It happens all too often. You turn your back, and bam! Your iPod is gone. It's been pinched. Jacked. Stolen. In fact, well over 50 million iPods have been taken illegally. One tragic murder has been attributed to a stolen iPod, and consumers have spent millions of dollars replacing their jacked players. If you're one of the victims of this gadget crime spree, how pissed off would you be if you discovered that Apple has the ability to report, disable, or at least help track these stolen goods? After the jump, I'll take a look at what can be done.
But after millions of complaints about their inability to track, recover, or at least disable stolen iPods, Apple has finally decided to make a move. In a recent patent application, Apple is proposing a plan that if an iPod is plugged into an unauthorized recharging device, it will not recharge. Rendering the iPod useless after the remaining charge runs out, this is a huge step in the right direction.
A bigger step would be to actually track the units when they're plugged into a computer. It's easy to see that Apple wishes to help out honest consumers, but doesn't want to get into the policing business (even though it willing does so when it comes to copyrights), but it seems to me that more can be done, and if you have any suggestions, by all means put them in the comments below. As an iPod user, I'm just glad to see that steps are in motion to make my iPod less attractive to Apple Jackers.
An audio engineer based in Atlanta, Leslie Shapiro has been covering consumer electronics for almost a decade. Her work has appeared in many publications, including Sound & Vision, Crutchfield Advisor, and How Stuff Works as well as AOL. A longtime consultant and legal advisor for the electronics industry, she has a penchant for Bianchi and Colnago Italian bikes, and her favorite word is "synchronicity."
editor@dvice.com
By kwestin at 8:02 PM ON 08/17/07
Sci-Fi Channel actually did a story on a solution called GadgetTrak (http://www.gadgettrak.com) a while back:
/archives/2007/02/26/gadgettrak_find.html
Instead of just relying on labels their software actually "phones home" location informaiton and have several case studies to prove it.
By neiferone at 10:14 AM ON 08/23/07
I'm sorry, but the plan is "if an iPod is plugged into an unauthorized recharging device, it will not recharge." Okay, and who decides what constitutes an 'unauthorized recharging device?' Apple? Now maybe I am paranoid, but it sounds like they are planning to make it impossible for an iPod owner to use any other recharging cables or docks EXCEPT the ones sold by Apple. So if you lose one, you HAVE to buy theirs to replace it. You can't simply pick up an iGo charger from Radio Shack. They aren't trying to help people whose iPod's have been stolen -- they have already admitted they could do this with their existing hardware and software, but it would actually COST them money to do this, and they would lose the increased revenue of another iPod purchase as a replacement -- they have just found another way to limit your purchasing options to only Apple. And, pardon me for asking, but what is to stop an iPod thief from buying a dock or charging cable from Apple to use with a stolen iPod? Are they going to spend the money and time to make sure that the person buying these items is a registered owner of a legal iPod? I highly doubt it. I'm sorry, but this is just another scam for a big corporation to fleece their loyal customers of more money. In this way, Apple is no better than Microsoft. That's my opinion.
By DarrianAshoka at 11:46 AM ON 08/23/07
Fortunately I have never had my IPod jacked, but this does show me how it is quite clear that Apple not only has turned a deaf ear to their customers, but it actively fighting this issue tooth and nail for the sake of the cash cow they have been milking for years on replacement sales with the replacement music many of them will buy.
The unauthorized charging system is just another scam to make more sales when the honest customers accidentally use an unauthorized charger and lock up our IPod. I am sure they will claim there is no system set up to unlock it, since it is too hard to prove we are the true owners of the locked device.
I was planning to switch over to an apple computer soon from my decade of PC Hell, but now my trust of Apple just fell in the toilet. I see they are just another overly greedy corporation like all the rest. That is a shame, since they would have made several thousand in sales of hardware and all new software.
By zadros at 12:11 PM ON 08/23/07
"Rendering the iPod useless after the remaining charge runs out, this is a huge step in the right direction."
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
A corporation is a corporation. No matter how much you hate o love one, they are in for the money, and they will milk dry all their "loyal" costumers. This is not a "huge step", its just a little band aid so people can feel that Apple "cares" about, when in reality they are just getting more money while not solving any problem.
I can only laught at all those fools who own an Apple product, no matter how much you "love" that brand, Apple only loves your money. This is just another proof of that.
At the end of the day, if people are stupid enough to fall for this, then fine by me. Its their money, not mine.
By modsuperstar at 11:05 PM ON 08/23/07
I have a tough time believing that Apple would want to cut the legs out from under their accessory suppliers. This is the entire reason Apple is pretty much synonymous with portable music players. Accessories for the iPod can virtually be bought anywhere, which is part of the broad appeal of the device. This is the reason other players can't really get the same foothold in the market that Apple has.
