US Carriers Able To Block Activation Of Stolen Smartphones That Are Abroad

US Carriers Able To Block Activation Of Stolen Smartphones That Are AbroadAccording to the good people over at the US wireless industry group CTIA, they have recently made an announcement that will bring a smile to the faces of smartphone users. In this announcement, the stolen phone database which was first launched in 2012 by AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon will kick into action, where it will in fact be integrated with carriers from outside of North America. In other words, we are looking at a collaboration with international carriers, where it would allow foreign operators block stolen US device activations. Stolen smartphones from the US that are activated abroad have long been a thorn in the flesh for law enforcement officials in the US, where the stolen phone database is seemingly a white elephant, as it is unable to be of any use should the stolen smartphones be sent outside of the US, since the respective serial numbers remain undetected.

The law enforcement officials will most probably want to see the inclusion of kill switches that are then installed in handsets so that phone theft will be crippled, at least to a certain extent, but most carriers are not too happy with such a suggestion. What do you think of the whole situation, and how would you remedy it?

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  • US Carriers Able To Block Activation Of Stolen Smartphones That Are Abroad original content from Ubergizmo.

        



    Dual-SIM HTC One with expandable storage comes to the UK

    Just days after it unveiled a second gold One, HTC is releasing another variant of its Android flagship in an attempt to boost sales in the UK. Today, the company announced the availability of the HTC One Dual SIM, which you may already know as HTC One 802w. Just like it’s Chinese counterpart, the device comes with a removable back for access to dual SIM slots and, more importantly, a microSD slot. That means you can switch between SIMs to receive calls and also fall back on up to 64GB of external storage, should you max-out the One’s 32GB of internal storage. The dual-SIM functionality does come at a price, however, as the latest One variant does not support LTE — otherwise the specs remain unchanged. If you can overlook that, the One Dual SIM is up for pre-order on HTC’s official store for £495 ($809), with it likely to head to a “number of networks and retailers” in the near future.

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    The Nationwide Stolen Smartphone Database Is Complete

    The Nationwide Stolen Smartphone Database Is Complete

    Last year, the FCC and the Big Four carriers announced that they were developing a national lost-and-stolen phone registry. Now, the wireless industry says that the database is complete.

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    YouTube app teardown hints at ad-free Music Pass service with offline playback

    YouTube logo

    Rumors of a YouTube-based music service just got some credibility thanks to an Android Police teardown of the Android app’s most recent code. The site has found references to a Music Pass that would let subscribers listen to “millions of songs” ad-free, even with the app running in the background. Customers could also pin content to the device for offline listening, although it would expire if the device stayed offline for too long. There’s no guarantee that Google will launch the Music Pass soon (if at all), but don’t be surprised if the YouTube app becomes your personal jukebox in the near future.

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    Blu Life Pro smartphone rocks MediaTek 1.5GHz quad core processor

    Blu Products has announced a new smartphone for fans of the Android operating system called the Blu Life Pro. The smartphone is thin with a profile of only 6.9mm. The device also features a quad-core processor and a large capacity battery for longer run time. The quad core processor is a 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6589T Cortex-A7. […]

    Nokia Lumia 525 has Snapdragon S4 and 4-inch screen

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