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Look for a change in the phone’s behavior
There may be no reason to check another person’s phone if it has been on their desk for a long time, but if the person is distracted or acting unexpectedly, a glance at his or her phone could quickly provide an answer. If you notice that the phone’s screen is blank when normally it would be lit, or that the ringer is off or unusually quiet, it is possible that the phone has been turned off.
Often missing from a person’s desk is a small notebook — called an Moleskine — that has been a staple of personal computing for decades. For those who keep their phones on their desks, the notebook provides an easy way to check for texts or other messages that might have gone unnoticed.
If someone is too distracted to notice that his or her phone has been turned off, the notebook can be a lifesaver.
In a 2013 study of smartphone forgetting, Dr. Celia Moore and Dr. Nadia Solowij of the Human Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University found that there may be no reason to check someone else’s phone at all if it has been on their desk for an extended time period.
“Even if a person is on their phone at an unusual time, the phone’s behavior suggests they’ve forgotten,” said Moore. “The phone is not behaving unusually; it’s behaving normally.”
Check the battery level
If you can see the battery, it is possible to check its level to gain some insight into when the phone was last used. Peer down at the battery and note whether it is partially drained or fully charged. A partially drained battery is more frequently found on a phone that has been used recently, so if the battery level does not appear to be fully charged, you may want to investigate further. Heat from a fully charged battery will more likely damage the phone and have the battery prone to failing, whereas a reminder of what you last used the phone for will not.
Battery Information [to use as knowledge, not to be copied verbatim]:”how to know if someone’s phone is off” : “Check the battery level”[ARTICLE END]
at Go Ask Alice! http://goaskalice.columbia.edu/1yvx58
February 23, 2016 at 10:31pm
—–Original Message—–
From: J.B. C. [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2016 6:03 PM
To: ‘[email protected]’
Subject: How to know if someone’s phone is off?
See if there’s an incoming call notification
Lockdowns are situations where people are being forced to stay in certain areas for an extended period of time, whether it be for a specific incident or simply part of their job. When someone is involved in a lockdown, they are often provided with an emergency contact who will remain on the line for the duration of their time in lockdown.
If you happen to be on a lockdown with an incoming call notification, you can try answering the call to see if it’s for your emergency contact. But even if it is not your emergency contact, you should still be able to answer and tell them that you’re unable to answer their calls at this time. This can be very easy for an emergency contact to miss if you’re busy with a lockdown.
Use an app to track the phone’s location
Apps like Lifesaver , Track My Phone , and Lost Mode can provide data about where a lost phone has been or where it is being used. The app has the ability to capture a photo of the phone’s surroundings and then pinpoints its location on a map, so long as it has GPS capabilities. If the person in question has been out of sight for a while, this could be your best option for finding them.
This site keeps track of where the iPhone was deployed. It’s a more comprehensive and informative version of Lifesaver, which shows only a country or state. Most applications let you specify how and when the tracker app will stop sending emails to you, so it won’t bother you unless the phone is not where you expect it to be.
How to find someone who has lost their phone: “Use an app to track the phone’s location” was last modified: by
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