What if you bought the upcoming $299 Nokia Lumia 1020 smartphone on Friday, the day it officially goes on sale, only to have it stolen a few minutes after you purchased it? This is not an impossible scenario; thefts of all kinds of smartphones are increasing all over the country.
George Gascó, the district attorney for San Francisco, is helping to lead an effort to get the major smartphone hardware and software makers to put in features that would make such a device unusable to a thief. Techhive.com reports that this week, Apple and Samsung reps showed off their anti-theft measures to Gascó.
Apple's solution is requiring an user ID and password for any of their phones that have been locked, disabled or wiped. Samsung has put a new feature in the firmware of its Galaxy S4 smartphone that will let the owner of a stolen device track its location if the thief uses the phone on a wireless network.
Gascó said that while Apple and Samsung are trying to offer anti-theft improvements in their new smartphones, he added, "I am not sure that’s still the answer with Google and Microsoft and that’s why we’re going to continue to insist and work with them to move them forward." Gascó says that all four companies have a 2014 deadline to put in anti-theft features in their smartphones and hinted at possible legal consequences if those companies do not make progress in this matter.
Source: Techhive.com | Image via Nokia
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