Apple’s Activation Lock Leads To Big Drops In Smartphone Theft Worldwide

[Speedbird]

Awesome! It's a sad truth that it's so effective because of how locked down iOS is. If Google created such a service for Android (which they did) anybody could bypass it by rebooting to the bootloader and forcing a factory reset.

[mr moose]

Awesome! It's a sad truth that it's so effective because of how locked down iOS is. If Google created such a service for Android (which they did) anybody could bypass it by rebooting to the bootloader and forcing a factory reset.

 

So this just means apples lock needs to be hard coded into the processor,  no amount of resetting and hacking will change that.

 

This can be done in conjunction with reporting a IMEI as stolen. 

This way permanently bricks the phone. It can't be activated, it can't even make it past the "setup" screen where it asks for the prior owners login information AND the best part is that the previous owner can remote wipe the phone the next time it comes into WiFi/Data range, but those wipes still don't remove the activation lock so you still need to login. The only way to disable this system is to do it from the phone settings, which requires the users account password anyways and physical access to the device. 

 

That makes more sense, it would avoid issue with international travel also.