Stolen iPods Become Bricks
Apple have filed yet another patent. This time they have come up with a way to turn a stolen iPod into a unusable brick in less than ten hours. Well not literally, but…
A special circuit in the iPod will in the future be able check if your computer is authorized to charge the iPod. Kind of like the remote control pairing, I guess. To me, this sounds like a good idea as long as the thief is smart enough to realize that what he’s doing is pointless.
But then there’s always some smart jackass who’s going to develop some kind of crack; there always is. Just as there’s a lot of kids out there writing viruses as we speak. Thank god we’re Mac users.
Anyhow, good thinking. Nice of big Apple to lookout for us fan boys. I just wish they would have come up with this before my Mini got stolen…
PcPro, original article
4 Comments, Comment or Ping
Robert
What about people like me who switched to a new laptop recently not the original computer my 30gig video was networked with?
What about those times I visit a friend 18 miles away and don’t want to take my laptop into his crime prone neighborhood? How do I charge my ipod then? It’s just another way for apple to fuck us with DRM basically it’s a DRM for my Ipod as a whole, fuck that.
Jul 30th, 2007
Daniel
You’ll probably be able to authenticate the iPod through iTunes or something. That’s my guess. Like the songs we buy from iTunes. (We buy music, don’t we? :D)
I watched a presentation about iTunes at Apple Store in Santa Monica. If I remember correctly, you could authenticate 5 computers to play your songs but you could also deauth them.
But good point there.
Jul 30th, 2007
Matt
What about people who want to sell their iPod on ebay when a new iPod comes out or they want to get rid of their old one?
Jul 30th, 2007
Daniel
Yeah, that’s another problem. But I bet there are many solutions and surely the Apple development team will find a comfortable such. User experience is what Apple is all about.
Bah, wish people wouldn’t steal. Then we wouldn’t have to worry. :)
Jul 30th, 2007
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