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Rancher Uses Apple Watch to Find iPhone 12 in a Haystack in Apple's Latest Ad

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Apr 12, 2001
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Apple today shared a new ad called "Haystack" in which a rancher uses his Apple Watch to find his iPhone 12 in a haystack. The ad plays on the "needle in a haystack" idiom and is set to the song "Searching (For Someone Like You)" by country singer Kitty Wells.


In the one-minute ad, a rancher drives down a rural street surrounded by bales of hay. He then backs up his truck off the street, walks with his dog to a large haystack, and taps on a button in the Apple Watch's Control Center to ping his iPhone, which results in the iPhone playing a sound to help pinpoint its location if misplaced nearby.

"An iPhone that's lost is easily found," says Apple. "Relax, it's iPhone + Apple Watch."

To use this feature on the Apple Watch, swipe up to open Control Center and tap the Ping iPhone button, which will make the device chime. You can also touch and hold the Ping iPhone button to make the iPhone flash as well.

Of course, if your iPhone isn't in range of your Apple Watch, you can track its location using the Find My app on another Apple device or iCloud.com.

Article Link: Rancher Uses Apple Watch to Find iPhone 12 in a Haystack in Apple's Latest Ad
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/07/09/apple-haystack-iphone-12-ad/
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Okay, I use the beeper all the time when I misplace my iPhone in the house; however, how did the Watch in this commercial get him to the haystack in the first place? If Watch and iPhone are separated, is the Watch app "Find People" location for "Me" going to show the iPhone location (I've never tried it), or are they leaving out the part where he grabbed his iPad and opened "Find My" there?
 
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Devnul0 said:
Okay, I use the beeper all the time when I misplace my iPhone in the house; however, how did the Watch in this commercial get him to the haystack in the first place? If Watch and iPhone are separated, is the Watch app "Find People" location for "Me" going to show the iPhone location (I've never tried it), or are they leaving out the part where he grabbed his iPad and opened "Find My" there?
Click to expand...

I agree. Pretty stupid ad...At the minimum he should walk around it a bit, bend down and reach in with his hands feeling around.
 
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Its a misleading ad. I've used the beeper feature too, but around the house and in the office. there's no way in the world you'd hear that outside, because its not loud enough or doesnt sound for long enough.

It would be nice if it could be configured to a choice of a very loud ringtone, and the phone would play it at maximum volume.

I guess it will also be nice if/when Apple makes the ultra wideband system available in the watch, so you can track the newer iPhones with it more accurately.
 
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Devnul0 said:
Okay, I use the beeper all the time when I misplace my iPhone in the house; however, how did the Watch in this commercial get him to the haystack in the first place? If Watch and iPhone are separated, is the Watch app "Find People" location for "Me" going to show the iPhone location (I've never tried it), or are they leaving out the part where he grabbed his iPad and opened "Find My" there?
Click to expand...
Agree. The watch currently can't help you find your devices on a map, but apparently that functionality is coming in Watch OS 8 (per Apple's website):
  • A new Find Items app on Apple Watch helps users locate tagged items using the Find My network, and a new Find Devices app helps users locate lost Apple devices that are signed in with the same Apple ID.
I also use the beeper all the time. My only gripe is that it only beeps once each time I press the button, so I have to keep pressing until I locate my phone. Why can't it just beep continuously until I deactivate? That would be so much more convenient (and it's the way that "play a sound" works in FindMy).
 
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I've used the ping lots of times. I'd like to say it is an incredible feature. But, at best, it tells me the phone is within a fifty foot location. Because of the sound used, it often seems to me that the ping echos all over when walls are involved, at different amplitudes not making it any easier to find the phone... I could be within ten feet or twenty five. Same sound to me. Upstairs in my bedroom charging? Left on a bathroom counter? Downstairs by the couch? Sitting over by my keys on the kitchen counter? Could be any one of these, up and down stairs many times. Its in one of these three rooms... just where...I've also done the long press on the ping button of the watch so the flash on the phone goes off, but given I rarely put that phone down with the flash up, often questionable if it would help.
 
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Cam Elppa said:
When will Apple Watch be able to be use like find my with an airtag. So you get an arrow to help find your phone…
Click to expand...
Yes, that would be useful in situations like this. Also, when I've lost my iPhone, its battery is usually flat too, so I need the "what was the last known" location" info as well. Just learnt that you can also get the LED to flash, so I guess you could always wait until it got dark and then look for the illuminated haybale :)
 
I know plenty of people know about this but if you hold the phone icon on the watch, it beeps and flashes the flashlight on the phone.

Now, as an addendum, I wish they had an option that only flashes the flashlight as many times I am finding my phone in the dark, it's during a movie or when my kid is asleep, but typically dark atmospheres can be correlated with a need to be quiet. It'd be awesome to just see the flash. Granted, I know there's a chance the phone would be on its back and the flash is just slightly illuminated around the phone, but it would still be a great option for those situations where you want to stay audibly discreet.
 
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macpro2000 said:
I agree. Pretty stupid ad...At the minimum he should walk around it a bit, bend down and reach in with his hands feeling around.
Click to expand...
And they had time for it, too. There was a lot of wasted space in that ad. It was a :60 but could have been a :30 as is.
 
Simmias said:
Agree. The watch currently can't help you find your devices on a map, but apparently that functionality is coming in Watch OS 8 (per Apple's website):
  • A new Find Items app on Apple Watch helps users locate tagged items using the Find My network, and a new Find Devices app helps users locate lost Apple devices that are signed in with the same Apple ID.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Interesting. So it sounds like an item is something with an AirTag (or third-party user of the Find My network), and a device is an iPhone, iPad, Mac, basically the stuff that was in the pre-AirTag "Find My" ecosystem? I understand why they're different from a technological sense, but using two different applications seems like it's going to confuse the heck out of users.
 
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jicon said:
I've used the ping lots of times. I'd like to say it is an incredible feature. But, at best, it tells me the phone is within a fifty foot location. Because of the sound used, it often seems to me that the ping echos all over when walls are involved, at different amplitudes not making it any easier to find the phone... I could be within ten feet or twenty five. Same sound to me. Upstairs in my bedroom charging? Left on a bathroom counter? Downstairs by the couch? Sitting over by my keys on the kitchen counter? Could be any one of these, up and down stairs many times. Its in one of these three rooms... just where...I've also done the long press on the ping button of the watch so the flash on the phone goes off, but given I rarely put that phone down with the flash up, often questionable if it would help.
Click to expand...
Agreed. The way the pinging sound trails off makes it difficult to pinpoint.
 
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Devnul0 said:
Okay, I use the beeper all the time when I misplace my iPhone in the house; however, how did the Watch in this commercial get him to the haystack in the first place? If Watch and iPhone are separated, is the Watch app "Find People" location for "Me" going to show the iPhone location (I've never tried it), or are they leaving out the part where he grabbed his iPad and opened "Find My" there?
Click to expand...
Eh... It's a commercial. And a pretty fun one at that.
 
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Lost my AirPods 2 case with buds inside, tried to locate it using findmy but no luck. Only shows last location.
Playing sound doesn’t work unless it’s connected but won’t connect while case is closed.
Found it manually by searching. :rolleyes:

I also have a label on it with my phone number just in case some person finds them.
 
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