How it feels to lose your phone

Image: Yeoh
Well, my one-month old Nexus 5 was stolen earlier today. Snatched right from my hands by a snatch thief on a motorcycle. I was gutted, understandably. It all happened so fast it was like I was in shock for a few seconds. Once it finally set it what had happened, I quickly got on my laptop (luckily I had it with me) and got on Android Device Manager. I tried locating it first, but no luck. Not sure why though, had tested it before with the phone and it worked. Anyway, after that I set a remote lock on the device and called my carrier to disable my sim card. Unfortunately they couldn't deactivate the phone with the IMEI number, so that's that. I'm resigned to the fact that I will most likely never see the phone again, so I sent a remote wipe via ADM to remove all my data from the phone. Also changed all my passwords just in case. So after having a few hours to think about what happened, here's my thoughts after losing my first phone in more than 10 years.

It's just a phone
After the initial depression of losing my phone, I told myself, "it's just a phone". It could've been worse. I could've lost my laptop. I could've been hurt. Also thinking unselfishly, someone else could've been the victim instead of me. So I'm over being depressed about it. Crap happens in life. You just gotta pick yourself up and move on. We fight all the time on Google+ about which phone is better as though our lives depend on it. But in the end, it's just a phone.

Android Device Manager - use it
I am so glad I setup ADM for my account and devices. Being able to wipe the device sure helped me feel calm (relatively) about losing my phone. I still wish I could've located it, but I don't think I would've been able to do anything anyway. It's not like I could've walked up to the guy and asked him politely for my phone. At least I know the device was wiped, and none of my accounts or data is on the device anymore, so I can rest easy with that.
If you haven't set this up, do it now. Image: CNET
I didn't lose any of my data thanks to the cloud
Contacts, camera photos, documents, game progress, music and what not. It's all in the cloud. When I finally get a new phone, all I will need to do is login to my respective accounts, and all my data will be there waiting for me. If you ever doubted the usefulness of using any cloud service, I hope this changes your mind.

Don't lose yourself in technology
When you are out in public, be out in public, not immersed in your smartphones and tablets. If I was more aware of my surroundings instead of staring at my phone, I could've avoided this whole mishap. I can't do anything about it now, but in the future you can bet I won't be using my phone in public unless I am certain of what (and who) is around me. We hear stories all the time about snatch thefts, and we never think it can happen to us, until it does.
I won't be walking around with my phone in my hand ever again. Image: zhangschmidt
The world is a dangerous place
Just a general piece of advice before I end - we live in dangerous times. Just this morning, one of my friends was telling us in our WhatsApp group that his house was almost broken into. I can't remember the whole story, but in a nutshell, his house was almost burgled, but it wasn't. And wouldn't you know it, later that day I end up being a victim of a snatch thief. We read about horror stories all the time on the web, kids being rapped, kidnapped and killed. People being shot/stabbed in public. Car windows being broken and handbags on the seats being grabbed. It's a dangerous world, so take care. 

Until I get a replacement phone, I'll be using my sister's old SII, which thankfully has AOSP on it lol. I'll definitely be getting the Nexus 5 again. The local retailer I bought my previous one from has all models in stock, so I should be able to make the purchase in a few days, after settling my finances. I hope all my readers take note of what I said. Take all necessary precautions with your devices, and be aware of your surroundings at all times. Stay safe.
Tags

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Are we witnessing the downfall of Apple?

Image
Image: Maypalo As Android users, we absolutely love poking fun at Apple. After the unveiling of the iPhone 5s and 5c, the Android community I'm a member of on Google+ was full of images and posts making fun of Apple. We were making fun of how the 5c looks like a children's toy, how iOS 7 looks like Android, and how the 64-bit A7 chip was nothing more than a gimmick to show how "advanced" the 5s is. All joking aside though, I honestly do think that Apple's best days are behind it. The iPhone 5s and the final version of iOS 7 have been out for about 2 weeks now, and reports of problems with both the hardware and the software are becoming more and more frequent. This is not something that we normally associate with Apple. The iPhone and iOS are supposed to "just work". There shouldn't be a laundry list of bugs, inconsistencies and hardware problems just days after the launch. The fact that Apple are already working on iOS 7.0.3 , the third patch...
Read more

5 differences between the black and white Nexus 5

Image
One of the most common questions I see in the Nexus 5 Central community on Google+ by prospective Nexus 5 owners is, "Which should I get? Black or white?" . In the end, it's always a matter of preference. I think what they really want to know on most occasions, is what the differences are between the white and black models. As some of you might remember, I bought the white model initially, which unfortunately was stolen after just a month of use . I got a replacement soon after, but this time I got the black model instead. Having used it for almost a month now, I wanna share with you the differences between the two. Of course, you can always read reviews or watch videos which are already out there, but my thoughts don't come from merely looking at the devices, they come from my experience of using them. So hopefully, you'll get a little more value from this post.
Read more

Why Telegram is better than WhatsApp

Image
Messaging apps are some of the most popular among smartphone users. Three of the top five free apps in the Play Store are messaging apps, and there are many more as well. When it comes to sheer user base, none can boast a higher number of users than WhatsApp. As of August 2014, WhatsApp reports a total of 600 million active monthly users . WeChat is second by a huge 132 million user margin. But as in other markets, just because something is the most popular, doesn't mean it's the best. WhatsApp will always benefit from being one of the earliest cross-platform messaging apps in the market. They've had years to build up their massive user base, and as long as they have that, competing apps will find it difficult to get a foothold in the market. The problem newer messaging apps face is that not many people will use a service if none of their friends and family are. What good is a messaging app if you don't have anybody to send messages to? Telegram is very young compared...
Read more