Is the iPod responsible for national crime wave?

Correlation does not imply causation. This is basic first-year statistics.

-Addison James

My name is Ken Westin and I am the founder of GadgetTrak ( www.gadgettrak.com ), based in Portland, Oregon. I noticed your article on the Urban Institute's recent panel and thought you might be interested in what we are doing. We provide software that enables devices to send information back regarding their location when they are stolen. Over the past few months we have recovered several iPods for our customers, we have also launched new products for cell phones and laptop computers.

Mobile device theft is becoming an increasing problem and it is not limited to iPods, we are seeing a rise in laptop, cell phone and GPS thefts. Feel free to contact me for more information regarding our products, company or gadget theft in general.

Kind Regards,


--
Ken Westin
GadgetTrak - Founder
http://www.gadgettrak.com

Number One.

iPod theft, according to the very concept of "iPods are easy to steal", is NONviolent. So how can it contribute to violent crime? People don't get beat up over their iPod, they just get swiped.

Number Two.
The reason for violent crime increase isn't iPod, it's the counter-effective "war on drugs".

Number Three.
Flash drives sell better now than they did in the 90s...OMG! That must mean they are a contributing factor too! O t3h n0es!!!11oneone

They must mean the administration when they say crime wave.

No. PEOPLE are responsible for the national crime wave.

Do what all the cool kids do:

Put your iPod Earbud wire under your garment. Hides a lot of the wire.

Secondly, keep the iPod in a pocket or something. It's harder to steal that way - especially if you're wearing tight jeans.

Next, don't flash it around. Get a controller of some sort that doesn't require you to take your iPod out out to change tracks (something like the Gear4Blueye).

Finally, grow your hair really long so people can't see the iPod wire sticking out from under your shirt ;)


I, personally, find that the Shuffle is the best Anti-Crime iPod.

It has a clip (so you can clip it to a belt strap thingy on your pants) so thieves won't get any luck inside your pockets and it can't be pulled away from you without you noticing, before it's too late. It's small and also navigable from under clothing so need to ever get it out in public (Although with the lack of any manly, non-silver colours, you're probably not going to unless you're a woman :P What I keep wondering is why the RED Shuffle looks more burgundy/deep pink)... but more importantly, it's cheap so if it IS stolen then you're not $200 out of pocket.

Yeah. And this "money" stuff is really popular, and it started a crime wave, too!!! People are always trying to steal money!

If we just stopped producing money, then nobody would try to steal it and nobody would be tempted to become a thief!

::rollseyes::

Could we please move on from the "correlation does not imply causality" ? I think it's pretty clear and obvious that no one here believes that (unless you are reading this too, mr. Ballmer)

I was mugged for my iphone last saturday.. luckily I got away and they only got the headphones.

Our local Police Chief in Lincoln, Nebraska is a bit of a blog-star. His page is the best writing by a governmental official I have ever read. He posted about this fake-news trend today.

"Testing the iCrime theory"
http://lpd304.blogspot.com/2008/03/testing-icrime-theory.html

Good stuff, just like always.