The Apple company, with a number of branches that were looted as part of the latest wave of riots, has activated proximity software in the stolen devices to render them unusable.
A looter powering up his new device sees the message: “This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted.”
Forbes says it is unlikely any of those devices will be returned to stores as requested, but rather will likely be quickly dumped over fears there is some form of tracking in place.
Apple has been known in the past to use special images of iOS on demo unit iPhones, and those demo iPhones have a kill switch that disables the phones as soon as they are out of range of the store's Wi-Fi network. Apple also already offers a service to users called FindMy that allows tracking of lost or stolen iPhones via the user's iCloud account, reports Arstechnica.