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I look forward to this feature... my brother's iPhone was just stolen and a feature like this would probably have helped denture the thief from using the device on their own.

I'm glad more eyes will be on this to ensure it does what it's supposed to do.

Just get the IMEI blocked by your operator. The phone will never work ever again.
 
Apple won't replace it if it's not under warranty, you can pay for repair but that defeats your whole plan. There's no such thing as a "paid replacement" you'd have to deal with your carrier with that.
Humm. I've had my 3G and 4S replaced for free. 3G was just over a year old when the plastic back cracked, and got my 4S replaced this week when the wi-fi died, I bought the 4S in December 2011. Didn't pay a thing, no Apple Care.

Apple only charge if you smash the screen or drop it in water.
 
Both Gascón and Schneiderman have stated that they believe Activation Lock is an inadequate theft deterrent and Gascón has urged Apple to implement a "kill switch" that would permanently disable stolen iOS devices.
Will Gascon and Schneiderman compensate owners of the phones that get disabled *permanently* by mistake? Will they then jump on another bandwagon and ask Apple make it more difficult to kill any phones to prevent user errors and pranks?

How many more people would delay activating the lock feature, afraid of bricking their phone forever, in the hope of locating their phone, giving more time for thieves to sell?

A kill switch would require a way for Apple to track a phone worldwide any time it wants. Would the governments in the US and around the world promise not to abuse such tracking?
 
Clear? Easy to understand? Maybe to someone who knows about the activation lock feature. To someone who doesn't know, that message is cryptic and hard to understand.

"Sign in with the Apple ID that was used to set up this iPhone."

"But what? I haven't setup this iPhone yet! What Apple ID?"

And there is no guarantee that the current owner can recognize that the truncated email address that shows up belongs to the previous owner. Many people have multiple emails, so the email that is used for Apple ID is not necessarily the same as the one used for corresponding with other people.

There's already been cases of people posting in the iOS 7 subforum asking for help with getting past the activation lock. Believe me, once iOS 7 goes into general release, there will be a flood of threads asking for help.

So you buy an iPhone, and you can't get it to work. Do you

a) Cry
b) Contact the seller?

And I don't think Apple has ever claimed iPhones are idiot proof.
 
I'm sure a security measure such as this won't hold up for a long time before someone comes up with a way to bypass it, shouldn't be impossible to reverse engineer. No wonder security officials are hesitant about giving it their approval (and they won't) even after the test turns out successful they simply cannot control the technology that'll bypass the Activation Lock feature when released.

How many thieves are gonna see a potential to steal an iphone and think to themselves, NONE. they'll just steal the device anyway and determine if it's useful later when the damage is already done.

You are missing the point a little. Once it becomes a known fact that Apple iPhones have this feature the theft of them will not be as popular. It will take a few years to really work due to older devices and folks not updating to the latest iOS but going forward once word is out that there is no market for stolen iOS devices the theft will go WAY down. If there is no market for stolen Widget's then Widget's are not stolen. Simple.

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How to bypass.
1. Steal phone.
2. Damage phone enough that it will not turn on.
3. Get a paid replacement from Apple.
4. Sell replacement for more than you paid for it.

Um so how can you sell a "paid replacement from Apple" for more than Apple will sell the "paid replacement " to the other person?
 
All I want is a self destruct button on icloud.com if my iPhone gets stolen. Nothings better than my iPhone 5 blowing up in a thief's pocket.. :rolleyes:

In every civilised place in the world that would be classified as assault, with a jail sentence.

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Um so how can you sell a "paid replacement from Apple" for more than Apple will sell the "paid replacement " to the other person?

Here's an idea: You go with to the Apple Store with your broken phone. You hand over the money. Apple employee types the serial number into his computer, which shows there is a lock. Apple employee hands over a new phone, with the same lock applied.
 
Here is where you can find the prices. www.apple.com/support/service/
The current price for iPhone 5 is $229. Do you think you could sell an iPhone 5 for more than that? It comes with 90 days warranty OR the original phones warranty, whichever is longer. The replacement is (by law) indistinguishable from a new one. Don't forget ipads and ipods too.
 
So you buy an iPhone, and you can't get it to work. Do you

a) Cry
b) Contact the seller?

And I don't think Apple has ever claimed iPhones are idiot proof.

