Simple and effective
I'm surprised that Shin Bet haven't patented their cell phone kill switch method - it was even more effective.
Smartphone thefts have declined by 50 per cent in San Francisco since 2013, and by 22 per cent since last year, a decline that District Attorney George Gascón attributes to the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act. The law, SB 962, signed by California Governor Jerry Brown in 2014 and implemented in 2015, requires smartphone …
Apparently not in the UK: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40731485
"In the 12 months to the end of June, the Metropolitan Police logged 16,158 crimes involving powered-two-wheel vehicles compared with 5,145 the year before. Most of the offences were robbery and theft, with mobile phones making up 90% of items stolen. Phones can be reset within minutes and sold on, or used by gang members who like to have a handful of devices each."
To be fair, and this is Islington we're talking about, they mostly sell them as parts for repairing phones for the trendies who drop them whilst trying to drink their overpriced Upper Street cappufrotho or mass produced "Artisan" beer.
Selling a complete phone, like selling a complete stolen car, is not worth the risk / reward ratio
"To be fair, and this is Islington we're talking about, they mostly sell them as parts for repairing phones for the trendies who drop them whilst trying to drink their overpriced Upper Street cappufrotho or mass produced "Artisan" beer.
Selling a complete phone, like selling a complete stolen car, is not worth the risk / reward ratio"
Any evidence whatsoever that anything in your missive is fact-based? If so, how about citations?
Rubber usually contains enough carbon that you can basically consider it a conductor at higher voltages...
I'd be surprised if you could pack enough energy to actually kill someone in a cellphone though. Maybe you could tailor the waveform to cause ventricular fibrillation or something, but then people tend not to hold a cellphone with both hands so the current path isn't optimal.
Turn your phone sideways. Are you holding it with both hands? Just make the screen stay sideways during use and that should ensure both hands. Also a sensor to detect the top and bottom are being held. 4 metal strips. 2 for the top. 2 for the bottom. Complete the circuit and win a ride to the hospital!
The number of phones still being stolen as a direct target - rather than for another reason like depriving someone of comms after a robbery - suggests these measures aren't much of a deterrent.
For one thing even if the latest shiny gadget has been properly killed as a phone (which may or may not really work) it is still worth a lot of money as parts. Just stripping for screens and cases is more than enough profit, and probably better income and much lower risk than shifting the whole phone.
It's not difficult to overcome this too but I suspect people would prefer to keep some tiny degree of repairability.
(Icon for the best deterrent)
Lovely Android phones are now relatively cheap. Asus ZenFone 3 was just offered (a sale) for Can$320, about US$260. Colleagues have decent Samsungs for Can$100-$200 range. Cheap as chips, nearly anyone can afford that.
Less incentive to steal, when it's not "worth" $900.