to claim
| they were the owner.
| laborcontract wrote:
| This framing of the question sounds like an implicit threat,
| and would scare the hell out of me if i received it from an
| unknown number.
|
| I'm definitely not replying to it.
| bhelkey wrote:
| It looks like this was done through pairing. I think the
| AirPods need the case to pair so it seems like a reasonable
| test.
|
| > We confirmed that the AirPods paired, which wouldn't be
| possible if they didn't belong to them.
| irjustin wrote:
| > I feel like you should've been more careful with your
| question, unlawful people might answer that they lost AirPods
| although they didn't.
|
| All it helps is remove a bit of spam. As the author writes,
| they checked pairing, but before that you can simply ask "Where
| do you think you lost them?"
| RockRobotRock wrote:
| That's exactly what I asked the one other person who said yes
| and they stopped responding immediately after that
| lagniappe wrote:
| Found them in under 10 attempts? That's wild. Great story!
| adventurer wrote:
| Sort of find it interesting no one here questions whether or
| not he found the actual owner.
| sethammons wrote:
| The article explicitly states that they verified the owner
| and how
| sgerenser wrote:
| Blog post said he verified they belonged to the guy when his
| phone paired with them, which wouldn't have happened if he
| wasn't the actual owner.
| 38 wrote:
| and this folks is why I will never buy airpods. for $249, I can
| get 8 pairs of these:
|
| https://electronics.sony.com/audio/headphones/in-ear/p/mdrex...
|
| have purchased 4 already, happy with my decision
| kaashif wrote:
| Why...why did you purchase 4 pairs of those?
| slater wrote:
| Kept losing them, obvs /s
| 38 wrote:
| thats over the course of like 5 years. maybe they get lost,
| or when I am jogging I am pouring sweat into them, so
| eventually they give out. they are cheap enough that I can
| stock up and then I dont have to go hunting for ones I like
| if I lose one
| adamomada wrote:
| And this is why I will never buy a pomegranate. I can get eight
| oranges instead
| tourmalinetaco wrote:
| Lucky for me I love oranges.
| 38 wrote:
| more like an orange versus a slightly better orange
| userbinator wrote:
| For $249, I can get more than 10 pairs of Chi-Fi TWS.
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| Ha, I can one-up you again! For $249, I can get over fifty
| pairs of the Xiaomi J18 bluetooth earphones. Quite apart from
| the mind-boggling economies of scale with modern electronics, I
| can genuinely recommend these. They haven't particularly good
| audio quality compared to over-ear headphones, but they are
| still remarkably good for in-ear headphones.
| userbinator wrote:
| I just looked these up, and for sub-$5 you get two earphones
| containing a driver, wireless IC, battery, and a charging
| case with its own circuitry and battery. And presumably
| they're still making a profit on that. I don't expect they'll
| be tuned to sound better than the wired equivalents which are
| closer to $1, but the fact that they can even make a working
| product of that complexity at that price point is mind-
| boggling indeed.
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| Indeed - there's of course still plenty of exploitation in
| the world market that puts a damper on the awe for me, but
| it's starting to feel like science fiction such as Star
| Trek is becoming reality ahead of schedule. At this moment,
| I have around fifty distinct objects near me, each with at
| least one pin-prick-sized computer inside them, and I could
| probably purchase all of them again with no more than a
| days wage.
|
| As for audio quality, should anyone be interested: I had
| also bought a pair of those wired, ~$1 ones, and I'd say
| that the Xioami J18 have slightly better audio quality, but
| that's cancelled out by the occasional bluetooth glitches,
| and the deafening "CONNECTED" message when you turn them
| on. They also have better audio quality than the ~$25 Sony
| on-ear headphones by a considerable margin, but that
| completely pales in comparison with my Audio-Technica
| ATH-M40x over-ear headphones, which are like having a hi-fi
| strapped to your head!
| tzm wrote:
| Had no idea iMessage API exists
| RockRobotRock wrote:
| When you enter a number into the messages app, your phone needs
| to know whether to send an iMessage or SMS. They must have
| reverse-engineered that call and turned it into a paid service.
| I don't think it's something Apple provides.
| tdeck wrote:
| I'm a little surprised you got lucky with the erroe code. For
| most people my age our area code seems to be tied to where we
| lived in about 2006, which is often not where we live now.
| LoganVS wrote:
| you are awesome
| refibrillator wrote:
| I found some AirPods on a remote trail awhile back, case and all.
| Batteries were completely dead. Once charged they paired to my
| iphone with no indication of a previous owner, besides the device
| name of John's AirPods or whatever.
|
| I tried briefly (not as hard as the author) to figure out who
| they belonged to but had no luck.
|
| I called Apple support and gave the serial number, but they told
| me there wasn't anything they could do if the owner did not mark
| them as lost via the Bluetooth settings page. Even though at that
| point Apple presumably had all the information necessary to
| contact the original owner...
|
| So I cleaned the AirPods and have been using them since. Is there
| any way for me to find the owner if I have no info about the
| owners area code like the author did?
| bombcar wrote:
| AirPods are a bit pricey but cheap enough that I wouldn't even
| bother reporting them lost to the local park authority. I doubt
| there's much you can do besides a sign at the trailheads.
| fsckboy wrote:
| they're airtags essentially, aren't they? the person who lost
| them would report it to apple, not park officials, then
| they'd be found
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| No they wouldn't. Apple doesn't care. I tried.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Aren't they like $160? That's not cheap.
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| Valuing your time at $20 an hour, that's 8 hours worth of
| time for them. If the remote hiking spot is ~2 hours away,
| and it takes roughly an hour to deal with the park
| authorities, that's already 5 hours, plus transport.
|
| Add in the inconvenience of not having them for somewhere
| between a few days and forever, and I'd also say they
| aren't really cheap but still it probably isn't worth the
| effort in that situation.
| GrantMoyer wrote:
| On the other hand, if someone makes 15 $/hr, but 50% of
| that goes to rent and other essentials, and they save a
| little, say 20%, for retirement, that leaves 30% or about
| 5 $/hr for discressionary spending, so the airpods come
| closer to 32 hr or 4 days of pay.
| ornornor wrote:
| I wouldn't necessarily have worked these 8 hours for 160$
| after tax, I'd have gone to pick them up.
| bombcar wrote:
| If I was certain that I would find them when I went back
| to look for them I would do it. It's worth the time, but
| if the chance of finding them is only like 50% not worth
| the time, new one's are probably better and have better
| battery life anyway. sour grapes perhaps yes
| NavinF wrote:
| Yeah but he said "cheap enough" and I agree. If the owner
| didn't bother to mark it as lost in the Find My app,
| there's nothing you or Apple can do about it.
| arrowsmith wrote:
| "Cheap" is a relative term. I'm sure lots of HN-reading US-
| based software engineers make enough money that $160 isn't
| a big deal.
| RockRobotRock wrote:
| I think they may not have used activation lock until later
| generations cannot confirm though
| ilt wrote:
| I guess Apple didn't bother to connect with the original owner
| since lot many people do not buy for themselves and as gifts or
| for parents. So unless AirPods were paired with a device, Apple
| wouldn't like to get involved much.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| They don't get involved even if you find an iphone that has
| John doe still logged on. No clue why they wouldn't at least
| send an email to the account owner. I tried to surrender the
| iphone at the store but they wouldn't take it.
| taberiand wrote:
| Liability probably.
| otteromkram wrote:
| And, a lost $ale.
| meowster wrote:
| "Accidentally" leave it at the store, or say, "Hey, this
| was sitting on the bench in the mall outside your Apple
| Store" and set it down and walk away before they can say
| anything.
| ascorbic wrote:
| They're also impossible to register without an iOS device. I
| have a pair that I won, but have no iPhone or iPad. They work
| great with my Macs, and pretty well with Android, but there
| is no way for me to register them with Find My, which is
| pretty annoying. There's no logical reason they couldn't do
| this on a Mac.
| blowfish721 wrote:
| Never tried it myself but this article as well as a couple
| of posts mentions it should be possible on a Mac if Find My
| is active on the Mac. https://www.soundguys.com/how-to-set-
| up-find-my-airpods-6213...
| ascorbic wrote:
| No, that only works if they're already added via an iOS
| device.
| ww520 wrote:
| Speaking of AirPods, do people have bad experience with their
| quality? I have an AirPods Pro 1st Gen for about 3 years and the
| noise cancellation function has degraded to the point of
| unusable. The Apple store technician said the audio hardware has
| failed diagnostic and it couldn't be repaired. For a $250
| equipment failed after 3 years of moderate usage is pretty
| disappointing.
| taspeotis wrote:
| No
| opdahl wrote:
| I had this issue and I <<solved>> it by cleaning the tiny
| microphone at the bottom with a toothprush. It's a small slit
| that can get stuffed with dust etc and it impacts how well it
| can do noise cancellations.
| minimaxir wrote:
| That was a known issue with the 1st-gen AirPods Pro (Apple had
| a 3 year replacement program for them) but I've heard fewer
| issues with the 2nd-gen.
| tourmalinetaco wrote:
| One of my AirPods is weirdly quiet. I know it still has the
| potential to be loud, as I've gotten it to be at the same level
| of noise as the other, but it's hardly consistent. I've tried
| cleaning it and it didn't seem to help, but I may just try
| again. Definitely a shame, but I got them for free so I won't
| complain too much though. (If they were fully repairable this
| wouldn't be a problem though.)
| MengerSponge wrote:
| I had an AirPod pro (2nd gen) become weirdly quiet. Still
| under warranty, Apple replaced it. It's some weird device
| failure.
|
| I spent a few days wondering if I had just lost hearing in
| that ear, but no.
| krisoft wrote:
| Similar thing happened with my airpods too. To compensate for
| the obviously diminished volume I was cranking the volume up.
| And even with that podcasts were barely audible when in
| anything but absolute silence. To add insult to injury the os
| was constantly "warning" me that I was "damaging" my hearing
| by listening things too loud. Of course in reality no such
| thing was happening.
|
| After that terrible experience i couldn't justify the expense
| of buying an other apple airpod.
| nimih wrote:
| I own a pair of AirPods and AirPod Pros; I bought the former in
| 2019, and was gifted the latter in 2020. The microphone on the
| AirPods died after about 18 months of use, but they otherwise
| still work perfectly (perhaps with slightly degraded, but still
| quite serviceable, battery life), and have survived a wide
| range of abuse (multiple trips through the washing machine,
| repeated drops onto pavement, in some cases from a bicycle
| moving at decent speed, etc).
|
| The Pros, on the other hand, in spite of me generally being
| quite careful with them (in contrast to the basic AirPods) had
| their noise canceling crap out at about the 2 year mark, and
| currently are slightly louder in one ear than the other (but
| the microphone still works, so they remain in service).
|
| So, overall, I think I've had a similar experience to you with
| the Pros, but have been quite impressed with the non-Pro model.
| mackmgg wrote:
| I had the same thing happen to my Pros, with one being much
| louder than the other and the noise cancelling barely
| working, and it turns out they just needed cleaning. A couple
| years of gunk and dust getting in the vents and speaker grill
| and one of them was noticeably worse than the other. After
| cleaning it turns out both were quite degraded and are now
| much better with fully functioning noise cancellation. Worth
| a try if they're otherwise good and you want to keep using
| them.
| hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
| Fwiw, the batteries will degrade in that period. I'm not saying
| that's okay, but you should prepare for airpods to have a 3
| year lifecycle regardless.
| adamomada wrote:
| Same AirPods, after a couple years the left one's speaker
| sounds like it's blown: any louder sounds played have a crackle
| and if I turn on the NC just brushing it with a finger makes it
| crackle like crazy.
| 1propionyl wrote:
| Not relevant to parent's case but for anyone else who stumbles
| on this:
|
| Use some blue tack to gently clean out the microphone grate(s)
| periodically. As it becomes obstructed noise cancellation
| suffers.
| omwow wrote:
| My AidPods Pro became unusable after ~2 years. NC had some
| overcorrection issue I guess, created this loud crackling sound
| when it tried to cancel out a noise.
| jrmg wrote:
| There was a recall for symptoms like this:
| https://support.apple.com/airpods-pro-service-program-
| sound-...
| allenu wrote:
| Yes, same thing happened to me. The hardware failed over time
| and now the noise-cancellation feature causes audio to be very
| scratchy, making them awful for listening to music. I think
| mine lasted a little over a year of occasional use.
|
| I went to an Apple store to see if I could get them replaced
| since I knew there was a recall on one version. They refused
| since mine was the version that came out after the recalled
| version.
|
| That soured me on AirPods. Luckily it was a work-issued pair,
| so they were free.
| t0mas88 wrote:
| A little over a year is exactly how long my previous 3 pairs
| lasted. It's almost like Apple designs them to only outlast
| the warranty...
| dvzk wrote:
| I wore mine while riding a hardtail XC mountain bike (on
| safeish trail segments) and the transparency mode failed after
| 7 months. After that, the non-ANCed speaker and microphone
| worked fine. Weirdly durable for nonathletic purposed hardware.
| hilux wrote:
| Even new, they had nowhere near the noise cancellation of my
| old Bose QC20i.
|
| AirPods are disappointing, but convenient. I guess that's why
| we buy them.
| benjaminwootton wrote:
| I've had some old Bose noise cancelling headphones for
| approaching 20 years which are still going well!
| latchkey wrote:
| In Vietnam, you can find people to do repairs like this super
| cheap and easy. Just had the back glass on my iPhone 13 promax
| replaced cause I dropped it and it cracked, $40. In the US, it
| is $200+.
| maronato wrote:
| I'd be very surprised if repairs on AirPods circuitry were
| possible or cost effective. Just swapping the battery
| requires basically soldering iron surgery and permanent
| damage/removal of all adhesive that keeps it together.
|
| https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/AirPods+Pro+Battery+Replacement.
| ..
| latchkey wrote:
| You'd be surprised what they can do in Vietnam. Airpods are
| assembled there. If you have a local connection, You can
| find people who have worked in the factories.
|
| Beyond that, the whole culture is to repair things because
| there isn't an official Apple store. They can also import
| parts from China and elsewhere.
|
| Here is pricing to get parts from Singapore... most
| expensive repair is $100...
|
| https://cares.vn/en/dich-vu-airpods/
| waldothedog wrote:
| Some crazy stuff in these replies. I am coming up on 5 years
| and while I do get a slight crackle in one from wind sometimes
| running, they're still going strong. Guess I finally ended up
| on the up side of a distribution
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Embarrassing really when you consider the wider market. I have
| a 10 year old set of mdr v6. Still reference quality sound
| today albeit with a few ear foam replacements in the years
| since. I think they cost $70 at the time.
| hummusFiend wrote:
| I remember some theories around 2021-2022 that Apple had
| modified the ANC in AirPods Pro/Max via a firmware update. If I
| recall, the thought was this was in response to some patent
| infringement.
|
| Anecdotally, I think I noticed a difference, but I also chalked
| it up to prematurely-degrading hardware...
| benjaminwootton wrote:
| I've ended up with a few pairs and found them quite unreliable
| after the first year.
|
| I have one pair where the left bud doesn't connect until I put
| it back in and take it out of the case a few times.
|
| One where one bud doesn't charge properly.
|
| And one with declining noise cancellation.
|
| They are great when they work properly, but I do think quality
| is slightly lacking for a relatively expensive product.
| refurb wrote:
| This, combined with how easier they are to lose, is why I
| didn't buy Airpods, but rather the $20 Chinese bluetooth
| earpods on Amazon.
|
| I was surprised at the quality, and they've lasted a couple
| years already at almost daily use.
|
| The nice part is, if I lose them, no big deal. I bought a 2nd
| pair as a backup.
| paxys wrote:
| Same. I bought mine in 2021 and now have to use it with noise
| cancellation off because otherwise there's a very persistent
| crackling noise. Meanwhile my Bose QCs are still operating like
| new after like 11-12 years of regular use.
| csomar wrote:
| I have the Airpods Pro 2nd Gen, and after 2 years they are as
| good as useless. Both Noise control and Spatial sound are dead.
| There is a buzzing there. The battery is surprisingly good,
| though. They could still last 2/2.5 hours on a charge. But I
| don't think I'll be buying Apple pods again (even though when
| they functioned, they were actually pretty decent).
| t0mas88 wrote:
| Yes, Airpods aren't very durable. I'm on my 4th pair of Airpod
| Pros. One pair I got replaced by Apple due to a known problem
| in the Pro 1st gen, the other two both failed right outside
| warranty.
|
| The noise cancellation is the weak part. The microphone or
| related hardware breaks and then you get all kinds of plops and
| squeals unless you turn noise cancellation off. Somehow they
| tend to do that about 3 to 6 months after warranty...
| ThrowawayTestr wrote:
| You did a good deed. You should feel proud of yourself.
| radicality wrote:
| So you scripted sending the message to 84 different numbers, was
| that from your own personal iMessage account?
|
| I would be terrified of doing something like that, I imagine the
| account could get flagged for spam, and hearing the various tech
| horror stories, I wouldn't be surprised if it could end up
| suspending your iCloud account with everything on it,
| blacklisting hardware devices linked to it, and who knows what
| else.
| 72736379 wrote:
| I'm not the author but my guess is that the API returns whether
| the number is registered with iMessage or not- like if you type
| in a number in a new text message it shows whether the message
| you're sending will be an iMessage or a text message. Don't
| think the author was spamming random numbers.
| radeeyate wrote:
| The author said that they scripted sending the messages to
| those numbers on their Mac rather than using something like
| Twilio.
| schrodinger wrote:
| That's after screening to see if the number was linked to
| iMessage --- ie a valid iPhone attached to the number.
| That's what that lookup service did. Then they scripted
| messaging the numbers that worked.
| hk__2 wrote:
| Yes, and _after_ screening they had 84 recipients to
| contact.
| RockRobotRock wrote:
| Yeah, I definitely should've thought it through more. I was
| just a little too caffeinated and excited.
| thorum wrote:
| Is 84 so high? I imagine there are people sending party invites
| and "lost my phone, new number" messages to more than that.
| ilt wrote:
| I think more than sending 84 messages, getting reported on
| handful of them can be more concerning. While you'll rarely
| get reported for a party invite.
| radicality wrote:
| Yeah, exactly. I'm not sure what happens after I click
| "Delete and Report Junk" on every spammy-looking sms and
| iMessage I get, but I imagine the iMessage reports go into
| some ML blackbox and hopefully contribute to banning the
| spammer.
|
| I understand the op was trying to do a good deed, but if I
| saw an unexpected message like that I would definitely hit
| "Delete and Report Junk" instead of just "Delete".
| seb1204 wrote:
| Why would you consider the text spammy? No links or
| requests were included. So just delete seems fine to me.
| radicality wrote:
| Maybe I'm just jaded/untrusting, but the message reminded
| me of the initial opening text from various
| wrongnumber/pig-butchering scams.
|
| https://maxread.substack.com/p/whats-the-deal-with-all-
| those...
|
| Discussion of above -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31949731
| toast0 wrote:
| It's been a long while, but I scripted iMessage a bit, and
| Apple has a pretty casual slide into unworking.
|
| They don't just block your account in one fell swoop, first
| indicators and messaging will stop working for a few hours. And
| you can hit that at least a few times without a ban. After a
| few times of that it was clear it wouldn't be worth running
| what I had, so I stopped before any sort of permanent banning.
| lxgr wrote:
| This once happened to somebody I know! Their Apple ID somehow
| got banned from specifically, and only, iMessage and FaceTime;
| all other services like iCloud and the app store were working
| as usual.
|
| No idea why it happened, but Apple support was able to reset it
| on a phone call.
|
| My theory is that they'd kept a non-active SIM in their phone
| for a long time, and the phone had tried to repeatedly
| verify/link that phone number to their Apple ID (via challenge
| SMS, I believe), thereby exceeding some rate limit.
|
| Gotta love that such rate limits exist and do occasionally hit
| legitimate users, but at the same time, there are _paid_
| lookup-as-a-service APIs out there as mentioned in TFA...
| golergka wrote:
| > specifically, and only, iMessage and FaceTime; all other
| services like iCloud and the app store were working as usual
|
| Google should take note.
| tredre3 wrote:
| > Apple support was able to reset it on a phone call.
|
| That too.
| whstl wrote:
| Apple's phone support is insane, at least where I used
| it.
|
| High audio quality, no rush and no signs of them being an
| underpaid call center operator, always going the extra
| mile to help me.
| bbarnett wrote:
| Well you're paying for it, the app store fees alone make
| it worth while for Apple. I do wonder, with the changes
| slowly trickling down the pipe, will Apple's fees over
| then next few years slowly diminish? And if so, what of
| their support quality (which is financed via funds from
| app store fees)?
| whstl wrote:
| I don't think I have bought an App in the AppStore in
| years, so the only money they're getting for me was from
| the device I buy every 5 years or so.
| lxgr wrote:
| Phone support for devices usually ends a couple of months
| after the purchase date as far as I know, or has that
| changed?
| Fnoord wrote:
| Yep, you are paying for it. But with Google Android you
| pay with your privacy and time. And you get terrible
| support in return.
|
| I've been trying to get a paid game the past days for my
| kids, a game where you try use bolts to remove wooden
| planks. It only exists with IAP and/or ads. The ads are
| terrible and not tailored to children. Nor are all the
| dark patterns. And you can get rid of the ads. By paying
| you get rid of them!!.. for 24 hours.
|
| I'd rather pay via App Store or Google Play Store or
| Steam or whatever. Even a subscription for a month
| would've been better.
| lxgr wrote:
| Don't the Play Store and the App Store take exactly the
| same cut in most cases?
| nolist_policy wrote:
| FWIW there is the Google Play Pass which gets you 1000+
| games without any ads or the need for additional in-app
| purchases. It can be shared with 5 family members too.
| danieldk wrote:
| Yep, we had to contact Apple support maybe three times
| since we switched to Apple products in 2007. It was easy
| to get hold of them every time and they were very
| pleasant.
|
| The last time there was an issue with an Apple Care
| payment. I was forwarded to someone who I believe was
| actually in Apple's Dutch accounting department
| (certainly not a help desk drone). They called me back to
| follow up and even after everything was sorted out to
| check if everything was looking good on my end.
