Have you ever suffered the theft of a piece of electrical equipment? If so, have you ever wished there was a remote button you could press that would make the stolen item completely useless to its thieves? Well, the option is now available to certain smartphone users.

Imagine you’re sat in a café and for a brief moment you break away from staring at your ‘phone, updating statuses, Tweeting pics of your food and playing Angry Jewelled Bird Farming in order to have an actual conversation with a real, living, breathing human being. During these few seconds of interaction some vile cretin lifts your ‘phone.

Trauma

You’re inconsolable, you require counselling, you feel as though limbs are missing and loved ones are deceased. You also have the performance of informing your service provider, insurance companies and even telling friends and family that you’re un-contactable. Oh … and you’ve just realised that … ahem … there might be some photos of you on the device that you’re not keen on anyone seeing.

As all these troubles and scenarios swim through your mind, the thief is busy selling your most treasured possession in order to finance his addiction to slot machines, penny chews and bottles of pop (or whatever it is criminals do these days). But thanks to some clever boffins at the likes of Google and Microsoft, you can reduce their theft to a meaningless lump of plastic.

Useless

Because they’ve introduced something with the dramatic name; “The Kill Switch”. Yes, it does sound like a Quentin Tarantino film but it’s something that can be remotely activated by your service provider or by yourself from a computer. It “kills” the smartphone and renders it useless to anyone that attempts to use it.

At the moment, it seems to be only available for Android and Windows users. There is however a similar system for iPhone known as “Activation Lock” which is reducing iPhone thefts successfully.

On Your Bike

If only similar programmes could be installed on all of our belongings. Imagine someone stealing your bicycle and as they peddle furiously down the street, you press a button that immediately detaches the wheels from the frame. That’ll teach ‘em!

Have you ever suffered the theft of a piece of electrical equipment? If so, have you ever wished there was a remote button you could press that would make the stolen item completely useless to its thieves? Well, the option is now available to certain smartphone users.

Trauma

Useless

On Your Bike

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