Laptop theft prevention device

BELGIUM'S FINEST modem company Option has come up with an excellent wheeze for preventing laptop theft. Don't carry one.

Of course, laptop theft will be a major headache at the forthcoming MWC show in Barcelona later this month.

Attendees have nasty habit of making it easy for thieves and muggers by lugging their laptops around in black bags clearly marked 'Toshiba' or 'Dell' or something.

HP reputedly had all of its laptops stolen one year from a stand inside the exhibition.

What Option suggests attendees do, however, is to carry one of its Option' 'Virtual PC' devices around instead. Basically it's an intelligent 3G dongle.

Dongle manufacturers - like Huawei - have long offered devices that have software loaded onto them and which act like a USB hard drive as well as 3G modem.

But Option has taken this trend one step further and will be offering the Virtual PC dongle which has a full, working copy of Open Office loaded onto it.

According to the company, "When you disconnect your USB modem, no trace of your activity is left on the PC you 'borrowed'.

And there's the rub. For this ruse to work, you have to be able to lay your hands on an unused PC of some kind. (Not sure whether there's a Mac version).

Whereas on the first day of the show in the Press centre, spare machines are as about as plentiful as hen's teeth.

Still, the INQ might decide to give it a go.

Beats splashing out on laptop theft insurance. µ