I love gadgets.

If it’s new, electronic, and expensive I’ll probably buy it. Which is why I have a loft full of Betamax video’s and laserdiscs.

So I was obviously intrigued when I heard about a new piece of technology which has been designed to stop your mobile phone being stolen.

Mobile phone crime is on the increase, which is a bad thing, so anything that prevents this crime is surely a good thing, yes? Well, no actually. What this device actually does is emit a loud screaming noise and delete all of your personal information, but only once you’ve reported your phone stolen.

Now, I can see how this is going to stop my recently stolen phone from being sold on, but how, pray tell, is it going to prevent it from being stolen? I can’t imagine many phone thieves looking you up and saying,

“You know what, I wanted to sell this on, but I notice you had the foresight to invest in this innovative phone disabling technology rendering my crime worthless. Here, have your handset back. I have seen the folly of my ways. Good day.”

So in reality, what you’re actually paying £10 a month for is the privilege of knowing that if your phone gets stolen, no-one will be able to sell it on. Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s not really worth £10 a month of my money now is it? You do not get your phone back, there is in fact, no prevention at all. None. In effect, it is simply a remote controlled self-destruction tool.

I have insurance cover so that if my phone is stolen, or lost, I get a replacement, for free. What do I care if my stolen handset is resold? OK, there might be one or two incriminating photo’s on there, but I’ve been careful not to have my face in them so it’d take a team of CSI specialists to identify me. And I think they’re too busy enlisting various TV franchises across the US to be worried about some poorly-shot out of focus mobile-phone porn.

As new gadgets go, this is a pretty poor one. I’ll bet Mobile XT will be bust within a year (based on previous predictions, this might be a good time for you to buy shares in them).

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