| yungporko wrote:
| must be location dependent. i've only ever had the
| standard 3rd world country script support employees, but
| they do tend to eventually transfer me to an irish guy
| who is allowed to speak freely after enough going around
| in circles.
| whstl wrote:
| I never used the support in an english-speaking country,
| so that might indeed explain my experience.
| MatthiasPortzel wrote:
| iMessage has an AppleScript API that makes it easy. I ran a
| game in school with something like 50 teams and I had a script
| to generate different objectives for each team and send them
| out by text automatically.
| sneak wrote:
| So much for end to end encryption that is unreadable by Apple.
| throwaway290 wrote:
| In other apps like whatsapp reporting a message usually sends
| contents/history to mods explicitly. No need to break e2ee
| for that
| radicality wrote:
| I do believe apple's e2e encryption promises on iMessage
| content, and don't think it should interfere with their
| ability to control for spam / bad actors.
|
| But I also expect them to know the sender/receiver, and I
| imagine if I click "Delete and Report Junk" button, that I
| would probably submit the unencrypted contents of that whole
| conversation to Apple. And they should have also have metrics
| of total sends vs reported sends.
| sneak wrote:
| The vast majority of iMessages (99%+) are readable by Apple
| because either the iMessages themselves or the iMessage
| cross-device sync keys are escrowed to Apple in the
| non-e2ee iCloud Backup. In the latter case the messages are
| readable in realtime.
|
| This is documented (not the 99% figure, but the situation)
| by Apple in knowledge base articles on the apple.com
| website.
|
| The e2ee in iMessage is effectively irrelevant, as for most
| people, most of the time, it functions just like Telegram
| (which is not e2ee).
| modeless wrote:
| If you text 84 random iMessage numbers what are the chances that
| one of them lost their AirPods? Pretty high I bet.
| adastra22 wrote:
| They verified by checking that the AirPods paired with the
| owners phone.
| ks2048 wrote:
| I wonder if the non-matches replied and how.
| ks2048 wrote:
| Wouldn't it make sense for Apple to have a "send anonymous
| message to the owner" option on that info page?
| peddling-brink wrote:
| There may be liability for Apple when that is inevitably
| abused.
| lokar wrote:
| I wonder what they would do if you "lost" them in an Apple
| Store?
| hunter2_ wrote:
| At some point, during a meetup the person offering the item
| would demand a ransom leading to violence. Creators of this
| tech would much rather you use it only by yourself or with
| police, not to interact with strangers.
| helipad wrote:
| I left my AirPods Pro at a school sports field an hour away, and
| I didn't realize until the next morning after it been raining
| heavily. I gave them up for lost and needed headphones for work -
| so ordered some from Apple with same day delivery.
|
| A week later, I got a Find My notification that they had been
| spotted - at the same sports field. I figured what the hell, put
| on a podcast and drove the hour to see if I could find them.
| Worst case scenario, a couple of hours of driving.
|
| Using Find My and the directional feature points you in the right
| direction to within feet, I found them in the tall grass.
|
| The case had been perfectly watertight, and they'd barely lost a
| percent of power in a week. Remarkable really all round.
| hilux wrote:
| Mine lose 20-30% sitting in their case overnight. It's very
| annoying. You ARE lucky!
| mckn1ght wrote:
| Something is wrong with them. I can use mine repeatedly over
| several days before finally needing to plug them in again.
| You should reach out to support.
| hilux wrote:
| I've googled it and tried all the recommended fixes.
|
| This is a frequent problem - only for some people.
| mckn1ght wrote:
| Have you actually talked to Apple? They might just
| replace them. Is this the only pair that's demonstrated
| this behavior, or has it been multiple units?
| eek2121 wrote:
| The left earbud dying is a frequent problem. Sometimes I
| sometimes hear about the right, but usually the left.
| Even more rarely, both die frequently, which isn't the
| real issue...they drain the case, right? (if not ignore
| the rest of this)
|
| Want me to blow your mind? The REASON for this is the
| case. Everyone always suggests cleaning, but that won't
| help for the long term. I know because I have tried.
|
| I took a pair of tweezers and bent the metal contacts in
| the case outward. That was a year ago. I have not had a
| single issue since. Not one. I am willing to bet Apple
| brushed a manufacturing defect under the rug. YMMV and if
| your airpods are under warranty, consider that first, but
| after having the issue with first gen and second gen, I
| wasn't about to deal with nonsense.
| fragmede wrote:
| > I am willing to bet Apple brushed a manufacturing
| defect under the rug.
|
| What? that doesn't sound like Apple at _all_. They would
| never do that. I get butterflies just thinking that.
| ornornor wrote:
| > butterflies
|
| I see what you did there.
| samatman wrote:
| The butterfly keyboard was a _design_ defect, and these
| are very different things. Apple went to great lengths
| (because telling Jony Ive 'no' was not an option) to try
| and tweak the design to function correctly in the real
| world, and failed.
|
| But they came out of the box functioning perfectly, and
| stayed that way until tiny specks of dust inevitably
| entered the picture. The entire saga was extremely
| boneheaded and after I took mine in for a replacement
| (which, I must say, was out of warranty and only cost me
| time) I vowed to never buy another MacBook which had that
| absurd keyboard. Fortunately I didn't have to, they went
| back to the proven design which is a true beast and just
| keeps chugging along for years without a single missed or
| repeated keystroke.
|
| But this is very different from shipping products with
| known _manufacturing_ defects, and then 'brushing it
| under the rug', presumably by not issuing a recall. I
| can't recall even the former happening with post-iPod era
| Apple products, let alone the latter.
|
| In this particular case, the most likely culprit is
| pushing the AirPod into the charging slot with enough
| force to bend down the contact. There isn't a way to
| manufacture a spring contact which isn't vulnerable to
| this, and the fix is easy if you have thin enough
| tweezers. If Apple shipped an edition of AirPods cases
| with bad contacts, which didn't charge out of the box,
| it's a safe bet that there would be press about it. Maybe
| there was, but if so, I missed the 635 comment HN thread
| about it.
| j_bum wrote:
| Going to give this a try tomorrow... fingers crossed.
| ornornor wrote:
| Please remember to come back and update us after a couple
| of weeks!
| jbverschoor wrote:
| Mine last not even 10 minutes after one year of use.
| Apple did nothing. So no more AirPods ever for me anymore
| gandalfgreybeer wrote:
| That definitely isn't normal. My guess is you need to clean
| the contacts in the AirPods. They might be in the case but
| it's still pairing or trying to pair. Shouldn't drain that
| much, especially overnight.
| asveikau wrote:
| Maybe the battery is failing?
| talldatethrow wrote:
| If Person A loses 1% over a week in standby, and person B
| loses 20% overnight, it's probably not the battery..
|
| Unless Person B also tells you that in general their air
| pods only last 30 minutes playing music.
|
| As stated, their percentage of power level fall vs person
| A is 2000% more being generous (person A said a week, not
| a night). If it was because of the battery, the air pods
| would also last way way way less playing music.
| samstave wrote:
| You're right. Its _definitely_ the Person.
| asveikau wrote:
| Except when lithium batteries get old they start to lose
| double digit percentages in a couple hours. My experience
| anyway.
| SllX wrote:
| Could be either/or. I long ago lost the brassiere that
| came with my AirPods Max (not really lost, I just can't
| be arsed to dig it out of where I think it is) and
| they'll drain themselves fairly quickly just trying to
| throw out stray connections to any of the five or so
| devices they can connect to unless I make a point of
| disconnecting them. AirPods Pro exhibit the same exact
| symptoms when the contact inside the case needs to be
| cleaned.
| nxicvyvy wrote:
| My airpods need a small piece of tissue in the top on one
| side or they don't charge. Could be a tolerance issue.
| lostlogin wrote:
| I can't work this out. Is this an autocorrect?
| card_zero wrote:
| Nope.
|
| https://cdn0.tnwcdn.com/wp-
| content/blogs.dir/1/files/2021/05...
| jsjohnst wrote:
| There's a magnetic contact that the "bra" case engages
| that turns off the headphones so the battery doesn't
| needlessly drain. Bunch of companies make after market
| cases/covers, you should get one of them at least.
| SllX wrote:
| I am aware of how it works, that's why I front-loaded the
| part about the brassiere being MIA at the moment. I just
| don't care, and I don't take it outside except on the
| airplane. Next flight I have, I'll probably dig out the
| brassiere.
|
| Also in my experience, the brassiere was never perfect
| about guaranteeing the AirPods Max were put perfectly
| into a sleep state. The same exact issue could sometimes
| occur, maybe an alignment issue. The AirPods Max sound
| fantastic, but there's a lot of little details about them
| where Apple just kind of dropped the ball.
| csomar wrote:
| It's an iOS bug. It happens now and then for me, and when
| it happens it drains all the battery juice. Still no fix to
| this date.
| bratwurst3000 wrote:
| could you link the bugreport or sth pls. apple has such
| weird bugs. on my iphone if i set an alarm and late at
| night i decide to tell siri to put another alarm she
| deletes the first one. did miss some flights because of
| that. and sometimes it doesnt ring at all. have a analog
| alarm for that now.
| cromka wrote:
| Apple doesn't do public bug reports
| jsjohnst wrote:
| Apple officially doesn't, but the community does...
|
| http://www.openradar.me/
| ornornor wrote:
| Apple doesn't really care about bugs. They'll get fixed
| if and when they feel like it.
| mouse_ wrote:
| It'll get fixed if they think it'll result in a lost
| sale. As they are effectively a vendor monopoly, this
| probably won't happen.
| 867-5309 wrote:
| what a bubble to live in
| jmaker wrote:
| My Apple Watch regularly gets burning hot and drains the
| battery. Sometimes overnight, sometimes during the day.
| Very annoying. Reset several times, Apple Care was of no
| help, no fix to this date either. Only way to alleviate
| is to reboot the Watch.
| szundi wrote:
| This is since the existence of software and is going to
| stay with us until most people is ok to have 1/3rd of the
| features for the same kind of money. This will never
| happen, so bugs are here to stay.
| pessimizer wrote:
| The fact that software is buggy is not the customer's
| fault any more than food poisoning is the fault of people
| who eat too much.
| __s wrote:
| If you restrict your diet & make sure to properly cook
| your food you can greatly reduce your frequency of food
| poisoning
|
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804545
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| That wasn't their point and I'm hesitating to believe you
| actually think it was.
|
| This is like blaming people for not locking their door
| after they've been robbed. Yeah, they should have locked
| their door. But the person who actually did wrong is the
| person who robbed them.
|
| Blaming somebody for not taking extra steps to reduce the
| chances of something happening to them that is ultimately
| the fault of another party is not right.
| RHSeeger wrote:
| I don't agree with this at all. It is possible to both be
| in the wrong _and_ not be the villain. If I am dressed to
| the 9s, wearing expensive jewelry, carrying a lot of
| money.... and then I want down dark alleys.... and I get
| mugged; I am not the bad guy, the mugger is. But I'm also
| partially to blame, because I knowingly took actions that
| increased the likelihood of me being mugged.
|
| Our society has elements that will harm us. It is up to
| us to take action to reduce the likelihood of that
| happening.
