Tracking Thieves With 'Find my iPhone' 424
An anonymous reader wrote in to say "A friend of mine who just got an iPhone 3GS and has Mobile Me just used the "Find my iPhone" feature to track down his lost and subsequently stolen iPhone. This story involves three nerds wandering sketchy streets with a MacBook, and ends with a confrontation at a bus stop."
Walking around "sketchy streets" a Macbook? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Walking around "sketchy streets" a Macbook? (Score:4, Insightful)
I care if my $100 phone is lost or stolen. How is it a negative to care about losing something expensive? If it was the other way around you'd make fun of yuppies that don't care if their $600 phone is stolen because they are so casual with money.
Geez. Only on slashdot would you find people bitching about a good feature. God, what a fan boi. he only has an iphone because it makes him coffee and gives him blowjobs every morning. What a loser.
Re:Walking around "sketchy streets" a Macbook? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Walking around "sketchy streets" a Macbook? (Score:5, Funny)
I would have been somewhat amused if their laptop got stolen as well. Yes, I know I'm a terrible person.
Exactly, to put it differently, "steal an iPhone one day and have a free laptop delivered to you the next."
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Too bad it wasn't an Android phone. "Where's My Android" doesn't need a laptop to track a phone.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Nope, he'd use Skynet...
LoJack for your iPhone? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:LoJack for your iPhone? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:LoJack for your iPhone? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's this mentality of urban fear that shows how screwed up US cities really are.
Re:LoJack for your iPhone? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Well, that sad truth of it is...people who live in highly ethnic, poor neighborhoods TRY to have normal lives too (they're not all bad, no), but, I've heard story after story about shootings breaking out, and kids at an outdoor birthday party getting injured or killed in the crossfire.
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If you read the comments, you find he did offer $30 anyway, but the guy declined the money.
His statement that he was intending to track them down from his end but was intimidated by the messages may have been genuine. He might have been fearing a beatdown from the owner (no good deed goes unpunished), or wanting a neutral location at which to make the exchange away from family.
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No, it shows how screwed up US suburbanites are. People that actually live in the city are mostly level headed about the "dangers" of the city.
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If the thief was a two-strikes offender he should be glad that the cops didn't get involved. The property can be returned and everyone walks away.
Re:LoJack for your iPhone? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:LoJack for your iPhone? (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed. I live about three blocks west of 11th street, anything east of that is the ghetto. My favorite bar is on 15th street, and I walk there frequently. Aside from hookers and dope dealers soliciting me, I've had no problems despite my hazel eyes. Now, if I were to "go off" on one of these folks, I'd probably be in trouble.
Re:LoJack for your iPhone? (Score:5, Funny)
Aside from hookers and dope dealers soliciting me, I've had no problems despite my hazel eyes. Now, if I were to "go off" on one of these folks, I'd probably be in trouble.
I'm confused, what else are you supposed to do with hookers?
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True, but even so, TFA's author's actions are very much those of an optimist. He could easily have been shot or had the crap kicked out of him.
I would suggest that a pragmatic approach might be the ability to remotely disable the phone totally so that it has to be sent some sort of authenticated authorisation code to be used at all.
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I live near Miami. I remember once telling my cousins in the UK that I really enjoyed Florida. They responded to the effect, "How can you live in Miami? Don't you worry about the assault rifle wielding drug dealing, ganster thug rapists?"
Recently in Philly, driving along one absolutely normal looking city block, my friends said remarked that they were surprised that people were walking around *at night* in this warzone.
It's one thing to be careless but this irrational fear of cities is mindboggling.
To see
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Philadelphia has over 400 murders a year, and has for the past couple years. My father is a doctor, and apparently Scandanavian doctors come to Philadelphia with the express purpose of studying gunshot wounds, since there are several per day in Philly.
If you were driving through North Philly or parts of West Philly, your friend very well may have been right that you were driving through a 'war zone.'
Re:LoJack for your iPhone? (Score:5, Informative)
It's this mentality of urban fear that shows how screwed up US cities really are.
Perhaps they just aren't as naive as you. Here's [crimebaltimore.com] a neat map showing crime reported in Baltimore over the last 11 days. You'll notice all the fists and cross hair icons. Those are assaults and shootings. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean that cities aren't overrun with dangerous thugs. The ghetto is a dangerous place.
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The default view is for the past 2 months, not 11 days.
The default view is for the last 300 records, which only covers the last 11 days.
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I stand corrected.
