Why would they do any more. Thefts = more sales so it is not in their interests. It's a bit like bicycles theft, the bike companies could easily keep a register of owners but why would they as they get a new sale after every theft. I might sound cynical but its not really something companies like to talk about. I was quite surprised Apple have done something on this so well done Apple
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State and City Officials to Investigate Anti-Theft Practices of Cellphone Makers Following Summit
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I've never read such a load of rubbish. Doesn't the police have better things to do like stop the gun problem in the US
True. Also, as long a somebody has something somebody else wants badly enough, that somebody will find a way to take it.
Next thing you will see on you phone bill -
Government Mandated Phone Tracking Theft Prevention Charge - Overseen by the NSA -$10.00
Government Mandated Phone Tracking Theft Prevention Charge - Overseen by the NSA -$10.00
Oh, but you could restore some hacked OS onto there? That's actually pretty good at making theft difficult even if you can get around it that way because the process would be hard and unknown to many.
Instead of investigating Apple, how about they go investigate crime rings selling black market phones? This is typical lazy law enforcement. Rather than do their jobs, and catch criminals, they complain that a company has made something criminals want to steal.
While I think it's nice when companies like Apple create security features to discourage theft, it's not their job to catch thieves. This just goes to show you, the police, the prosecutors, they won't do anything at all to protect you. They are completely ineffectual. Depend on yourself for your own safety in your person and belongings, because you're on your own. If companies offer you tools to protect yourself, use them.
Everyone should lock and encrypt their computers, keep fire extinguishers in their houses, and carry a gun. You're on your own.
While I think it's nice when companies like Apple create security features to discourage theft, it's not their job to catch thieves. This just goes to show you, the police, the prosecutors, they won't do anything at all to protect you. They are completely ineffectual. Depend on yourself for your own safety in your person and belongings, because you're on your own. If companies offer you tools to protect yourself, use them.
Everyone should lock and encrypt their computers, keep fire extinguishers in their houses, and carry a gun. You're on your own.
Theft of mobile devices is one of the fastest growing "branches" in crime these days. As others have already pointed out this does not only include theft, but although robbery where people get scared or even hurt.
It's one of the few crimes that can effectively be brought down by just applying technical mechanisms, even without hampering the citizen's privacy or at unreasonable cost. So it's good policy to fight this on systems level (preventing crime) and not by treating symptoms (catching thieves).
The black market for smartphones can easily be dried out if stolen devices are made useless remotely. This would prevent further theft or at least significantly reduce it, thus removing threat from citizens.
A good thing, I'd say.
This is an extremely obvious example of mission creep. This should be shut down immediately and the participating agencies and personnel repremanded.
Except legally the phones are still property of the phone companies while under contract. Phone companies could EASILY BLOCK phones they still technically have ownership on by IEME serial number.
Who is benifiting more, Apple who has to sell one more phone, to an upset customer at full price, or AT&T who sells 2-3 more years of phone plans and prepaid cards AND still gets to force the original owner to finish their Service Contract with a full price phone.
Scapegoating employees is ridiculous. Is the assumption that they did this for no reason or because they were bored? I don't get the idea of blaming people for doing whatever they were hired to do. If you want to blame someone, make sure it's aimed at people who push the policies in these directions rather than grunts.
solution is somewhere else
well if you remove sim card, will you be able to wipe your iphone?? I do not think so.
-Thieves will not resale the iphone, they will dismantle it. And will sell parts to services. I had a friend who had broken screen on 4g and got it repaired for 15$. how that works?? Was the new screen stolen?? How do I know?
well if you remove sim card, will you be able to wipe your iphone?? I do not think so.
-Thieves will not resale the iphone, they will dismantle it. And will sell parts to services. I had a friend who had broken screen on 4g and got it repaired for 15$. how that works?? Was the new screen stolen?? How do I know?
