Anything interesting inside a iphone?

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › Anything interesting inside a iphone?

ThomasW

24 posts

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#93402 20-Nov-2011 20:13

I found myself a Iphone 16GB in the sea last night, its been there for a while and corrosion has set in around the case . Is there anything worth scavenging from inside the phone? Maybe a magnet or something????

Taken the Sim card out, its a T-Mobile, so a tourist phone. Going to chuck it in a old phone shortly to see if it still works.

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#547547 20-Nov-2011 20:36

as long as the internals arent compromised go on ebay and buy the front and back plate and you have yourself a new iphone

cokemaster

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#547548 20-Nov-2011 20:39

Go to your local police station and hand it in. Its the right thing to do.

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draculahowsby

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#547555 20-Nov-2011 20:47

cokemaster: Go to your local police station and hand it in. Its the right thing to do.

that ship has long past, considering hes come here asking if there anything valuable within. Also since it has a tmobile sim card im pretty sure the owner has long gone.

codyc1515

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#547563 20-Nov-2011 21:05

Got to ask (and risk sounding silly) but does it power up?

freitasm

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#547567 20-Nov-2011 21:18

ThomasW: Taken the Sim card out, its a T-Mobile, so a tourist phone. Going to chuck it in a old phone shortly to see if it still works.?

Why would you try the SIM card? There is no reason to use it. Best case it is inactive, worst case you are going to incur expenses in someone else's account. Just drop the SIM and phone at your police station.

trig42

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#547570 20-Nov-2011 21:20

It would be really interesting to know how it got there (ie. where it was dropped into the sea). Bit like a message in a bottle. I wonder if the SIM can be traced?

vinnieg

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#547571 20-Nov-2011 21:20

freitasm:
ThomasW: Taken the Sim card out, its a T-Mobile, so a tourist phone. Going to chuck it in a old phone shortly to see if it still works.?

Why would you try the SIM card? There is no reason to use it. Best case it is inactive, worst case you are going to incur expenses in someone else's account. Just drop the SIM and phone at your police station.

I also agree with this, they could have holiday snaps and all sorts, that someone could be missing! Then after 3 months if no one claims it, it's yours.

Otherwise, they could have either reported the serial as stolen to Operation SNAP, and you could be done with receiving stolen goods, or worse...

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oxnsox

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#547577 20-Nov-2011 21:27

If there's corrosion visible on the outside.........
...the rest of this discussion is probably mute.

ThomasW

24 posts

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#547619 20-Nov-2011 22:40

Its a rust brick. Every port is spewing out rust, these same kind of de-lamination (maybe internal salt deposits) covering the screen. Its been in the tidal zone for a while. Its dead, it would never go again. Its at the state that I thought about dropping it back into the sea but kept it because I did not want to pollute the beach.

The theory is, if the Sim works I should be able to find contacts stored on it, and use them to contact the owner to tell them the fate of their phone. I beleive the phone uses flash memory which is quite durable so any content might be recoverable so thought I would try and contact the owner before 'disposing' of it...

The Sim works, but is pin protected so that route of contact is invalid.

edit: Is it best to hand it into the nearest station to where I found it, or just any station?

edit 2: I suspect it was dropped off a boat, I found it on a remote cliffy bit of coastland where sane people do not normally go... Plus it was in the tidal zone so if they dropped it while out there would have been easy enough to find by tracing back their footsteps (soft mud, leaves footprints for ages) . Although, if it was dropped off a boat I would assume it would sink straight to the bottom, and not get washed ashore by the currents/waves.

kingjj

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#547633 20-Nov-2011 23:09

ThomasW: Its a rust brick. Every port is spewing out rust, these same kind of de-lamination (maybe internal salt deposits) covering the screen. Its been in the tidal zone for a while. Its dead, it would never go again. Its at the state that I thought about dropping it back into the sea but kept it because I did not want to pollute the beach.

The theory is, if the Sim works I should be able to find contacts stored on it, and use them to contact the owner to tell them the fate of their phone. I beleive the phone uses flash memory which is quite durable so any content might be recoverable so thought I would try and contact the owner before 'disposing' of it...

The Sim works, but is pin protected so that route of contact is invalid.

edit: Is it best to hand it into the nearest station to where I found it, or just any station?

edit 2: I suspect it was dropped off a boat, I found it on a remote cliffy bit of coastland where sane people do not normally go... Plus it was in the tidal zone so if they dropped it while out there would have been easy enough to find by tracing back their footsteps (soft mud, leaves footprints for ages) . Although, if it was dropped off a boat I would assume it would sink straight to the bottom, and not get washed ashore by the currents/waves.

You can hand it in to any station. If there's a lost property file against it any station can check and follow it up. Major stations are usually 24/7, smaller stations Monday to Friday half 8 to half 4.

Ham

462 posts

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#547709 21-Nov-2011 09:32

I would consider it rubbish and just throw it away... hopefully the person who lost it had travel insurance and sync'd their phone shortly before throwing it overboard.

alasta

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#547725 21-Nov-2011 09:55

Ham: I would consider it rubbish and just throw it away... hopefully the person who lost it had travel insurance and sync'd their phone shortly before throwing it overboard.

I agree. Technically taking it to the police might be the correct thing to do, but the probability of anyone claiming it is so remote that it would be a waste of their time.

RunningMan

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#547742 21-Nov-2011 10:28

alasta:
Ham: I would consider it rubbish and just throw it away... hopefully the person who lost it had travel insurance and sync'd their phone shortly before throwing it overboard.

I agree. Technically taking it to the police might be the correct thing to do, but the probability of anyone claiming it is so remote that it would be a waste of their time.

It might not be "lost" in the normal sense though - what if it was on a boat that that's gone missing at sea, and that phone is the only remains? Or (clutching at straws here!) it belonged to someone who was mugged or killed, and has been chucked out by the bad guy?

Drop it in to a police station, if no-one claims it in a few months, or it's not related to something else, then you can get it back and disect it then...

alasta

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#547781 21-Nov-2011 11:31

RunningMan:
alasta: I agree. Technically taking it to the police might be the correct thing to do, but the probability of anyone claiming it is so remote that it would be a waste of their time.

It might not be "lost" in the normal sense though - what if it was on a boat that that's gone missing at sea, and that phone is the only remains? Or (clutching at straws here!) it belonged to someone who was mugged or killed, and has been chucked out by the bad guy?

Fair point.

Personally when I've tried to report minor crime I have been disappointed that the police have not been interested in taking a formal report; whilst they may not have the resources to investigate you'd think that they'd want it on their database in case it later provides evidence relating to another more serious crime. Still, you're right in suggesting that it pays to err on the side of caution with these things.

Regs

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Snowflake

#551647 30-Nov-2011 00:44

just saw this article posed about a canon 1000d from the bottom of the sea... they were able to extract images from the sdcard and find the camera's owner:
http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/camera-lost-sea-returned-help-social-networking-215800650.html

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