This post is a bit specialized—to iOS—by Irreal standards but it’s so useful to those who have an iPhone that I’m going to write about it anyway. I’m not sure if this is new or has been in iOS for a while but it turns our that the iPhone has a builtin flight tracker.
Everything I know about it is in the above post so you should definitely take a look at that but the TL;DR is that you can enter a flight number into the Safari or Spotlight search bar and get all the information about the flight that a dedicated App will typically provide. It also works if you click on a flight number in a text.
This is really nice. Like most of you, I haven’t done much traveling in the past two years but it’s nice to know I can track any flight I’m on or that a family member or friend is on. It’s perfect for knowing when to leave for the airport.
It’s actually easier to use than my dedicated app, which requires me to add a bunch of information before it will tell me about a flight. All I have to do here is enter the flight number. Take a look at the post for the details.
This isn’t about iPhone triumphalism—I’m sure Android has something similar—but rather a celebration of how much easier our digital age makes our lives. Just consider this app. You don’t have to download or buy anything or plan ahead. All you have to do is enter a flight number and you get all the information. Splendid!
Added before publication
Here’s a tweet that makes the same point:
Just ordered curbside pickup at Walmart Reno from my smartphone—this is the last 100 yards in a supply chain stretching across the globe—and someone in a vest with a radio put it in my trunk minutes later. This will never not be amazing.
— Antonio García Martínez (agm.eth) 🇺🇦 (@antoniogm) May 29, 2022