New Report Says FBI Paid Less Than $1 Million to Unlock San Bernardino Shooter’s iPhone

Last week, FBI director James Comey hinted at how much the agency paid to unlock San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook’s iPhone, saying it cost more than he will make in the next seven years and four months. The number worked out to around $1.3 million, as Comey’s annual salary is $183,000. However, sources now tell Reuters that the amount was actually under $1 million.

Although the FBI says it will keep the technique it used to unlock Farook’s iPhone 5c a secret, sources tell Reuters that the agency can use the method on other iPhone 5c’s running iOS 9. The FBI has physical possession of the mechanism used to unlock the phone and does not need to pay the contractor any more money for further uses.

The contractor responsible for the method is a closely-held secret within the FBI, with Comey being in the dark himself, according to Reuters’ sources. In mid-April, it was reported that the FBI hired “professional hackers,” at least one of which is a gray hat researcher that sells flaws to governments, black market groups or surveillance companies.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

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i.am+ Dial Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Hats off to Will.i.am — he’s really mastered the art of getting his wrist into photos.

MIke Nelson/EPA

Will.i.am has released his latest stab at making a gadget. Will.u.buy.it?

The i.am+ Dial is a smartwatch with a phone built in. It’s the second attempt at a wrist-worn, phone-free wearable from the former Black Eyed Peas musician and producer after the abortive Puls, which failed to set hearts racing. Between that, his bizarre Foto.sosho iPhone case, his weird triangular speaker backpack and a collaboration with Gucci that never materialised, you’ll forgive us if we struggle to take Will.i.am’s tech ventures very ser.i.ously.

But let’s give the Dial the benefit of the doubt — it is, after all, probably the closest an i.am device has come to the wrists of the public, going up for preorder in the UK now.

The i.am smartwatch needs no phone to make calls and texts.

Three

Courtesy of British network Three, the Dial starts from £19 (that’s roughly $28 or AU$36) up front, followed by a two-year contract at roughly £25 per month (in the ballpark of $35, or AU$45 per month). Those are just direct conversions of the UK price, by the way — there’s no word yet on when it will be available outside the UK.

Dial up

The Dial has its own 3G SIM card, so you don’t need a phone to call, text and email from your wrist. You can connect to Wi-Fi, but there’s no 4G, which is a bit of a disappointment.

With no phone screen to type on and only a 1.63-inch AMOLED screen on the watch, how do you control the Dial? By chatting to it, using the built-in voice-activated system called AneedA — as in “I need a…”

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Maybe you need to play a particular song, or create a custom playlist, or you need to know about the latest news and concerts for your favourite artists. You can also instruct AneedA to tweet, call you a taxi, or take a selfie with the 2-megapixel camera.

Included in the price is an unlimited ad-free music service boasting more than 20 million music tracks. You can stream and download tracks to the 32GB memory without racking up data charges — it’s all included in that monthly fee. The watch comes with a pair of Bluetooth i.am+ EP earphones to listen to your tunes.

Leica M-D (Typ 262) Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Leica

I can’t hold back: I have to take out my mockery stick and bash the Leica M-D with it. After all, at $6,000 (£4,650; Australia pricing unavailable, but that’s about AU$7,900) it’s not only more expensive than most other full-frame interchangeable-lens cameras, but it’s a more expensive version of the manual-focus-only Leica M (Typ 262) without a back LCD or the ability to shoot video. Instead, the ISO sensitivity dial takes a prominent place right the the middle of the camera back.

Then there are Leica’s tag lines for it: “A step back to the future.” (Oh, Leica, you had me at “A step back.”) “The joy of anticipation.” (Because nothing’s as fun as waiting till you’re at a computer to find out you’ve missed critical shots.)

But I mock because I don’t subscribe to the theory that being able to view photos on the spot ruins my concentration or that “No LCD screen leads to more freedom for creative photography.” I’m not a purist. And I know you’re out there. Maybe after trying it out, Leica will be able to make a believer out of me.

The basic specs are identical to the two-year-old Leica M, including a 24-megapixel CMOS sensor, reverse Galilean optical viewfinder with framing lines for different focal lengths and three frames-per-second continuous shooting for eight frames.

The camera’s slated to ship in May.