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Never actually HAD your ass kicked downtown, have you? I'm not saying that everytime you go through an urban area it's The Warriors 2009, but seriously, if you think the whole "urban fear" is just an invention, you're simply naive.
From the article: (the guy was thinking)"You probably think the angels of death have found you."
No, what crossed my mind was that if he was an actual criminal and not just some opportunistic teen, his thought would be more like "Sweet iPhone, and there are 3 dickweeds running aro
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Weird. Most of the geeks I know are far from defenseless.
-Peter
Re:LoJack for your iPhone? (Score:5, Funny)
Weird. Most of the geeks I know are far from defenseless.
-Peter
Yes, but trebuchets and USB missile launchers aren't very good at short range defense.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Trebuchets are alright.. but if you really want to hurt use Lucida Bold or Impact. Boy, those hurt. And don't get me started on wingdings.
Amazed ... (Score:2)
"I'd been amazed that the phone had enough battery life to make it through the night and still beam its location;"
How much juice does one of these things consume??
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How much juice does one of these things consume??
While they're constantly pushing data? About as long as a standard phone lasts while browsing the web.
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Based on that statement I'd guess one carton of apple juice a day. At least.
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Re:Amazed ... (Score:5, Funny)
How much juice does one of these things consume??
I've poured a whole gallon of orange juice on my iPhone and it still won't turn on. I've got to run to the store to get more- I think I'll try grapefruit this time. I wish they would warn me about this when I bought the phone- juice is way too expensive these days.
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If you had an Android phone, you could have used V-8 juice to power its browser, at least.
-dZ.
Re:Amazed ... (Score:5, Funny)
Memo to self (Score:5, Insightful)
When stealing electronic equipment immediately disable all radios or remove all batteries.
While I'm at it remember to never plug it into any network until I'm sure it's not going to phone home.
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And don't forget the most important lesson: Do not be intimidated by (however many) guys coming at you with a laptop, especially if there's some sort of geeky toy convention nearby.
-dZ.
Re:Memo to self (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Memo to self (Score:5, Insightful)
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There's an angle that hasn't popped up: impossible to remove batteries = additional theft deterrant.
(No, it's not perfect, you can just turn the stupid thing off, but it's just one extra thing to keep track of, and most criminals don't remember to cover all the bases, especially people who snag lost phones)
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-1 not geeky enough.
A small, portable Faraday cage should do the trick until you're in the clear, when you can take the appropriate steps to make sure the device can't be tracked.
Fiund my iPhone, Now Go Get It (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fiund my iPhone, Now Go Get It (Score:5, Funny)
(eating with chopsticks, to iPhone owner)
Grab a seat there, boy. Want some dinner? Grab yourself an egg roll. We got everything here from a diddle-eyed-Joe to a damned-if-I-know.
IPHONE OWNER
No thanks.
GHETTO DRUG LORD
No thanks? What does that mean? Means you ate before you came down here? All full. Is that it? Naw, I don't think so. I think you're too scared to be eatin'. Now, see we're sittin' down here, ready to negotiate, and you've already given up your shit. I'm still a mystery to you. But I know exactly where your ass is comin' from. See, if I asked you if you wanted some dinner and you grabbed an egg roll and started to chow down, I'd say to myself, "This motherfucker's carryin' on like he ain't got a care in the world. Who know? Maybe he don't. Maybe this fool's such a bad motherfucker, he don't got to worry about nothin', he just sit down, eat my Chinese, watch my TV." See? You ain't even sat down yet. On that TV there, since you been in the room, is a woman with her titties hangin' out, and you ain't even bothered to look. You just been starin' at me. Now, I know I'm pretty, but I ain't as pretty as a couple of titties.
IPhone Owner takes out an envelope and throws it on the table.
IPHONE OWNER
I'm not eatin' 'cause I'm not hungry. I'm not sittin' 'cause I'm not stayin'. I'm not lookin' at the movie 'cause I saw it seven years ago. It's "The Mack" with Max Julian, Carol Speed, and Richard Pryor, written by Bobby Poole, directed by Michael Campus, and released by Cinerama Releasing Company in 1984. I'm not scared of you. I just don't like you. In that envelope is some payoff money. MyiPhone's moving on to some greener pastures. We're not negotiatin'. I don't like to barter. I don't like to dicker. I never have fun in Tijuana. That price is non-negotiable. What's in that envelope is for my peace of mind. My peace of mind is worth that much. Not one penny more, not one penny more.
