New Phone Will Scream if It's Stolen

serious, weird or whatever - it's up to you
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Kezza
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New Phone Will Scream if It's Stolen

Post by Kezza »

The Associated Press
Oct 2, 2006

LONDON - Now if your mobile telephone is stolen, you can scream - and your phone can, too. A new service launched Monday is designed to deter mobile phone theft by equipping telephones with an ear-piercing scream.

The screaming won't stop unless the battery is removed. Even if the thief replaces the phone's SIM card, the handset will not work.

All customers' information is centrally stored, so contacts, ringtones, pictures, texts and other data can be retrieved when a new handset is purchased. The service costs about $18 a month.

The goal of the service is to make mobile phones useless to anyone but the rightful owner, said Mark Whiteman, the managing director of Remote XT.

"We'll see the market for stolen handsets stamped out once and for all," he said.

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Ah, the advances in technology, eh? Wonder if it will really work? I'm not sure if I would pay $18.00 a month since my mobile only cost me $40.00! :?
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faceless
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Post by faceless »

It is a good idea, but that price is just outrageous - it just shows how much the companies actually care about the customers that only if you pay a high premium are you protected in any way at all. I'm sure one of the companies will start offering it for free though and then they'll all follow...
HandoGod
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Post by HandoGod »

Saw this last night on the news, and I agree the price is too much.

It'd cost you less to buy a baseball bat and beat the theif away :lol:

:agree:
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Skylace
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Post by Skylace »

Way too expensive. Seeing as my phone was free!
IRiSHMaFIA
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Post by IRiSHMaFIA »

HandoGod wrote:Saw this last night on the news, and I agree the price is too much.

It'd cost you less to buy a baseball bat and beat the theif away :lol:

:agree:
I'm liking that idea! :lol:
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maycm
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Re: New Phone Will Scream if It's Stolen

Post by maycm »

As far as the customer is concerned, the phone will get replaced if they lose it, or it is stolen, so this sounds more like a benefit to the phone company if anything.

The more interesting part to me is:
All customers' information is centrally stored, so contacts, ringtones, pictures, texts and other data can be retrieved when a new handset is purchased.
OK - I can see that as a benefit for those people who have their life enclosed in one of those multipurpose communications devices. However I'm curious about what security and privacy safeguards there are and what the extent of an archive might be used for in a criminal or personal investigation against someone. Do phone compnaies routinely archive text messages?
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