| ensignavenger wrote:
| Pointing out that there are ways to reduce risk of
| something bad happening does not excuse the fault of a
| perpetrator. Neither is it victim blaming. This is
| particularly true when having a bad thing happen to you
| could occur without any individual acting intentionally,
| such as is the case with food poisoning.
| rapind wrote:
| It's not the individuals fault on their own, but the
| market absolutely reflects societies tolerance of bugs
| and crashes. Microsoft started boiling that frog decades
| ago.
| KennyBlanken wrote:
| It's defective. They need to fix it or replace it.
| DavideNL wrote:
| > " _It 's an iOS bug_"
|
| How did you determine it's an iOS bug?
| Uptrenda wrote:
| I love the airpods but ah... they dont play well with any
| kind of metal work. If you do metal work with a file the
| shavings get everywhere and once they stick to the magnet
| its almost impossible to get them out. I guess this is a
| very unusual edge case though but thought id post it. lmao.
| justinclift wrote:
| Do you reckon a high psi stream of compressed air would
| remove the shavings? ie from an air compressor or similar
| xnzakg wrote:
| Probably would need to be careful not to damage the
| microphones.
| jsjohnst wrote:
| Might I recommend something like IsoTunes? Far better
| product to use in a work environment where you might need
| to hear something going wrong.
| tlb wrote:
| Iron age problems. Wasn't a problem in the good 'ol
| bronze age.
| eszed wrote:
| I use tape, or bluetack. Bluetack is easiest for the
| external connectors, but a wodge of tape, properly
| manipulated, can get the internal ones. Can be a bit of a
| pain, but it's never not worked.
| maronato wrote:
| That is a lot, but I wonder if GP's only decreased by 1%
| because their phone wasn't close by. AirPods and their
| iPhones probably keep pinging each other to maintain the
| Bluetooth connection, which must have an effect on the
| battery.
| SllX wrote:
| Only when you pull them out of the case. Otherwise they
| just stay asleep. When I replaced my Powerbeats Pro (same
| fundamental tech as any AirPods) with AirPods Pro, I went
| about a year or so without touching the Powerbeats Pro and
| they just sat in one spot not too far from anything they
| could connect to since I never unpaired them from anything.
| I pulled them out a year later, and the Beats themselves
| were still fully charged and I think the case was still
| about 70%. Couldn't tell you what I had left the case at
| though.
| inopinatus wrote:
| Try leaving them on the bedpost, c.f. Donegan, L (1959)
| okdood64 wrote:
| Yours are broken somehow. That's insane.
| dyauspitr wrote:
| I find it funny that you consider a drastic difference like
| that a matter of luck. Clearly something isn't right with
| your pods.
| stingraycharles wrote:
| Not normal. Case takes months to deplete without usage for
| me.
| jb1991 wrote:
| That is very strange and defective.
| gcanyon wrote:
| Mine sometimes don't charge in the case, and can either end
| up with the case fully charged and the airpods fully drained,
| or if they charge/discharge through the night with the
| airpods at a random charge and the case somewhat drained.
|
| I seem to be the only person this happens to, but the
| won't-charge-in-the-case problem was so bad with my original
| airpods pro that Apple ended up replacing the case, then the
| airpods pro _and_ the case, over a very frustrating several
| months of back and forth. My new airpods pro were fine for
| maybe eight months, but the problem has started again. So far
| it 's only once every few weeks, which I can live with.
| matwood wrote:
| If you don't know, make sure the light blinks when you drop
| each AirPod in. That will show it hit the contacts
| correctly. My APP 1s also had this issue way more often
| than my second gens.
| foundddit wrote:
| Just chiming in to say I had the same problem and found a
| solution.
|
| For some reason, my AirPods silently connect to my iPhone
| while they're in their case and both devices are asleep. Why
| they do this, I have no clue. Just quality 2020s Apple
| programming.
|
| Anyways, there's an easy solution: go into the settings app
| (not the drop down menu) and turn off Bluetooth on your
| phone/ipad when you don't need it. Your AirPods will no
| longer randomly drain at night. Neither will your Apple
| Pencil, if you have one of those.
|
| You'll find a lot of comments on Apple support
| forums/reddit/etc saying it's impossible for it to be
| Bluetooth and that you should never turn it off for any
| reason because it's crazy. People for some reason are very
| assertive about that. But they're wrong. I now make a habit
| of only turning Bluetooth on precisely when I need it and
| immediately turn it off afterwards and now nothing gets
| drained needlessly.
|
| Now the only AirPods bug that drives me insane is the volume
| randomly shooting up halfway to max randomly sometimes when I
| connect to my computer, but I made a script to somewhat fix
| it.
| deeth_starr_v wrote:
| Can't you just turn off Bluetooth easily via Control
| Center? Top left Bluetooth symbol
| foundddit wrote:
| That doesn't turn Bluetooth off. It's deceptive. It
| simply "disconnects" it, but it'll still connect at a
| random point in the future. It also doesn't really
| disconnect it since it'll still detect devices and burn
| away your battery life. And I experimented with it
| countless times over a couple years.
|
| That's why I said you need to do it through settings
| directly. Otherwise it won't do anything.
| iwontberude wrote:
| Yes it does. Once you tap that button Bluetooth will
| remain off.
| jq-r wrote:
| Yes, but only until the next day.
| iwontberude wrote:
| This is accurate.
| scellus wrote:
| Same here, occasionally I find both the case and the ear
| pieces with empty batteries while they haven't been nowhere
| near empty when I left them, usually previous day or evening.
| iaabtpbtpnn wrote:
| My AirPods went thru the washer and dryer in their case. No
| damage whatsoever!
| mrbungie wrote:
| My airpods pro were totally destroyed in the washer/dryer, no
| idea why.
|
| Maybe it was because it was quite a lengthy washing cycle?
| adtac wrote:
| You forgot to set the washing machine to "Whites"
| WWLink wrote:
| Yea my brother has ruined 2 pairs of airpods in the washing
| machine.
| LeonB wrote:
| I wonder what the difference is? One (admittedly
| uninformed) hypothesis is that there might have been more
| detergent, and the failure was caused by detergent
| residue. If this was true, they could be (possibly)
| repaired by rinsing with fresh water to remove said
| residue and leaving to dry. (Lots of other possible
| hypotheses and confounding factors)
| ravenstine wrote:
| I sometimes wear my airpods in the shower. Have gotten water
| in them often, but this never caused them to fail or be
| permanently damaged.
| pcf wrote:
| Out of curiosity - why do you wear them in the shower? Are
| they meant to withstand that?
| ravenstine wrote:
| The first few times were by accident, but once I realized
| they are durable enough I started wearing them sometimes
| while showering if I've got a good audiobook or YT video
| that I don't want to put down.
|
| I think they're supposed to withstand some degree of
| moisture, but I don't believe they're designed
| specifically to be submerged. However, one of mine (gen 2
| airpods) got fully submerged for maybe 3 seconds in the
| bathtub but it managed to start working again when I let
| it dry out.
|
| I'm not saying I recommend others treat their AirPods as
| if they're water resistant but, in my experience, all the
| generations of AirPods can take a bit of a water beating.
| The only ones I've never done this with are any of the
| Pro models.
| cqqxo4zV46cp wrote:
| Heh. I wasn't so lucky, and it was the morning of a flight.
| Never had more of a reason to pull the forget on the $15
| 2-hour delivery Apple offers in my area.
| eek2121 wrote:
| My first gen pros didn't survive. They still work, but have a
| high pitched wine. They were already out of warranty so I had
| to buy a new pair.
|
| I did not and will not complain. I have owned over a hundred
| pairs of headphones/earbuds in my lifetime and these things
| are the best, by FAR.
|
| However, don't wash them.
| petre wrote:
| > They were already out of warranty so I had to buy a new
| pair.
|
| You realize that this is not a warranty issue, right?
| FreezingKeeper wrote:
| They may have meant AppleCare+ which covers accidental
| damage
|
| https://www.apple.com/support/products/headphones/
| ThatMedicIsASpy wrote:
| And petre may have meant that them being unrepairable
| isn't a warranty issue.
| xp84 wrote:
| Maybe by warranty he meant the insurance that Apple now
| sells ("AppleCare with...")
| oxym0ron wrote:
| I get that AppleCare is technically insurance, but it's
| kinda a rip-off IMHO.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| Holy crap, hundreds of pairs? What do you do with them? Run
| them through the washer just for fun? :)
| vel0city wrote:
| I probably haven't had _hundreds_ yet, but probably more
| than one hundred.
|
| So many things used to come with cheap earbuds or
| headphones. A pocket radio. A portable CD player. A cheap
| MP3 player. A laptop. I've even had some small TVs come
| with headphones out of the box. So there's like 40+ sets
| I didn't even ask for over the years. Pretty much all
| immediate trash.
|
| Then there are the ones I bought in a pinch. Go on a
| trip, realize I didn't bring my headphones, swing by the
| store and get a cheap pair. Being a cheap pair, they
| often didn't last long. There's another dozen sets.
|
| Now the ones I actually wanted. Not all have replaceable
| cups or pads, so they'd often wear out after a few years.
| Or they were USB, and the circuitry started freaking out
| after a few years. On top of that I probably have
| different sets for different use cases. A pair for on the
| go. A pair for the computer. A pair for the HiFi system.
| A pair for the office.
| mshroyer wrote:
| Same here. They sounded "off" for a while, but returned to
| normal after a day of drying outside of the case. (I'm
| guessing that perhaps some water was blocking the microphones
| used for noise cancellation.)
| wodenokoto wrote:
| Mine too. I tried them on and they played a loud, high pitch
| noise and haven't dared touch them since.
| agumonkey wrote:
| What would happen if you lost only one?
| wafflemaker wrote:
| Slight chance of finding it if you notice it's missing fast
| enough. FindMy only finds the charger, not the headphones out
| of charger, but you can make it play a sound.
|
| You can buy a replacement for about 50% of the price of a new
| set (complete with charger case).
| Eric_WVGG wrote:
| That's not correct.
|
| One night I dropped my case as I crossed the street to my
| building. I grabbed it off the ground without paying
| attention, both buds had fallen out.
|
| In the morning, I picked up the case and noticed that it
| felt light. Find My reported both buds as having been seen
| outside on the sidewalk, one last seen four hours ago, the
| other six. I ran downstairs and outside to find them both
| smashed by car traffic.
|
| Another time a bud popped out of the case while passing
| through the TSA X-rays (yes, I have lousy luck with these).
| I was able to pinpoint the direction with the app and make
| it plays sounds, but the agents were unable to dig under
| the rollers and get it out.
| agumonkey wrote:
| In my case I only own cheap aukey earbuds and so far I
| couldn't find any information about buying a single earbud
| teekert wrote:
| Wow 1 percent in a week. I use mine every couple of days but
| they drain much faster. Perhaps yours decided, he, see no
| iPhone for a couple of hours let's do some deep sleep.
|
| I'd love to have more control over then charge cycle like that.
| WanderPanda wrote:
| I washed my Airpods in a washing machine once and they
| continued working normally for 6 months until the noise
| cancelling started to fail on one side.
| thekevan wrote:
| I accidentally put mine through the washing machine. The
| aftermarket case I had them in died but the Airpods themselves
| survived just fine. That was 2 years ago and I still use them
| every day.
