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iPod: This Season's Must-Have for Muggers
KH writes "West Midlands police have issued a stark warning to iPod users: ditch the white headphones or pay the price." Apparently, muggers recognize the headphones and target passersby for muggage.
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couldn't apple help with this? like register the unit's id, and everytime it tries to sync to i-Tunes, it checks a global database or something...
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
Of all the nice design aspects of the iPod, as far as Apple are concerned those distinctive white headphones have to the best. Portable devices need to be small, discrete, and easy to slip into a pocket, so you never really see them. Is that person with the headphones on listening to a Rio player? iRiver perhaps? Maybe Neuros? Or just a discman stuck in their bag? But you know damn well when you see someone listening to an iPod.
I'm surprised the others player manufacturers never cottoned on to this one: get the customers to do your advertising for you!
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
This reminds me of what my mother used to say:
Be careful of how hard you try to get attention, you may not garner the type you intended.
I don't really understand the need to use the stock headphones anyway. Is using the white ones meant to be like a staus symbol? Sure they sound better than most earbuds that come with CD/MP3 players, but there are much better one's to be had, provided that you don't mind paying a little bit for them. In fact, I've yet to take the white ones out of package they came in.
oh, it's better to get stabbed over a piece of perfectly-replaceable machinery?
The police should have issued this warning... Don't worry about flashing hundred dollar bills, or flashing your credit cards, or wearing flashy gold jewellery because it has become evident that muggers will only attack you if you have an Ipod.
Wake up!!!
My advice is don't talk to muggers
I bought my 5gb iPod the day Jobs announced them. My only complaint was the poor quality of the buds.
Replaced them with Sony MDR-E888 the day after, which sound incredible.
I bought my iPod because I love music, not as a "fashion accessory."
"The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
Given that answer I'd say he DOES live in NY, and is probably aching to just have the guy armed with a knife mug him as opposed to the usual gun.. (Or he's got a CCW permit..)
Mod +5 Drunk
As much as MP3 jukeboxes and digital cameras keep getting smaller, they keep becoming better targets for thieves. Someone walking down the street with a 20 GB iPod, a Palm Tungsten C and a Minolta dImage is carrying about $1000 (US) in potential swag. That makes a car stereo system look like chump change. Sure, the fence would have to sell the items without accessories, but you can usually get those for a fraction of the cost of the item.
Now will someone please mod me Insightful.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Not saying that muggers aren't criminals and shouldn't be punished, but give me a break. I'm a Texan, and I find that a little harsh.
It's as if they tied me up for 30 hours.
Now, now, now, you were on to making a good point, and then you had to go get hysterical. No, it is not like they "tied you up for 30 hours." Yes, it sucks, but no, it is not false imprisonment.
Plus, chances are, you didn't actually WORK those 30 hours, but merely 15, and spent the other 15 reading slashdot, which is actually theft from your employer, so maybe he should kill YOU!
On second thought, why not just get it over with, and go for the gusto. Call it 'terrorism'.
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
All I have to say is, have fun circumventing the serial number protection. Someone buying a stolen iPod is in for a suprise.
postmodernsideshow.com
You've obviously never been mugged. It's not something to look forward to.
God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
I'll be damned if this isn't true. Prior to Apple introducing the White in-ear headphones, iPod users were buying Japanese imported Sony MDR-EX71SL headphones at really high premiums just so they didn't have to wear the black variety which is available in the states.
White headphones are like a status symbol now. I'm not sure if it's sad or funny.
(Full Disclosure: iPod + white headphones managed to brainwash me also)
I think that repeat theifs should be killed. They aren't stealing just property but really they are stealing a part of their victim's life. Say it takes me 30 hours to earn the money for the iPod, if I get mugged and they steal my iPod, they just stole 30 hours of my life. It's as if they tied me up for 30 hours. I just think that people who steal life from others should have their life taken away from them.
Well once they've stolen you're Ipod surely they've effectively got an illegal copy of thousands of RIAA protected songs and under a secret clause of the PIRATE act anyone under suspicion of violating intellectual property can be killed without trial so you might get your wish
In Soviet Russia Slashdot cliches use you
you're blaming the company?!
first you should blame the muggers.
then maybe you should blame people who have flashy things in questionable surroundings.
