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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC5/15/14 3:15 PM |
I'll let someone else to work out the kinks.
I think it's a good idea. But at $160, it's not going to sell.
I much prefer another idea. A while back, there's a bike alarm on Performance. It's suppose to make lots and lots of noise unless you enter the right code. I thought that's perfect. But for some reason, it didn't catch on and it's gone from Performance. I don't know what was the issue with that one. Perhaps poor quality?
If this thing catches on, it'll drop to $50 or less. Then I might get one, once all the "early adoptors" test out all the scenarios.
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Andy M-S
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 3377
Location: Hamden (greater New Haven) CT5/15/14 5:18 PM |
exploits
They'll be popular until someone figures out a Bluetooth exploit to unlock all the bikes in range of their phone...
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Dave B
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 4511
Location: Pittsburgh, PA5/15/14 5:36 PM |
Those alarms are so prevalent and go off by accident so frequently that they are almost universally ignored. How often have you heard a car alarm sounding in a parking lot and just assumed someone accidently bumped the panic button on their key fob. Did it draw a bunch of cops to investigate? This won't either.
As a lock, it's just as vulnerable to angle grinders and car jacks as any other.
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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC5/15/14 5:49 PM |
quote:
How often have you heard a car alarm sounding in a parking lot and just assumed someone accidently bumped the panic button on their key fob.
It is, usually. But if the alarm doesn't go off within a minute or two, cops are sometimes called to silence it.
(I saw it twice, car owner parked their car away from their home, the car got bumped, alarm kept going... cop got called, what they do I don't know, but the alarm stopped)
Bike owners, on the other hand, don't usually leave their bikes far away. So they're much more likely to hear it and come back before the thief make off with the bike.
Different expectation of the same technology. For car, alarm is to attract attention of passerby. For bikes, the attention of its owner.
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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5101
Location: Nashua, NH5/16/14 5:56 AM |
Dave B is right
Bike thieves don't pick locks, they cut or break them. The Bluetooth thing is just a gimmick and it will be less reliable than a simple, inexpensive key.
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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC5/16/14 8:31 AM |
disagree
quote:
Bike thieves don't pick locks, they cut or break them. The Bluetooth thing is just a gimmick
The difference is, when your conventional lock got cut by the thief, you don't know about it until hours later. By the time you come out and find your bike gone, anybody who might have seen the thief would have been gone too. With a blue tooth lock designed (& working) properly, you'll know about it right away. You might be able to come out and, even if the thief had left, you might still find people who saw which way the thief had gone.
On the negative side, I'm less convinced on the "software hack proof" part of the blue tooth lock. I think it would be quite easy to write a program to pick the lock. Whether there's a "market" for the professional thief, is a different matter.
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Andy M-S
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 3377
Location: Hamden (greater New Haven) CT5/16/14 8:46 AM |
Bluetooth Hacks
I'm not all that convinced that BT is *ever* secure. There's a company that uses a BT interface between insulin pumps and their controls. Not long ago, an exploit was demonstrated that allowed someone to tell all of the pumps made by that company (within the range of the hacker's phone) to pump extra insulin.
As a long-time diabetic, this scares the s__t out of me. I'm quite sure a hack could be devised that would block the lock from alerting the user, or that would open the lock, or both. There's a lot to be said for good old fashioned steel and mechanical keys.
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April
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 6593
Location: Westchester/NYC5/16/14 9:34 AM |
blue tooth is only a communication protocal
I don't think blue tooth itself is secure at all. Sure, it's got the most rudimentry "recognition" when pairing. But that's more to do with avoiding interference than security.
Any security would have to be in the app itself. You can put all kind of manual or biometric password into the app itself. Granted, all of them are hackable. But at some point, it wouldn't be worth the hassle of the hacker to hack a bike lock that has as much security as online banking!
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dddd
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 3345
Location: NorCal5/16/14 10:16 AM |
I've used inexpensive Ebay bike alarms in combination with a light cable and my own creative disabling of the bike to feel secure while in class.
The alarm has been set off accidentally by other bikers who were parking bikes, but if any has tried to steal my bike, they must have been deterred because I still have it.
The alarm's quality has varied, some have lasted for years, others became battery-eaters or became "insensitive" to all but the most jarring motions.
Very low weight though and low cost as well.
Bike grabs and shop burglaries seem on the rise here, but still very low crime overall.
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