| furyofantares wrote:
| I lost two sets in the snow at my mom's house. Where she lives
| the snow sticks around for 4 or 5 months. They would have been
| near the top of a few feet of snow where we were making snow
| angels and generally frolicking, and then covered up by
| additional snowfall. We found them once it melted. They both
| work fine.
| ErigmolCt wrote:
| It's rare to hear (for my ears) such a perfect outcome when it
| comes to lost tech
| carstenhag wrote:
| (in germany) Friend took multiple trains, Ubahn, Bus. 5
| Seconds after leaving the bus, he realized he had forgotten
| his backpack with id, laptop, etc.
|
| We were "hunting" busses for 2h but couldn't find it. He
| didn't have Find My set up on the mac. Filed police report
| etc. A week later he got mail saying the bag was found in a
| train in Augsburg. Which was the 2nd of 4 legs of the trips
| or something, and he was completely off where he lost it :D
| ja27 wrote:
| I saw someone on Twitter that left hers in a seatback on a
| flight. They'd show up on Find My every day for almost two
| months before they died. She talked to the airline multiple
| times about someone checking her seatback and several times
| they insisted they weren't there. Doubtful they ever checked at
| all but impressive battery life.
| conradev wrote:
| I used to bike from SF to Apple in Cupertino once a week. One
| week, I dropped my AirPods case on the ride and only when I got
| to work did I realize I was missing an AirPod. The next week, I
| stopped right around where I dropped the case and I found it,
| working just fine.
|
| I love that when you drop the case, the AirPods scatter into
| the farthest reaches of wherever you are - favorite feature
| tamimio wrote:
| A while ago, I did something similar but with an AirTag. I found
| a few at a local thrift store, and whoever donated them still had
| them linked to their iCloud, so they were useless. But it was
| easier since the area code was known. I tried a few numbers, and
| luckily, one answered and removed them from their account.
| aledalgrande wrote:
| My friend left them in a rental car. He spent more than a week
| seeing them coming on and offline in Find My and moving around in
| a university area. Assumed someone had stolen them. Finally
| called the rental company and got access to the car: they were in
| the glovebox.
| benatkin wrote:
| This seems genuine to me, but I'm sure some unscrupulous people
| would love a story like this hitting the front page of HN.
|
| Props to the author for helping the user find their missing
| AirPods! I believe your story. If I see another story similar to
| this I may find it harder to believe.
| tzs wrote:
| > I started with the assumption that the owner lived near me in
| the Portland metropolitan area. With that, I restricted the
| search to our local area code. Sure, they could be from out of
| town, but hey, let's give it a shot
|
| They could also be local but with a non-Portland area code.
| Generally, at least if you are using a nationwide cell phone
| carrier, you can move to another area code and keep your number.
|
| I wonder what percent of people do that?
| yieldcrv wrote:
| Nobody has had to change their cell number while moving across
| the US for 30 years
|
| I would say a high percentage of people do that, but portland
| may not have as many transplants as other cities
|
| Yeah it was a weird assumption and I'm glad it worked
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| This part of the story is even more surprising to me, as I'd
| never considered the possibility that mobile phone numbers
| _could_ have area codes. The Portland metropolitan area has a
| population of just under three million according to
| Wikipedia[1]; my country has a population of just under seventy
| million and has only a single block of phone numbers allocated
| for cellular use.
|
| [1]:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_metropolitan_area,_Or...
| sgerenser wrote:
| This is not the case in the U.S. (discussed elsewhere in this
| discussion). All phone numbers, landline or mobile, have an
| area code associated with a specific city/region. Since
| number portability became a thing in the early 2000s it's
| much more common for cell phone users to just keep their
| number from decades ago, however, which will often not match
| the physical area they now live in.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| The US is also somewhat unique (not the only country, but
| one of a few) in that we can port numbers between landline
| and mobile. Most places keep them separate.
|
| I used this feature recently, after my mom passed. She had
| the same home number we grew up with, for fifty years. I
| ported it over as a second line on my mobile. Partly
| nostalgia (okay, mostly), partly because it was a pretty
| great number for memorization; it has an excellent number
| pattern.
| lxgr wrote:
| Love the methodology, although they did get lucky that the number
| (in addition to being local) was not ported from an originally
| landline-specific block :)
| bandrami wrote:
| My favorite "what the hell are we doing?" moment was when I saw
| that they now sell lanyards for wireless earbuds because people
| keep losing them.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| I will never get over how apple figured out how to resell
| headphones someone already owns for $100+. Brilliant
| psychologists in their employ I am sure.
| nyanpasu64 wrote:
| You could argue that it's less likely to tug your phone off a
| cable when using a lanyard between headphones compared to a
| wire to the audio source.
| paul7986 wrote:
| Probably not a popular opinion but I prefer smart glasses (take
| calls, listen to audio, ask what you see in front of you like
| whats that mountain, take pics/videos and more) to Airpods. For
| me glasses are more comfortable and not as easy to lose,
| especially since you have to store and charge them in the hard
| case they come with.
| spacecadet wrote:
| I lost mine! Shat them out in the morning. Just in time for
| sprint planing, but not enough time to clean them out!
| divbzero wrote:
| Taking them to an Apple Store might have worked too? Though not
| nearly as cool.
| mattgreenrocks wrote:
| Kinda love this.
|
| Some people would say it's creepy to do stuff like this, but
| creatively exercising your talents to reunite people with their
| lost stuff is a net win in my book.
| AdamJacobMuller wrote:
| I lost a pair of AirTags on an international flight (in cargo),
| fortunately I only lost the AirTags, and not the actual bags they
| were attached to!
|
| One of the AirTags actually flew around internationally for a
| week or so (London, Amsterdam, back to the US a few times!) but
| sadly after about a week there were no more updates.
|
| Someone must have found the AirTag in whatever baggage container
| it was stuck in and removed the battery.
|
| I still have the AirTag in FindMy, one day I suppose I'll delete
| it but I sometimes wonder what happened to it.
|
| Did the person who found it just throw it out? Do recovered
| AirTags go back to Apple to be recycled and resold? Does the CEO
| of American Airlines, Robert Isom, have a scrooge-mc-duck-esque
| pool of lost AirPods he swims around in? Sometimes I wonder.
| ancientorange wrote:
| Why not put the airtag inside the bag?
|
| My lost tag is (presumably) attached to my keys at the bottom
| of a lake. I refuse to delete it from findmy.
| glitchcrab wrote:
| Yes this was my reaction too, I can't see any reason to have
| the airtag on the outside at all.
| theoreticalmal wrote:
| Kindred spirit! My old Apple Watch is at the bottom of the
| Colorado River near Moab. Still paired in Find My.
| xeromal wrote:
| I was in moab last november and took a dip in the colorado
| for my "bath". Good lord that was cold. lol
| AdamJacobMuller wrote:
| It was a pair of scuba tanks in a custom bag which was too
| small for the tanks, so there was no really secure inside.
|
| But, it was attached to the handles with one of these:
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B34Y5YZS
|
| There are people who dive down and find lost stuff on the
| bottom of lakes, and people who go magnet fishing, they still
| might find your keys!
| Towaway69 wrote:
| My first paired AirTag was somehow removed from my findNow list
| when I paired my phone with my MacBook (I suspect it had
| something to do with encryption).
|
| I went back to my Apple Store and explained the problem. After
| demonstrating that a reset didn't fix the problem, they gave me
| a new AirTag and kept the old one.
|
| When I paired the new AirTag, the old one suddenly reappeared
| in my list! It spent some three weeks at the Apple Store, then
| about two weeks in Poland and now it's been in a Dutch
| warehouse for about three months - last seen 17 hours ago.
|
| I don't know why it's spending so much time in a Dutch
| warehouse - perhaps it's Apples junkyard in Europe.
| firtoz wrote:
| Some naughty folk could do this trick to identify worthy
| treasure to plunder
| theoreticalmal wrote:
| Wow, could you imagine? A warehouse full of maybe-broken
| Apple products. What a fun place to check out!!
| ErigmolCt wrote:
| It must have been both amusing and frustrating to watch your
| lost AirTag go on its own international adventure
| fallinghawks wrote:
| I'm curious about the chances of the owner having the same area
| code as where the airpods were found. I think in many cases the
| mobile number is going to be from where you lived when you first
| got a mobile phone, which could have been (at least in my case)
| decades ago. But I'm glad you got lucky!
|
| I found an airtag in a parking lot last year. It behaved a bit
| strangely even with a fresh battery and resetting it, and it
| still seemed the owner had not marked it lost. A friend who was
| an Apple rep told me it was probably defective and to just throw
| it away. I put it in the garage meaning to take it to the
| hazardous waste facility and forgot about it for about 8 months.
| Came across it again and just for grins and giggles I gave it one
| more try -- it seems the owner finally did mark it lost, and I
| was able to pair it to my iPad. So I have an extra airtag now...
| firefoxd wrote:
| Alright, so I have a project that is mostly abandoned right now
| due to various other obligations.
|
| The main goal was to contact car owners without having to have
| their phone numbers and such. But i quickly saw the advantage of
| tagging all sort of things. So I have it on my keychain, wallet,
| or several other things I own. If I lose these items, any
| stranger can contact me without having any of my personal
| contacts.
|
| What is it? It's a QR code. You scan it, and you can send some
| prewritten notifications to the owner. Once they reply, you can
| have a conversation. Scanning captures the gps location both for
| security measures and to help recover it.
|
| https://web.ottomon.net/join
|
| Landing page is totally misleading, I had big plans, but changing
| diapers took priority.
| ljlolel wrote:
| This is a great idea for losing stuff and you should finish and
| ship it.
| firefoxd wrote:
| Eventually I'll get to it...
| whoami730 wrote:
| Any plans about abroad shipping?
| AndrewKemendo wrote:
| BitRip does this exactly:
|
| https://www.bitrip.com/shop
| firefoxd wrote:
| Except they don't have the cutesy startupy mascot that I
| have.
| AndrewKemendo wrote:
| Haha that's awesome yes I agree
| parhamn wrote:
| Wonder what the benefits of their format are. That and why
| their smallest model is so big (I think this might be related
| to the format?)
| slim wrote:
| you need a special app to scan these
| dyauspitr wrote:
| How does the owner reply? Is the finder required to enter their
| phone number during the QR code process?
| firefoxd wrote:
| You can chat through the dashboard. Email only. Basically,
| the finder scans it, sends a message. The owner gets a
| notification through the app, or email, replies. The scanner
| can create an account to chat. No personal info is exchanged,
| unless they decide to do so via chat.
| davchana wrote:
| https://app.ngf132.com/
|
| Long time ago I came across very similar concept in use in
| India. Not much, but visible usage. I also came to know by
| looking at a sticker on car windshield.
| whoami730 wrote:
| Seems to be just for cars.
| davchana wrote:
| Basically it's a QR code masking your contact details. You
| can put it anywhere. It costs about $5.
| pomian wrote:
| This seems brilliant. No batteries to fail, etc. No tracking,
| no databases, simple. True hacker solution. I assume we can
| print our own bar code on paper, and using clear tape, attach
| it to most things.
| firefoxd wrote:
| Yep, you can print it out. My goal was to provide the
| printing. You can purchase a bundle of QRs stickers, or print
| it for free. Next year I'll do a show hn.
