Social Media Can Help Reunite Dogs with Owners, Get You Arrested, Find Your Husband, or Give You Free Iced Tea

I would really hate to have been in a coma the past 10 years. Not only would I have missed the show finale of Sex and the City, but I would’ve missed out on the explosion of social media and all the usefulness of it. Most of the time, social media is used for useless things, like bragging about what you had for dinner or posting endless baby pictures until everyone hates you. But sometimes, apps and social media can be used for the powers of good. Let’s check out 4 recent examples that hit the news the past week.

Find My Friends App Locates Missing Husband

Some people think that the Find My Friends app is a touch creepy. It allows you and a consenting friend to be able to locate one another’s position using the app and the GPS position from your iPhone. In Gloucestershire, UK, a woman’s husband went missing. Rather than reading Fifty Shades of Grey until he returned, she went to the police (via iPhone in Canada). The man had his iPhone with him, and the wife just happened to remember his login details for his phone, and tracked his movement using the Find My Friends app. So I guess she wasn’t authorized to track him on her phone? The man was found safely by police, and was mildly annoyed that his “lost weekend” was ruined by his wife yet again.

Twitter: Reuniting Dogs and Owners Since 2006

Deirdre Anglin lost her dog, Patch, last Tuesday evening. Patch hopped on a commuter train in Kilcock, Ireland (note: the 6 year old in me LOVES the town name). Patch ended up in Dublin an hour later. Unfortunately Patch doesn’t have an iPhone, nor the Find My Friends app. End of story? Not quite. People realized the dog’s owner wasn’t on board, and Irish Rail posted a picture of the dog to their 18,000 Twitter followers (via Digital Trends).

Deirdre was trying something similar, by posting lost dog signs around town notes on Facebook. This would make for a pretty short Disney movie, as it took only 32 minutes and 500 retweets for Deirdre to see the picture of Patch, and claim her dog. Time to get Patch a GPS chip in the collar (or build a better dog house).

Robber Skips State, Taunts Judge on Facebook, Gets Busted When Posting Baby Picture on Facebook

When will people learn that you shouldn’t brag about crimes on Facebook? Hopefully they learn about not committing crimes in the first place, actually. In Oregon, James Tindell plead guilty to robbery in 2010, and sought drug treatment rather than a jail term. For some reason, James decided to start ranting about Judge Eric J. Bloch on his Facebook page (I’m guessing they weren’t Facebook friends). Tindell then taunted his probation officer on Facebook, saying “Fresh out of another state,” “Catch me if you can,” and “I’m in Alabama,” (which doesn’t sound that threatening).

The clever probation officer, Todd Roberts, was monitoring Tindell’s Facebook page the entire time. When Tindell posted an ultrasound of his baby, Roberts used this to determine the hospital in Alabama he went to, narrowing the search area. With a national arrest warrant issued in his name, Tindell’s luck ran out when he got caught for speeding (and not “texting/updated Facebook status and driving”). Now he has 2.5 years in jail to show for his Facebook follies. Booyah! (via Digital Trends)

Vending Machine Will Give You Free Iced Tea…for a Tweet

Alternative headline: Treat for a tweet

Millar posted about the awesome Rugbeer vending machine, that needs to be tackled in order to give you a beer. A more passive companion of that vending machine would be the Bevmax 4-45 (aka “Bev”), which is a machine that will give you free iced tea if you do a tweet with a specific hashtag (via Technabob). Is there a way I can live on the streets outside this vending machine?

The machine is in Cape Town, South Africa, in Wembley Square, so the flight alone wouldn’t be worth all the free iced tea. Or would it?? Since they are looking for a plug, here it is – the iced tea is from BOS Ice Tea, and they teamed up with RAAK to make it all happen. Check out a video of it in action below.