Fraud-proof phones

If your cellphone is ever stolen, or perhaps "borrowed" by a friend or one of the kids, then hopefully you remembered to lock it with a password. Few people do this, however, as it is such a pain to enter a code each time you want to make a call.IBM has come up a very simple and sensible alternative. Under a special new setting, personal contact numbers stored on the device are marked as "OK-to-dial" without a password. But new numbers and international or premium ones all require a password to connect. Of course, adding someone to the phone's memory also requires the correct password.So if a thief steals your phone and tries to call a number not in the memory, the phone prompts them for the right code. If the wrong one is entered, the device shuts down completely until it is inputted.The only slight inconvenience is the need to enter a code before making international calls or phoning a new number. But that's a small price to pay for peace of mind, I'd say.