Hundreds of iPads are being stored by airlines in America because travellers forget to pick them up on their way out of the plane on their journey home.
Airport staff are facing problems with reuniting these lost devices with their owners because they are so difficult to identify from the outside. Some airlines are even giving tablet computers away to charities if no one comes to collect them after 30 days. Others estimate that half of the iPads they store go unclaimed.
Many travellers do not bother to contact the airlines at all because they do not believe that they will ever be able to retrieve their lost device.
Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said: “A bare iPad without any identifying feature is difficult for us [to send back to the owner].”
The ‘Find My iPad’ tracking app is one tool that tablet owners can use to track their iPad down if it ever goes missing. They can also send a message to the device so that anyone who powers it up can read who it belongs to and access their contact details. However, the tablet needs to be turned on for this option to function and most lost iPads remain locked up in a closed warehouse.
Experts suggest that owners should get their information engraved on the back or tape their business card somewhere on the surface so they can be contacted promptly in case of loss. A brightly coloured case can be helpful too as well as storing sensitive data on a cloud based platform like Apple’s iCloud instead of storing it on the device itself.
