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Ways to simplify controls for your smart home can be relatively expensive. If you're an Android user, there is an easier way that won't break the bank.

Report: Apple's rushing to close iPhone hack opening after FBI decryption demand

Apple reportedly wants to take itself out of the equation when it comes to decrypting data on a criminal suspect’s iOS device. Company engineers are working on a solution that would make it impossible for Apple to help law enforcement break into an iPhone and gain access to the encrypted data contained within, according to The New York Times.

The report is yet another storyline to come out of the continuing saga of Apple’s battle with the Federal Bureau of Investigation over the iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino, California shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. That iPhone, running iOS 9, is locked with a passcode and thus all data on the phone is encrypted until the device is unlocked with the proper password.

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FBI director: Apple encryption ruling could lead to more unlocking requests

If a U.S. court grants the FBI’s request for Apple to help it unlock a terrorism suspect’s iPhone, the case will likely open the door to many similar law enforcement requests, the agency’s director said Thursday.

A ruling in favor of the FBI by a California judge “will be instructive for other courts,” FBI Director James Comey said during a congressional hearing. A decision in the San Bernardino mass shooting case “will guide how other courts handle similar requests,” he added.

Lawmakers questioned the broader impact of the FBI’s request, and a judge’s initial ruling in favor of the agency, during a hearing on worldwide security threats before the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.

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Apple files motion to vacate FBI court order, claiming a violation of its constitutional rights

Apple has just responded to the FBI’s court order, claiming that it’s a violation of the company’s rights to free speech.

On Thursday, Apple filed a “motion to vacate” the court order compelling the iPhone-maker to help the FBI in breaking into the iPhone of Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino shooters. In the document, Apple argues that its software is protected speech, and the government compelling the company to fabricate software that goes against its beliefs is a violation of its First and Fifth Amendment rights.

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Arizona county attorney to ditch iPhones over Apple dispute with FBI

Apple’s refusal to help the FBI unlock an iPhone 5c used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino attack has prompted the Maricopa County attorney’s office in Arizona to ban providing new iPhones to its staff.

“Apple’s refusal to cooperate with a legitimate law enforcement investigation to unlock a phone used by terrorists puts Apple on the side of terrorists instead of on the side of public safety,” Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said in a statement on Wednesday.

Montgomery described as a corporate public relations stunt Apple’s positioning of its refusal to cooperate on privacy grounds. The evidence obtained through searches using warrants to unlock encrypted smartphones, including iPhones, have proven critical to the investigation and prosecution of defendants charged with drug trafficking, sexual exploitation, murder and other serious offenses, he added.

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