Isn't that the entire point of mobile phones having an IMEI number? Hardly new to the iPhone. In fact, it looks as if all they've actually done is the remote-wipe feature of mobile me ... and no one outside apple can get it working again, as you need the right "image" to restore on to it. Which obviously isn't available yet.
edit: I presume IMEI isn't something that's unique to the UK?
> I presume IMEI isn't something that's unique to the UK?
Definitely not, though depending on the underlying system the acronym will change a bit, the function is the same, to identify a phone independent of the identity card in it.
This is why people that prank call 911 with their identity card removed from the phone are caught.
Not always... there are lots of mobile phones where you can change the imei with simple tricks - temporarily or permanently. I know it was trivial to reprogram this on many siemens sets ~6 years ago.
It's not unique to the UK. But most US mobile customers never have had to deal with swapping SIMs between devices and, thusly, never needed to know what their IMEI is.
Comments
Isn't that the entire point of mobile phones having an IMEI number? Hardly new to the iPhone. In fact, it looks as if all they've actually done is the remote-wipe feature of mobile me ... and no one outside apple can get it working again, as you need the right "image" to restore on to it. Which obviously isn't available yet.
edit: I presume IMEI isn't something that's unique to the UK?
> I presume IMEI isn't something that's unique to the UK?
Definitely not, though depending on the underlying system the acronym will change a bit, the function is the same, to identify a phone independent of the identity card in it.
This is why people that prank call 911 with their identity card removed from the phone are caught.
Not always... there are lots of mobile phones where you can change the imei with simple tricks - temporarily or permanently. I know it was trivial to reprogram this on many siemens sets ~6 years ago.
It's not unique to the UK. But most US mobile customers never have had to deal with swapping SIMs between devices and, thusly, never needed to know what their IMEI is.