Apple Watch Lost At Sea For 6 Months Returned To Owner In Working Condition (wsfa.com) 91
"A man who lost his Apple Watch in the ocean says he was surprised when it was returned to him after six months with all the data and apps still intact," according to a joint report from CNN and Los Angeles TV station KTLA:
Robert Bainter often goes body surfing or boogie boarding at Huntington Beach in California, and usually, he has an Apple Watch on his wrist... "A huge wave came -- and I was loving it, rode it -- and then, I pick up my arm, and I'm like, 'Oh my God, what just happened?'" Bainter said. The watch was gone from his wrist. Bainter says he spent an hour looking for it then used Apple's "Find my iPhone" app to turn on lost mode... [Which sends your phone number to the watch's display, in case somebody finds it.]
Each visit to the beach was another opportunity to find the watch, but after six months, Bainter was giving up hope -- until he got a call from a number he didn't recognize. "It was this guy saying, 'Hey, if your name is Rob Bainter and you lost an Apple Watch recently, give me a call. If you can describe it, I'll give this thing to you,'" Bainter said. The man who called found Bainter's watch three miles north of where it went missing... Even more unbelievable, Bainter says the watch worked fine; though the salt water had left a little haze on the screen.
"It worked fine, as though it didn't skip a beat. All the information was there. All the apps were there," Bainter said.
Each visit to the beach was another opportunity to find the watch, but after six months, Bainter was giving up hope -- until he got a call from a number he didn't recognize. "It was this guy saying, 'Hey, if your name is Rob Bainter and you lost an Apple Watch recently, give me a call. If you can describe it, I'll give this thing to you,'" Bainter said. The man who called found Bainter's watch three miles north of where it went missing... Even more unbelievable, Bainter says the watch worked fine; though the salt water had left a little haze on the screen.
"It worked fine, as though it didn't skip a beat. All the information was there. All the apps were there," Bainter said.
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Re:I think this is on slashdot because (Score:5, Interesting)
Not everyone with access to technology is an a$$hole. A guy lost his watch and someone found it and tried to get it back to them. Is kindness so rare that example are headline news?
I've done stuff like this several times. A long time ago, I found someone's checkbook in the street, drove to the address on the checks and dropped it off in their mailbox. Another time I found a guy's wallet on the sidewalk with an ID for a US Navy ship, looked up the ship only to find it had deployed the day before, so I looked up the FPO address for the ship and mailed it back to him. A few years ago I found a guy's work ID in a parking lot and dropped it off at gate to his company a few blocks away.
Most of the time, it's really not that hard to be nice -- or, at least, not be a dick -- and do the right/decent thing.
Re:I think this is on slashdot because (Score:5, Insightful)
I've lost a phone before, and have had someone go out of their way to get it back to me. (Apparently my boss had a bit of explaining to do when a random woman was calling his phone at 9 at night. The woman that found it just started calling down the "last called" list. Ha.) Now, granted there was nothing on the phone that was irreplaceable and it wasn't a super expensive phone, but if you've ever lost one you know how much it sucks.
Since then I've found two random phones, and have put as much effort as I could into returning them to their owners. Surely I could have just left them where I found them, thrown them in the trash, kept them, or something else that was far easier. But why be a dick when it literally cost me an hour out of my life to get them back to the owners? When asked by the owner what they could do for me, I told them the same thing the the girl that found mine told me: "Return the favor" Sometimes karma can be a bitch, but sometimes it works out in your favor.
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Not everyone with access to technology is an a$$hole. A guy lost his watch and someone found it and tried to get it back to them. Is kindness so rare that example are headline news?
I've lost a phone before, and have had someone go out of their way to get it back to me. (Apparently my boss had a bit of explaining to do when a random woman was calling his phone at 9 at night. The woman that found it just started calling down the "last called" list. Ha.) Now, granted there was nothing on the phone that was irreplaceable and it wasn't a super expensive phone, but if you've ever lost one you know how much it sucks.
Since then I've found two random phones, and have put as much effort as I could into returning them to their owners. Surely I could have just left them where I found them, thrown them in the trash, kept them, or something else that was far easier. But why be a dick when it literally cost me an hour out of my life to get them back to the owners? When asked by the owner what they could do for me, I told them the same thing the the girl that found mine told me: "Return the favor" Sometimes karma can be a bitch, but sometimes it works out in your favor.
Nice to know that this still happens, however, since we entered the: "me, me, me, me, greed is good, gimme, GIMME!!!" era it does not happen all that often anymore.
Has not been the me era for a while. (Score:2)
As shown by these many stories of nice people helping return things, we have not been in the me me me era since the 90s.
People these days act more often than not in support of ideals over personal gain.
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That was pretty dumb. What if it had been stolen in the post? You'd have been better off handing it in at the nearest base or even a police station.
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That was pretty dumb. What if it had been stolen in the post? You'd have been better off handing it in at the nearest base or even a police station.
There was no money or driver's license in it. Just a ship ID and a few other things -- and his Social Security card (which is a no-no people, lock that away). I put it in a padded envelope and mailed it anonymously. Sad to say, I was worried about being accused of stealing it or anything/money inside it -- who knows how he lost it...
