Behind Your Business

Future versions of Apple's iPhone may come equipped with the smartphone version of a LoJack car-recovery system, a patent application filed by the computer giant suggests. The application details a system that can take photos of an unauthorized user, pinpoint his or her location, or even detect the user's heartbeat patterns after the phone owner reports it lost or stolen.

The technology, which can also be applied to Wi-Fi-equipped iPods and iPads, could notify Apple or the user if the SIM card is removed or if multiple failed log-ins occur.

The Aug. 19 application drew notice in the tech media for its reference to jailbreaking -- the process of owners modifying an iPhone to run applications not approved by Apple -- as one of the red flags triggering remote action. But while the system might alert Apple if an iPhone has been jailbroken, there's not much the company can do about it.

The Library of Congress ruled last month that, despite Apple's protests, "Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications" are exempt from the prohibition against circumventing technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.

That's as long as the modification is "for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset." So the process is legal, although it voids Apple's warranty.

Remote Wipe

Previous tracking solutions for wayward iPhones have involved apps that continuously transmit the iPhone's data via GPS -- which only work if the program is running in the background -- and one that sends tweets with the phone's coordinates to a Twitter account. But neither enables remote locking or deletion of data.

Apple used a remote wipe to deactivate a prototype of the iPhone 4 that was lost in a California bar and ended up in...