New Pricing on Lockwood 7444 - Inflationary Pressure And Shipping Cost Increases Force Price Increase

We detest raising prices. Market conditions, especially manufacturer cost increases, import and customs duties increases, even outward shipping costs have all increased recently.

We have been forced to enact our first price increase in 3 years for this high-demand product.

We encourage you to purchase quickly, because this product sells out quickly.

Our last inventory SOLD OUT in 3 months.

The new cost as of today is US$146.75 plus shipping and handling.

We prefer to ship with UPS or USPS. Shipping options include overnight economy air, 3 Day select, Ground to the lower 48. International shipping is by USPS and averages 7-10 days.

In 8 years of recommending and selling this product, we have sold over 2000 units and are yet to have any reported failures. We maintain the manufacturers warranty of 12 months and offer a 30 day refund for unopened packages less a 5% restocking fee, for returns.

To purchase, simply click on the picture at the top left of this site.

Latch - $37 Million In Startup Funding Realizes Contract With AirBnB

An interesting article I read today has sparked my curiosity thanks to the well written, spelled and grammatically correct piece by it's author, Cliff Kuang.

The article tells a story about Luke Schoenfelder, a former Apple junior policy wonk working in their Washington DC office.

Apparently Luke decided, about 4 years ago, to get involved with a startup that was aiming to enter the already crowded IoT (Internet of Things)  Smart-Lock market with an especially new designed product by talented designer, Thomas Meyerhoffer called Latch.

Luke's upbringing from a large and old farm in Pennsylvania where he was reared, motivated him to become somewhat of an infrastructure geek, as he describes himself. The article goes on to tell about his early years and why he decided to get into the Smart-Lock business. You can read more about Luke and his involvement in Latch in the source article.

There are many options today in the current consumer marketplace, offering interesting and useful attributes that are self contained in Smart-Lock products. When people think about Smart-Locks, often they might know about the August Smart-Lock product, which has been heavily marketed over the last few years and especially exciting is the recent news about August being acquired by lock industry behemoth Assa-Abloy. You can read an article we wrote recently about that here.

Luke and Thomas teamed up to produce and market the product known as Latch. The video at the top of this page was made a little over two years ago and adequately shows the concept. Thomas Meyerhoffer is reknowned as another technology engineer who worked alongside Johnny Ive, the talented design engineer for Apple and influential in many Apple products, including the iPhone, Mac and Apple TV products.

What is Latch?

Manufacturers Prices Are Increasing Again - How Much Is Too Much?

Distributors and manufacturers continue to increase their prices, driving up talks about inflation in our economy.

We heard from one of our local distributors two days ago that a number of manufacturers (listed below) have decided to increase their prices as of February 2018.

February:
HES: 2/1/18

Securitron: 2/1/18

Adams Rite: 2/1/18

Air Louvers: 2/1/18

Keri Systems: 2/1/18

Major Mfg: 2/1/18

Belwith: 2/5/18

PDQ: 2/5/18

Keyed Pocket Door Lock - The Lockwood 7444 SPDP Flying Off The Shelves

Our largest selling product, The fabulous Lockwood 7444 Keyed Pocket Door Lock is flying off the shelves.

The simplicity in it's design and the ease of installation provide great security and access control to consumers desiring simple security and access control for their pocket or cavity doors.

We continue to see increasing numbers of units going to Canada and the east coast of USA and also discerning tastes across the west coast of the USA.

The installation animation below shows just how simple this product is, to install.



The lockset uses a standard 5 pin tumbler keyway, similar to Kwikset's standard keyway and therefore able to be keyed alike to Kwikset keys.

Originally designed for 1-3/8" thick doors, due to significant numbers of requests for use on 1-3/4" thick doors, the manufacturer decided to update the product line with a simple modification that allows the product to be used on 1-3/4" thick doors too.

We have sold roughly 2500 units over the last 4 years, with only 2 reported failures (both units replaced free of charge and overnight delivery).

Demand continues to be strong and our current inventory has dwindled to only 5 units left, as of this writing.

New inventory is expected in the next 4 weeks and unfortunately, due to the US$ currency dropping in value to foreign currencies, we will be forced to increase the cost.

