Recovering a Lost or Stolen Gadget

gurps_npc writes "The explosion of portable electronic devices, can really weigh you down. Carrying a pager, phone, iPod, camera, and game is quite a lot. Worse, it gives you many more such things to misplace or get stolen. This CNN story discusses some of the retrieval services that help you keep what belongs to you. I particularly like the first one, about a new Singapore-based software that when you download it to your phone, messages everyone in your phone's database whenever a new chip with a new phone number is installed in the phone. This makes it very hard for someone to steal your phone as all your friends get their new phone number."

Comments

Software solutions won't do it

[dalmiroy2k]

Software solutions/Dial home won't do it. Any respectable thief will instantly power off the device, put it in a metal briefcase, then when he is in a secure location will format/restore to default the stolen device in a matter of minutes and then sell it to the black market.

Re:Software solutions won't do it

[morari]

I somehow doubt that guys walking around randomly stealing cell phones on the street are "respectable thieves". More likely they're of average or below average intellect and are doing the occasional, petty crime purely for their direct, personal, immediate benefit with no grander thoughts whatsoever.

Re:Software solutions won't do it

[billcopc]

You and I may be clever and technically-inclined, but we are not thieves. The petty thief is no smarter than the average inbred. If they had any brains they'd be putting their efforts into the far more profitable field of white-collar crime. Why risk a criminal record and possible jail time for a small electronic gadget that's hardly worth anything in the used market ? Used phones have little value because they're crappy little taiwanese gadgets that simply aren't built to last.

I consider myself lucky if I can manage to sell off my used phone for 25 bucks, because in most cases the phone was "free" to me in the first place, as in "I bitched at the company and they comped me a free phone". It would be different if telecoms gave you a discount for using your own phone, but they don't. It costs the same thing whether you take the new free phone or not.

Eh no

[Colin Smith]

You give the thieves far too much credit. Your average thief is even dumber than your average person.