Apple's Got a Huge Waiting List of Cops Who Need iPhones Cracked

It's no secret that the police aren't very good at breaking into encrypted iPhones, but they've been asking Apple for help. A lot of help. According to reports by CNET the government asks for so much help that the "please decrypt this iPhone for me" waiting list is at least seven weeks long.

Law enforcement is getting increasingly fond of performing forensic analysis on mobile devices that were involved in crimes, but pulling it off ain't easy. According to a search warrant affidavit CNET dug up, an ATF agent spent three months last summer "[attempting] to locate a local, state, or federal law enforcement agency with the forensic capabilities to unlock [an iPhone 4s]" before he turned to Apple. But the turnaround was far from zippy and took a couple months.

It's not impossible to brute force into an encrypted iPhone. If the pin is just four or five digits, it can be done in under an hour with specialized tools, but passcodes nine or ten digits long take years. Apple's got a better trick, though. What it is isn't exactly clear, but it's in high demand. Seven weeks is better than nothing, but you can bet that list is only going to keep getting longer unless Apple shares its goodies. More here.

This Portable Sound Camera Shows You Where It's Loud

Trying to pinpoint what exactly in your car is making that weird ticking noise can drive anyone to madness. As sensitive as our ears are, they're not always as great at precisely locating where a sound is coming from. Thankfully you have four other senses to help, particularly your sight, which this unique SeeSV-S205 acoustic imager lets you use to actually see sound.

Designed by Professor Suk-Hyung Bae and developed by a joint venture between SM Instruments and Hyundai, the four pound 'camera' uses 30 sensitive microphones arranged in a spiral pattern to provide visual feedback on sound intensities. Think of it as a thermal camera that's more concerned with decibels than degrees.

And so its use isn't limited to a laboratory setting where it's tethered to equipment and displays via heavy cables, the SeeSv-S205 is designed to be highly portable, wireless, and ergonomic to hold. So it can be easily used to troubleshoot a noisy engine, listen for infestation problems in your walls, or just prove once and for all that your annoying friend needs to use their inside voice. More here.

The Last Umbrella You'll Ever Buy Can Easily Survive a Wind Tunnel

Taking inspiration from a motorcycle helmet, which protects riders from the elements without hindering their line of sight, Stephen Collier created the Rainshader to be the next generation of umbrellas. And given it can survive Gale Force 7 winds up to 40 miles per hour, it could be the last brolly you ever buy.

Working with experts at the International Institute for Product and Service Innovation at the University of Warwick, Collier designed the Rainshader to funnel rain towards the front and back of the umbrella, not in all directions like with a traditional design. And since it protects the user like a waterproof dome that extends well below their shoulders, there's less chance of them getting completely soaked.

As an added bonus, the $40 Rainshader is also made from fiber glass struts instead of metal. And that, coupled with a rubber handle, means you're not wandering around in a storm acting like a mobile lightning rod. More here.

What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

DIY Cleaning Products? All You Need Is This Bottle

There's so much brain-melting, fish-mutating crap in the products we use every day to clean things. Natural products tend to be pretty expensive, but not if you make them yourself with this clever cleaning bottle.

It's $10 and it has everything you need—bottle, nozzle, lemon juicer, cloth, and a booklet of recipes for your own cleaning solution. Hey, you could buy something with fancy branding, but why would you when you could just concoct something on your own for less money? More here.

Windows Phone Finally Gets a Fully Functional YouTube App

After making due with an "app" that was little more than a hyperlink to YouTube's mobile web version, Windows Phone users finally get a fully supported (though still Microsoft-designed) YouTube app to call their very own.

You'll be getting everything we've come to expect from a Youtube app: sharing videos on any number of social media platforms, account sign-in and access, and continued background audio even when you minimize the app. Plus, in true Windows Phone style, you'll be able to set videos, playlists, channels, and specific search queries as Live Tiles.

