Yesterday, having returned from food shopping, while taking off my mask, my Apple AirPods got caught in the elastic bands and flew off. One arced across the room and fell loudly on my (thankfully) wooden floor. Stunned, I picked it up, and, after a quick inspection, popped it back in my ear, pleased to hear it’s happy gong. The other one, however, was nowhere to be found. After a thorough but fruitless search, I reinserted my one AirPod to my ear (one never knows when an important call might happen), put my coat and mask back on and retraced my steps during the last half hour, assuming that the recalcitrant one had quietly and unknowingly dropped out of my ear (I mean, they’re that comfortable. Really!). I know. Pretty far stretch. But I like them and they’re not inexpensive.

Forty-five minutes later I returned home, CAREFULLY removed my mask to avoid a repeat event, and once again searched everywhere. I hadn’t heard it fall, so, rethinking the situation, I reasoned it might have fallen on something soft, like in a filled trash can, or onto a cloth-covered surface. No luck. Frustrated, I decided to turn to high technology.

Apple is supposed to have a “Find my iPhone” app and I thought, perhaps I could use it to find the little lost soul. A quick search of my iPhone 8 revealed no such app. When I tried to download it from the Apple App Store, I found tens of such proprietary apps but nothing clearly from Apple. In this day of spoofing, I wasn’t about to download a non-Apple app onto my scared iPhone, so, I decided to search the Apple site from my MacBook Pro computer. Yep, there the app was, but without any way I could find to download it, except through what sounded to me like some shady third parties. Ugh.

Then I ran across an Apple technical note that implied that I could use my computer (connected as it supposedly was to ALL my Apple devices) to locate the missing AirPod. Indeed, a quick search of the standard apps on my computer revealed a “FindMy” app. From there it was like magic.

The App sent out a signal to the lost AirPod, that responded with a plaintive chirping sound. It had fallen between two close pieces of furniture and slipped underneath where no light could go. The lost AirPod, desperately calling to be found, was soon happily rejoined with its partner. It’s nice to be able to rely on a product and company, and experience a happy ending in these otherwise morbidly pandemic days.

AppleAirBuds

My two Apple AirPods nestled happily back together in their charger.

Raymond Gaynor (aka Dan Janik) Author of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) Co-author with A. G. Hayes of QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) and with William Maltese of TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) Author website at https://garymartine.yolasite.com/raymondgaynor.php Author Facebook site at https://www.facebook.com/raymond.gaynors.place/ Author Twitter site at https://www.savantbooksandpublications.com/gaynorraymond.php Amazon author page at https://www.amazon.com/Raymond-Gaynor/e/B002OXBUPA Amazon Goodreads author page at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3174047.Raymond_Gaynor Savant Books and Publications | Aignos Publishing author page at https://www.savantbooksandpublications.com/gaynorraymond.php Distributed by Savant Distribution at https://www.savantdistribution.com/