Items tagged with kill switch
Dirty rotten laptop thieves may want to consider another way to make a quick buck, as there are forces in play that will hopefully render this business model obsolete. Intel has teamed up with Impinj, Technology Solutions UK Ltd. (TSL), and Burnside Digital to create an RFID solution called Wireless Credential Exchange (WCE) to track lost and stolen laptops. Intel's System-on-Chip (SoC) is a crucial component of the RFID system. The key is that it can read and write data to the Monza RFID chip that will be embedded into Intel SoC-powered devices. The chip can also be read and written to using an external TSL RFID reader, even when the system is powered down. Unique IDs, error logs, permissions,...
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Mere weeks after voting down legislation that would require smartphone makers to implement anti-theft technology into handsets, the California Senate on Thursday passed a revised version of the bill. As rewritten, technology titans Apple and Microsoft, both with vested interest in such a bill, withdrew opposition to legislation. Authors of the bill made some minor adjustments, such as giving manufacturers an additional six months to comply with the rules, and to remove tablets from the equation, the San Jose Mercury News reports. As written, so-called "kill switch" technology would be required in all mobile phones manufactured after July 1, 2015, and sold in California. Prior to the amendments,...
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You may have only paid $50 for your smartphone on subsidy, or even received it for free after inking a two-year service agreement with your wireless carrier. It's actually worth much more than what you bought it for -- several hundred dollars more -- making these easily swiped handsets mighty attractive to thieves. It's become a big problem in certain areas, prompting California law makers to push for a cell phone "kill switch." Activating a remote kill switch would render the smartphone unusable, thereby making it a little more difficult for thieves to sell. In turn, mandatory kill switches on all smartphones would then make them far less attractive to crooks, at least in theory. Image Source:...
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Sure, you may have only payed $50 for your smartphone, or even picked it up for free after agreeing to a two-year service agreement with a wireless carrier, but the true value is much higher than whatever subsidized price you paid. That's something you'll quickly find out if it's ever lost or, worse yet, ends up stolen. Unfortunately, there's only so much you can do if your phone gets swiped, though law enforcement officials are hoping to change that. According to an AP report, the hot topic right now is that of implementing a so-called "kill switch" functionality into smartphones. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said that 33 percent of all robberies in the U.S. involve mobile phones,...
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Heads-up: Apple isn’t the only one implementing remote kill switches for applications in their phones. According to recent reports, the Android platform has one, too. The thing is: At least Google owns up to it up front (instead of allowing a developer to discover it like Apple did) by including a mention in the Android Market terms of service, saying: Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement ... in such an instance, Google retains the right to remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion. Given that nearly anything goes in Google's Android Market, there’s a definite chance of malicious or otherwise unwanted applications...
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It was a little, tiny, tiny addendum at the end of a WSJ article, but it was there: in an interview with the WSJ, Steve Jobs confirmed that the suspected iPhone "kill switch" does indeed exist. Of course, for investors, talk of the App Store downloads are probably more exciting, and Jobs detailed that as well:If sales stay at the current pace, Apple stands to reap at least $360 million a year in new revenue from the App Store, Mr. Jobs said. "This thing's going to crest a half a billion, soon," he added. "Who knows, maybe it will be a $1 billion marketplace at some point in time.""I've never seen anything like this in my career for software," he said.60 million downloads? Of course,...
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First: there's no real evidence this is a "kill switch" that Apple will use, but still, based on Apple's protectiveness over the iPhone, it wouldn't surprise us.Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the upcoming book iPhone Forensics, has revealed an URL that he suggests Apple is using to keep a list of any "offending" applications: https://iphone-services.apple.com/clbl/unauthorizedApps.Apple apparently can disable App Store software remotely on your iPhone 3G. The iPhone calls home and poof the application is nuked. Needless to say that this has caused a bit of a blog ruckus (Techmeme). MacRumors notes that Apple has come under fire for removing App Store software without notification and the...
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