Hasta La Gadget!

The problem: You are a telco, and you give away netbooks in order to lock customers into lengthy 3G internet contracts. The customer does a runner and stops paying his bills. With a cellphone, simply cutting the service from afar would make the handset useless. But with a netbook? The customer still has a fully working computer.

The solution: Fit a kill switch that can disable the netbook from afar. This is exactly what Ericsson has done, and it even has a catchy name for the tech: "We call it a ‘kill pill," Ericsson VP Mats Norin told the Associated Press.

The mobile broadband card, called the F3607gw, has other features, such as low power consumption and wake-on-wireless capability, but its the remote control that is the most interesting. By sending an SMS to the unit, the card speaks to Intel’s ATT (Anti-Theft Technology) inside the machine. This not only locks down the hard drive but the actual computer itself. Even swapping in a new drive wouldn’t wake the computer from its deathly slumber.

Morally, we’re confused on this one. When you sign a contract, you are agreeing to honor an agreement. Break it and the injured party has a right to redress, and to repossess its property. On the other hand, handing life or death control of our equipment over to somebody else is always a chilling thought. Our advice? Buy your own machine and stick a 3G USB dongle in the side. But then, we’re control freaks. In fact, give us the handle of the kill switch so we disable our machines if they are stolen.

New laptop modems would let wireless carrier send ‘kill pill’ to freeze a deadbeat’s computer [AP]

Ericsson to enable wireless kill switch for laptops [Ars]

Photo: włodi/Flickr