*last* should be the company. Are you going to blame every luxury product manufacturer? And then every manufacturer of anything of value? "Apparently McDonalds would rather see their customers mugged than produce Big Macs made out of radioactive dirt? (because someone might try to steal clean dirt)"
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
This is why this happens in the UK and not in America. You see us free Americans have a right to carry guns, lots of em, thats why muggings dont happen in America.
And the thing you don't realize is this also means the muggers have guns. And guess what? Having a gun is useless when a mugger pulls one on you first. Do you think he's just going to sit there and let you pull out your gun? In fact, at the end of it all, you'll probably be out an iPod AND a gun.
Either way, isn't it still illegal to carry around a gun? I thought you could have them in your houses, but that was it.. ?
Speak before you think
let me get this straight: you're advocating that a big company track your movements using what amounts to spyware in the product that they sold you? They told me this part of Slashdot was different, but i didn't think it was this different ;)
#!/usr/bin/english
Hmm.. so you would consider killing someone rather than lose a couple of hundred dollars worth of electronics? I think I prefer the sound of the West Midlands...
I never take the iPod out because I feel like an asshole for wearing the white headphones. I feel like I'm advertising for apple and showing off my expensive nerd toy. I've been planning to get new headphones, and this is another good reason to get a pair.
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
...I carry an iPod and also an H&K USP .40, fuck with my iPod and you're going to have some extra holes in your ass. Oh, sorry, I forgot you can't own guns like that in England, my bad :-/
-- Is it a right to remain ignorant? -- Calvin
Yea great solution. Killing someone to protect to a $300 piece of silicon is a great idea. Really worth it. Why don't we add rocket launchers to our cars so we can blow up anyone who cuts us off while we are at it.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Right now, the muggers see "white" and think "iPod". What do you think when you see purple headphones? I think "teenager with a $15 CD walkman."
There won't be enough people switching to not-white headphones to change muggers' general perceptions of iPods, I'll bet.
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
And the thing you don't realize is this also means the muggers have guns.
As opposed to places like the UK, where the muggers are the only ones who have the guns (because they don't care about the law in the first place, or they wouldn't be muggers) and people in the UK are prohibited by law from defending themselves, lest they find themselves facing charges far more serious than would a mugger.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
I carry a concelead handgun. Should someone attempt to mug me they would be quite sorry.
..." when the subject of crime or physical danger comes up. Sometimes it's mace or pepper spray, and I ask to see it. It gives them something to think about when I then spray myself with it and am obviously not incapacitated, because more often than not, they've never actually practiced with it and they don't have a plan B. Similar situation with guns.
What I'm hearing you say is that if I decided to mug you, I would walk away with both an iPod and a handgun.
For most people, carried weapons do little more than provide them with a false sense of security. It's not uncommon for people without a lot of actual experience to mention "I have a
A lot of people who carry handguns assume that things are simple - just point a gun at someone, and you're in control and that's the end of it. It's not that simple, especially when the person you want to control is standing right next to you and is watching very closely to see how you're about to react. The likelihood of you being able to pull a gun out and have everything happen as you would like is almost nil. Even people with a lot of training and who think about that stuff on an ongoing basis as part of their jobs get killed with their own weapons.
Think safety. Be aware of your surroundings and think in terms of deescalation of a situation. If you're threatened with physical violence and your instincts tell you that the perp will calm down and go away if you give up the goods, don't discount that as a viable option. Have a plan B, plan C, a plan D. If you think "I've got a gun." and don't think much beyond that point, then I just hope you never even have to deal with it.
Which apparently has just ceased to be.
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
By all means, engrave your address on it. That way when you get mugged, the vicious criminal knows where to go for more high priced consumer electronics. Why not just write down the serial number?
Si vis pacem, para bellum
The only thing more annoying than a Libertarian is an (un|mis)informed Libertarian
Move somewhere peaceful. Support your local police.
