'Kill switch' on smartphones takes a step forward

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A call by federal prosecutors for phone manufacturers to install a "kill switch" to discourage smartphone theft has taken a step forward, with Apple and Samsung providing handsets whose security features will be put to the test.

As part of the "Secure Our Smartphones" initiative announced by U.S. prosecutors and other groups in June, phone makers are being asked to find technological solutions to prevent smartphone theft. U.S. law enforcement is dealing with growing crime -- including murder -- related to smartphone theft, especially iPhones, and one of the ideas put forward was the installation of kill switches to disable smartphones completely.

As part of the SOS initiative, Apple will provide an iPhone 5 with the "Activation Lock" enabled, while Samsung will provide a Galaxy S4 smartphone with the LoJack for Android feature. The smartphones will be tested for security features and "attempts will be made to circumvent the anti-theft features," said San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a joint statement on Thursday.

The New York Attorney General's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on when the results of the tests would be published.

The prosecutors expect smartphones with kill switches to be released by early 2014, and discussions about the initiative have been held with Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft. The SOS initiative is also backed by state officials, police chiefs, district attorneys, attorneys general and consumer advocacy groups.

Apple's "Activation Lock" feature in iOS 7 requires an iPhone owner to enter a username and password to enable a locked or wiped phone. The feature is intended to make it difficult to resell a lost or stolen iPhone.
However, Gascon in the past has said the Activation Lock feature doesn't go far enough to reduce smartphone theft. The feature isn't as good as a kill switch, which disables a smartphone completely and makes it useless, he has said.

During a press conference last month to announce SOS, Gascon also berated Apple for being uncooperative about bringing more stringent security features to the iPhone. However, Apple's chairman, Arthur Levinson, on the same day issued a statement saying that while the company shares the concerns about growing smartphone theft, it was being unfairly targeted as not cooperating to resolve the issue.

It is estimated that about 1.6 million people were victims of smartphone theft in the U.S. last year. Around 30% to 40% of all robberies are smartphone theft, according to the U.S. prosecutors.

Source:Internet

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Smartphone app Uber offers ice cream-on-demand service

Don't scream for ice cream. Just pick up your smartphone.
Uber, the San Francisco startup known for letting people order private drivers in sleek black cars using a smartphone app, is offering an ice cream-on-demand service - for one day only - in more than three dozen cities around the world, including New York, Philadelphia, London, Singapore and Rome.
  "In San Francisco last year, we had so much demand that in order for everyone to get ice cream, we would have had to have 1,000 trucks on the road," Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said. "That's a city with 1,500 cabs."
On normal days, Uber lets people order a ride in a taxi, a regular car, a high-end sedan or an SUV using its smartphone app, after they register for the service with their credit card information. Rates depend on where you are. In San Francisco, for example, a ride from the San Francisco airport to the city ranges from $50 to $85.

Source:Internet

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Breathometer Turns Smartphones Into Personal Breathalyzers

Blowing into a breathalyzer usually happens at random holiday checkpoints, or worse, after a cop pulls over an erratic vehicle. What if you could pre-empt that potential DWI/DUI charge—a criminal misdemeanor in New York State—by measuring your own, or your driver's blood alcohol content (BAC) before even entering the vehicle?

The people at Breathometer are soliciting funds and pre-orders for their smartphone breathalyzer right now on Indiegogo. The device is a small plastic dongle that plugs into the headphone jack of either an iPhone or Android phone. You activate a special Breathometer app on the smartphone, and blow into the device, with your BAC reading displaying on your phone.

The company claims Breathometer is as accurate as any other consumer Breathalyzer on the market, which usually cost $50 and up. If the screen shows you have 0.08 pecent—the level considered "legally intoxicated"—you know not to drive. If you drive with BAC between 0.05 percent and 0.08 percent, the charge is a DWAI—Driving While Ability Impaired—which is a traffic infraction in New York.

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