If you already had the original "app" you should be getting an update notification, but first time downloaders can pick up the upgrade right over here.

Adorably Wrap Your iPhone Charger Like a Needle and Thread

Until smartphone batteries last for weeks on end, carrying a backup charging cable wherever you go will be a necessary evil. But at least you don't have to deal with a perpetual tangle of wires if you import SoftBank's new Itomaki AC Adapters. They're shaped like a thread spool letting you wind your cable around so it's always neat and tidy.

Available mid-June with a Lightning connector for the iPhone 5, the Itomaki will come in a series of subtle pastel colors for around $36. A 2.1 amp version for the iPad will be available a little later in July, while a microUSB version is also on the horizon, but with an unspecified release date. Hopefully it won't be far behind; there's nothing as exciting as a spool used to prevent knots instead of creating them. More here.

Confidently Crack Your Eggs With a Yolk Separating Whisk

Some recipes call for just the white stuff when you're cooking with eggs, while others need just the yolk. And if you've yet to master the art of using the egg's shell to separate the two, you'll be hoping Ivan Zhang's clever Whisk' concept becomes a purchasable product.

The tool's plastic strands feature an indent on one side that will trap a yolk when an egg is cracked over it. And so you don't need to learn how to single handedly crack an egg, the handle on the Whisk' is strategically designed to let it rest on the edge of a bowl without rolling. The only thing missing is some sort of self-washing functionality—and, you know, actual existence—for this to be the perfect kitchen tool. More here.

The World Is a Better Place With a Butter-Shredding Grater

Do you hear that? That's the sound of the world becoming a more awesome place/arteries clogging now that we have a better way to serve butter: by smooshing it through a customized cheese grater. Delicious.

And the Easy Butter Former doesn't only make spreading butter on fresh soft bread easier. It finally allows you to put your favorite topping on everything from cakes, to cookies, to pies, and even squeeze some into your coffee. What's even more amazing is that you can pick one up for just $23. As long as you've got good healthcare and don't have to pay for your own quadruple bypass one day, that's the bargain of the century. More here.

A Morse Code Clock Makes Everything Seem More Official

Honestly reviewing morse code is a little unnecessary. We're kind of done with that whole telegraph as the primary form of communication phase. On the other hand, it never hurts to know numbers in different systems. Roman numerals come in handy every now and then, right? Sometimes?

This morse code clock is just a little vacation from the Western Arabic numerals that taunt you from your credit card bill and bank account balance. No need to be reminded of harsh realities when you're checking the time. Plus, there's something kind of great looking about the pattern of dots and dashes. More here.

The World's First Entirely 3D Printed Gun

If you think that piece of plastic above is just a toy, you'd be wrong. It's an actual gun. That fires standard handgun bullets. That's 3D printed. Yes, printed. It's the first entirely 3D printed gun, previous 3D printed weapons have just been specific parts. Welcome to the future.

The 3D printed gun, called 'The Liberator', was made by Cody Wilson, the 25-year-old University of Texas law student who was the star of Motherboard's documentary Click. Print. Gun. Wilson has built the prototype weapon above and plans to release the CAD files for the gun next week to the public. Basically, anyone will then be able to print the weapon with no background checks or serial numbers.

Forbes says that the Liberator is made from sixteen different pieces and uses interchangeable barrels for different calibers. All those pieces are made from ABS plastic and formed from a Stratasys Dimension SST printer. The gun also uses a nail to act as its firing pin and Wilson added a six ounce piece of steel to the gun so it can be recognized by metal detectors. Kind! But of course, people who print this gun themselves won't be required to do that. Plastic guns aren't just toys anymore. More here.

Color-Changing Gloves Alert Lab Workers To Invisible Toxins

The trickiest part of avoiding exposure to toxic substances is that they're often invisible, odorless, and undetectable to our five senses. And as an alternative to expensive detectors and other electronic sensors, researchers at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Modular Solid State Technologies EMFT in Regensburg have created a simple pair of gloves that turn color in the presence of toxic airborne materials.

