Runkeeper to the rescue; does better than Apple’s “Find iPhone”

Kenneth stared at a bare patch on his handlebar at 6.30am this morning in dismay. His encased iPhone was missing!

We fumbled with Apple’s “Find iPhone” but his 1password-generated password was beyond him. He and Dinesh set off to backtrack along his morning ride from Bishan to Holland Village.

As Kevin, Airani and I rode down Dunearn Rode we saw Dinesh’s bright lights pointing back at us – we reached to see them fiddling with Dinesh’s iPhone. Kenneth realized he could track the phone’s position!

Kenneth says,

“When I saw the track on RunKeeper, I saw the pin was red, but did not realise the implication immediately. When I continued cycling up Kheam Hock Road, it hit me – the tracking had stopped.

This meant one of two things: someone picked up the phone and stopped RunKeeper, or the phone’s GPS function (at very least) was affected by the fall. Thankfully – if someone can be thankful to see his phone crushed – it was the latter.

With the phone in my hands, the data on my phone was not compromised.”

Recovered along Lornie Road, the phone was busted. Airani commented Runkeeper had allowed Kenneth to find his phone, reuse his SIM card and secure his data – all this because Runkeeper provides the last known location of the phone before it was killed by traffic. 

Since Kenneth sets his Runkeepr Elite app to automatically notify Twitter/Facebook when he begins a ride, we could have asked any of his followers to help us locate his phone had we needed to. 

This was a clear illustration that we’d be able to backtrack and check on a missing cyclist easily if they use an app with live tracking.

Zendogs 2.0 all use Runkeeper Elite, essentially paying for live monitoring. This morning it came in helpful further when I used the live tracking to see that Kevin (and Kenneth) had rerouted after recovering the phone. I informed Dinesh and Airani and we could continue instead of waiting; useful!

So my phone is packed for every ride with it’s extra battery.

We’ll keep riding safely and choose our routes well so we don’t have to trace each other in some tragic emergency. But being prepared might help us help others.