(with NO APOLOGIES to Quentin Tarrantino)
No remote shutoff (Score:3, Interesting)
A way to remotely set the phone to full volume and play a siren-tone non-stop would be nice too.
Or a remote self-destruct feature.
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Summary (Score:2)
Idiot steals phone
Idiot not keeps using it with the SIM it came with, but also doesn't turn it off, because he is an idiot
People can track down the phone, because, again, the theif is an idiot.
Anyone with a clue knows you can trace a stolen SIM. Most people would just toss the SIM the instant they find any phone they did not plan on returning.
Re:Summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone with a clue knows you can trace a stolen SIM.
Generally people with clues don't steal phones.
Re:Summary (Score:5, Funny)
Single Best Story I have read on Slashdot (Score:5, Interesting)
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ymmv though.
Re:Single Best Story I have read on Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
I would use it to purposely lose my phone somewhere where a thief would take it, then track him down and webcam the whole thing, then do a "dog the bounty hunter" session on the guy, come in with guns waving in the air, that would be so cool....I might just youtube this!
Re:Single Best Story I have read on Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
I'm sure that "Nerd videotapes own knees being broken" would be a big hit on YouTube.
Good luck with that.
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That doesn't make you any tougher either.
Hey, let's play a game. I'll flip a coin and if it comes up heads you get a dollar. If it's tails I get to smash you in the face with a lead pipe.
Do you think this is a good game to play? How about if I roll a die instead, and if I roll a one I stick you with a knife. But if the roll is anything else, you get _five_ dollars.
Would you encourage all of your friends to play this wonderful game?
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Just so the G1 doesn't feel left out, this is very possible and free on an Android phone. With Latitude enabled on the phone it is simply a matter of signing into iGoogle and checking your Latitude location.
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I down want to tarnish your enthusiasm for the story, but it has all the signs of an intended viral, paid up by Apple marketing. Do not forget all the stunts they pulled. I would say, 10% this is a genuine story.
This is awesome. (Score:2, Interesting)
Why not have it endorsed by law enforcement? You go to the police, say my $400 (and to some $600) phone was stolen. Maybe a lawyer can verify this, but I recall the grand theft charge being lowered to something around there.
The issue would be getting the police to believe that the little blue dot is a real blue dot, with someone's real stolen phone at that location.
Re:This is awesome. (Score:5, Insightful)
Problem:
Police don't give a fuck about you or your phone.
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Tell them you tracked the owner doing 3 mph over the speed limit, and that the phone took a picture of him smoking marijuana.
He'll be served with a no-knock warrant and shot in the face faster than you can say "thank you!"
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Re:This is awesome. (Score:5, Funny)
At least you can verify that it still is in the evidence locker, using MobileMe.
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It wasn't a "blue dot" but a circle, the size of a city block.
Even if the police believed it, they're not going to bust down the doors of a whole apartment building to search for a phone.
Re:This is awesome. (Score:4, Informative)
Lifting from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost,_mislaid,_and_abandoned_property [wikipedia.org] , which is quoting Michael v. First Chicago Corp., 139 Ill. App. 3d 374, 382, 487 N.E.2d 403, 409 (1985):
A finder of property acquires no rights in mislaid property, is entitled to possession of lost property against everyone except the true owner, and is entitled to keep abandoned property
This is likely a clear cut case of mislaid property.
Re:This is awesome. (Score:5, Interesting)
"Chasing criminals and stolen property is the job of the police."
"They often have bigger things to worry about than random petty thieves"
So he should just let his phone go? Let the bad guys win? You just said that he should leave this to police, and that the police won't give a shit about it.
Dangerous and Stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
Being one of the people that has spent a considerable amount of time living in one of those neighborhoods I can definitively say that what this guy did was extremely dangerous and stupid. I wouldn't pull that kind of BS with someone I sorta knew while they were standing in public, let alone in a neighborhood I've never been to before. I'm surprised that the guy who had the phone wasn't using it to call his friends to get down there and kick their asses, if for no other reason than to not appear to have been rolled by 3 scrawny nerds armed with a laptop in broad daylight.
If he stole the phone in the first place, he probably wasn't the most savory character in the world. What if he was on parole/probation/suspended sentence for something serious and could have been locked up? What if he was on some crazy uppers? What if he was actually meeting a large group of his buddies on that street corner? What if he was any of the above *and* armed?
Not trying to be a troll here, but I'm guessing that those guys have never really had their asses handed to them before.
Re:Dangerous and Stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
"I can definitively say that what this guy did was extremely dangerous and stupid."