The gloves are covered in a specially synthesized indicator dye that reacts to toxic substances by changing color. And the dye's chemical makeup can be tweaked to detect various toxins, like carbon monoxide or hydrogen sulfide.

The tricky part of developing the gloves has been engineering a color-changing dye that will adhere to the fabric even through washes, so that they don't lose their effectiveness and miss a potential risk. But once perfected the gloves could also be used to detect issues and contamination in food packaging facilities, or allow inspectors to easily find dangerous leaks in gas lines. More here.

An Incredibly Tiny Sofa Bed For Your Skinniest Houseguests

If you need a place for guests to sleep but don't even have room in your tiny apartment for an air mattress, you'll love what designer Jesper Ståhl has cooked up for Swedish brand Ire Mobel. By day the Collar is a compact arm chair with a high back cushioned corner and a pop-out desk for getting work done in comfort. But at night it folds out into a full-length bed for a single sleeper who's not afraid of rolling off the edge.

Pricing and availability details aren't available just yet, but one thing's for certain: anyone who regular works late is going to want one of these chairs for the corner of their office. More here.

If This Iron Man Flash Drive Can't Protect Your Files, What Will?

If Tony Stark's fancy suit is good enough for taking down baddies like the Mandarin, surely at least part of his getup must be an effective way to secure your digital paraphernalia? Available in eight and sixteen gig capacities, these Iron Man severed hand flash drives include posable fingers, a glowing repulser in the palm, and they come in left and right hand versions forcing you to get both to complete the set.

And while $55 for sixteen gigs of storage isn't cheap, a real Iron Man suit of armor will cost you millions and millions of dollars. So consider this an affordable compromise. More here.

Science Finds Fountain of Youth Brain Region That Slows Down Aging

Eternal or even elongated life is an idiotic thing to wish for. You don't want to get old, and then tack on 50 more years of wrinkles and Metamucil. But prolonged youth? Full body youth? More time being young and nubile and beautiful? Absolutely. And the key to that could lie right inside your brain.

Scientists have for the first time found a region of the brain—a signaling pathway in the hypothalamus—that can slow down or speed up the aging process in mice. Their lives and youthful vigor were extended by about 20 percent by a combination of blocking a protein complex with a distressingly long name (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells, or "evil magic") and injecting the brain with a hormone ("good magic", or gonadotropin-releasing hormone [GnRH]) that is blocked by that protein.

The long and short? Poke the brain, stay young like Aragorn or Halle Berry.

The hypothalamus controls functions like growth, reproduction, and metabolism, so it's not an outlandish leap to think it could also regulate aging. It's not confirmed that this function carries over to humans, but if it does, the results count be groundbreaking. Injecting GnRH, for example, not only slowed physical aging, but cognitive decline as well, by encouraging neuron regeneration. This would be great for degenerative conditions like Alzheimers and dementia, or possibly for brain injuries suffered in sports.

It's still not known exactly how aging works, scientifically. Whether it's a bunch of individual changes throughout your body, or if there's one main trigger point telling the rest of your body to get old, according to Livescience. So this could be just one piece of a much larger cosmos of anti-aging science. To that end, researchers at Johns Hopkins have been working on a Benjamin Button But Not Crap solution that could revert cells all the way back to the state they were in the day you were born. But given these results, there should be plenty more research down this path.

Naturally, there are a lot more factors to keeping humans young and fabulous than you see in mice. Wrinkles and gross old people skin, for instance. Collagen and elastin in the skin break down over time, and it's possible that wouldn't be related to the brain. Similarly, the liver spots prominent on the elderly are simply caused by a buildup of melanin over time. More here.

Scientists Are Making Oysters Safe to Eat With Electron Beams

Oysters might be a delicious aphrodisiac, but they have a tendency to be pretty unsanitary and they can make you sick. But researchers at Texas A&M University have found a way pasteurize the bivalves using electron beams, getting rid of some of the stuff that causes you to upchuck.