Supreme Court approves feds’ request for greater hacking powers

The FBI found an ally in the Supreme Court in its quest to expand its hacking powers. Today, the highest federal court in the US has agreed to the changes made to Rule 41, giving judges the authority to approve remote access to suspects’ computers outside their jurisdiction. Under the original Rule 41, a judge in, say, New York can only authorize hacking into a suspect’s computer in New York. But the amended rule means that same judge in New York can approve the feds’ request to hack into a computer in Florida, Alaska, or anywhere else, really.

According to the court documents that detail the changes:

“…a magistrate judge with authority in any district where activities related to a crime may have occurred has authority to issue a warrant to use remote access to search electronic storage media and to seize or copy electronically stored information located within or outside that district if: (A) the district where the media or information is located has been concealed through technological means; or (B) in an investigation of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(5), the media are protected computers that have been damaged without authorization and are located in five or more districts.”

By “concealed through technological means,” the Supreme Court is saying that a warrant will be granted if a suspect uses Tor or any other tool to remain anonymous.

DOJ spokesperson Peter Carr told Motherboard:

“Criminals now have ready access to sophisticated anonymizing technologies to conceal their identity while they engage in crime over the Internet, and the use of remote searches is often the only mechanism available to law enforcement to identify and apprehend them.

This amendment ensures that courts can be asked to review warrant applications in situations where is it currently unclear what judge has that authority. The amendment makes explicit that it does not change the traditional rules governing probable cause and notice.”

Just a few days ago, the court threw out evidence that the feds got through hacking the members of a child porn service on the Tor network. The judge explained that they violated Rule 41’s territorial restrictions. This change would prevent something like that from happening. However, as Google’s Legal Director Richard Salgado said, it could also “have profound implications for the privacy rights and security interests of everyone who uses the Internet.”

The Congress has until December 1st to reject or make more changes to Rule 41, after which the amended version will take effect.

Via: TechCrunch, Reuters, Motherboard

Source: Supreme Court (PDF)

Google’s got a new travel app, but it’s not ready for the masses

Google’s cooking up a new travel app that combines the best of Maps with Now, the company’s prescient personal assistant. Except Trips, as it’s apparently called, is not quite ready for primetime (or the Google Play store) as of yet. News of the app’s existence comes via Dutch site AndroidWorld which obtained screenshots of Trips from Local Guides users, a community-driven offshoot of Google Maps.

The app, which is purportedly in testing at the moment, works by trawling a user’s Gmail to create bundles of travel data. So all of your flight, hotel, dining and sightseeing reservations will be collected in one convenient and shareable package. While Trips is said to automatically scour a user’s email account to build out an archive of past and upcoming travel, it should also allow users to manually build out bundles and itineraries.

Of course, this being a Google app, there’s also a recommendation feature that can offer suggestions for things to do nearby, sights to see, places to eat or even map out directions using various modes of transport. Trips will also allow users to leave feedback and even post photos on places of interest much like a living guidebook. All that said, there’s no official word on when Google will release Trips to the public, if at all. So if you’re really itching to get your hands on the app, your best bet is to sign up for Local Guides and hope for a peek behind the beta curtain.

Via: 9to5Google

Source: AndroidWorld

NY Times sends 300,000 Google Cardboard viewers to subscribers

After last year’s rollout of the NY Times VR app, the 165-year-old paper is sending out another 300,000 Google Cardboard kits to digital subscribers. This year’s promotion coincides with the release of the Times’ new virtual reality film “Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart.”

The film actually debuted earlier this month at the Tribeca Film Festival but will hit the NY Times VR app on May 19th. When it lands, users will be able to virtually fly over the “rugged mountains and bright plains,” or stand on the surface of the dwarf planet while the moon Charon hangs in the sky. The film is a joint project between the newspaper, the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the Universities Space Research Association, and the data used to create the virtual Pluto was gathered in 2015 by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.

The Times will be selecting Cardboard recipients based on how long they’ve been subscribers, so if you’re just signing up today for a trip to Pluto, chances are you’ll get left behind. Don’t fret, though: You can still catch a modified 360-degree video version when it drops in May.

Argentinean football club to offer dermal implants to its fans

Buenos Aires-based football team, Club Atletico Tigre, has taken an unusual step in managing access to its stadium. The club is considering offering its fans an implantable microchip that would grant them faster access through the gate turnstiles.

