FBI admits to ‘over-counting’ inaccessible mobile devices

For the last two years, the FBI has repeatedly claimed that thousands of phones linked to criminal investigations were inaccessible due to locks and encryption. Last year FBI Director Christopher Wray said it had failed to access 7,800 mobile devices...

Umbrellocked

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Somewhere in a parallel universe lies a civilization of umbrellas that just escaped from earth. I swear, I’ve lost at least 20 umbrellas in my life. They just vanish, apparently. I’m not the only one, apparently. Because now designers got together and created an umbrella with a lock. Yes! The umbrella handle has an inbuilt lock (like a bicycle lock) that extends outwards and allows you to loop and secure it around any pole, railing, or piece of furniture.

It comes with a combination key, so you don’t need to be worried about losing actual keys at the risk of protecting your umbrellas! There, let’s see them ‘brellas escape from us now!

Designers: Zhang Shuo, Daishao Yun, and Wang Wen-Year.

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Verizon Galaxy S III has locked bootloader (but it’s been rooted anyway)

DNP Verizon 'forced' Samsung to lock Galaxy S III boot loader

Based on Samsung's hacker-friendly track record, you'd generally expect one of it smartphones to come with an unlocked bootloader, making it easy to update or tweak with unofficial ROMs. That's not the case with Verizon's imminent version of the Galaxy S III, however. As the folk at XDA know only too well, this particular iteration of Sammy's flagship comes with a sealed bootloader, which makes it resistant (though not impervious) to hackery.

Of course, Sammy has nothing to gain from snubbing the modding community in this way, so it stands to reason that VZW pushed the Korean manufacturer to supply them with a locked bootloader -- despite the fact that all other variants have been left open. We've reached out to Big Red for comment, but in the meantime a clever soul over at Rootzwiki claims they've already found a workaround for root access. (At this point, though, we'd better provide our usual disclaimer: be very careful before you poke around in there, because going up against a locked bootloader can be risky. The apparent safety of modern life is just a shallow skin atop an ocean of blood, guts and bricked devices.)

Verizon Galaxy S III has locked bootloader (but it's been rooted anyway) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Jul 2012 08:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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