Gadgets
How to Find Your Lost Android Smartphone and Erase Data Remotely
There have been many instances when we lose our phones, sometimes just in our homes when we can’t remember where we last kept them, and unfortunately sometimes they get stolen or misplaced while we are out. In the former instance, it is easy to find our Android phones using the Find My Phone feature on our paired smartwatch, or just asking someone else to ring it. But if it is lost outside of our homes, then we need a bit of extra help. Fortunately, there is an easy way to remotely find and locate your Android phone, lock it, and even erase all data if the need be.
Google offers a simple process in which users can find, lock, and erase all data on your Android phone – in the event that you lose it. The Find My Device feature allows Android users to locate the handset, lock it by remotely setting a pin, passcode, or pattern to keep away unwanted eyes. Users can even display a message on their lock screen to ask the finder to call once they have your phone. The feature also allows users to erase all data on their Android phone so that the finder doesn’t have access to it, and also trigger device protection rendering the phone unusable to anyone but the owner.
How to find your lost Android smartphone and erase data remotely
In order to find, lock, or erase an Android phone, there are some prerequisites required. The phone must be turned on, the user must be signed in with a Google account, the user must be connected to mobile data or Wi-Fi, they must be visible on Google Play, must have their location setting turned on, and additionally have their Find My Device setting turned on as well. If all of these pre-requisites are met with, the user must follow these steps:
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Head to android.com/find and sign in to your Google account, similar to the one used on the phone. Once signed in, you will see your phone on the top left corner. If you have multiple phones with the same account, choose the one that got lost. It will show you details regarding battery life and when it was last online.
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Google will simultaneously show an approximate location of the handset on the map. If your phone can’t be found, you’ll see its last known location, if available.
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If the phone is located close by and you know the place, you can go to the location and then select the Play Sound option to make your phone ring for five minutes non-stop, even if set on silent.
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If the phone is located in an unknown area, readers are cautioned not to try to recover their Android phone themselves, and instead contact law enforcement – who may request the serial number or IMEI code. Here’s how to find the serial number of your phone.
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If you wish to lock the screen, select the Secure Device option. This will let you lock your phone and sign out of your Google account. You can even display a message and phone number on the lock screen for the finder to get in touch if they discover the phone before you. If you don’t have a lock, you can even set one through this option.
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You can also choose to select the third option – Erase Device. It permanently deletes all data on your phone and after you erase, Find My Device won’t work on the phone. If your phone is offline, erasing will begin when it next comes online. This will prevent miscreants from accessing any data on your phone.
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“At Xbox, we believe that with better tools, creators can make even more extraordinary games,” Haiyan Zhang, GM, Xbox Gaming AI, said in a blog post. “This partnership will bring together: Inworld’s expertise in working with generative AI models for character development, Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud-based AI solutions including Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Research’s technical insights into the future of play, and Team Xbox’s strengths in revolutionizing accessible and responsible creator tools for all developers.”
The aforementioned AI design copilot is a toolset that will help game designers turn prompts into scripts and dialogue trees. In contrast, the character runtime will enable dynamically generated plot beats and quests. We’ve already seen heavy AI integration in games by way of procedural generation — a more recent example being the 1000+ planets in Starfield. Not to mention, enemy AI has been around for way longer.
Inworld made headlines in August when it launched a modded story mode for Grand Theft Auto V, Sentient Streets, in which players had to investigate the rise of a bizarre AI-worshipping cult — a segment loaded with characters that spoke in AI-generated dialogue, on the fly. The mod was later taken down by publisher Take-Two, leaving a permanent strike on the creator Bloc’s YouTube channel. As per The Verge, Inworld’s AI technology can also be used for narration in top-down RPGs to warn players about any events awaiting off-screen and respond to questions like we’ve seen in the past year with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat. Microsoft has also been heavily banking on artificial intelligence, having made a $10 billion (about Rs. 83,254 crore) investment in OpenAI. The company has also integrated AI tools into its popular suite of services and also added an AI copilot to Windows.
Despite being a Microsoft-affiliated AI toolset, it would be interesting to see whether titles using them will be allowed to thrive on other platforms. In July, Valve claimed that it would be cracking down on games that included AI-generated assets if the developer didn’t own the copyright to the piece of art. For the uninitiated, when you insert a prompt to create something in AI, the software simply repurposes existing assets found online and mushes them together — basically stealing from other artists and writers without appropriate commercial licenses. Infringing them would lead to the game not being distributed on Steam, forcing the developers to seek proper licenses for the asset by reaching out to the AI companies involved. It’s unclear how Microsoft’s partnership will play out — as long as AI content is being used as a catalyst to innovate and create something new, it should be fine.
In a post on X shared by BSNL’s Andhra Pradesh (@bsnl_ap_circle) unit, the company confirmed that BSNL users can upgrade their older 2G or 3G SIMs to a 4G SIM for free. Not only will the upgrade be free, but a promotional image shared with the post suggests that users who opt for the upgrade will also receive 4GB of free data that will be valid for three months. It is speculated that BSNL is aiming to boost its upcoming 4G services with this offer. The announcement was first spotted by Telecom Talk.
To access the free data offer and the free upgrade, BSNL users are requested to get in touch with executives at BSNL’s Customer Service Centre, franchisee or retailer stores, or contact one of their Direct Selling Agents (DSA). The promo image also adds in a finer print that the offer is available with certain terms and conditions, but hasn’t detailed any, so far.
Reliance’s Jio recently launched the 4G-supported Bharat B1 feature phone in India. The handset is priced at Rs. 1,299 in India. Alongside 4G connectivity, the phone comes with JioCinema and JioSaavn applications pre-installed.
The Jio Bharat B1 is equipped with the JioPay application, which is said to allow users to make UPI payments. Aiming to increase accessibility, the phone supports 23 languages overall, including multiple regional languages.
Realme, via Weibo, announced the arrival of the Realme GT 5 Pro in China. The display of the handset is confirmed to offer 3000 nits peak brightness. It has also been teased to offer heat dissipation with a surface area of around 10,000mm2. It is confirmed to ship with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The post doesn’t specify the exact launch date of the smartphone, however, given the release of the teasers, the launch could be just around the corner.
The Realme GT 5 Pro has been in the news a lot lately. It is expected to feature a 6.78-inch (1,264×2,780 pixels) AMOLED display and is tipped to come in 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB RAM options along with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB inbuilt storage options.
For optics, the Realme GT 5 Pro is said to have a triple rear camera unit comprising two 50-megapixel sensors and an 8-megapixel shooter at the rear. The camera setup might include a Sony LYTIA LYT808 sensor, an OmniVision OV08D10 secondary sensor, and a Sony IMX890 telephoto sensor. For selfies, there could be a 32-megapixel sensor at the front. It is said to carry a 5,400mAh battery with support for 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
The Realme GT 5 Pro is expected to come with upgrades over Realme GT 5. The latter was launched in China in August with a price tag of CNY 2,999 for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
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