Did you lose an iPod?

Dead cyclist identified with the help of iPod

September 2007Medical investigators used an iPod serial number Friday to figure out the identity of a bicyclist killed when he collided with a school bus in Minneapolis on Thursday morning.
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Good thing that lady and the blogger weren't atheists, otherwise they wouldn't have had the morals to do such a nice thing. :-P
Our daughter's iPod disappeared at High School. Her story is that she forgot it in a classroom (though she has lots of issues with telling the truth [she's been with us for about a year after many in the CPS system]) and when she went back it was gone. Still not sure what happened there, but all her contacts were on it, so certainly she could have been identified as the owner. Maybe I should start going to church and looking around for people with a silver iPod Mini with a purple silicone case...

Thille: iPods (and other mp3 players) can easily be reconfigured for personal use and/or sold. They've become kind of a favorite for thieves, being small, easily misplaced, and valuable.

... they're also a favorite for teenagers looking to pawn their junk for money, due to the ease of sale. I state this from personal experience.

Seems like a lot of effort for a stupid little gadget.

I've got a friend at Apple that I've been hounding to have them add a 'lojack' like feature to iPods. It wouldn't cost them much. Basically, if I setup that feature on my iPod, when I plug it into another PC/Mac (other than my own), it turns into a brick until I either enter the password or plug it back into my mac. Additionally, if iTunes is installed on said thief's mac/PC, it phone's home to identify the IP addr of the computer the stolen/lost iPod is plugged into.

I once left my iPod on a Northwest flight. I called their lost and found that day, and the lady just laughed at me. She said they had NEVER had one turned in...not ever. So I guess the people who clean the plane must all be amoral athiests :)

It should now be possible with the number of digital phones and cameras that are around, to photograph the employee accepting an object for the lost & found. In fact, I recommend it.

I once found a nice racing bicycle tossed into some bushes. I flagged down a police car, reported finding a stolen (or lost) bicycle, and handed it over to the officer. By protocol, an owner has 30 days to inquire about a lost item or the finder can claim it.

Thirty days later I phoned up to see if I could claim the bike. The answer: "No bike was turned in." If I had thought to write down the officer's ID number, I would have had a place to start looking. If I had done so ostentatiously and photographed him with the bike, it woule probably have ended up in the Lost & Found room.

I've never lost any of my iPods before, but I have found a few and returned all of them successfully. My favorite return - and the most interesting one - is here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=168453 :)

Will, it's about the music. If I lost my iPod, the $250 spent would hurt almost nothing, if my music was also gone. I listen a lot of Argentinian rock from the 70s, so you can see why it would be a little hard to find my music again, or rip the CDs. And yes, I got a backup, but not everybody does that.

Personally, I have the iPod because some years back, I thiink in 2003, when I was looking for a portable player, there was not much competition. I think it was just the iPod and something Creative. The iPod sold me for its accesories, which now have multiplied astoundingly, hence I'm in my 3rd one, using it with a 3rd party dock with a RF remote. I have a small amp and a pair of good speakers, I don't need no stinkin' stereo or radio or CD player anymore.

Oh, and it helped a lot too that it was very easy to get rid of my 1st and 2nd iPods for some cash.

RE #7: I guess my local police are more honest than yours. I have had 4 bicycles abandoned in my yard over the last 5 years (!!!) I always call the police, and they come and pick it up. Then some time later I get a phone messaage saying that no one claimed the bike and I can have it if I want it. Of course, they've all been junkers, not "nice racing bicycles."

@andyo:

Don't you have to have a back up in order to have it on your iPod? Yeah, it would suck to lose your iPod, I get that. But I'm all for people realizing they can do other things with their time on the bus than listen to music . . . like read.

Will:

You don't have to have a backup. With iPods of just a few GB, like the nanos, you pretty much have to have your collection in your computer, unless you don't have much music. But with the ones of tens of GB, you can keep a mirror in your computer and keep it managed by iTunes to synchronize with the thing, or you can put your iPod into manual synchronization, in which you don't need a mirror. Users with laptops can appreciate having, say, 40GB or more free to play with.

Also, I think I can infer by your comment your attitude to "music". I agree somewhat. I keep blaming MTV for killing music. But you can't read when you're driving.

By the way, the iPod is the only mp3 player that has the most useful accessory for the car for me: a power adapter with proper stereo "line out" embedded in the adapter. It's basically a dock without the dock. Everything else to listen in the car is either that super crappy radio transmitter or a barely less crappy tape adapter! That must be rarest very useful accessory for an mp3 player for the car and at the same time the only one with at least acceptable quality.

Re: #7

I had the same experience in Louisiana. My son and I found a Schwinn racing bike off the trail, put it in my car, found a police car and explained the circumstances. He took it and said that, if it wasn't claimed in 60 days, I could have it.

60 days later, I called the police dept, and was told that it had been unclaimed, and given away to some group or another.

By and large, Shreveport police suck, anyway.

-- CV