Apple wants the FBI to reveal how it hacked the San Bernardino killer's iPhone

Apple Inc. refused to give the FBI software the agency desperately wanted. Now Apple is the one that needs the FBI's assistance.

The FBI announced Monday that it managed to unlock an iPhone 5c belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters without the help of Apple. And the agency has shown no interest in telling Apple how it skirted the phone's security features, leaving the tech giant guessing about a vulnerability that could compromise millions of devices.

"One way or another, Apple needs to figure out the details," said Justin Olsson, product counsel at security software maker AVG Technologies. "The responsible thing for the government to do is privately disclose the vulnerability to Apple so they can continue hardening security on their devices."

FBI-Apple case: Investigators break into dead San Bernardino gunman's iPhone

The FBI has managed to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino gunman without Apple's help, ending a court case, the US justice department says.
Apple had been resisting a court order issued last month requiring the firm to write new software to allow officials to access Syed Rizwan Farook's phone.
But officials on Monday said that it had been accessed independently and asked for the order to be withdrawn.

Farook and his wife killed 14 in San Bernardino, California, in December.
They were later shot dead by police.
The FBI said it needed access to the phone's data to determine if the attackers worked with others, were targeting others and were supported by others.
US officials said Farook's wife, Tashfeen Malik, had pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State on social media on the day of the shooting.
Cracked iPhone: Should you be worried?

Samsung Galaxy S6 (Verizon Wireless)

By Eugene Kim

Inside and out, the revitalized Galaxy S6 puts its predecessor to shame and injects a much-needed sense of excitement back into Samsung's flagship line. It's arguably the first worthwhile major Android smartphone of the year, pushing ahead of the competition with improvements to core features like display quality, camera performance, and design. The S6 ($199.99 with contract) earns our Editors' Choice award on Verizon Wireless.

We've already reviewed the Galaxy S6£364.95 at Amazon on T-Mobile, so head over to that review for a full rundown on design, features, and performance. For this review, we'll focus on the carrier software load and network performance.

Call Quality and Network Performance
The Galaxy S6 supports the full array of Verizon's wireless spectrum, from 3G CDMA to 4G LTE, along with GSM networks for global roaming. Call quality was great in my tests, with strong volume and natural tones in the earpiece. Transmissions through the mic were very clear, too, and noise cancellation effectively dampened moderate street noise. Samsung brought back the audio tuning feature, which you can use to adjust the tone to your liking—keep in mind, this impacts both call quality and media audio quality. The S6 also supports Verizon's HD Voice and video calling features.

Hands On With the Apple iPhone SE

The iPhone SE may be the small phone of your dreams. As anticipated, it's mostly an Apple iPhone 6s crammed into an iPhone 5s body—and because of its smaller size and lower screen resolution, it should have even better performance. At $399 and $499, it'll be a real test of whether people actually want smaller phones.

I spent a healthy amount of time with the SE today after the phone's introduction. The design is very, very similar to the 5s. It's really hard to tell the two phones apart. The buttons are in the same place, there are exactly as many speaker holes, and the color of the materials looks about the same. But performance wise, it's ace. Gaming performance on the 6s is already good, but I expect it to be even better here, because the same A9 processor is pushing fewer pixels.

The 10 Best Windows Tablets of 2016

With the latest Intel hardware and Windows support, the tablet is finally a viable PC for work. We give you the lowdown on the factors you need to consider when choosing a Windows tablet, as well as our top picks.

Windows-based tablets have become increasingly ubiquitous, with multiple models released by major PC manufacturers all the time. Spurred on by the touch capability of Windows 8 and Windows 10 operating systems, as well as hardware that fits true PC power into slimmer and lighter devices, these versatile systems won't be disappearing anytime soon.

We've seen standalone tablets, dock-friendly slates, and a collection of accessories that range from keyboards to gamepads to variations on the simple stylus. The unifying thread that runs through all of these isn't hardware, or even accessories, but software. Setting these tablets apart from all of the iDevices and Android tablets is full-blown Windows with x86 support for all of your software.