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

I'd like a means to deactivate the device

[mrmeval]

when I'm not near it. RFID?

Re:I'd like a means to deactivate the device

[ScrewMaster]

A small remote-controlled explosive charge would do the trick, just enough to remove the skin from the offender's hand and maybe break a few fingers. And, if he happens to have the thing in his pocket at the time, if nothing else he'll have trouble reproducing, which will help keep the population of phone thieves down.

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

[AusIV]

I put my money on the non-respectable thieves. I have a laptop that I take every where with me. I keep it close, and I have a lock for it when I leave it unattended (usually just in my apartment). But on the off chance that it ever gets stolen, I also have a daemon installed that will register it's IP address with a remote server as soon as it finds it has a new IP address. While I hope it never comes down to it, I suspect it would be much easier to track down my laptop if it ever got stolen than it would be if I weren't running that daemon.

A "respectable thief" would boot with a Live CD to collect my personal information before formatting the drive, but a typical thief would more likely just boot it up.

Like I say, I keep my laptop close, and lock it up when I can't, but I feel a bit more secure knowing my laptop phones home.

Ooops

[also-rr]

I seem to have lost my gadget for finding lost or stolen gadgets. I wonder where I left it? All I need to do is find my gadget for finding lost or stolen gadgets and then...

Ack.

Eh no

[Colin Smith]

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

Re:Eh no

[kestasjk]

Enter the iPhone

I'm sorry but....

[JamesRose]

You're clearly just compensating for having a massive penis

Bluetooth

[nanosquid]

There are various Bluetooth presence software add-ons that will lock your laptop, cell phone, PDA, etc. when it's out of range.

Car alarm for your MacBook

[floki]

iAlertU is definitely the coolest way to keep your MacBook (Pro) from being stolen. You can turn it on with your remote control like you do with your car keys. It even features the familiar car locking and unlocking sound. When someone grabs your notebook the fall sensor normally used to shut down your hard disk when a fall is detected activates, the screen starts flashing and an alarm siren goes off. It even snaps a photo of the thief with the built-in iSight webcam and emails it to a predefined address.

Be sure to check out the YouTube video of the software in action. It really made me laugh just because of the sounds. Can't wait to try that out in my university library :-)

This is a stickup !

[Joebert]

My buddy got robbed yesterday, we didn't believe him at first because he still had his wallet, but then he showed us there was nothing in the wallet & then showed us his new iPhone.