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It’s never easy to crack into a market with an innovative new product but makers of the “world’s first smart fingerprint padlock” have made one critical error: they forgot about the
existence of screwdrivers.
Tapplock raised $320,000 in 2016 for their product that would allow you to use just your finger to open the “unbreakable” lock. Amazing. Things took a turn for the worse when the ship
date of September came and went, and backers complained that the upstart has stopped posting any updates and wasn’t responding to emails nor social media posts.
But after months of silence, the startup assured El Reg that everything was still moving forward and the delays were due to “issues with manufacturing in China.”
Fast forward 18 months and finally – finally – the $100 Tapplock is out on the market and it is… well, how do we put this kindly? Somewhat flawed.
…
Following up the arrival of my new lockpicks, I’ve spent the weekend picking pretty much every lock I’ve come across (and helping to teach
JTA and Bryn how to do it for themselves). The result: six of nine attempted locks picked,
feeling significantly more well-practiced, and very, very sore fingers. I need to get some rubber sleeves or something for these picks, ‘cos holding them for several hours in a day
actually begins to bruise.
In other good news, I’m aware that there’s a planned RockMonkey social in which RockMonkey people will go out for drinks and take photos of the various locations featured in TromaNightAdventure. Sounds like a giggle to me, if ever I heard one.
My new lockpick set arrived today. I haven’t played with picks in years and years, and so, when I started clumsily fooling around inside a chunky padlock that Claire found behind some furniture yesterday, it felt like I was about to have another half-hour of footing around before I could even
count the number of pins it had. And then it all came back. 30 seconds later, the lock was open.
Nothing to all of you guys, but it elated me for a moment to find that lockpicking, too, is just like riding a bicycle.