The team’s director, Ezequiel Rosino, recently acted as a Guinea pig for the experimental program by having a chip injected under his club tattoo. He assured the Associated Press that the chips will not be able to track fans, but rather will only carry basic information about them. The program still has a long way to go before it actually debuts and will need to first be cleared by health and security agencies — not to mention the Argentine Football Association itself.

This isn’t the first time technology has been leveraged by the beautiful game. In the last year alone Adidas has rolled out self-lacing boots, The UEFA Champions League instituted new goal-line scoring system, Univision boosted its video quality to 4K and startup Virtual Live introduced its gameday VR experience.

Apple Music for Android now lets you check out music videos

The latest version of the Apple Music beta for Android is here, and it should be quite attractive for the music video lovers out there. If you’ve opted for Apple’s streaming music offering on Android, you can now check out a whole host of music videos on the go. Music videos were previously only available through Apple Music on Apple’s own mobile platform, iOS.

That isn’t all, though, as Android users can now subscribe to Apple Music’s family plans through the app. Incase you’re interested, that family option will set you back $14.99 per month for up to six users. That’s compared to $9.99 per month for an individual plan.

This is the latest in a string of consistent updates to Apple’s first foray into offering one of its services on Android. Prior updates have added features such as a home screen widget and the ability to save songs to your SD card.

Periscope now lets you sketch on live streams, and here’s how

Not to be outdone by Snapchat and now Facebook, Periscope has added a live-sketching feature to its iOS app.

With this new feature, which Twitter-owned Periscope began testing in early April and has only recently launched for all users of its iOS app, you can now slide your fingers across your screen to doodle on live streams. Anything you sketch will disappear after a few seconds, though viewers can still screengrab your broadcast and keep your doodle forever.

Snapchat doesn’t let users broadcast in real-time, but it does let them post pictures and videos as well as doodle on said pictures and videos, which anyone in the world can view once they’ve been posted to a story. Facebook, on the other hand, does offer a live-broadcasting tool, and it recently launched a sketching feature so users can doodle on streams.

If you don’t care about Snapchat nor Facebook and would rather take a closer look at Periscope and how you can use it to get all artsy and creative in real-time on broadcasts, we’ve explained what you need to know.

Pericope: How to start a broadcast

• Download the Periscope app for iOS or Android
• Once you have created an account, in the iOS app tap the Camera icon at the bottom center, or in the Android app, tap the red Camera icon on the bottom right
• Enter a title that describes your broadcast
• Using the three icons above the Start Broadcast button, manage your settings for whether you want to share your location, set your broadcast to private, limit your chat, or tweet the live stream
• Tap Start Broadcast
• To end a broadcast, swipe the screen down and tap Stop Broadcast

Periscope: How to sketch on broadcasts

• Open the Periscope app for iOS (the sketching feature is iOS-only for now)
• Start a broadcast/live stream (see above)
• Tap the screen like you normally would to flip the camera or hide the chat but instead select the new Sketch option
• You can then use your finger to gesture on the screen and create doodles
• Your sketch will appear to you and your viewers for a few seconds before disappearing

Apart from the new sketching feature, Periscope also recently added viewer graphs for iOS, allowing you to see how many people watched your live streams as well as how many people replayed them after the stream ended.

Eliminate key clutter with KeySmart, now 27 per cent off

When you’ve had enough of the pocket-poking bulky mess of your standard key ring, a handy solution is available in KeySmart – an award-winning compact key organizer.

For just £15.27 ($22) from Pocket-lint Deals, KeySmart eliminates key clutter once and for all. Creator Michael Patrick describes his invention as “The minimalist key ring with maximum strength”. Attach up to 14 keys to your new KeySmart device with its unique ’S’ design, maximizing use of very little space.

It’s made from quality titanium and stainless steel hardware, making it both lightweight and durable. You can even attach your key fobs to the built-in polished loop to accommodate car keys. 

KeySmart offers a unique, practical, and stylish solution to the annoying pocket bulge. It’s also available in blue for those who enjoy a little flash of color on their keyring. Pick up KeySmart for £15.27 ($22) from Pocket-lint Deals.