| doron2402 wrote:
| You're a good man! Awesome story
| someonehere wrote:
| There was a story of a hit and run in Florida recently where the
| teenager lost one earbud in the car that hit him. Using Find My
| they found the driver who hit them and arrested them for felony
| hit and run.
| bartvk wrote:
| Found it. Quite amazing story:
|
| NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/us/airpod-hit-and-
| run-flo...
|
| Cache: https://archive.ph/sRHFV
| RockRobotRock wrote:
| I'm glad they caught the piece of shit. I'm also a victim of a
| hit and run.
| heywoods wrote:
| In the spirit of doing this all on an iPhone. Here is an iOS
| shortcut that is a workaround for the group text problem.
|
| https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/49fb6b48ba104885a846ea4f6f2...
| max_ wrote:
| What technology does Airpods & AirTags use to allow them to be
| located when lost?
|
| They have no cellular reception hardware. How to they transmit
| their location to Apple?
| waschl wrote:
| I guess broadcasting beacons via Bluetooth to nearby iPhones,
| same principle like AirTags work
| max_ wrote:
| Is it some kind of proprietary P2P mesh network?
| denysvitali wrote:
| Yes, with a strong emphasis on the proprietary part. Apple
| and Google both have their own networks.
|
| All the Apple devices (and now, rolling out, all the Google
| Play Services enabled devices) scan for nearby Bluetooth LE
| beacons (that use their protocol) and upload (with some
| cryptographic operation) the location of the device who
| found the beacon, together with the accuracy (signal
| strength) to a proprietary server (Google or Apple).
|
| Then, with the respective apps, the key holder can retrieve
| the reports for a given key hash and decrypt them to get
| the previous location. Technically speaking, anyone with
| the key hash can fetch the encrypted location reports from
| Apple / Google servers, but they can't decrypt them. On top
| of that, the key is rotating every 15 minutes (AirTag in
| paired mode) and there is no way to know that two keys are
| connected... unless you own the main key that is used to
| derive the rolling keys (see "update" and "diversify" in
| the linked paper).
|
| Now, all of this is fantastic, until you think of this as a
| monopoly. Apple and Google get an interesting tax on every
| device that gets built and joins this network (IIRC it's 4$
| for partner devices in the Apple network).
|
| My problem with this is that no-one else other than Google
| and Apple can build an "open" network - you'd have to find
| a way to push your code to everyone's devices.
|
| I'm surprised no-one is investigating this unfair practice.
|
| See: https://doi.org/10.2478/popets-2021-0045 and
| https://github.com/seemoo-lab/openhaystack
| rootusrootus wrote:
| > My problem with this is that no-one else other than
| Google and Apple can build an "open" network - you'd have
| to find a way to push your code to everyone's devices.
|
| If you want a non-Apple, non-Google solution, you go to
| the OG tracker tag -- Tile. You have to install their
| app, so the reach won't be nearly as extensive, but that
| is fine by me -- the last thing I want is a third party
| developer able to push code to my device without me
| explicitly installing it.
| denysvitali wrote:
| Yes - but my point for that wasn't about allowing anyone
| to push anything on random devices. It was about the
| market penetration of those two companies.
|
| Tile, as you mentioned, will never get any reach since
| users have to opt-in to start contributing to the
| location data, making their network incredibly smaller
| compared to Apple's or Google's own networks.
|
| If you're Tile - you have no way to start such a network
| because you'd have to convince every single iPhone user
| (or Android user) to install your app, while Google /
| Apple can just do it with the push of a button (kind of!)
|
| My point was about starting your own network with a
| similar coverage - it's nearly impossible. Thus competing
| with Apple or Google here is extremely difficult.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| What would the alternative be except for there to be no
| network at all? Regulation to force interoperability
| between all mobile operating systems?
| denysvitali wrote:
| A protocol that allows the beacon to define which
| endpoint is used to forward the encrypted location data.
|
| Alternatively (since the adv data is limited), a
| "routing" endpoint that allows custom endpoints to be
| defined depending on the network ID.
|
| There are plenty of possible implementations that would
| allow for a fair market in this regard, but I don't think
| Apple or Google would ever introduce them, unless forced
| to
| kennyloginz wrote:
| Random late night story, my iPhone was lifted while being
| unattended. Using findmy, I was able to circle in on an apartment
| complex.
|
| After bugging the police for weeks, they finally met with me to
| look at my evidence. We met directly outside of the apartment.
| They didn't leave their SUV.
|
| A week later I got the phone back , because you can place a
| message on the lock screen remotely. The janitor of the apartment
| called me because I offered ( and paid ) a 100 dollar reward and
| a number they could reach me at.
|
| Not sure if there is a lesson here, except the feature of
| remotely changing a Lock Screen message is a great feature.
| globular-toast wrote:
| You paid the thief?
| flumpcakes wrote:
| If the police can't help you this is the best you can do. I
| know lots of stories of people getting back their $1000+ gear
| only when they offer cash for the person to drop it and walk
| away or to anonymously return it.
|
| $100 to guarantee your device back is a small price to pay
| apart from the insult of paying the thief.
| sethammons wrote:
| A former boss had the idea of fence.io - a digital stolen
| goods fence service allowing thieves to anonymously sell
| back goods to their original owners.
|
| It was a joke... mostly
| ewoodrich wrote:
| A couple apartments ago I had to park on the street and
| without fail if I ever forgot to lock my car I would wake
| up the next morning and discover it had been rifled
| through with 50/50 chance my car charger and cables would
| be missing.
|
| Day dreamed about a system where instead of spending 30
| bucks to replace my fancy QC later PD car charger I could
| pay a bribe of 10 bucks to the homeless person to whom a
| car charger was completely useless anyway with
| essentially no resale value.
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| I forgot my iPhone in a taxi in China; managed to call it and
| talk to the driver who had found it. Had to pay him off to
| get it back though :/ But it was cheaper than buying a new
| phone.
| bbarnett wrote:
| Huh. Where I am, janitor is used exclusively for more of an
| overall maintenance person of the entire building. And in such
| scenarios, due to rental laws, the janitor cannot enter an
| apartment without prior notice... unless of course it is an
| emergency.
|
| (An emergency has to be a real emergency, not "it's urgent to
| the landlord")
|
| So why I find this weird is, did the thief just leave a stolen
| phone, charged, in their apartment laying around for anyone to
| see? And if so, how would the janitor even see the lockscreen,
| wouldn't they have to hit the power button to see it (I presume
| the screen is off by default?). And why was the janitor even in
| the apartment? And presumably without the thief in their
| apartment?
|
| And worse, why would the janitor effectively steal a phone from
| a tenant, and go outside and sell it to you for $100, just
| because there was a message on the lockscreen. How did the
| janitor know you didn't somehow hack the owner's phone, and
| _you_ were the thief?
|
| NOTE: I'm sure the story is true, but I'm curious if it's just
| a stupid thief, or.. what.
|
| Whatever I'm not understanding, good job on getting your phone
| back.
| actionfromafar wrote:
| Maybe the thief and the janitor split the difference.
| sgerenser wrote:
| I assumed the janitor was the "thief."
| lukevp wrote:
| Portlanders are the best! My brother was visiting us here and he
| lost his wallet at a major tourist attraction. He figured it was
| gone for good. Nope, someone turned it in with the $200 in cash
| still in it.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I think Portlanders are generally pretty nice, too. But as it
| turns out, leaving a bit of cash in your wallet works anywhere
| in the world.
|
| https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lost-wallets-are-more-li...
| echoangle wrote:
| TIL American cellphone numbers use an area code that represents
| the actual location. Do you get a new number if you move and then
| change to a different provider?
|
| In Germany the cellphone area code is just out of a range your
| provider has registered and if you move to a different provider,
| you typically move over your number.
| bb611 wrote:
| Phone numbers are initially assigned geographically but people
| generally take their phone number with them as they move.
| echoangle wrote:
| So the author of the article was lucky it wasn't someone who
| moved to Portland. I wonder what the ratio of people who have
| the area code of their actual location as a phone number is.
| FractalParadigm wrote:
| I was thinking the same thing; the city I'm in isn't even
| that large (approx 450k pop.) but I could probably go
| through my list of contacts that live in-town and rattle
| off _at least_ two-dozen area codes that aren 't native to
| the area (on top of the dozen or so that are), with at
| least half of those being out-of-province. The slow death
| of long-distance billing, which also finds itself competing
| with the likes of FaceTime et. al., coupled with the
| highly-mobile nature of cell phones, have just made it a
| hassle to go through the process of changing your phone
| number for anything other than moving to another country
| (or a wicked discount).
| tialaramex wrote:
| > or a wicked discount
|
| Isn't that regulated? In many places the operators are
| required to let you take the number with you when you
| change provider to obtain a better/ cheaper service.
| Everybody's numbers in practice go via some LUT that's
| mapping a human "telephone number" which people dial to
| an actual service endpoint which might move (after all,
| cell phones already move, so this indirection was
| necessary to make that work) and so the rule only needs
| to say that there's some means by which company A gets to
| change the LUT for your phone instead of company B.
| t0mas88 wrote:
| Same in Netherlands, France and UK as far as I know. Landlines
| have an area code, mobile numbers are all in a specific range
| that isn't linked to any location.
|
| First time I got a cell phone in the US I was surprised I had
| to tell T-mobile my postal code and got a "local" number.
| stingraycharles wrote:
| Yup, from NL, have moved everywhere and and changed provider
| a dozen times and have the same cellphone number since my
| first phone in 1999 or something.
| arrowsmith wrote:
| Yes, in the UK all mobile numbers start with "07". Landlines
| start with a geographical area code - e.g. London numbers
| start with "020".
| nullhole wrote:
| https://xkcd.com/1129/
| pridkett wrote:
| Was going to post the same thing. People forget that prior to
| cell phone number portability between carriers in late 2003,
| you basically got a new phone number when you moved or
| changed carriers. Hence much more of the "new phone, who
| dis?"
|
| Now the comic is more like "where you lived in 2005 or when
| you first got a cell phone".
|
| Now that I have kids it's an interesting signaling mechanism
| seeing which parents have local area codes and which ones
| have them from other parts of the country.
| afavour wrote:
| You can, and some do, but a lot don't. I live in NYC and you'll
| see area codes from all over the country.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| I think NYC is likely to be an extreme outlier in this
| regard. A _lot_ of people move there from all around the
| country (and outside it).
| caseyohara wrote:
| Intuitively, I'd agree. But I looked it up and NYC doesn't
| even rank in the top 10 cities by geographic diversity.
|
| What's interesting is Colorado Springs ranks #2. I'm
| guessing that's because the Air Force Academy is there,
| which would make sense because it draws people from all
| over the country.
