5 WAYS TO THEFT-PROOF YOUR MAC
The only sure way to keep your MacBook out of the wrong hands is to lock it up in a vault and never take it out of your home or
office—but that defeats the purpose of owning the world’s best laptop in the first place, doesn’t it? Short of keeping it quarantined
in an underground fallout shelter, these five products can keep your ’book safe—or at least safer when you take it with you into the
outside world.
1KEEP IT TIED UP
The Kensington MicroSaver Alarmed
Computer Lock is a 6-foot covered steel
cable with a T-bar lock on one end, and an
electronic alarm in a plastic housing on the
other. It takes a key rather than a numeric
combination to unlock it.
Once we liberated the product from its
hard plastic packaging, it was a no-brainer
to use: Uncoil the cable, turn on the alarm,
thread the lock around something sturdy
(like the leg of a heavy table or desk), then
through the circular opening on the alarm,
and mate the T-bar lock to the Kensington
lock slot on your laptop. Push in the key and
turn it to attach the lock, and then remove
the key.
While the lock is only as good as the
strength of the device it’s connected to, we
had no problems when we attached it to a
deceased PowerBook G4. We tugged firmly
on the PowerBook and the cable remained
affixed, though the alarm remained silent:
It only sounds if you press and hold the test
button, or if someone tries cut the cable.
We slashed at the steel cable with a pair of
long-handled loppers, and the alarm sounded
before we could finish the job. There was no
way to turn it off aside from smashing it with
a hammer, and the experience was highly
nerve-wracking—which is exactly how you
want a thief to feel when it’s your laptop on
the line.
The bottom line. The Kensington
MicroSaver Alarmed Computer Lock should
protect you from unaccomplished criminals,
but if someone wants your hardware badly
enough, they may find ways to defeat the
lock, the cable, or the alarm.
Choose a sturdy table
or desk leg to tether
your laptop to.
MICROSAVER ALARMED
COMPUTER LOCK
Kensington
www.kensington.com
Price: $54.99
Requirements: Kensington lock
slot
Velcro strap keeps cable coiled
neatly for storage. Alarm sounds
until the battery dies.
Test button can be activated
unintentionally. Plastic alarm
housing seems a bit flimsy.
Mac|Life GREAT
RATED
2BUY A BETTER BAG
The Pacsafe MeshSafe B200 antitheft
backpack is designed to hold a 15-inch
laptop computer and other gear. A major
advantage to any backpack—even one
without added theft-prevention features—
is that it doesn’t look like a laptop bag.
Our 15-inch MacBook Pro fit fine inside the
B200’s removable laptop sleeve, but not
quite as snugly as we would have liked.
Ditto for a 12-inch iBook.
The bag’s antitheft features include a
steel mesh lining (called eXomesh) inside
the lower front and bottom panels to protect
items from being taken from the bag if it
gets slashed in those spots, steel wires in the
shoulder straps to guard against slashing, a
shoulder strap that can be quickly anchored
around a secure fixture to prevent someone
from running off with the bag, and clips with
locks to secure the zippers from pickpockets.
When we went at the bag with a steak
knife, we were disappointed. There’s no
eXomesh at the top of the bag, and cutting
a hole wide enough to remove our old iBook
took only seconds. The bag’s bottom and
lower front and shoulder straps resisted
repeated knife swipes, however, making
us feel fairly secure that our MacBook Pro
would be protected in this bag—at least
for a few minutes—if we locked it to a
café table leg, a library carrel, or other
similar spot.
The bottom line. The B200 is a well-
designed bag that doesn’t advertise the fact
that a laptop might be inside. The zipper
locks can foil
MESHSAFE B200 pickpockets, and
it might even be
Pacsafe
www.pacsafe.com amusing to watch
Price: $119.95 Requirements: 15-inch MacBook or someone try to
MacBook Pro snatch a well-
Looks like an ordinary backpack. anchored bag.
Useful compartments. Great design.
New bag has new-bag smell. But if an assailant
Strap across chest could present threatens us with
choking hazard during theft
attempts. a blade, we’ll hand
Mac|Life SOLID over the bag and
R A T E D run like mad.
Thieves can’t slash through the steel
mesh lining in this pack’s front panel
and straps.