Some of the common pathogens found in oysters are Hepatitis A, Vibrio vulnificus, and norovirus, aka some of the common causes of food poisoning and the stomach bug. Oysters are usually cleaned by heating, freezing, or applying high pressure to combat the grime, but that's not always effective. That's where electron pasteurization comes in.

Lead researcher Dr. Suresh Pillai says a unpasteurized serving of 12 oysters could typically harbor around 100 Hepatitis A and noroviruses. When treated with a 5 kilogray electron beam dose, the Hepatitus A risk is reduced by 91 percent and the norovirus risk is lessened by about a quarter, Pillai says. A kilogray is a unit of absorbed energy of ionized radiation.

The use of electron beam technology to kill pathogens is FDA-approved, but it's not being used in commercial oyster processing. But considering how effective it was in this study, maybe we can count on cleaner oysters next time we're on the hunt for a hangover cure. More here.

A Magnet Keeps the Salt Inside These Stylish Shakers

Sometimes it feels like all kitchen accessories look the same. It's $30 for the pair, but it's the kind of thing that looks like you spent a more on it. (Thanks for the help, stainless steel). They come together like your arm bones, with the magnets working like elbows. And they connect at the spot where salt is dispensed, so you're saved from wasting your precious condiments. More here.

How Typing on a Smart Watch Might Actually Make Sense

While the prospect of new smart watches from every corner is terribly exciting, few people seem to spent much time working out how to make them, you know, useful. But a researcher from Carnegie Mellon University has, fortunately, been trying to work out if an on-screen keyboard could work on a smart watch—and the here's his solution.

Called Zoomboard, the idea is that a small screen can contain a full QWERTY keyboard by smartly zooming as you type. Press down on part of the keyboard, and it zooms to show keys in just that area; pressing again types a letter. It also uses swipes to help you edit: swipe right to insert a space, left to delete, or up to see symbols.

It's not a complicated bit of technology, but it's neatly executed and could at least allow you to type a short message on your wrist. It better be short, though: in tests, students managed a fairly paltry 9.3 words per minute on the keyboard.

But that's OK, because this is a first step. Smart watches won't be perfect at first, but it's nice to know that people are at least thinking about how to make them work. The software will be presented at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Paris this week, and the source code will be made freely available, too. More here.

These Are Google Glass’s CPU and RAM Specs

Not too long ago, some of Google Glass's specs got out there, but we were missing two critical pieces: CPU and RAM. Now, thanks to some endeavoring hackers who've gotten their hands on a pair, we now know some of those details.

Jay Lee, with some help from Liam McLoughlin, managed to find Glass's USB debugging setting and hook it up to ADB which in turn spilled the additional specs:

• Android 4.0.4 - Ice Cream Sandwich
• OMAP 4430 CPU - Dual Core
• 682mb of RAM

It's not all the data you might want, however. Lee says he had trouble determining the exact MHz of the CPU, and that Kernel messages suggest the actual RAM might be 1GB with some stolen away for hardware; it's not totally clear. You can dig through all the info here.

But in the absence of any official specs from Google, this is the best we can get for now. And who knows, things could change by the time a real consumer model actually rolls out, but these seem to be the specs for the specs floating around right now and knowledge is power! More here.

Why Did It Take So Long to Make a See-Through Highlighter Tip?

Not since Liquid Paper has there been an innovation in office supplies as awesome as this highlighter's see-through tip that makes it easier to see the text as you're highlighting it.

Cooked up by the Mitsubishi Pencil Company—which sounds like it would have an awesome factory tour—the cheap $1.60 Uni Promark View uses a thinned water-based pigment ink that flows down a channel inside the highlighter's clear plastic tip. The design provides a window so that you can always see the text you're highlighting, and don't accidentally overshoot the end of a sentence. Technically it's not a problem that's ever really cost someone a passing grade, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worth solving. More here.