|
| Rank. City / % Born in state / Geo diversity index
|
| 01. Las Vegas / 25.3% / 82.7
|
| 02. Colorado Springs / 33.8% / 80.1
|
| 03. Seattle / 38.1% / 79.3
|
| 04. Washington, D.C. / 36.2% / 78.8
|
| 05. Denver / 41.1% / 77.4
|
| 06. Portland / 39.1% / 77.3
|
| 07. Mesa / 38.8% / 77.2
|
| 08. Phoenix / 40.6% / 77.2
|
| 09. Virginia Beach / 39.8% / 77.0
|
| 10. San Francisco / 40.1% / 76.8
|
| 11. Charlotte / 41.3% / 76.4
|
| 12. Boston / 43.7% / 76.1
|
| 13. San Diego / 45.5% / 74.8
|
| 14. Tucson / 45.8% / 74.2
|
| 15. Raleigh / 47.2% / 72.5
|
| 16. Oakland / 48.2% / 72.1
|
| 17. Los Angeles / 45.6% / 71.8
|
| 18. New York / 48.4% / 71.1
|
| 19. San Jose / 47.3% / 69.8
|
| 20. Jacksonville / 50.6% / 69.8
|
| 21. Nashville / 51.8% / 68.8
|
| 22. Austin / 53.3% / 68.3
|
| 23. Minneapolis / 51.9% / 68.0
|
| 24. Atlanta / 51.3% / 67.7
|
| 25. Houston / 51.9% / 67.7
|
| 26. Albuquerque / 53.4% / 67.6
|
| 27. Tulsa / 54.5% / 66.2
|
| 28. Dallas / 55.0% / 64.9
|
| 29. Kansas City / 54.4% / 64.8
|
| 30. Oklahoma City / 56.8% / 64.3
|
| 31. Fort Worth / 57.5% / 63.8
|
| 32. Long Beach / 56.9% / 63.6
|
| 33. Chicago / 59.5% / 61.9
|
| 34. Sacramento / 59.5% / 61.9
|
| 35. El Paso / 61.9% / 61.9
|
| 36. Miami / 29.8% / 61.2
|
| 37. Omaha / 59.3% / 61.1
|
| 38. Wichita / 63.7% / 57.0
|
| 39. Columbus / 64.5% / 56.5
|
| 40. San Antonio / 65.5% / 54.9
|
| 41. Milwaukee / 65.7% / 54.5
|
| 42. Fresno / 66.2% / 53.6
|
| 43. Indianapolis / 66.5% / 53.6
|
| 44. Memphis / 65.9% / 52.8
|
| 45. Philadelphia / 67.9% / 52.3
|
| 46. Baltimore / 67.6% / 52.1
|
| 47. Louisville / 70.4% / 48.8
|
| 48. New Orleans / 70.9% / 47.8
|
| 49. Cleveland / 73.1% / 45.0
|
| 50. Detroit / 74.5% / 42.4
|
| Source: scraped from https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-
| news/data/seattle-ranks... (from 2016, but probably still
| about the same)
| 0rzech wrote:
| > In Germany the cellphone area code is just out of a range
| your provider has registered and if you move to a different
| provider, you typically move over your number.
|
| Same in Poland.
| kevincox wrote:
| This is the same in Canada. It isn't possible to distinguish
| landlines from cell phones by looking at the number. All
| numbers issued in an area have the same area code.
|
| The North American numberig plan looks like +1-AAA-BBB-CCCC
| Where AAA is the area code and BBB-CCCC is mostly meaningless.
| There are a few special area codes like 8xx for toll-free calls
| (the classic 1-800 numbers that businesses often use) but no
| prefix dedicated to mobile.
|
| When I moved to Ireland I thought it was weird that mobile
| numbers were identifiable. Especially since I had a Google
| voice number which looked like a landline which really confused
| people and websites. "Trust me, just text it. It is fine."
|
| > Do you get a new number if you move
|
| I don't know about the US but this used to be common in Canada.
| Many providers would consider calls to different cities long
| distance and charge extra. So if you moved it was "polite" to
| get a new number so that people could call you for local rates.
| For example I went to university in Ottawa and changed my
| Toronto number so that people didn't have to pay long distance
| to call (even though it is the same province, about a 5h
| drive).
|
| However this isn't really the case anymore. In the US and
| mostly in Canada country-wide calling us pretty standard so
| most people's mobile number will reflect where they grew up,
| and they will carry that around for the rest of their lives.
|
| > and then change to a different provider?
|
| Usually not. You can ask your provider for a new number in a
| different city and they will issue it. Most Canadian providers
| are country-wide so you don't need to switch provide if you
| don't want to.
| ahmedfromtunis wrote:
| Practically forcing people to change mobile phone numbers
| when moving from one place to another is a level of evil I
| didn't not expect to exist in Canada.
|
| Any idea if the premium was due to technical limitations or
| just to milk the customers?
| kevincox wrote:
| You'd probably have to ask someone who worked in the phone
| industry at the time. I suspect that long-distance calls
| were legitimately quite expensive to provide at some point
| in the past, and the industry was happy to keep charging
| extra even as they reduced internal costs.
|
| Luckily this is mostly behind us, almost all providers
| offer Canada-wide as a standard feature. Canada+US is
| becoming the common default.
|
| Of course the problem with this system is that you need to
| worry about what plan the caller has. So if you want to be
| very sure that locals can call without paying long-distance
| rates it is still best to get a local number. But I think
| that in almost all cases the need for this has passed.
| tialaramex wrote:
| > I suspect that long-distance calls were legitimately
| quite expensive to provide at some point in the past
|
| From the outset, what actually costs money is the
| (telephone) network. But people were often reluctant to
| pay the true cost of access to the network at first - so
| for a long period the providers charged for calls. After
| all if the average person receives 100+ minutes of
| incoming calls per month, but is only willing to pay you
| $15 for the network access which you want $25 for, you
| can take their $15 and then charge 10 cents per minute
| for calls to get the same net revenue...
|
| In the US in particular the government regulators allowed
| operating companies to significantly overcharge for long
| distance in order to subsidise local calls. This creates
| market distortion which was judged worth it to facilitate
| widespread rollout of telephony. They probably should
| have reined it in much earlier, but hey, the basic idea
| worked.
| xattt wrote:
| > Canada. It isn't possible to distinguish landlines from
| cell phones by looking at the number.
|
| Atlantic Canada is small enough that there was a single area
| code for Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia up until a few
| years ago.
|
| Cellphones in the region tend to have their own CO code
| (first three digits of the phone number), so you can usually
| infer if it's a number you can text or not.
|
| This is also the case for different regions of NS and PEI, so
| seeing a 902 number where the CO number is different from
| what you're used to makes it seem "exotic". This was also
| handy back in the day to know whether it was long distance or
| not.
|
| This is slowly eroding as numbers get ported out, and
| landlines get disconnected.
| wcunning wrote:
| Area Code 810 is the Thumb of Michigan, including some of
| central Michigan, so it's not all 8XX. Unsure how they draw
| the line, but 800 and 888 are the two that I see businesses
| use for toll free calling.
| CountHackulus wrote:
| > Usually not. You can ask your provider for a new number in
| a different city and they will issue it. Most Canadian
| providers are country-wide so you don't need to switch
| provide if you don't want to.
|
| There's a way around this that I've done a few times. You
| port the number to VOIP (I use voip.ms) and then you set up
| that number to forward to whatever the new number you get
| given. Dialing out you still get your new number, but people
| dialing you can use the old number.
|
| This was super handy when I had to move my mom from a
| retirement home in one city to another city a province away.
| masnick wrote:
| I grew up in a small town in the US before cell phones were
| ubiquitous.
|
| When we started getting cell phones, the numbers all had the
| same first six digits. The last four were assigned in order of
| provisioning.
|
| My friend and I got our phones at nearly the same time, so our
| numbers were like 555-555-1004 and 555-555-1008.
|
| This came in handy when I was going to visit him years later,
| and my phone died on the plane. I didn't have anyone's cell
| number memorized other than my parents (555-555-1013) and his
| thanks to the numeric similarity. (We kept the same phone
| numbers when we moved away from home.)
|
| In this town, landline phones also _all_ shared the same first
| six digits. Before cell phones got into the mix in the late
| 1990s, people could (and did) use 5 digits to represent phone
| numbers: 3-XXXX where the 3 referred to the first digit of the
| "exchange code". The next town was 8-XXXX, etc.
| Pyrodogg wrote:
| My Dad got a family plan of cell phones for my two brothers
| and I in ~2003-04 from a fairly small midwestern town.
|
| I have no idea if he was given an option but our numbers were
| sequential. X, X+1, and X+2.
| _thisdot wrote:
| Here in India, on iPhones, it displays the city when you get a
| call from an unknown number.
|
| Not sure how it's done. Maybe there's a code system.
|
| Also for the biggest service provider, it always displays
| Ahmedabad as the city for some reason.
| alistairSH wrote:
| Why would moving require a new provider/number? Are
| plans/numbers not portable in Europe?
|
| In the USA, the number reflects the area it was issued. So my
| phone number matches suburban DC. If I move to California,
| everybody would know I lived in DC in the past. Kind of odd, I
| guess, but is a leftover from when cell homes didn't exist and
| then when numbers weren't portable across providers.
| headPoet wrote:
| In the UK cell numbers start with 07 and landline numbers
| start with 01. And there is no region encoded in a cell
| number, but landline numbers begin with an area code.
| tialaramex wrote:
| Not all the landline numbers start with 01, all the big
| cities and urban areas got moved into 02 to make space
| decades ago when there was concern we might run out of
| space.
|
| Also, 03 is guaranteed to cost the same as 02 but has no
| specific geographic link, so it's often used for helplines,
| customer service, that sort of thing, and for people who
| want to have a landline (or multiple landlines) but do not
| want to reveal their location.
|
| 04, 05 and 06 are part of that roped off space we reserved
| in expectation of a need that's now unlikely to ever
| materialise, oh well. In the era when it was conceived
| people thought "Internet shopping" was a ludicrous idea and
| still imagined "Video calls" would be a thing you'd do as a
| telephone call somewhow - so what did they know.
|
| 07 as you said is where non-geographic mobiles live, as
| well as some other services at similar price points
|
| 08 is "free" or sometimes revenue sharing prefixes and the
| 09 prefix is where "premium" services live, you know "Chat
| live now to singles in your area".
| echoangle wrote:
| > Why would moving require a new provider/number? Are
| plans/numbers not portable in Europe?
|
| They are portable in Europe (I said that in the second part
| of my comment), but it seemed like they weren't in the US,
| because otherwise, the post is a bit strange. The author just
| tried every number from his area code to find the owner, when
| it is possible/likely that the owner has a completely
| different area code. That's why I thought it might be that
| the current number always reflects the actual area code.
| refreeze654 wrote:
| You're not misunderstanding anything, it was just a bit
| lucky that the person had their phone number issued in that
| city. If they moved, they'd take the number with them and
| this story wouldn't have worked out.
| xeromal wrote:
| I think it's just an increased odds thing. Most likely the
| number was from oregon and he proved his guess by finding
| the person.
|
| I have an old utah number that I've taken around to several
| states and I always get fun conversations when people ask
| what I did there.
| RamblingCTO wrote:
| But that's exactly what they are saying. Numbers are just
| ported over to a different provider, so there's literally no
| certainty you can even pinpoint the provider they are using
| from a number. The prefix belonged to a provider, but you can
| move numbers as you move providers.
| alexanderdmitri wrote:
| When I first got my plan / phone on the US east coast I was
| given the option to pick a number from anywhere in the
| country. I went with a fulsom county CA number and its come
| in really handy. I know to screen incoming calls that have
| the fulsom area code (always spam) and numbers that have the
| local area code where I live are actually legit.