By mvbc123 at 1:43 AM ON 08/24/07
so lets review...
one, its not apples fault that you cant keep track of your own ipod... if you loose a cell phone or a camera, no one is going to retrieve it for you...
also, lets give this one a shot... you want to have apple to report back to you who has stoles your ipod. wouldn't apple then be responsible to report to the music industry all of the illegal music that you just downloaded off limewire?
buy a new ipod, hypocrite.
By eekman at 5:02 AM ON 08/24/07
It would actually be extraordinarily simple for Apple to implement a system for tracking stolen hardware with minimal cost, if they had the inclination. And the benefit to them? Well, aside from the good PR and increased perceived value of their product, users would be more likely to purchase and register them. All that would be required is to allow users to register the serial number (which is hardwired into the device anyway) of any device they choose when they create their account. Basic account maintenance is already available (keeping personal or payment information up-to-date, for example), but if users were able to register their devices and report them stolen, Apple could simply log the IP address of any computer the device is connected to.
iTunes already has the capability to phone home; this is just one more piece of information that could be sent. Then the user's account would be flagged with a hit, and the user would be provided with IP address information which they could then present to the police, their insurance company, etc.
In addition, the IP address and/or copy of iTunes that had been flagged as having contact with a stolen device could be compared against any iTunes Music Store account from the same computer, and then the person reporting the device stolen would have identity information for the thief, or at least information leading to someone the thief knows.
Of course, to protect against abuse, Apple could require that access to the information be limited to the police and/or the holders of appropriate court documentation such as a subpoena, but this would not require nearly as much infrastructure as implementing a hardware change such as has been proposed to prevent "unauthorized charging devices" from being used with a stolen device. Just a thought. :-)
By TPFLegionaire at 5:03 AM ON 08/24/07
Hi,
Anybody interested in tracking and protecting their portable devices such as Ipod's should check www.gadgettheft.com , A friend of mine is involved with this company and I would happily recommend them.
Hope this helps,
Regards,
Manuel Boissiere
By selfhelp at 12:07 PM ON 08/24/07
Ack. I've had *3* ipods stolen. My friends call me the unluckiest iPod owner ever. Although since I sucked it up and bought the $120 Nano, I've held on to it w/out fail. I think it's because it's much easier to slip in a pocket. Ipods are relatively heavy and get left out on tables or (in my case) cars.
By eyedoll at 5:25 PM ON 08/27/07
Why buy iPods in the 1st place? There are other music players out there with comparable capacity and features for much less money... and are less popular, which in turn, indicates a lesser likelyhood of getting stolen.
About Apple being just another corporation? True. Just like Microsoft, they all are looking to take your money. That's what corporations do. They come up with a product that people will buy in high quantities and sell it for a huge profit. Take Windows, for example, if Microsoft sold Windows Vista for half the price, they'd still make millions of dollars. The same goes for Apple and their iPods.
That's all I'm going to say for now... I don't want to insult anybody.
By john at 6:07 AM ON 05/20/08
Apparently apple is willing to track down its stolen computers. Some computers were stolen from a store and when apple had someone call who was shopping on ebay and ask if the computer was legitimate apple knew it was one of the computers from the store and called the police who found and arrested the thieves.
Does apple have a different policy for computers than ipods or a different policy for items taken diretly from a store as opposed to from a private person?
Apparently store owners know all the serail numbers of the comps they are selling. Why dont store owners know the serial numbers of the ipods they sell? Or do they?
And how did the woman shopping on ebay know what the serial number of the comp was? Is it listed on the outside of the box or were the thieves stupid enough to post it and if it is listed on the outside of the box why can ipods also have their serial number listed on the outside of the box so ebay shoppers can call and ask if they are stolen or not?
Here is the link to the story-
http://starbulletin.com/2003/06/29/news/story2.html
By sosuzguy at 4:58 PM ON 09/10/08
As of 9-10-2008 Apple is not doing anything to help consumers who have had their ipod stolen. I just didn't have the serial number written down and Apple won't give it to me, they say for security purposes. How much more unsecure can it get? It's STOLEN... Then they tell me the they will give it to the police, but the police say they don't call for those. So let's all just not buy any ipod or Apple products.
By kcb at 11:37 PM ON 10/01/08
My granddaughters have had three Ipod Nanos stolen, and I've just purchased another. It would seem to me that to protect the Ipod from being used by a thief is a rather simple task. Simply require a password to synchronize or recharge it. If the wrong password has been entered three times,the IP of the computer would be sent to an Apple-funded security website. Gadgettheft and others like it only give you a sticky label for your product. I can just see the thieves calling you up and offering it back to you for a reward. Most Ipods are stolen not lost.