WotW: Lost your phone? Lost your mind?

I lose my phone at least once a week. I first check the usual places–in between the couch cushions, under my pillow, in my sock drawer (don’t ask!)–but as my baby gets more mobile, my phone is finding more places to hide. 

I know that I am not the only one whose loses my phone (sometimes with the help of little fingers) because just last week Debra (founder of this here blog, housewife extraordinaire, and my best friend) IMed me to ask if I could call her phone so she could locate it. 🙂

Next time your phone goes AWOL, try one of these phone-finding apps. They’ll place a call to your cell phone so you can follow the ringtone and find your phone.

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Where’s My Cell Phone is simple and easy: enter your cell number and click Make It Ring. The free service calls your phone when you want: now, or in 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, or 5 minutes to allow you time to turn down the music and get your listening ears on. If you answer the call rather than ignore it, you’ll just hear product ads.

The site requires no account and no other information, and your number isn’t stored anywhere. If someone misuses the service to call your phone, you can place your phone number on the Stop Calling! list to stop all calls from Where’s My Cell Phone. And if you know who the offending party is, you can use the sister site PrankDialer to extract your (harmless) revenge.

Phone My Phone is a paying service, but they offer a free trial version. You just enter your phone number, select how many times to call and when, and then click the “I accept. Call me.” button to accept the terms of service and be on your way to finding your phone. Phone My Phone also gives you the number that the call will be coming from, so you don’t accidentally answer the wrong call. 🙂

Phone My Phone is meant to be more than just a phone finder: you can use the service’s call as a wake-up call, a reminder, or an excuse to get out of a boring meeting. Because of this, Phone My Phone offers a few more options than Where’s My Cell Phone: you can call multiple times (up to 5) and set the time of the call for anytime in the foreseeable future. I haven’t found a limit yet to the free trial, but I presume that eventually you will run out of free calls so that you are more inclined to pay for the service.

If you have a smarter-than-mine phone that uses the Android operating system, you can use the free iTag app to see your phone’s location and perform some basic functions, such as making it ring, locking the keys, backing up your data, and deleting information on the phone.

If you have a smarter-than-mine phone running an operating system other than Android, check out this article to see if there’s an app that will help you find and/or secure your phone.

Happy summer, happy travels, and happy phoning!

Lu (or Lorene if you prefer) is the mom of one squirmy boy and the wife of a singing and dancing elementary teacher. She is the proud author of this weekly Wednesdays on the Web (WotW) segment here on Housewife Eclectic and spends the other days of the week blogging about books, crafts, recipes, and whatever else comes up at just Lu.