We’ve heard plenty about the “kill switch” which Samsung and others have been working on, to help fight smartphone thieves. Samsung has talked about a kill switch in the past, and there are some new reports coming out today, from The Wall Street Journal that are bringing the kill switch back to light. The new anti-theft system looks to finally help the problem that law enforcement has been fighting for some time now.
One of the major problems with all this evolving technology is that more and more smartphones and tablets are being stolen. Although, iPhones are more prone to being stolen than Android devices. The “kill switch” is reported to make the device completely unusable, hints the name “Kill Switch”. This would make stealing devices useless, as selling them won’t work either. So far I’m liking this idea. Back in 2009, smartphone theft jumped 500%, which is also the year when the smartphone market really started to boom. Smartphone theft isn’t slowing down anytime now either. Especially with more and more smartphones being found and them costing more and more. The “kill switch” is going to be a big help to fight against smartphone theft as well.
For quite some time, Apple has had their Find my iPhone/iPad/iPad/Mac which allows you to find your device, remotely wipe it or ring it. Google has just recently launched their own “find my Android” type of service in the form of “Android Device Manager” and the good thing is that it’s available for every Android device and was pushed out pretty quickly. That made me fall in love with the Google Play Services app. Being able to push out updates like that to the nearly billion Android devices all at once without needing carriers or manufacturers to push out OTA’s is just awesome.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Samsung and LG could introduce their kill switch in their phones starting in early 2014. Hopefully Samsung will start it with the Galaxy Note 3 being announced next week, and be able to push it to their other devices. Because we know they have a ton of devices out there, just from 2013.