Humor columnist—and inveterate iPad misplacer—Dave Barry shares an embarrassing incident:
The reason we laughed is that a year and a half ago, I placed this very same iPad on top of this very same machine, and then, after paying for my parking, I walked away, leaving my iPad lying there. A few minutes later I realized what I’d done and hustled back to the machine, but my iPad was gone.
The good news was, the person who picked it up apparently worked at the airport. I know this because Apple has an app called “Find My,” which, by using some kind of magical rays, enables you to see where all your devices are, and I could see that my iPad was still at the airport. The bad news was, whoever picked it up did not immediately take it to …
Humor columnist—and inveterate iPad misplacer—Dave Barry shares an embarrassing incident:
The reason we laughed is that a year and a half ago, I placed this very same iPad on top of this very same machine, and then, after paying for my parking, I walked away, leaving my iPad lying there. A few minutes later I realized what I’d done and hustled back to the machine, but my iPad was gone.
The good news was, the person who picked it up apparently worked at the airport. I know this because Apple has an app called “Find My,” which, by using some kind of magical rays, enables you to see where all your devices are, and I could see that my iPad was still at the airport. The bad news was, whoever picked it up did not immediately take it to the Lost and Found office. Instead, he or she took it to a part of the airport where the public can’t go. I could clearly see it on the Find My map on my iPhone, which I showed to — this is a conservative estimate — 17,500 airport employees.
It’s an extended joke, but real-world successes with Find My are more enjoyable when they’re written by Dave Barry, and doubly so when the phrase “my brain is full” triggers a Far Side cartoon reference.
For those of us who may be susceptible to forgetting Apple devices in public places, be sure to turn on Find My in Settings > Your Name > Find My. Then open the Find My app and enable “Notify When Left Behind” for each device in the Devices tab (do the same in Items for AirTags and similar accessories). In my experience, those notifications can take longer and require more distance than you’d expect to trigger, but they’re better than nothing—and you can add exceptions like “Home” to reduce noise. If you do lose a device, immediately turn on Lost Mode and set a custom message and optional contact number.