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
I've been mugged 3 times. At no point was my life in danger at any point. Had guns been involved, it could very easily have been different. As the old saying, the absolute surest way of getting yourself shot is to carry a gun.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
Uh, the number of people killed in the UK by guns last year was a little over 100. That's for a country with a population of about 60 million. Now compare that to the US, with a population of about 5 times that. How many Americans were shot and killed last year? 10,000? 15,000? More? It sure the hell wasn't 500 or so, was it?
The idea that gun-related crime is "going thru the roof" in the UK is a fallacy. For one thing, the very definition of a gun-related crime in the UK is much looser than it is in the US. In the UK, any crime where a gun is believed to have been used is classified as gun-related, which means if you were to hold up a bank with an imitation firearm, a banana or even two fingers in your pocket it would go down on the books as a gun-related crime.
So, comparing US and UK gun crime figures isn't as straightforward as you would like to think. Even if you did assume you were comparing apples and apples, rather than apples and oranges, you'd still find that gun crime in the UK is virtually unheard of compared to the US.
Bottom line is this: you are far more likely to be the victim of a gun crime in the US than in the UK or almost any other society in the Western world.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
While this wouldn't the the first time Apple products were targeted by theives, it has the funny sound of geurrilla marketing by Dell or some other competitor. "Yeah, we'll spread a rumor that their product causes cancer! No, they wont buy that. I know, muggers, no NY City muggers will come to your town and kill you for your iPod."
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
Having a gun is useless when a mugger pulls one on you first.
Not necessarily. If he doesn't know you have one, you give him the money, and then shoot him in the back as he's leaving.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Anyway, the people with IPODs are no being mugged becuase of the IPOD. They are being mugged because of what the IPOD signifies. Someone who has an IPOD probably access to disposable cash and so make a richer target then other people. Also since this person is the kind of person to get an IPOD they are also less likely to put up a fight (ok I just made that up)
Anyway, the point is that Muggers are using IPODS for selection of their targets *and* they get a cool IPOD to boot
I would like to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks
Sigs are dangerous coy things
Ditch the white earphones, period. If you're going to spend a few hundred bucks on a portable music player you may as well spend a bit more to actually be able to experience the full sound quality the iPod is able to provide. My recommendation: Etymotic ER-4P. Anyone who's heard them plugged into an iPod will see that the original white earphones are laughably bad in comparison and do not do the iPod justice. It's like a night & day difference. The etymotics just sound so much clearer, crisper and better in every way...
They finally have some basis for what they have been saying this entire time. Someone is really stealing music now.
Teach someone to use the net and they won't bother you for weeks; show them Slashdot and you may never see them again.
Anyone who exposes themselves as a target deserve what they get. Wearing jewelry or expensive watches or expensive shoes or driving expensive cars in many areas is just a big problem waiting to happen. People who don't believe this are naive. There are a lot of desperate people out there, and it is always best they victimize someone else.
Vote in November. You won't regret it.
Hmph. I thought Patrick Leahy and Orin Hatch were the paid thugs.
Call (206) 338-5780 COLLECT for information about a genuine BA, BS, MA, MS, MBA, or Ph.D.
Actually, the warning in the article sounds like common sense. We live in a culture of capital--of possessions and class with who owns what determined by disposable income.
Apple certainly understands this which is why they introduce iPod models by threes, differentiated only by the size of the harddrive. It lets you say, 'look! I spent more money. Mine is bigger!'
Like it or not, the iPod is a device which announces that its owner has spent at least U.S. $300 on something easily stolen and eminently desireable. If you want to understand what that white cord looks like to a thief, imagine going to a bank and getting three fat stacks of singles, and then taping them to your chest with a post-it attached that says, 'Hi, you don't have this!'
It just makes sense.
To mail me, remove the 'mailno' from my email addy.
"Yeah. It smells, too..."
LOL :-)
The $500'000 question is: Are the modders having fun with these mods, or are they just brainless zombies?
You know what? Let's ask the moderators!
For zombies, please mod me redundant
For having fun, please mod me insighfull
No, the grandparent is right on point, too. The problem is that there isn't an accurate mainstream picture being painted that describes how all of these issues weigh against each other.
