As to why I needed a new phone background…
This weekend I did a social thing that involved taking the light rail down to the Ranier Beach station and getting picked up in a car. In the gap between getting off the train and getting in the car, I managed to drop my phone somewhere in the dark; when I got back to the station, it was gone.
But this is the future, and Apple lets you track your devices. So I know that the next morning it went to a homeless shelter just off the Othello rail station. I’d set it to lost mode that night, so all it was doing was displaying a message asking to contact me and give it back; I’ll assume that whoever found it ignored it, given that it’s been a few days.
So today Nick gave me back the old phone I’d given him; he’s never actually gotten it set up with a SIM, and wasn’t using it.
All this felt like something that should be marked with a new picture of a cartoon fox to be my background for a while.
The phone I lost had been bought via this new program where you pay for the phone on installments and get one upgrade, which worked out fairly cheaper than my usual upgrade cycle of not minding being a generation or two behind; I guess I should drop by the Apple Store and see how losing the phone affects this. And mmaybe get a new one because I’m really gonna miss being able to pay for stuff via NFC.
Once the phone is in “lost” mode there is no known way for anyone to use it until the original iCloud password is entered (assuming you’re up-to-date on the OS). So maybe it’ll still turn up eventually.
Googling for “crack lost mode” suggests that it’s possible to spoof the activation servers and thus do a factory restore on it, wiping everything out. It won’t talk to the SIM any more but it’s still a pocket computer that talks to whatever wi-fi it can get, which is not as useful as a pocket computer that talks to the phone network, but more useful than no pocket computer at all.
I mean, it might show up again and even come back home, but I’m not holding my breath. And I can afford to eat the loss.