| mystified5016 wrote:
| In the olden days, if your cell number had a different area
| code from the place you were physically in, you'd get long-
| distance charges when calling a local number, but not when
| calling a number matching your area code.
|
| In modern times however, the area code is largely irrelevant.
| You get assigned a number with the area code of the place you
| first opened your account, and then you can just keep that
| number forever if you want. I've had the same number for almost
| 20 years and I've had four different providers in that time.
| Porting a number between carriers has been a standardized
| process for a very long time.
| tommoor wrote:
| There's also some social signaling here, like 415 is the
| original San Francisco area code - but if you got a number in
| the last few years it might be 628 which was added as 415
| reached capacity.
| chasd00 wrote:
| Yeah some people put a lot of value on area codes. My wife
| was so proud when she got her first iPhone years ago because
| it was a 214 number (Dallas proper). There use to be posters
| around town saying "keep 972 out of 214" since 972 was
| associated with the smaller suburban areas just North of
| Dallas. I had an 817 number which was ft worth and basically
| an untouchable haha.
| caseyohara wrote:
| This social signal predates cell phones. There was a bit
| about it in an episode of Seinfeld, "The Maid" (1998)
|
| > The episode also featured the New York area code 646. When
| the 212 area code ran out of numbers, 646 was created. Elaine
| gets a new number with the 646 area code. She is not happy
| with the new number because she believes the area code makes
| it too long to dial. She is proved correct when attempting to
| give her number to a man in the park. Initially eager, he
| reads the number, asks if it is in New Jersey. Her response
| is, "No, it's just like 212 except they multiplied every
| number by 3...and added 1 to the middle number." He says he
| is already in a relationship and walks off.
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| You can keep your number if you move. My number is from another
| state. Also nowadays when you get a new line you can pick any
| area code, so they have become somewhat meaningless.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| I wouldn't go that far. Area codes don't mean as much as they
| used to, but they are still a very strong association to the
| actual area. I would say that the majority of people I
| interact with in my area have a mobile number from the area
| code. And of those who don't, all of them are from out of
| state.
| bps4484 wrote:
| They stay with you if you choose. What's kind of sentimental
| and nice is that the area code stays with you as marker of
| where you're originally from no matter where you go. It says
| "this is where I was from as a teenager when I was first
| allowed a cell phone."
|
| I don't know if this coincided with trend of getting an area
| code tattoo to signify where you're from, but that also is
| something that is done by some.
| throwway_278314 wrote:
| I remember the happy days when a telephone number (also an
| email) was a ephemeral, changeable thing. Not a permanent
| unchanging form of ID.
|
| Alas, if you move out of the country for a period of time, it
| is a challenge to maintain the host country phone service. So
| there are no guarantees that you can hold on to that
| signifier of "this is where I was the last time I wanted to
| get a new phone subscription".
|
| So the tattoo might be the better choice.
| akaxaka wrote:
| Just get a prepaid sim and transfer your number to it, that
| does the trick for you!
| thowawatp302 wrote:
| When was that? My parent's landline number stayed unchanged
| for 20 years. Through moves, too (with the caveat they
| stayed in the service area of the CO.)
| rootusrootus wrote:
| The US and Germany both made number portability a thing in
| 1998. In the US you can port numbers between land lines and
| mobile. In Germany you cannot.
| mjlee wrote:
| I have some distant family who moved from California to Idaho
| as part of a wider Conservative exodus. Some Idahoans aren't
| too keen, they see Californians as migrants who are driving up
| house prices etc. I don't believe there's any sense of irony on
| either side.
|
| Anyway, they had to get new cellphone numbers because they'd
| get awful/no customer service if, say, they dropped their truck
| off for repairs and left a California number.
| 8bitme wrote:
| Good use of Fermi reasoning
| hi-v-rocknroll wrote:
| I lost AirPods with an AirTag attached to them in my (now former)
| apartment complex's parking structure. It was Austin and so APD
| refused to help recover them despite me telling them there was an
| AirTag on them and they were still in the area, but moved to a
| vacant building leased by Google. Still no help from APD. Then, I
| watched them migrate to a residential address in another nearby
| town. Again, zero help from the Austin Police Department. Calling
| the police department in the other city was also of no help.
|
| tl;dr: Don't live in Austin. That Google building's security
| people were thieves.
|
| Reasons: Nonviolent crimes aren't policed in ATX because they're
| short ~300 officers. And, it also isn't prosecuted because the DA
| has the same views as other big cities, leading to more crime and
| a city death spiral.
| amarcheschi wrote:
| A month ago or so I helped a tourist rescue his iPad which was
| stolen and throw in a field of tall grass. I also found a pair of
| 1st Gen airpods who weren't his, and I guess they were stolen
| some time ago. The old models don't have this feature, and
| bringing them to the police won't do anything here, since someone
| should voluntarily go to the police and ask for a pair of lost
| airpods... I've looked for and there aren't alternative ways to
| localize them or to get back the owner, it sucks
| manmal wrote:
| I've accidentally left my AirPods Pro in a safe in a hotel, and
| forgot about them. Over the next days I tried to get them back,
| but reception claimed that nobody has them.
|
| Now the Find My app reports them in a small town near where I
| ,,lost" them, ca 600km from my home, and clearly someone is using
| and charging them (with Android? Because otherwise the ,,Lost"
| functionality would be nagging them constantly).
|
| I won't drive there (what would I even do if I found the
| person?), but this is quite maddening. I'd rather not know where
| they are.
| sva_ wrote:
| Maybe one day your paths will cross and you can exact your
| revenge.
| sroussey wrote:
| Similar thing happened to me. I gave them an address and asked
| them to cross reference with their employees addresses.
|
| I got the stay for free after that, they reversed the charges
| and apologized.
| yazaddaruvala wrote:
| The engraving service on Apple's website is great!
|
| I engraved my entire phone number, including the +1, and I've had
| my AirPod returned to me twice now.
| sroussey wrote:
| I did the same! Such an easy hack.
|
| Also the 1 helps balance/center the phone number.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| My iPhone lost the ability to track my AirPods. I replaced my
| phone, and they don't show up anymore.
|
| Fix is essentially to sign out/sign in to all devices. For me,
| that's a real PITA. Apple magic is magic until it ain't.
| gcanyon wrote:
| This wouldn't work for me; my area code is from Los Angeles, but
| I haven't lived there for fifteen years.
|
| I _have_ lost my airpods, back in 2020 (it was the start of covid
| and I was taking off a mask in Thailand and flipped them out of
| my ears). I noticed they were missing twenty minutes later, used
| find my to get back to where I dropped them, had them make noise
| and found one of them.
| brirec wrote:
| Does this really only show the last four digits?!
|
| I lost my AirPods Pro in an Uber back in January, and they've
| been in Lost Mode ever since, and I regularly see them moving
| around between three or so different places on the Find My map.
| Nobody ever reached out to me, but if it doesn't even show your
| number I guess they wouldn't be able to...
| amelius wrote:
| What if they got 50 responses instead of 1?
| soygem wrote:
| I know a guy who lost his iPod...
| chasd00 wrote:
| I let my son take mine on a school trip to Japan. They're still
| there only now it shows the left and right earbuds are about a
| block apart. Godspeed AirPod pro heh.
| osigurdson wrote:
| Wired earbuds: one hard to lose thing. AirPods: three easy to
| lose things.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| So you gain a bit of protection against losing them, and lose a
| bunch of convenience. It is a trade-off. I have precisely zero
| desire to ever go back to corded headphones. Between the cord
| noise and catching it on things, wireless headphones have been
| a marked improvement in the quality of my listening experience.
| joshiain wrote:
| On a recent holiday I'd just checked in to my hotel, went to
| unpack a bit and couldn't find my AirPods.
|
| I went to look at Find My to see where they were, but
| unfortunately I was in South Korea, and little did I know the
| location function in Find My doesn't work there.
|
| I thought it must have fallen out of my pocket while I was in the
| taxi, as I remembered having them as I got off the plane, and I
| have a bit of history with my earphones falling out of my
| pockets.
|
| I took a taxi from the taxi rank at the airport, so there was no
| record of who drove me like with Uber, but luckily I paid by
| card, and I could see what taxi company I used.
|
| I asked the staff at the hotel if they could help me call the
| taxi company to see if they could find out which driver dropped
| me off. They somehow managed to contact the driver, but he had
| not seen my AirPods.
|
| I went about the rest of my day while trying to convince myself
| that I didn't need a new pair. But while the location doesn't
| work with Find My, I could still play a sound through the case.
| So I would randomly hit it a few times hoping it was actually
| hidden away in my things.
|
| After losing all hope, later when I returned to my hotel room I
| found a note had been left for me saying the taxi driver had
| found my AirPods and turned them in to a local police station!
|
| Feeling excited I wouldn't have to go on the rest of my holiday
| without earphones, I happily made an hour long trip across the
| city to collect my AirPods, arriving just as the station was
| closing.
| hackernewds wrote:
| Cool story
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| It's interesting how we have become so paranoid about privacy
| that we don't even give full "if found please contact..."
| information anymore.
| alcover wrote:
| "And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped
| tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and
| music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her
| unsleeping mind."
| miunau wrote:
| About a year ago our cat went up the tree in our backyard and
| left his snap-off collar with an Airtag in a branch somewhere up
| there. We could ping it and hear it, but couldn't see it. So it
| got left up there for a year, rain, shine and hail. A couple of
| days ago I noticed it on the ground. Still working fine.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| At least if somebody stole the tree, you'd be able to track it
| down easier than putting up lost tree signs all over the
| neighborhood.
| floam wrote:
| Wish I had the courage to branch out into that kind of crime.
|
| "my that is a handsome tree" -> do something bold. now wake
| up with that tree in your yard the next day and every day
| after.
|
| that's true freedom
|
| why track it? if i woke up to discover a freethinking,
| freewheeling apex man of action took my tree, i would just
| admire them. and flattered this caliber of person thought i
| had anything worth seizing. i wouldn't tell the police. (but
| if i could track it, i might go visit it to witness the man i
| wish i was)
|
| if i was my girlfriend i might put a tracker into my finest
| tree, and leave me for any man that might ever take the tree.
| i couldn't blame her. i would admire her
| joshuamcginnis wrote:
| I've washed (and dried!) my AirPods twice. They're still alive
| and kicking. Pretty cool.
| j45 wrote:
| Allowing the lost and found parties to communicate securely (and
| pseudo-anonymously) through the find my app could be interesting
| too.
|
| In some cases if it's lost being able to put a reward message on
| the screen is valuable too beyond the price of the device.
|
| Apple could also put an AirTag in the AirPod cases for then those
| go away. Phone relative tracking is nice until batteries die.
| ErigmolCt wrote:
| I feels like detective mission! Loved that
| HeavyStorm wrote:
| Wish kindles had any functionality like "Find My". I'm on my
| third Kindle, having forgotten one on a cab (I think) and another
| on a plane (I know for certain).
| jedberg wrote:
| It feels like Apple could help solve this. Make it a feature that
| if you find a device you can bring it near your phone and it will
| automatically set up a two way anonymous iMessage session.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-08-24 23:01 UTC)