Designer Dana O'Dell of Michigan wrote a pretty intriguing story for Medium about some features he felt the iPhone should have.
Apple has been pushing security for its devices with features like the four-digit passcode and its fingerprint sensor and the effort has paid off. The number of cell phone thefts is dropping and thieves have reportedly told law enforcement officials they are making it a point to avoid Apple devices.
But what happens when you lose your iPhone and it falls into the hands of a good Samaritan? It depends on the vigilance of the device's owner.
Through Apple's Find my iPhone app, owners can lock devices remotely, wipe personal data from it, display a message on the device and track its location.
Those are all useful tools, but O'Dell thinks Apple should do more to make it easier for good Samaritans to return phones to their owners.
He suggests Apple to develop more ways through Find My iPhone for good Samaritans to reach device owners and they are fairly intuitive.
"For all the things a smartphone can do, its primary way to help reunite itself with its owner is essentially a high tech version of marco polo," wrote.
Owners can send a message, along with a phone number, stating their property was lost and asking Samaritans to call.
Some probably do that, but what if an owner doesn't realize they've misplaced their device yet? If the Samaritan had a means to contact that person, they could potentially return it to them very quickly.
O'Dell would like to see "Report" buttons on the lock screen and the Control Center that would allow good Samaritans to label a phone as lost. He also said anyone should be able to use Siri to report a device lost. His story even included renderings of what this could look like.
Reporting a device lost manually would then prompt up to three options: Call, Message and Mail.
"Any previous report activity is noted in context, which is helpful in cases where a device might pass from one person to another before being reunited with the owner," O'Dell wrote, "Additionally, all attempted reports would be logged with Apple and available in a reports history section within the Find My iPhone feature in iCloud. This report data could pair with location information to help the owner pinpoint a lost device in the event a report attempt was unsuccessful."
An automated calling system would be in place to protect the identity and phone number of iPhone owners. Messages would be preconstructed and Mail would function normally. O'Dell explained
"The recipient address is never displayed as the routing of the email is handled by Apple. This is partly to keep the contact's information private, but also to allow the contact a way to reply and provide the good Samaritan access to a strictly limited Mail inbox that displays only the message(s) related to the report attempt(s)."
You can read his full story on Medium here.