Really? If that were the case, then we've already lost. Our country is filled with cowardice, like yours. As the powers continue to take away your freedoms, one at a time, in the name of peace and security, you sit back and cower in fear of losing more if you "act up" and stand up for yourself.
I'm reminded of the quote ....
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)
So, do nothing, be nothing, as cowards usually are. Hide behind your computer screen in anonymity whining about how bad the world is knowing that by being a coward, you have contributed to exactly what you fear most.
If you don't want to pay $99 for MobileMe (Score:2)
....Perhaps this would be an alternative:
http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/iphone/ [orbicule.com]
Not nearly as cool as MobileMe, but likely as effective (and perhaps safer too).
It can be turned off.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Provided that the phone doesn't have a pin lock, the Find My iPhone feature can be disabled in the phones preferences, rendering it useless... :(
Does this work outside the U.S.? Overseas? (Score:3, Insightful)
Does anyone know if this feature works outside the U.S.? Overseas? If the country the phone is (lost) in does not have Google Maps (like Vietnam) will it just give a geographic coordinate (latitude and longitude)?
Does anyone know if Mobile me will work on a "hacked" iPhone? Unfortunately that's the only kind that works here!
Can the Mobile Me feature be disabled completely by a thief? (I know that the location finding aspect can be disabled by turning off location services, sorry if I spilled the beans). Is it protected by a password? Will it survive SIM removal/replacement? Will it survive a complete OS replacement (I guess not)?
Thanks for any and all answers to these questions!
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:5, Insightful)
perhaps because you have a self deprecating sense of humor?
amongst other things, i'm an American of predominately Scottish and Dutch descent, and i refer to myself by a large variety of slurs.
maybe we'd all be better off as a society if everyone just took a chill pill and enjoyed a good laugh at our own and each others' shared expense without getting so wrapped up in labels that most people don't even know the origin of.
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:5, Funny)
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Which begs the question, if a dead man falls in the forest, does it really exist?
-dZ.
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:4, Insightful)
or maybe he was suggesting the intimidation he and his friends felt at being out of their element and in a new, strange, and oft stereotyped setting with real, if frequently overplayed, possibilities for eruption of violence.
maybe he over-empathized with those around him as a manifestation of his "white guilt". i know my primary inhibition with respect to new acquaintances from different American ethnic groups is my own self consciousness about the possibility of offending them. i think that sucks and we will only be able to make claims regarding the elimination of racism when *no one* has any particular feeling regarding their fellow man other than those merited by the facts of the interaction. (dude looking for a seat in the cafeteria: fine; dude robbing me: bad)
how else would you have described the setting to portray your feelings of isolation and perception of personal risk, justified or not? perhaps, "we were in a socioeconomically depressed region of town and felt odd"? this misses mounds of social context of both the part of the neighborhood denizens and the nerds.
racial tension is real. ignoring it and not communicating openly about these perceptions will not make them go away. in fact, lack of open communication will only stopper up and push these feelings underground where they will fester and gain new currency. on the other hand, i view this sort of description not as particularly racist, but as a step away from racism. can it be better, more harmonious, whatever? sure. gradually. as reality allows, descriptions of one's circumstances in odd situations will be based in that new reality that developed from today's which is, in turn, dramatically different from, yet traceable to our worst days as a racist society.
on a lighter note, isn't the term nerd a pejorative assigned based on extrinsic features observed by the cool kids? yet we own the term and generally rejoice in our nerdiness. and in our interactions with the world around us, we are gradually becoming normal in society.
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:4, Interesting)
" i think that sucks and we will only be able to make claims regarding the elimination of racism when *no one* has any particular feeling regarding their fellow man other than those merited by the facts of the interaction."
I remember a South African adverstisement on the early days post apartheid: it was about a school bus full of angelical blonde boers fitted to play soccer, I think they were green shirts, let's accept that being the case. When they get to destiny they get out of the bus, see the team they are going to play against and suddenly all their faces sadden. Camera points were they were looking at and we see the other team is made up full of black children.
Then, one of the white boys, still saddenned, asks his trainer: But, but... they wear green shirts too! How will we distinguish between us???
Finally one of the teams go playing with shirt and the other without to resolve the problem, both teams laughing with the joy of sports.
I *never* have seen a better presentation of what racism is and what the goal to achieve should be.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps he was trying to explain the part of the story where he translated the message into Spanish. Or should he have self-censored that aspect?
