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Many Happy Returns: ID your iPod, iPhone

Say you lose your iPod or iPhone and some good Samaritan finds it, but there’s no way for them to get it back to you because there’s no contact info on it.

If you’ve got an iPod Touch or iPhone, enter an $0.99 USD app called DogTag, which adds an ID icon and allows you to put the contact info of your choice.

Even If you’ve got a passcode, the info is still accessible as a DogTag wallpaper. The brainchild of Ian Cinnamon, who has been programming since age seven, the app was released a few days ago, and so far the handful of reviews are mostly positive.

For older iPods, one quick way is to name your device with an email address (my iPod nano and older pods support the “@”). This way, if the iPod is plugged in, your contact info pops up on the desktop and in iTunes.

You can also add your info to “contacts” or “notes” on iPods, too so they don’t have to plug it in to go looking for you. (Although if they really dig, the name information you assign will come up, too, in the settings>about screen).

I hit on naming mine with an email address after spending a frustrating 20 minutes at the gym trying to convince the guy at lost and found that yes, the iPod containing, among other things, just the contralto part of “Lacrimosa” and three cover versions of “Mah Na Ma Na” was, in fact, mine.

Have you devised a good way to ID your iPod or iPhone? Any luck with getting it back?
Sharing is caring, let us know in the comments.

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About the author

nicole_martinelli

Nicole Martinelli was born in San Francisco and has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. Cultish tendencies and love for DIY increased while living on the Old Continent, where tech came late and cost more in Big Mac index terms. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. Since 1999, she's been tapping away at zoomata. You can also find her on Facebook, Linked in and Twitter.

Email the author | Read more posts by Nicole Martinelli.

4 comments

    “enter a free app called DogTag”, though the free is actually 59p (UK) which makes it $0.99 US. Nice idea, but not free.

    At least in the german app-store the app is not (longer?) for free, but costs 0,79 Euro.

    Just the contralto part of Lacrimosa and three “Mah Na Ma Na”s!? I just can´t come with a better way to ID and iPod. If somebody else comes to claim it with that answer, she deserves to get it, don´t you think? :-)

    Now seriously, you can also put your contact info in several Playlists like 1 – Name, 2 – Address, and so on, and better yet, laser etch it with you name and e-mail.

    Anyway I’ve never got lucky with it; I’ve “lost” 2 iPods and 1 Macbook Pro and even they were properly ID´d nobody returned them.

    MJ & Dirk: the app was still free when the post was written — thanks for the head’s up, I’ve updated…

    Javier — LOL, anyone who could’ve guessed those tracks would’ve earned the iPod.

    Thanks for the contact ID in playlist tip, it’d be an obvious place to look if one were inclined to return the lost iPod…

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