Apple applies for anti-theft patent

In the future, your smartphone – presumably the iPhone in this case, would be able to know whether it is in the process of being stolen or not. The thing is, how does a device know just the right kind of movement to claim that a theft is in progress, compared to you furiously whipping out your handset from the pocket because you were expecting an urgent call? Apple is working on finding the difference, but just to be prepared, they have gone ahead to file a patent application for a, “acceleration-based theft detection system for portable electronic devices.”

The patent filing mentioned that such a device equipped with this system will activate an alarm of sorts after determining, “whether a theft condition is present.” Needless to say, the integrated accelerometer will be crucial in figuring out whether you are being robbed, or it is just your Flash-like movement that caused its alarm bells to ring. Assuming it is successful and is extremely accurate upon implementation, expect this feature to be included in iPads and iPhones, considering those are highly sought after devices that rank pretty high on thieves’ lists.