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:5, Informative)
First, I was being self-deprecating, since I felt like the opposite of a badass iPhone tracker as we walked up and down this block.
Second, ethnicity is completely relevant to the story in that we were out of our element and quite visible prowling up and down the street with our laptop. The stares of the local residents confirmed this.
Third, other than the self-deprecation, I don't believe I said a single negative thing about anyone's race.
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Xenophobia was a survival trait. It's part of being human. So is being able to use reason to overcome it when it is not appropriate.
It's sickening to here all the newcasters or commentators saying "how could anyone do this?" or "how could a parent ever do this to their child?". They know how someone could do it. We all know. Some people just don't want to admit that somewhere in the dark recesses of their mind are hidden away all those thoughts. The fact that they never act on those thoughts never occurs to
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:4, Insightful)
"We parked along Medill and hopped out. It was a Puerto Rican neighborhood. On the south side of the street, an outdoor birthday fiesta was convening, and some of the participants eyed us three honkeys questioningly."
I live about a block from where that party was going on. Calling that particular portion of Logan Square a Puerto Rican neighborhood is inaccurate (despite there being a Puerto Rican credit union there, many of my neighbors are from Mexico or are descendants of Swedish and Armenian descent).
The party that was having a birthday celebration had turned into a street soccer game around 9 PM. (Did you see the pinata with the big CA on its chest?) You had jack-shit to fear from that party other than them wondering what the hell good could come from three goofs who clearly didn't live there wandering up and down the street. Overall crime in that section of Logan Square is pretty low---at the point you passed the birthday party, you were about a block from Goethe Elementary's schoolyard. You would have raised a few eyebrows---not because you're white ( there were plenty of your cousins around that night, myself included) but because you were clearly doing something strange. When people who look confused walk through there it's usually to get to the Congress theater, and they may have figured you got a bad batch of X and forgot where your car was parked.
Honestly, it's a phone. If you lose it, you lose it. I see this story as just being a self-congratulatory geekoff. Had you entered a really, really sketchy neighborhood, I'm sure this story wouldn't have happened--you would have all turned around and walked out before things got weird. You felt comfortable enough whipping your hardware then, but after the fact, after a couple beers and with a few retellings i'm sure this all sounded like quite the adventure, the skintones of the participants got darker, the streets narrower and your courage only deeper.
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Ah, when will man learn that all races are equally inferior to robots.
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless you're Google, in which case OMG evuhl korporationz 1984!!!!
Oh no! A ticket from the PC police! (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not sure what your problem was given the account was factual.
Would you rather they have said "Uniquely singular ethnic neighborhood"? Would that have actually served to illustrate what they did was kind of a bad idea?
Why should people be forced to lie because you feel uncomfortable with the truths of how some areas of a city are? Is it not true there are some ethnic areas of a city that are a bit dangerous to wander around in if you are not of that ethnicity?
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:5, Funny)
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More like, mankind didn't evolve beyond it, and racism only quit being an issue because they had other species to fear/hate instead.
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:5, Insightful)
Confronting known thieves should always include the implicit assumption that there is danger of violence.
Re:Please Drop the Us V Them Mentality (Score:5, Insightful)
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what else can go wrong with this service
Battery dies (pushing data constantly uses a lot of power) or they turn the phone off.
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Which is why they need to add the "disable iPhone thief" feature where all the remaining power in the battery is converted to a taser-like discharge through the housing at your command.
Extra fun for hacking into your friends' phones and doing this to them at inopportune times (all of them I guess).
Re:Beat down (Score:5, Funny)
I'd prefer to lose my phone and shell out another $500 then receive a violent beat down at the hands of some street thug.
Why would you want to receive a violent beat down at the hands of some street thug?
I'd prefer to just lose my phone and shell out another $500 than receive a violent beat down at the hands of some street thug.
Re:Beat down (Score:5, Funny)
This is the type of pedantry that keeps me coming back to Slashdot.
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"I'd prefer to just lose my phone and shell out another $500 than receive a violent beat down at the hands of some street thug."
And that is what is wrong with our society today. People are scared of violent street thugs and would rather not bother them, and leave them to be ... violent thugs wondering the streets searching for their next victim.
I guess it is too hard to get yourself trained and armed and stop thinking the police will protect you, because they won't, unless it is convenient to them to do so.
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Just sayin'.
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Why not? What's wrong with a little self-depreciating humour now and again?
Re:Hokey? (Score:5, Funny)
What's a hokey?
A hotkey that opens one's favorite porn site...?
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