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."

So...

[Tuoqui (1091447)]

what is stopping anyone from deleting all the friends in the phone's list before they switch the chip? Or as I thought, doesn't the chip hold all that information on it (at least for SIM cards)

Re:

[EggyToast (858951)]

Agreed -- not everyone steals a phone in order to "claim it," but rather to use it for some deals or whatever, then strip the chip out if they figure it's sellable. Plenty of time for them to simply wipe the memory of the thing.

However, not all people store contacts to the SIM card. I know I've always stored contacts on the phone itself, mostly so I can assign home/work/cell icons to classify people AND use the phone's speed dial w/o needing to press 4 digits. Pressing #1 is a lot easier than #6122. A

I'd like a means to deactivate the device

[mrmeval (662166)]

when I'm not near it. RFID?

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

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

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.

Re:

[TheRaven64 (641858)]

The approach to combating mobile phone theft in the UK that seems to have worked the best is for each phone to have a unique code that can be transmitted to disable it. When a phone is stolen, you call up the network and they permanently disable the phone. A thief needs to make sure they sell the phone before the original owner notices it's missing, to someone who doesn't realise it's stolen. No one who suspects it's stolen will pay, since they know it will turn into a brick as soon as the original owner

Bluetooth

[nanosquid (1074949)]

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

Software solutions won't do it

[dalmiroy2k (768278)]

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 (1080535)]

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.

Eh no

[Colin Smith (2679)]

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

 

Re:

[EggyToast (858951)]

Yeah, if they're smart enough to figure all that out, they're smart enough to have a better gig than stealing phones.

Re:Eh no

[kestasjk (933987)]

Enter the iPhone

Re:

[billcopc (196330)]

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 i

Re:Software solutions won't do it

[AusIV (950840)]

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.

Re:

[AusIV (950840)]

Ever heard of Lojack for laptops [lojackforlaptops.com]? It works on the same basic principle, and increases the chances of your laptop being returned from about 3% to about 75%. My method doesn't have a team to follow up, but I'd have more evidence for taking action.

StuffBak

[eck011219 (851729)]

I use StuffBak myself (they're mentioned in TFA). Haven't had to use it yet, but their website is a snap to use and their labels are very affordable.

Ooops

[also-rr (980579)]

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.

I have a great solution that works perfectly.

[Lumpy (12016)]

I buy replacement and loss insurance on all my expensive items I also encrypt all important data. (cellphone requires a pin password to turn it on or use it)

If someone steals my PDA, they wont get the data as it's safe, and I get a brand new PDA. works great.

I just wish the security in PDA's were decent so that after 3 attempts it locks the PDA and will not unlock until it is resynched in the cradle of the mated PC. Palm and Windows pocket devices can be reset and sold. Phones are 100% useless on the black market (you do report and have your esn blacklisted with your cellphone company right?) PDA's should have the same kind of protection available.

A much simpler solution...

[creimer (824291)]

The only gadget that I carry is my cell phone. To simplify things even further, I use my cell phone only as a phone. What's wrong with being boring, unsexy and non-techo?

I'm sorry but....

[JamesRose (1062530)]

You're clearly just compensating for having a massive penis

Re:

[Brickwall (985910)]

I have a Nokia with a 2 megapixel camera, and an added memory card. I store some pictures on it, and some music, but I make sure everything is backed up that night. So at most, I might lose an afternoon's pictures. Good data security depends on both the system administrator and the user. In this case, you are both.

Car alarm for your MacBook

[floki (48060)]

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 [youtube.com]. It really made me laugh just because of the sounds. Can't wait to try that out in my university library :-)

Re:

[DancesWithBlowTorch (809750)]

Unfortunately, unlike cars, MacBooks have an easy-to-reach Power Button which, when pressed for five seconds, switches off about every software-based alarm system.

Sorry.

Re:

[norton_I (64015)]

At least on my dell (not sure how Macs handle this), the power button generates an ACPI event when the power button is pressed, not released. Thus, you could have a software alarm go off for 5 seconds while the would be thief is holding the power button down. Likewise, you can lift up the laptop and pop out the battery, but that probably sets of the alarm first.

For someone worried about a someone grabbing their laptop when they are getting a refill on their coffee, the motion sensor alarm should work pret

flawed thinking

[petes_PoV (912422)]

This makes it very hard for someone to steal your phone as all your friends get their new phone number."

I believe most theives steal goods to sell them on, rather than to use them themselves.
In that case, so long as they can get ca$h for your goodies, they won't care who has the number after they've flogged it off. It's not as if they will offer a guarantee, or after-sales service.

The only real solutions are to prevent items being stolen, or to make it blindingly obvious to a potential buyer that the item is non-functional

This is a stickup !

[Joebert (946227)]

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.