If you had to go on gut instinct and guess how many "family accidents" happen due to having guns in the house, you would be way off due to the media bias given to these horrible events. The actual percentage of these accidents when compared to all gun-related injuries and deaths is really quite low.
Similarly, cases where concealed weapons have prevented crime are almost universally unreported. If you are an attempted mugging victim, but you don't have a concealed weapon permit, are you really going to call the police about it when you yourself are the only one likely to get in trouble?
Our founding fathers agreed that the second amendment was not a provision for militia, but truly the right for American citizens to protect themselves. There are good arguments for Bill of Rights limitations (e.g. "fire" in a crowded theatre as a limitation of free speech), but the gun control lobby and the NRA are clouding the picture with noise.
---- Just another spud server.
But really the overall point of the article is just banal -- crooks are not just out looking for iPods; they'll likely settle for any relatively expensive item that is small, easy to carry/conceal, and easy to pawn. I had an ipod stolen once (at aiport security at LAX) because I wasn't paying attention to it (yes, this is moronic on my part, but I didn't think about the fact that airport security might rip me off, so I didn't notice it missing until I was mid-flight). But I don't think the crooks were just gunning for my ipod; I think any expensive small item I had would have satisfied them.
Heh: there's just one problem about sending such messages in a volatile society, especially when you can't hear what's going on around you. The distance from preening signifier to damn easy pickings is much shorter than many realize.
Put these ingredients together--frontin' hipsters oblivious to their environment, the anger and hunger of the street, and the value of the iPod both as tech and music motherload--and it's probably poised to replace car stereos as the quickest score a thief can make.
Commercial farm fences may cycle, but I've seen some highly jury-rigged electric fences in my brief experiences in the boondocks. It's possible the poster is correct and the designers of said electrical fence were not wise enough to include said cycling feature.
I'm the last person to promote use of lethal force for protection of property. However, you're not understanding the nature behind the argument I feel.
A mugging is a violent act. In normal thinking parts of this world (IMHO) it's prefectly legal to respond to a lethal threat of violence with lethal force.
If I walk up to you, 10 feet away, and demand that you tell me you like me while pulling a gun on you to insure compliance I have put your life in danger. The level of my demands does not in any way, shape, or form effect the perceived threat level to your own person. It shouldn't at least. I don't care if somebody demands a stick of gum or my car -- if they pull a weapon my life is in danger and I not only have the natural right, but often the legal right, to respond with deadly force to neutralize the threat.
The wording of your reponse, "Killing someone to protect", just screams to me that you do not have any background in such areas. You do not shoot to kill, ever, you shoot to stop. A very small caliber round will kill a human being if given enough time. That is not the goal. The goal is to deliver a massive amount of trauma to their body to immediately stop all action on their part. That does not mean that you're trying to kill them. People shoot center of mass not because it's deadly, but because it's likely to stop the person. A shot to the upper thigh (if you hit a major artery) is horribly fatal despite what you see in the movies, however it's unlikely to IMMEDIATELY stop the attacker. Stopping is the goal, not killing.
I wouldn't shoot somebody over $300 dollars. I wouldn't shoot sommebody for any sum of money. The whole situation turns though once the perp presents the threat of deadly force.
Out for a late night walk, with my idiot self packing $500 in cash for no good reason, a couple of young thugs who had bicycles stowed away in a nearby yard came out to "greet" me.
The oldest one started by punching the back of my head REALLY hard -- I saw a flash of blue light. The other younger ones started laying into my back, while the oldest one had taken out a nice sharp razor and drew a long (shallow) cut down along by back, tearing my flesh, along with my treasured Debian polo shirt.
I don't remember which one managed to get me on the ground, but once I was down, the kicking began. I was kicked all over my body, in my face, back of my head, everywhere. I was begging for them to stop long enough so I could just get my money out and hand it over to them. I managed to get my wallet out and threw the cash on the ground. They snatched it up, jumped on their bikes and rode off, leaving me in a bloody mess on the road side.
