Apple’s phone locator is built into iOS. But you need to turn it on!

Last Friday, a snowstorm hit Toronto and dumped about a foot of snow on the city. My wife had a consulting engagement that involved a day-long facilitation session at a hotel. People had flown in to attend and there was no question of it being cancelled no matter how much snow was falling. My wife hit the streets before 7am to try to find a cab and get to the hotel. She texted me around 7:30 from a cab letting me know she had successfully hailed a cab and that the roads were a nightmare. She then called after 8am from a strange number. She had lost her phone, but would be locked in the facilitation for the whole day.

One of the safety measures we employ on our devices is relatively simple: List an emergency contact and email address on your lock screen. She was letting me know, in case I got a call about the device.

Fortunately, all our devices are tracked using a family Apple account, so I was able to track her phone after she called. The phone was responding (hooray!). That was a big relief, as it meant that it was probably safe. It hadn’t been dropped in the snow, or been run over by a car. It also appeared as if it was stationary. I had to drop the kids at school (in a snowstorm!), but I had a free morning, so I had a chance to play detective.

After getting the kids to school (in a snowstorm!), I tracked the phone. It was still in the same place, reporting its location in downtown Toronto. I drove to the location, parked and visited a few retail establishments and asked if someone had turned in a phone. I phoned the phone in each place I visited. No luck.

The Find my iPhone app allows you to sound a chime on a lost device. It’s actually pretty loud. To this point, I have only used it to recover my iPhone when I lose it in the couch cushions around the house. I was starting to think that the reason the phone was reporting as stationary was that someone had taken it home or to work. I would have to wait and see if they turned the phone on and saw my number on the lockscreen and did the right thing.

As a last resort, I went back outside into the snow. I pulled out my phone and tracked my wife’s phone one more time. It was still reporting. It was still in the same place. I pressed the button to sound the chime and hoped for the best. I closed my eyes and listened. Fortunately, the snow had kept a good deal of traffic off the streets and it was relatively quiet.

I heard the faint, but distinctive sound of the Find my iPhone chime in the distance. I raced around on Queen Street to figure out where it was coming from. I ran across the street and it got louder. It was…. in a good old Canada Post mailbox!!

Luckily for me, I actually found the phone. The sound stopped about 5 seconds after I pinpointed the actual location of the phone. It turns out that despite a full battery, sounding the chime actually crashed the phone. So I got lucky in that I managed to get to the phone before it went silent. I don’t know if this is normal, but it is pretty disconcerting.

Now recovering something from a mailbox isn’t trivial. I’d probably be arrested if I tried to break into it. Customer service at Canada Post isn’t exactly equipped to handle a situation like this. After several explanations to a phone rep, they said the only thing they could do was hope it turned up along side other undelivered mail, at which point, I could file a report and attempt to recover it. Needless to say, this was somewhat frustrating. The phone wasn’t exactly lost anymore. I knew exactly where it was.

As a last resort I went into the Shoppers Drug Mart located there and asked if there was a post office inside. The postal worker there told me they couldn’t open the mailbox, but that a driver would probably be there within an hour or two to empty the box. I decided to wait it out (in a snowstorm!).

Sure enough, within an hour, I spotted a Canada Post truck across the street. The driver was emptying another box, but I managed to get to him before he got back in the truck. I quickly explained the situation to him. It didn’t seem to faze him a bit. He said people threw all kinds of things in mailboxes, treating them like a national “Lost and Found.” He said that mailbox was his next stop and to meet him there.

He asked me to identify the phone before he opened the box. I described it. The phone was dead, but after booting it, I showed him my number on the lockscreen, and he handed it over. Mystery solved and Happy Endings!

The lessons here though:

• Make sure you have an unique, identifying feature on your phone’s lockscreen. In my wife’s case, There is a simple graphic with my phone number and email address on it.
• Use the geo-location feature of your phone! Make sure you test it and know how it works. It can be a lifesaver.
• Talk to people! Despite my dark thoughts about someone taking the phone and keeping it, the truth is most people will be helpful. I am forever in the debt of a Canada Post driver I will call K (in case he didn’t follow some protocol about property found in mailboxes). He was calm. He verified my story, handed over the phone and went on his way.

