Rancher Uses Apple Watch to Find iPhone 12 in a Haystack in Apple's Latest Ad

Friday July 9, 2021 6:56 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Apple today shared a new ad called "Haystack" in which a rancher uses his Apple Watch to find his iPhone 12 in a haystack. The ad plays on the "needle in a haystack" idiom and is set to the song "Searching (For Someone Like You)" by country singer Kitty Wells.

In the one-minute ad, a rancher drives down a rural street surrounded by bales of hay. He then backs up his truck off the street, walks with his dog to a large haystack, and taps on a button in the Apple Watch's Control Center to ping his iPhone, which results in the iPhone playing a sound to help pinpoint its location if misplaced nearby.

"An iPhone that's lost is easily found," says Apple. "Relax, it's iPhone + Apple Watch."

To use this feature on the Apple Watch, swipe up to open Control Center and tap the Ping iPhone button, which will make the device chime. You can also touch and hold the Ping iPhone button to make the iPhone flash as well.

Of course, if your iPhone isn't in range of your Apple Watch, you can track its location using the Find My app on another Apple device or iCloud.com.

Tag: Apple Ads

Top Rated Comments

Cam Elppa

29 months ago

When will Apple Watch be able to be use like find my with an airtag. So you get an arrow to help find your phone…

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Freida

or, you can just leave you phone in the car when you are going to do all these haystacks :)

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Johnny907

... no. I come from ranchers. You know those huge military spec cases you see in the occasional ad that are comically large, and camo? That's what every single person I know that ranches in any way shape or form has their phone wrapped up in. The only time that case comes off is the rare instance when it's removed for a scrubbing. Something you will never see anywhere near that life is an unprotected phone, because they'd last a couple hours at most on the average day.
Also: who finds their phone on the first try? I love that feature, it's saved me many a time, but the echo effect means I have to hit it 4-5 five times on average before I locate my buried phone. This dude magically finds it on his first try without even actually looking?
The whole "needle in a haystack" riff is cute and all, but this is a miss.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

threee

I don’t get it. He knew it was in the haystack. Why did he park so far away from it? Maybe to help make the commercial a bit longer?

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Devnul0

Okay, I use the beeper all the time when I misplace my iPhone in the house; however, how did the Watch in this commercial get him to the haystack in the first place? If Watch and iPhone are separated, is the Watch app "Find People" location for "Me" going to show the iPhone location (I've never tried it), or are they leaving out the part where he grabbed his iPad and opened "Find My" there?