Even as the cars drove by, no one stopped to help, so I had to walk the rest of the way home to treat my wounds. I immediately called the police who nabbed the boys within 15 minutes. The younger ones were given house arrest, probation, and community service. They were 12-17. The oldest one, the 18 year old who incited the rest of them, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and a few more charges. He was given 3 years. Yeah, a couple of kids doesn't sound like much to fight, but when there's five of them against one of you, and you know there's at least one weapon, you don't even try to fight back unless you want to die.
The police got my money back, and ThinkGeek even replaced my Debian shirt for free, but to this day I still carry a subconscious fear of walking around even safe neighborhoods in daylight, and no matter how hard I try to fight it off, when I'm out and see a group of 5 black teenage boys together, my muscles tighten up just a bit more than normal.
No, you definitely do not want to be mugged. This happened to me over 3 years ago and I'm still shaking off the fear.
Why would it be illegal for me to built a tracking device I put on my property?
Sure, you could do illegal things with it, but I can do illegal things with a screwdriver. Or my penis. Or both. Simultaneously.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
So radio tags are bad because they track peoples' habits. Product activation is bad because it ties a product to a specific user. Global databases are bad because it's a violation of your privacy. However, when we are talking about your $300 iPod, then it's all good?
DISCLAIMER: the logic in this post is based on my opinions.
Answer: Yes, because the intended purpose would be for something the customer wants as opposed to what Big Brother would want. Chances are it would be an opt-in type thing if it was for the customers, and if it wasn't, THEN it would be a bad thing. However, Apple knows how to treat its customers and chances are they wouldn't intstitute anything like that.
The difference with MS is that noone trusts them and chances are they'd force registering on all of their users if they were to kick something like that into gear.
You know, I'd really rather not kill someone. That's the sort of thing you'd have to deal with for the rest of your life. I'm pretty jaded, but I'd like to think that it would bother me a lot to take someone's life.
Which is not to say that I wouldn't do it (or try to) if the need arised, I'd just like to avoid it.
Anyone have a statistic on what percentage of armed robberies involve actual shooting/stabbing? And what percentage of those where it was because the victim resisted? I'll agree that you don't give in to a rapist, but if it's just property, give it up.
Another question would be, do these robbers understand how to control a victim? If I rob you, you will not be able to pull a gun on me. I'll make sure you don't get the opportunity. If you try to do something, I'll use my weapon first. If you pull a gun, you'll probably die. As long as you behave and don't threaten me, I'm content just to wave my weapon at you.
So, nonlethal weapons, assuming they disable the attacker, solve two problems: They leave the guy alive, and they don't escalate the situation as much. He's less likely to kill you if he doesn't think you can kill him, especially if he doesn't even recognize the weapon.
And when the detectives show up at your door, how do you explain why you shot someone, then went home and didn't report it? If you were an innocent victim, you'd call the police, right?
In all seriousness, I'd love a chance to really try out a tazer, even if it involved getting mugged. Really. "Give me your--" *bzzt* *thud* "AWESOME!"
Except a mugging usually involves a gang of atleast 3 people who surround you and put a knife across your throat before you know what's happened.
Wanted : A Signature.
Even when handguns were legal, hardly anyone had them. Shotguns are legal with a license, and of the hundreds of people I know, I can think of 2 people I know who own a shotgun. The first uses his for clay pigeon shooting, the second for his part time job as a vermin exterminator. Hardly anyone has them for protection.
As for the shooting, it's a particular type of shooting - target shooting with handguns. I don't know if you can still own something like a .22 or a .303 for target shooting, but a shotgun isn't really good for shooting.
For your information, I'm not a "gun nut". I don't shoot, and haven't since I was about 16. I'm not even interested in it. I just take the view that I have certain innocent pleasures in my life that I'd hate for someone to take away, so I'm willing to spend time defending other people's rights to their innocent pleasures.
I know, let's ban alcohol and restrict cars to 10mph. No-one will get hurt then.
Guns make society safer? I don't think so.
Absolutely they do. If gun ownership were outlawed, period, do you think that violent criminals are going to respect this law? of course not!
Outlawing guns would be the worst thing that could possibly happen. All the criminals who wanted a gun to commit a crime would still have one, and all the law abiding citizens would be easy, unarmed targets.
Gun ownership discourages violent crime.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.