Or as I like to call it – Nerd Night School!

UPDATE: The first workshop we’re running is going to be rescheduled. Sorry for any inconvenience.

We who work in the field of technology are usually thrilled and fascinated by the pace of change. It helps us think and dream about the next big thing. We willingly sign on to learn about the latest technologies and services to help us do our jobs better: The latest programming languages, the latest online marketing techniques, new and exciting devices and gadgets.

In the midst of all this change, we can sometimes forget that others we work and live with aren’t as excited by technology and change. We express our surprise at people who don’t have the latest smartphones, don’t know or care about Instagram or Pinterest, or even have a GMail account. But in their careers and personal lives, the need to immerse themselves in the technology they live with isn’t as important as it is to us.

Beyond this lack of mutual understanding about technology being slightly (and often comically) annoying to us, we at Nerd.ca also think it is a huge problem. Regardless of what industry you work in, do you think you and your employees will be doing more or less of their jobs online in the next 2 years? Do you think you will be using the same software? Isn’t technology going to change many aspects of the way you and your employees live and work?

Whether you’re as obsessed and excited by technology as we are, you can’t escape it. And a solid grounding in some technology basics makes people better managers, better employees and better all around people. OK, maybe that last bit is pushing it, but better technology knowledge among non-geeks will at least help everyone understand each other just that much more. And that’s a good thing for you, and your company.

So we decided to do something to address the issue.

The Concept

Nerd Night School is a series of workshops delivering technology learning in a relatively casual environment during off work hours.

The focus here is on practical learning taught by industry professionals. There may be some presentations, but if folks want to get the most out of the sessions, they should be prepared with their laptop and/or smartphone to follow along. By the end of the night, people should learn a few things, but also accomplish something relatively practical that improves their work or personal lives in some tangible way. That practical learning can be fairly diverse, ranging from linux commands to Search Engine Optimization to digital video production.

Who’s doing this?

Nerd Night School is being co-hosted by INcubes, a Toronto startup accelerator and by Nerd.ca. Several technical experts will be on hand to help participants follow along get through any practical activities.

What’s the first topic going to be?

One that is near and dear to our hearts – A workshop to help you improve your personal digital security, and protect yourself against fraud, identity theft and other digital dangers.

Most of us convince ourselves that the relatively careless way we conduct ourselves online is excusable. Excusable ultimately because we feel there is no possible way we can be targets. We’re just ordinary people. We don’t have tons of money or any state secrets that a hacker would want. Whenever people tell us that, we point them to the story of Mat Honan.

Mat Honan is a journalist for Wired. In 2012 he fell victim to what he describes as an “epic hack.” Hackers targeted him, compromised his Gmail account and his Apple ID. Then they proceeded to delete his Gmail account and remote-wipe the iPhone, iPad and MacBook connected to his Apple ID. They targeted his Gmail account in order to intercept a password reset request for his Twitter account. Once they had his Twitter account, his Gmail and his Apple devices were deleted, partly for fun, and partly to slow him down in his attempts to recover the Twitter account.

Why? Honan was an early Twitter user and had a 3-character handle (@mat). The hackers apparently thought that was cool and thought it would be entertaining and challenging to take over the account and start sending offensive Tweets. You can (and should!) read the whole story at Wired.

Much like a locked door and an alarm is not going to stop a determined thief, if you are targeted by people determined to compromise your digital life (email, social media, online banking), it may just be a matter of time before they succeed. HOWEVER, there are relatively simple, practical measures you can take to encourage more casual hackers to move on to another target.

We are going to detail the dangers, run through some practical suggestions and implement at least one of them in real time with whomever wants to follow along

2-step or 2-factor authentication is one of the best ways to protect online accounts. It combines something you know (a password) with something you physically have (in this case your phone). Even if an intruder has your password, systems that have 2-step sign in processes will challenge you for an additional bit of info that your phone either generates or receives by text or voice.

While you should enable it anywhere it’s offered, your online email is the most important place to start and it’s currently offered by Google and Yahoo and is in the works for Hotmal/Outlook.com. Our goal and mission is to have it up and running before you leave and improve your digital security immensely.