at least in finland you can use 3g/gprs data without contract. it only costs a hella lot. you need to have full block for data if you want to block whole data access (and that isn't on by default).

Also please check out http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=51027 which provides a way of linking scripts or an anti-theft application to an online service (via http://whereismydevice.com )

Cheers,

Ben

This is a great idea, but things are growing fast...
I think the best way to be sure it will work allways is to keep it very simple. I agree with all the fantastic ideas, but a very simple way to find the device must be kept. Something like:
The owner sends an SMS to the device containing (not beggining) a password (in some coutries the only safe way to do it is SMS!);
The device hides the SMS message and responds it (to the sender) with the gps position;
If the SIM card is changed the N900 sends the new number to a specific place;
That is the "must have" part. The rest of the ideas are wonderfull, but let's keep the simple way in mind...

just a few ideas but

how hard would it be to have a 2nd number/email address registered in the phone where if you change sim cards it automatically sends a sms/email to the registered account asking for permission to use that sim (with phone number)

you send a txt back saying yes or no and it comes up onscreen saying please enter password and starts encrypting everything in the background after the 2nd try no matter whats entered it will say password accepted and appear to work but wont make outgoing calls send txt messages or open any programs and then after 5mins timeout and the screen and keyboard powers down appearing as if its turned off

gps turns on and saves a log of GPS co-ordinates where the phone is in the same area for more than 10 minutes

it also autodetects any free wifi networks and emails/txts the log to your email/phone

if you end up getting your phone back you can simply unlock and unencrypt the device by putting in your 2nd sim and entering a password or connecting it to a registered computer

excellent point!

Better be safe than sorry - my n900 is connected 24/h with my bluetooth watch (se mbw-150) so if phone will get too far from me, it triggers alarm on both watch and n900. Saved my butt one time already

Isn't there already an app for that?
I've installed "I'm here" and I'm very happy with it.
When I lost my N900 I send a SMS (a secret password) to my phone and my phone sends GPS coordinates and both, front and back-camera photos to a specified mail adress.

"I am here" is from my point of view almost the final solution. Too bad it doesn't work and the developer vanished.

Well as far as idea goes, here's another one .

How about we write a watchdog process which for a boolean value from a server(http or ftp) every few minutes(we can set the time) and
then if the value goes to 1, the device just clicks a picture from the front cam, save the gps coordinates and send an sms to a specific number.

That ways, once we have the phone number of the (new simcard of the theif) we can track it. also we will have the gps coordinates. We can set up the app to keep sending sms every few minutes with updated gps coordinates

Just an idea...

Note: That boolean value can be set by the owner by just logging into the server from any internet connection.

I like this idea, instead of having a PIN on my sim card, I'd prefer it to be something in the phone itself. It's a feature I would use as an everyday thing. You have to turn the device off to change the PIN so that in itself would be a great thing!

Now for a REALLY good idea. Anyone that has seen the film Blade will know that if someone else uses his sword, blades come out of the handle... if only...