crack

A lawsuit against Apple over the durability of the iPhone 4's glass was tossed out by a federal judge in California this week.

In an order this past Tuesday (PDF), U.S. District Judge Edward Davila dismissed a case filed by Betsalel Williamson on January 2011, which sought class-action status and accused Apple of breaching its warranty by charging for broken glass.

Williamson filed the complaint after damaging his 2-day-old iPhone 4, which dropped off the arm of a chair. Williamson pointed to claims made by Apple, including its industrial design chief Sir Jonathan Ive, that the glass on … Read more

Crack the front panel on your iPhone and you have three choices: live with it, buy a new one, or get it fixed.

If you have AppleCare+ or another warranty that covers accidental damage, the choice is easy. Get your phone fixed or replaced under the warranty. If your iPhone isn't under warranty, you don't want to buy a new one, and you're ready to tackle a challenging, but satisfying, do-it-yourself fix, here's a guide for replacing the entire display assembly.

Should you try this fix? Before you jump into this DIY project, I suggest you … Read more

If you crack the front panel on your iPad, you can either live with it, buy a new one, or fix it.

For those with an AppleCare+ or other warranty that covers accidental damage, the choice is obvious. Get the unit fixed or replaced. If your iPad isn't under warranty, you don't want to buy a new one, and you're ready to tackle a challenging, but satisfying do-it-yourself fix, here's a guide for replacing the front panel.

Before you begin Before you tackle this fix, I encourage you to watch my video on what to know before trying to fix a smartphone or tablet. … Read more

Before today no one thought it was possible to successfully break a 923-bit code. And even if it was possible, scientists estimated it would take thousands of years.

However, over 148 days and a couple of hours, using 21 computers, the code was cracked.

Working together, Fujitsu Laboratories, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and Kyushu University in Japan announced today that they broke the world record for cryptanalysis using next-generation cryptography.

"Despite numerous efforts to use and spread this cryptography at the development stage, it wasn't until this new way of approaching the problem was … Read more

A report came out last fall suggesting that repeating one number in the iPhone's four-digit security PIN made for better protection than using all unique numbers. However, that little trick doesn't seem to go very far with Micro Systemation, a Swedish security firm that helps police and military around the world crack digital security systems.

The company released a video last week that shows just how easy it is to break into a passcode-protected iPhone or Android device.

The video, "Recovering the Passcode from an iPhone," tapes a demonstration where a company spokesman uses an application … Read more

BlackBerry PlayBook owners tired of waiting for RIM to support Android apps can root their devices to gain access to the Android Market.

With Research In Motion's PlayBook recently rooted and capable of being customized, the folks at tech site CrackBerry have published a how-to guide for enterprising users who want to root their own units.

Starting with a rooted PlayBook, users will need the latest version of Cyanogen Google Apps, the FTP client WinSCP, and a few other items. CrackBerry then explains step by step how to tweak your tablet to capture and launch Google's Android Market … Read more

Google is no longer the only employer that wants to recruit via tough-to-crack math questions.

Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) intelligence agency has launched a Web site challenging visitors to crack a code, according to the BBC. The purpose is to find potential candidates to fill its posts dealing with cyberthreats, which the U.K.'s spy chief recently identified as a disturbing threat.

The competition started November 3 via an unbranded Web site at canyoucrackit.co.uk that displays a visual code resembling a grid of random numbers and letters. Visitors have to first crack that code before getting redirected to GCHQ's Web site, which further directs them on the types of jobs that they can apply for. … Read more

The security protocol that enables Siri to communicate with Apple's servers and return information via speech recognition has been cracked by developer Applidium.

What does that mean?

In a nutshell, according to Applidium, "anyone could now write an Android app that uses the real Siri!" The technology that Siri uses to communicate with Apple servers is not HTTP, as many developers may suspect. In fact, Apple uses TCP to connect with Siri.

After some more digging, Applidium had discovered the server name and address that Siri uses. After finding the server, a valid certificate was needed. By … Read more

I don't remember who told me about Bottlehead, but I'd like to thank whoever it was that made the introduction. I review and play around with a lot of audio gear, and as much as I love great budget stuff, the best-sounding products are always a lot more expensive. Not this time; the Bottlehead Crack amplifier I'm reporting on today goes for just $219, and it sounds like it's five times that price. Bottlehead has been selling electronic kits for 17 years.

First things first; $219 buys the Crack as a build-it-yourself kit, but Bottlehead's founder Dan Schmalle assures me the kit is super easy to build by anyone who knows which end of a soldering iron gets hot. It should take an evening or two to complete. The Crack is an output transformerless amp, specifically designed for high-impedance (100 ohms or higher) headphones like many Sennheiser, AKG, and Beyerdynamic models (Bottlehead offers other amps tuned for low-impedance Grado, Audio Technica, etc., models).

Most Bottlehead customers buy the kits, but the company sells factory-assembled Crack headphone amps for $369, and considering the Crack's build and sound quality, it's still a major deal. The amp's chassis, real wood base, power transformer, PC boards, and even that nifty little Bottlehead badge are all made in the U.S.A. The Crack is a bit bigger than most desktop amps--it's 7 inches wide and 11.25 inches deep--and it was designed by Paul Birkeland.

I first tried the Crack with my high-impedance Sennheiser HD 580 full-size headphones. I bought these at least 10 years ago, and played 'em with countless receivers and headphone amps, but the Crack took the HD 580's sound to the next level. The sound was pure and clear, but never hard or bright. That's what the best tube amps do, you hear more of what's going on in the music, minus the edge or false hyped "detail" of typical budget-priced headphone amps. The Crack delivers bona fide high-end sound.… Read more