NYC mayor blames increase in crime on demand for Apple products - Page 3

 

Because thieves are idiots.

 

Fortunately for the thieves, most of the people with the devices are also idiots and don't have the built-in location tracking turned on.

A Aces!

Very easy to turn it off and I assume that most are aware of this by now.

Apple still doesn't have an option to protect Settings, Mail & Privacy, or just the Find My iPhone feature with a PIN like they do with most of the items in Reset.

The best you can do is use Parental Guidance to disable Accounts -or- Location Services. I choose Accounts as I'm less likely to alter those. Now, this isn't that much of an issue if you have your device locked but I don't lock my iPad hence my need for it.

That said, a thief can always just turn off the device. I wish there was a way that you could prevent it from doing that. The only thing that comes to mind is the hard reset will ONLY restart it, not turn it off so the only way to do a shutdown is to do the on-screen slide but it will require a PIN first. This is the only way I see that can help protect your device without impeding the basic utility of it.

That that said said, thieves could then use a lead-lined bag, or some other RF blocking material to transport your device until the battery dies or they can take it apart. In the end the user just needs to keep track of their items because I don't see Apple products getting less appealing or holding their value less than they do today.

Don't service providers in other countries blacklist known stolen devices? Why is that not being done here? I recall it practically killed the desirability of stolen phones where implemented.

They do, including carriers in the US. The problem isn't that it's possible it's how it maintained. If you get AT&T to blacklist a phone you have stolen that's fine but there are other carriers in the US that use GSM-based networks that you'd have to have the device blacklisted on. I think AT&T allows you do it but your device has to be active on their network at the time thus making it easy to go to other networks.

But even if there was a law and national DB in the US for this your stolen device could still be sent to another country for use.

Now lets say there is a worldwide DB of IMEIs that functions perfectly thus making it hard to ship stolen phones overseas. A thief could then have the IMEI changed to something else. The IEMI is hardcoded just like the BIA (Burn in Address) on a NIC that represents a MAC address in SW but you can change the MAC address if you so desire. That means we'd also have to have laws that make it illegal for the IMEI to be changed and for the IEMI to be registered and verified prior to activation.

I've traveled to countries where they require a lot of paperwork and ID checks for just getting a per-parid SIM for your phone. I'm not sure I'd want to go through that much trouble even though I do want the extra security.

But similarly, why would a criminal steal an item they can't sell? If they're that cheap, why knock them off at all?

And that's the key. A lot of stolen iphones probably end up in Russia and third world countries.

I have to stop bringing my 27" iMac on the NYC subways. Had my 3rd one stolen last week. 

To translate; "As long as New Yorkers have nothing of value, they won't get mugged." If everyone would go back to Sony Walkmans and straw hats -- everything wold be safe. And let's go back to 8 oz cokes and women with dresses down to their socks while we are at it.

 

*ROLLS EYES* You've just blamed everything every old fart has blamed on "the kids these days" since the Pyramids were built. Every generation is spoiled, lazy, and morally depraved according to the one before. You can find Graffiti on one a few of the large slabs on the Sphinx to back me up on that. But in actuality, crime overall is down, as long as you ignore that which is systemic and being done by "people who are well and truly fed." We'd talked a long time in this country about the "land of opportunity" and I suppose kids just bought into the idea that they could make a good living. I don't think that's spoiled -- that's just getting played for suckers.

How about a return to cutting off the hand that takes from another. THAT will reduce crime.

I suspect Bloomberg is not happy with Apple

  because his namesake company didn't predict Apple great stock performance.

 

People get an ugly protective (Otter like) case for your iPhone.

 

Carriers, quickly disable and erase the stolen iPhone, so they are useless.

Apple, have iTunes disable the IOS and erase the data on stolen iPhones.

Then stolen iPhones are useless, game over! 

That's only true if you could get every other country to disable stolen phones, too. Unfortunately, many phone stolen in the US end up in other countries. I suspect (but don't know for sure) that there is some organization coordinating it.

 

Samsung. 

Dunno about real statistics, but I've only had two crimes committed against me in the past 25 years in NYC/Brooklyn, and they both were in the past two and involving an Apple product.

What were the circumstances of these events? Public transportation? Home invasion? Forgot your iPhone for a couple minutes? Home robbery? Left iPad on side of the street with "Homeless please help" scrolling across its display with a cup sitting next to it?

 

LOL. In the case of the Galaxy S -- just make it look more plastic, should pass as is.

 

Both iPod Touch public snatch and run.   First was on the subway where a group entered looking for someone holding a device near a door so one could grab it when the door opened and bolt while the rest block for him.  Now I never sit by the door if I have device out.  The second was on the street, similar, walking home from the subway in brownstone Brooklyn.  A group was sitting on a stoop waiting for someone to walk by during a time when the people walking in front and behind were a good enough distance away.  Jumped up, jostled, grabbed, set a pick, ran, over in a second.

 

Neither made me feel any different about NYC.  I've lived here for 35 years.  You tend to not walk around with your guard up all the time, suspicious of everyone you see, and if you're unlucky that will bite you in the butt.   Petty thieves work hard at blending in and they'll wait all day for the timing to be right.  I never felt I was any more prone to this kind of thing here than any other city I've lived in.  

I strongly dislike such scum...



Have you considered a case with a wristband that could prevent the quick snatch and grab?