Reading the entries here, I'm surprised that nobody mentioned the device IMEI. As far as I am concerned, the number one thing that Apple could do to help with the theft problem is to remove the economic benefit in the first place. People steal these phones because they can unlock them and sell them on ebay, or because they can wipe them and sell them on craig's list, and the buyer can roll right in to their local AT & T store and activate the phone without any questions asked. That's unconscionable.
First, it should not be possible for a crook to alter the IMEI of the device.
Second, if Apple really cares about this issue, they should lean on their carrier partners to NOT ACTIVATE phones that have been reported stolen. I recently had my iPhone 4 stolen, and I immediately reported it on the AT&T web site. AT&T knows the device IMEI, and there is no reason at all that they cannot prevent someone else from activating that device on their network; there is simply an unwillingness to do so.
Lock screens, auto wipe, find my phone... all of that stuff represents effort in the wrong direction because all of it is easily defeated. Crooks turn off the devices the second they pinch them, and then they wipe or unlock them, sell them, and enjoy the money. The real solution is to remove the incentive; if they know they won't be able to sell the device because it can't be activated, then they won't be motivated to steal the device in the first place.
There isn't a will to address this beyond a token level, I think, because a stollen iPhone is more revenue for everyone concerned. A) a stollen iPhone is a new activation for the carrier. What could be better - someone steals YOUR iPhone and then they go and activate it on a line of service. So now the carrier gets to bill you for service you aren't getting and they get another subscriber as well. Awesome! Even if the phone goes to someone who is just upgrading from a previous model, the carrier still gets to rope YOU into another few years of contract through their anemic device replacement policy. It's a win-win for the crook and the carrier. A stolen iPhone is another sale for Apple, because they know you are going to want to replace the hardware. So Apple benefits from the theft, too, because they just scored another device sale.
The whole thing stinks and I wish Apple would step back and think about this from the perspective of removing the incentive.
It can be altered. There is absolutely no LEGAL reason for this to be done, however. And it's a bit of a giveaway that it's wrong when the real IMEI is printed on the back of your phone.
Apple actually did it themselves back in iPhone OS 1.x.x (I don't remember the exact one). I think it would have been 1.1. When updating to 1.1 with an unlocked iPhone (running 1.0.2), Apple changed the IMEI of that phone to the same as every other iPhone that had been unlocked so that none of them could make calls. It was interesting, for sure. You had to go back to 1.0.1, run some sort of thing that would reset your IMEI to the proper one, and then update differently.
I make an iPhone app. It's pirated, like all other iOS apps, but Apple does not care about this. Why would they? Pirated apps or not, Apple gets money from hardware sales. They definitely care about protecting their hardware, but they don't give a sh...t about protecting our apps.
If they were truly greedy and did not care for anything except hardware sales they would do nothing to help retrieve the phone in the hopes that you would just buy another one. Apple has actively worked to prevent jail breaking with almost every release of iOS which is currently the only way to install pirated apps. Pirating aside, I'm certain that your app is being purchased by everyone that thinks it is worth paying for.
If they were truly greedy and did not care for anything except hardware sales they would do nothing to help retrieve the phone in the hopes that you would just buy another one. Apple has actively worked to prevent jail breaking with almost every release of iOS which is currently the only way to install pirated apps. Pirating aside, I'm certain that your app is being purchased by everyone that thinks it is worth paying for.
Even the jailbreaking community recognizes that app piracy may need to be addressed.
It is never easy to maintain safety and security. It's a good thing that technology nowadays develops new ways on how we are going to protect our self and our property. Yearly, International Business Machines announces a brand new crop of predictions of technological changes that it thinks will happen in the next 5 years. It's been hit and misses to date. That said, biometric security replacing passwords, computer systems reading thoughts and other things are being predicted by the tech giant. Article resource: Mind reading computers among IBM Five in Five predictions
On a serious note, I've never understood why some companies leave device security up to 3rd party apps. Apple certainly ahead of Google here. Android leaves device security up to OEMs. HTC Sense has Find my iPhone like features. But it's not baked into Android. Remote backup and device security should be baked into the OS. And the more options (like ones presented here) the better. This will all help reduce the theft of mobiles.
Comments
First, it should not be possible for a crook to alter the IMEI of the device.
Second, if Apple really cares about this issue, they should lean on their carrier partners to NOT ACTIVATE phones that have been reported stolen. I recently had my iPhone 4 stolen, and I immediately reported it on the AT&T web site. AT&T knows the device IMEI, and there is no reason at all that they cannot prevent someone else from activating that device on their network; there is simply an unwillingness to do so.
Lock screens, auto wipe, find my phone... all of that stuff represents effort in the wrong direction because all of it is easily defeated. Crooks turn off the devices the second they pinch them, and then they wipe or unlock them, sell them, and enjoy the money. The real solution is to remove the incentive; if they know they won't be able to sell the device because it can't be activated, then they won't be motivated to steal the device in the first place.
There isn't a will to address this beyond a token level, I think, because a stollen iPhone is more revenue for everyone concerned. A) a stollen iPhone is a new activation for the carrier. What could be better - someone steals YOUR iPhone and then they go and activate it on a line of service. So now the carrier gets to bill you for service you aren't getting and they get another subscriber as well. Awesome! Even if the phone goes to someone who is just upgrading from a previous model, the carrier still gets to rope YOU into another few years of contract through their anemic device replacement policy. It's a win-win for the crook and the carrier.
The whole thing stinks and I wish Apple would step back and think about this from the perspective of removing the incentive.
I'm pretty sure the IMEI cannot be altered.
Ah, the naïvety of youth...
It can be altered. There is absolutely no LEGAL reason for this to be done, however. And it's a bit of a giveaway that it's wrong when the real IMEI is printed on the back of your phone.
Interesting. I didn't know that was possible.
It's not widely published, for obvious reasons.
Apple actually did it themselves back in iPhone OS 1.x.x (I don't remember the exact one). I think it would have been 1.1. When updating to 1.1 with an unlocked iPhone (running 1.0.2), Apple changed the IMEI of that phone to the same as every other iPhone that had been unlocked so that none of them could make calls. It was interesting, for sure. You had to go back to 1.0.1, run some sort of thing that would reset your IMEI to the proper one, and then update differently.
I make an iPhone app. It's pirated, like all other iOS apps, but Apple does not care about this. Why would they? Pirated apps or not, Apple gets money from hardware sales. They definitely care about protecting their hardware, but they don't give a sh...t about protecting our apps.
If they were truly greedy and did not care for anything except hardware sales they would do nothing to help retrieve the phone in the hopes that you would just buy another one. Apple has actively worked to prevent jail breaking with almost every release of iOS which is currently the only way to install pirated apps. Pirating aside, I'm certain that your app is being purchased by everyone that thinks it is worth paying for.
If they were truly greedy and did not care for anything except hardware sales they would do nothing to help retrieve the phone in the hopes that you would just buy another one. Apple has actively worked to prevent jail breaking with almost every release of iOS which is currently the only way to install pirated apps. Pirating aside, I'm certain that your app is being purchased by everyone that thinks it is worth paying for.
Even the jailbreaking community recognizes that app piracy may need to be addressed.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/4060...an-pirate-apps