Apple's new operating system comes with the best theft-deterring software on a smartphone yet.
Not sure if you’ve heard: iPhone theft is a booming business in big cities. In New York City, for example, Apple picking (as it’s called) represents 14 percent of all crimes, producing the city’s first crime increase in 20 years.
Both iPhones and Android phones offer a “Find My Phone” feature, which lets you track down a stolen phone. Trouble is, all the bad guy has to do is erase the phone — and boom. You can’t find it anymore. It’s clean and ready to sell into the black market.
Well, not anymore. In iOS 7, Apple slipped in a mind-bogglingly brilliant new feature called Activation Lock. It’s very, very simple: Nobody can erase an iPhone — or turn off Find My iPhone — without entering the owner’s Apple password. Which the mugger almost certainly won't know.
A phone that can’t be used, erased or resold is as useful to a thief as a brick. Once word gets out that stealing an iPhone is useless, thieves will have to find some other way to make a living. Home construction or church work, maybe.
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