Solution for stolen mobile phone: Scream

Interesting news arrived today from one british company: they invented technology called Remote XT for cellphones which will generate an “ear-piercing screech” when a cellphone is stolen. The thief can only stop the screeching by taking out the battery, and putting a new SIM card in the phone will not reactivate it. The technology, available in the U.K., has been designed to address the growing cellphone theft in the country. In fact, cellphone theft has gotten so bad that one-third of all robberies in the U.K. involve a mobile phone. In addition to the screech, the handset can be locked and all information on the unit wiped. The good news is that the Remote XT technology also backs up the phone’s data in a “secure Government-approved data centre,” so if the mobile is stolen you will simply be able to move your data to a new one.

The stolen phone alert, the remote lock, and the data wipe are initiated by the phone’s owner, who simply contacts the Remote XT call center to notify a rep that the phone has been lost or stolen. The trick to eliminating most crime is taking the profit out of it. Thieves don’t want the risk associated with stealing a mobile phone if they know there is a good chance the phone won’t be usable once taken. Considering that no thief wants a cellphone that can’t be use and only screams, this may indeed have an impact on mobile phone crime in the U.K. and later also in other countries, if these first trials succeed. The only problem is ironicaly this annoying scream - I find often myself angry if some car starts its alarm on the street by some accident and it takes long minutes of loud noise till its owner turn it off. Can you imagine that with mobile phone in overcrowded underground during the peak time? May be some inventions should remain just in the labs…