I awoke groggy within the Austin airport, my head aching from the place I would pillowed it on my lumpy backpack. My purse was near me, our boarding passes for my household’s 5 a.m. departure tucked protectively in a single aspect. Then one panicked thought jolted into my head: WHERE WAS MY PHONE?
Let’s backtrack: My husband, teen daughter and I had been flying from Seattle to Cleveland for the April 8 whole photo voltaic eclipse. By means of a bizarre tangle of occasions, we missed our departing flight. The one new flight we might nab left us caught from midnight to five a.m., sleeping on the airport flooring in Texas’ capital metropolis.
Should you’ve ever deliberate a long-awaited journey for your loved ones and watched it begin to go incorrect, you already know my thoughts was pinging like a ball in a pinball machine. There have been 1,000,000 threads I used to be making an attempt to weave collectively to avoid wasting this spring break journey.
And since it is 2024, 999,999 of these threads required use of my iPhone. From rebooking the flight to alerting our lodge that we would be late to finding our baggage, I used to be always tapping and calling on my trusty cellphone display screen.
However I would dozed off for two or 3 hours on the chilly flooring of Austin-Bergstrom Worldwide Airport, and someway once I woke, that cellphone was not in my hand, pocket or purse. Had I left it someplace in our sleepy late-night trek by way of the airport? Was it perched on a rest room sink or sitting on high of a merchandising machine? Or worse, had some early-morning traveler noticed it whereas I slept and made off with it?
Then I remembered: I used to be carrying my Apple Watch. Regardless that the battery was ticking worryingly low, it nonetheless had energy. I pressed the aspect button underneath the digital crown. It introduced up a display screen of icons, together with one exhibiting a ringing smartphone. One press and I heard probably the most pleasant sound my ears might hear, a sweetly persistent BING BING BING.
That blue button is pinging my misplaced iPhone. I am so grateful it exists.
Apple Watch comes with a function that may beep a misplaced iPhone, and I would by no means wanted it extra.
It turned out that my cellphone had merely slipped down between two suitcases. I tracked the beeping, discovered it instantly and began to breathe once more.
Learn extra: Utilizing an Apple Watch Reworked My Relationship With Self-Care
I did not even need an Apple Watch
I by no means wished a smartwatch. I cherished the easy fashion of my Movado Museum traditional watch, with its elegant black-and-gold colour scheme and minimalist design. However my husband, the techie, gave me an Apple Watch Collection 7 for my birthday again in 2021. He raved about options like health capabilities, and the power to set timers. Certain, OK, I will attempt it, I believed.
Now, I am hooked.
I exploit the maps app to search out my approach to appointments. I exploit the exercise app to trace all the pieces from brief walks to the publish workplace to lengthy biking exercises. I exploit the climate program to examine the forecast and temperature. I exploit the built-in timer once I want a reminder to slip a loaf of contemporary bread out of the oven. I exploit the tap-to-pay Apple Pay possibility at our native drive-in burger joint.
However I do not assume any function on the watch – together with telling time – has made me as grateful because the find-your-phone possibility.
After all, there are different smartwatches on the market, together with Google’s Pixel Watch. Chances are you’ll discover a type of different choices extra to your liking. I occur to be tucked into the Apple ecosystem, and I am OK with that.
The Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame performed Darkish Facet of the Moon, Ain’t No Sunshine, and Right here Comes The Solar through the eclipse.
Face it: We want our telephones, even for celestial occasions
I do not lose my iPhone that always. It is normally shut by, in my pocket or purse. However once I get that sinking feeling that I left it someplace, I am eternally grateful that one contact on my wrist could make it beep – so long as it is shut sufficient to me.
I’ve used different methods to search out my misplaced cellphone, after all. I’ve requested my daughter or mates to easily name it to make it ring. I’ve beeped it from the Discover My possibility on my husband’s cellphone. However the easiest and quickest means is to only press the button on my watch.
When the moon slid over the solar, the temperature in Cleveland dropped noticably. It was undoubtedly definitely worth the trek from Seattle.
Our eclipse journey turned out to be value all the trouble. The Cleveland skies brightened simply in time, and we watched the eclipse from outdoors the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame. The museum performed Pink Floyd’s Darkish Facet of the Moon because the solar slipped away, then flowed into Invoice Withers’ achingly unhappy Ain’t No Sunshine through the 4 minutes of totality, earlier than triumphantly blasting The Beatles’ Right here Comes The Solar as sunshine returned.
When the solar slid behind the moon, the temperature dropped about 10 levels immediately, and the individuals round us erupted within the purest expression of pleasure, kissing and dancing and snapping images. It made reminiscences my household will always remember. And at the moment, with a lot using on staying linked, I am grateful I did not have so as to add a misplaced cellphone to my record of mini-disasters.
