“This reminds me of the bank robber who arrives during the security test”

This reminds me of the hired actor as a bank robber who arrives during the security test, to create free publicity for the security company

If you're going to steal a phone ...

wrap the damn thing in alumin(i)um foil.

Gizmodo might have discovered much more by doing likewise with the 'bar' phone.

Oh come on

Bit *convenient* to happen during a demo, no?

Let's see the police report.

You mean it...

managed to keep a signal for 10 minutes?

Good job they nabbed him quick

Running the GPS constantly like that would have thrashed the battery sharpish so good job they found the "thief" within 10 minutes.

Mines the one with they 222WHr Hypermac in the pocket - it might be heavy.

iMugged

theres an app for that

mines the coat that doesn have an iphone in

Mobileme

Especially since MobileME already has this function

I write GPS Tracking Software

As per the title, I write tracking software for mobiles which are used in Taxis and Private Hire vehicles.

You'd be amazed how difficult it is to actually get a police officer to attend even though you can tell them where the thief is, and where the stolen property is.

It's usually at the point when you say you'll go and recover it yourself with a few friends and they may want to be there for the thief's protection that they decide it's worth turning up for!!!!

gps

it can work both ways. it can help you find somewhere or something or it can help someone/something find you.

black helicopter? yep. to find you

Darn

The thief might have got away with it if he snatched the phone with his left hand.

He's obviously not sinister enough.

I did that months ago

Actually, about a month. My Hero got nicked at Download, so the next morning I trotted off to the Police hut and used Google Latitude to find out where my phone was. Turned out it was already in the middle of Derby.

20 minutes later, nothing had happened as- apparently- they'd pretty much need to catch the guy making a call where he says "yeah, so I just nicked this phone" before they'd be able to check. Add into that that it'd have been an inter-forces operation and they said there wasn't much of a chance of getting it back. Despite telling them that 1 minute ago he was within 5 meters of an address and that if need be I could update them over the phone as updates came into me.

So (a) Once again the iPhone's years behind everyone else (I did this before a few years ago with a different bit of software on an XDA Orbit) but takes the credit, and (b) The police aren't always that useful. Friendly, though- and amazed that you can do this with a phone! Probably could have helped a bit more if their laptop Internet was working and I hadn't had to call a friend and have him describe the location over the phone...

Wavesecure

Works for me and works on more than just a iPhone

Mines the coat with the traceable phone

Apple Store didn't do it...

Couple of weeks ago, 15-20 kids wearing hoodies and scarveswalked into the Apple Store in Solihull and walked out with 7 iPhone 4's and an iPad... Of all the places to have had GPS tracking installed on your devices you'd have thought it'd have been there...