If a hacker gets access? If a hacker gets access to the GSM etc. systems as they are right now, he could already mess up everything beyond usability, so the 'hacker card' is not a valid argument.
You might be able to put some hacked OS on the phone, but you won't be able to activate it. A process that is "hard and unknown to many" would be pointless, because people who buy phones from thieves to sell them at a profit would be the first to learn about this "hard and unknown to many" process. As soon as you mark your phone as stolen in "Find my phone", it cannot be activated except with your AppleID and password.
Apple is not solely responsible. But they are in a position to help. People have been killed during some of these robberies. Imagine if you had a car with no door locks. Would you rather public resources be wasted catching the break ins or asking manufacturers to install locks to curb theft. Same thing here.
Can't believe the negative reactions here
Sure, I would be be happy with Apple's Anti-Theft version just as well but let's be honest: Did your parents enabled all services on their iPhone, iPad? MacRumors readers are not the average smarth phone user.
It surprises me how many reactions say: Let the police catch them. Do you have any idea how much time and money costs? (Which in the end you will pay.) Don't you think it would be so much better if the police could use their time more effectively?
Also, the comparison with car theft etc. doesn't stick. Your smarth phone is already part of a system (your car, bike, etc is not). It's a matter of writing a piece of software to implement this. This costs NOTHING compared to the insurence fees, countless hours of police work, countless jailtime that has to be paid for, frustrated smart phone owners, etc, etc.
Sure, I would be be happy with Apple's Anti-Theft version just as well but let's be honest: Did your parents enabled all services on their iPhone, iPad? MacRumors readers are not the average smarth phone user.
It surprises me how many reactions say: Let the police catch them. Do you have any idea how much time and money costs? (Which in the end you will pay.) Don't you think it would be so much better if the police could use their time more effectively?
Also, the comparison with car theft etc. doesn't stick. Your smarth phone is already part of a system (your car, bike, etc is not). It's a matter of writing a piece of software to implement this. This costs NOTHING compared to the insurence fees, countless hours of police work, countless jailtime that has to be paid for, frustrated smart phone owners, etc, etc.
Good to see some adults on this site. I'm baffled by people "stop whining" reaction.
There's a really neat jailbreak tweak that takes a photo with the front-facing camera and logs the phone's location whenever the incorrect passcode is entered from the lock screen.
That information is then emailed to the owner, so then you know exactly where your phone is, and you have a nice picture of the thief that you can take straight to the police.
Apple should build this into the OS.
That information is then emailed to the owner, so then you know exactly where your phone is, and you have a nice picture of the thief that you can take straight to the police.
Apple should build this into the OS.
I don't know for better, but I just assume that most stolen devices will be sold to someone elese, be equipped with a new SIM card and used again. A significant portion might go to the spare parts market, agreed. But still: it makes stealing them more risky and less attractive.
Activation lock actually works! Other than iOS 7 was unusable on an iPhone 4 for app testing, went through DFU mode to return to iOS 6 and what popped up first? Asking for my Apple ID eventhough I was restoring to iOS 6.
No need to turn it on, just turned on when I logged in with iCloud, with the initial setup on the unusable iOS. So lets hope they work out the bugs with the betas with the iPhone 4, but the activation lock part worked with the existing iTunes version and regardless of DFU mode, and regardless of what iOS I was loading.
Won't stop thefts, but would make it hard to sell if the buyer couldn't set it up.
No need to turn it on, just turned on when I logged in with iCloud, with the initial setup on the unusable iOS. So lets hope they work out the bugs with the betas with the iPhone 4, but the activation lock part worked with the existing iTunes version and regardless of DFU mode, and regardless of what iOS I was loading.
Won't stop thefts, but would make it hard to sell if the buyer couldn't set it up.
Wait so there is no moral responsibility on the thieves - its because it is shiny and they shouldn't make it so appealing so its the manufacturers problem?
That's more expensive.
Fixing one big problem is cheaper than fixing millions of little ones.