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A digital watch survived months of exposure to salt and moisture with apparently minimal damage.
This is the best product advertisement you can get.
They might want to work on the straps a bit though. Stop them falling off in the first place.
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Could also be a third party strap. I've had several metal loop bands that I liked (and that were less than 1/15th the cost of the genuine straps) that failed the exact same way: The band pulled out of one of the lugs. I would check the watch to see the band hanging on by a single tiny cor
Tough watch. And... (Score:2)
Reminds me of this Marantz ad. [fyngyrz.com]
Massive editing error! (Score:5, Funny)
Someone submitted a positive article about an Apple product and it got upvoted. How did this happen?
This can still be fixed, though. Just point out that it was the crappy Apple band that caused the watch to fall off in the first place.
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Ok, not really paid. Slashdot isn't worth is anymore. More like "Made a bunch of iTards do it for free", because they like being told what to like and want.
P.S.: Ok, I shoukd have realized what you are, with that user name.
Kind of hard to maintain that "CrApple" meme, when you're talking about the survival of a product immersed in salt water at who knows what depth for 6 months and almost assuredly subjected to conditions well-beyond an IP68 rating-test.
But that won't keep you Apple Hating retards from trying to cast this in some sort of negative light against Apple.
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Those clever Apple people have discovered a material that's resistant to seawater? Imagine the potential this could have for ships, seaplanes and the like.
In the name of humanity, don't patent it, Apple!
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You're just wearing it wrong
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I'd imagine that a few upvoting sockpuppet accounts from Apple's marketing team make sure that this one made it to the front page.
It's still kinda impressive that the watch works, though. My wife's Gen 2 Apple Watch seems to freak out if it gets a few drops of water in it's crown when she washes her hand.
Uninteded consequences (Score:2)
By trying to stop people to get in, now sea water can't either!
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Watch storage or iCloud? (Score:2)
Oh my God, what just happened? (Score:3)
You wore an expensive gizmo in a place where you should have worn a Timex.
I was just at this beach with my boys this weekend and they were behaving in a similarly dumb-ass manner. "Hey if you're going to be bodysurfing in waves taller than your heads, do you want me to take your sunglasses back to shore?" "No, we're good." Five minutes later, both pairs of their sunglasses got washed off and joined Huntington Beach's substantial junk pile.
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Or just buy a bunch of pairs at a dollar store. Then it's no big whoop if you lose/drop them periodically, like I have a tendency to do when walking on pavement.
Now if only (Score:2, Troll)
Apple would design a keyboard that worked for more than six months.
Ok, I'll bite (Score:3)
"A man who lost his Apple Watch in the ocean says he was surprised when it was returned to him after six months with all the data and apps still intact,"
Since I can't possibly RTFA, please tell me:
Was at least his bank account empty, his credit card maxed and his identity stolen?
Or did the thief just clone the watch and wait for the original owner to enter his passwords to do the dirty deeds?
If neither, I don't want to know, the world has to be bad for us old farts.
And now get off my lawn.
just a few questions (Score:3, Insightful)
How long does the battery last in 'lost' mode?
How do people not understand it was probably the watch rolling around in the sand for 6 months which effected the display and not salt water?
Why does this sound like a fake story?
LoB
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How far under water does radio(Wifi, Bluetooth, or Cellular) work so it can receive the 'lost' signals from a phone used on the beach?
Dunno but probably not more than a dozen meters or so.
How long does the battery last in 'lost' mode?
About 3-4 times the normal battery life of the device depending on the device and the aggressiveness of the energy saving algorithm.
How do people not understand it was probably the watch rolling around in the sand for 6 months which effected the display and not salt water? Why does this sound like a fake story? LoB
Because you are a hopeless cynic and probably suffer from mild depression. I once witnessed a hunter find an iPod in a patch of moss in the middle of nowhere. He took it home, charged it and was able to determine the owner's name and then returned the thing. The iPod's housing was a extremely weathered but the internals were
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That said, he probably lost it on land, or in shallow enough water that it washed up on shore relatively quickly. The predominant motion of the waves along Southern California pushes the sand f
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How far under water does radio(Wifi, Bluetooth, or Cellular) work so it can receive the 'lost' signals from a phone used on the beach?
It depends on the frequency, but microwaves don't penetrate water very far at all, and wifi and bluetooth are both microwave.
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How far under water does radio(Wifi, Bluetooth, or Cellular) work so it can receive the 'lost' signals from a phone used on the beach?
Probably doesn't matter. Presumably when the watch next had signal, it went to check into apple servers and *then* got the 'lost' state
How long does the battery last in 'lost' mode?
Probably got the 'lost' signal when the person who found it plugged it in and it got enough charge to boot and try to check into apple services and got lost state
How do people not understand it was probably the watch rolling around in the sand for 6 months which effected the display and not salt water?
I have no opinion on that.
Why does this sound like a fake story?
Don't know about fake, but it certainly doesn't seem like that much of a story. I suppose it's supposed to be a testimony to the waterproofing of the device, but a device designed to be w
from the Apple Advertising dept. (Score:1)
NOT keeps-on-ticking dept.
So drowning it will not work (Score:1)
Guess I will have to find something more...englighting.