There will always be some people who do A first, and even if they have the sense to do B first, what if the original owner has no clue, either? What if it's hugely inconvenient for the two to meet up again so the original owner can enter the password? As I already asked in an earlier post, is the original owner supposed to give his password to the new owner? And then have to change the password?
 
Here is where you can find the prices. www.apple.com/support/service/
The current price for iPhone 5 is $229. Do you think you could sell an iPhone 5 for more than that? It comes with 90 days warranty OR the original phones warranty, whichever is longer. The replacement is (by law) indistinguishable from a new one. Don't forget ipads and ipods too.
Of course you can sell an iphone 5 for more than $229. You'll get $500 at minimum.
 
AppleCare+ is an (extended) warranty. If you have that, then it is under warranty.

In any event, I think officially you can't do 'paid replacements', but In the past I've heard of it happening. I recall from memory reading not too long ago that is a practice they were trying to stamp out.

Yup. I misunderstood "paid replacement." :-(

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AppleCare is tied to a serial#. You cant just walk in with a random phone and get a replacement.

I think we were talking about this scam scenario:

1. Buy an iPhone and AppleCare+ ($99).
2. Damage it enough that it has to be replaced ($49 per replacement iPhone).
3. Sell the new iPhone, without ever activating it, for a profit.

Not sure if you can simply walk out of an Apple Store with an un-activated iPhone that you got as a replacement for a damaged one. In-store activation might be mandatory (to prevent the scam.) Also, AppleCare+ is $99, plus you still need to pay a $49 service fee each time you damage your iPhone enough that it can't be repaired. (You're entitled to two replacement phones over two years under AppleCare+.)
 
Just put iphone on DFU and restore to default. Everything will be wipe and iphone will no longer traceable.
 
Nope, even that won't do it. I have DFU mode back to iOS6 - from iOS6 after having iOS7 on it once, and I had to enter my iCloud info.

Just wondering, when you sign in to activate the phone, do you get signed in to the rest of your iCloud stuff?
 
How to tell for sure...

If I am meeting someone in person to buy their phone, what do I need to check/do to ensure that this new lock is not in place? Before money changes hands, do I need my laptop with me to do a restore? What if they have downgraded to iOS6?

Anyone have info on this that has been trying it out?
 
Just get the IMEI blocked by your operator. The phone will never work ever again.

This is an urban myth – If it was that simple (as perhaps it should be) we wouldn’t be looking for a lock feature as being discussed. My iPhone was stolen, went to my operator to get the IMEI number blocked – Sorry Sir, you have to go to the police for this. Go to the police file a police report and request IMEI block, sorry Sir we don’t do that only the operator can! Back to the operator with my police report, No Sir we can’t do that.

As far as I’m aware IMEI blocking is region / continent specific, will not work if the phone is exported to other continents.
 
If I am meeting someone in person to buy their phone, what do I need to check/do to ensure that this new lock is not in place? Before money changes hands, do I need my laptop with me to do a restore? What if they have downgraded to iOS6?

Anyone have info on this that has been trying it out?

Just make sure you can setup the phone. If this lock is in place, you won't be able to get to the setup screen, instead you'd see a message asking for a password.

If the phone has already been setup, go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. This should wipe the device and bring you to the setup screen.
 
In the cities around me, phone repair shops buy busted/broken iPhone 4's and above for $10 to $30, depending on what parts are still usable. I learned this the hard way when I tried to sell my iPhone4 that seemed to have a busted LCD (it rings and can receive calls, but the LCD stays dead - they wanted to buy it for $15!).

Now when customers come to their shop needing a camera replacement, or home button, or LCD replacement, etc., they cannibalize the busted iPhones, and for things like a camera+flash replacement, charge the customer $25 or more for parts+labor.

I wonder which parts of the iPhone will no longer be usable once it gets reported as stolen. My guess is that it will just be the main board, meaning all the other modules will still be usable for parts.

This basically means that thieves will still be able to sell their stolen goods, but only after taking them apart and selling the parts.
 
^^^ I disagree. Parts are worth nothing because iPhones are difficult to take apart and labour is expense. Check out ebay, the only expensive part is the main board, which will be disabled by the activation lock. Most other parts are under $10, new from China.

Thieves won't be able to rely on the little profit from stolen iPhones for parts. They'll just have to find other phones to steal, namely Androids... until they include lojack in Android by default.
 
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