Currently the product sells for US$128.00 plus US$25 shipping to the lower 48 via UPS Ground.
If you're siting on the fence, hoping to find it cheaper elsewhere, you wont. We do not offer the product through Amazon or eBay, only through our sites. We maintain the manufacturers warranty of 12 months and also offer a 30 day money back guarantee*

Purchase options

Also Available (on request)
Lockwood 7450 Passage Version
Lockwood 7410 Privacy (bathroom) Version
Lockwood 7400 Passage Latching Version

United States Secret Service Warns Of ATM "Jackpotting" Scam

Breaking News: Secret Service Warns Of ATM "Jackpotting" Scam...

The United States secret service warned yesterday that American banks need to be on high alert to ATM "jackpotting", a scam that has proliferated throughout Europe and Mexico, the last few years.



Essentially, "jackpotting" is known as a method that thieves use to contravene an ATM's security by opening the cabinet, putting in a laptop with a certain "skimming" program connected to the port and closing the machine. Then a "dove" comes by to operate the ATM, calls the first thief who activates the code remotely to allow the machine to empty it's cash dispenser, sometimes up to 23 notes per second.

The thieves often work in pairs, often dressed up like electronic repairmen, with sign written uniforms and vehicles, easily conning staff at ATM locations to let them in.

A large issue stems from the manufacturers of the ATM cabinets that are apparently using a uniform standard key lock on all cabinets. All locks are keyed alike, allowing for many different people to have access to the key and the locks.

About 25 years ago, I worked for a large metropolitan security patrol company that were contracted by banks to refill empty ATM's. The security control center monitoring station would send three (3) patrol cars to every ATM refill request. Each ATM was housed in a solid cabinet and controlled with two (2) separate mechanical dial combination locks, that also had lockable dials. One patrol officer would have the dial lock keys, one patrol officer would be given the combination to lock A and the other patrol officer would be given the combination to lock B.

The security was taken very seriously and using multiple people provided multiple required credentials and physical presence to complete the ATM refilling task.

These days, I see it often where a lone technician is often called to perform an ATM service at a bank or a convenience store or a bar etc. I think that it is especially important to have multiple people in attendance for security reasons, especially where hard currency is involved.

Often, locksmiths and safe technicians would maintain contracts with financial institutions to regularly attend the ATM site and change the dial combinations regularly, to prevent unauthorised knowledge of combinations to be reused over and over.

Perhaps a new opportunity for would be locksmiths and safe technicians exists to set up maintenance contracts with financial institutions to regularly alter the combination locks on ATM machines.

(Source...) 

Aegis Padlock DT - USB 3.0 Hard Drive With Security Keypad

This new product is an interesting idea.

The worry today, about the security of our online information and accessing that information, continues to be a very present concern for people of many kinds.

Securing your information can almost be as vital and important as securing your home or office, sometimes more.

Computers are progressively taking over all our lives and the quantity of IoT (Internet Of Things) products continues to increase across the market quite rapidly.

The Aegis Padlock DT - USB 3.0 Hard Drive uses an inbuilt digital keypad that requires the user be present to be able to access that drive.
While this may seem counter-productive to cloud based information storage systems, today storing our information in the cloud, securely while having continued access to it, without having to pay to access your own data, seems to be a thorn in some peoples sides.

Available in different storage capacities, this product may suit a consumer concerned with better security of their data, especially having a person be present to allow the drive to be accessed.

If this contributes to a more secure future for would be users of the computer it is connected to, then perhaps it will see traction in the wider market.

The source below will reveal the product page, cost and attributes.

(source...)

Our Most Popular Posts Of All Time...

Pictured above is a list of our all time most popularly viewed posts, including their publication date, pageviews and number of comments.

When we began writing this weblog, we hoped to receive a few visits from readers of the world wide web and are reasonably happy with our progress.

When we began writing this blog in 2007, we thought it might provide our main website and consequently our penetration into the wider market, we had no idea that it would prove as popular as it has. While we could be posting more often, for being a micro-business, we just havent the staffing levels to support enough authors, editors and trained staff to operate the multiple tasks needed to keep the business operating. Therefore, we are only finding limited time to write new content.

You are welcome to click on each page link provided below and read the articles our visitors have found and continue to find most popular...

Kwikset SmartKey Problems

Schlage Securekey Problems...

Contagion

Credit Cards Used To Duplicate Keys

Bicycle Lock - A New Adaption

The Gun Debate Rages On And On...

Lockwood 7444 Keyed Pocket Door Lock

Bicycle Security - A New Look At The Infiniti3D System

Pocket Door Locks With Key - UPDATE

Schlage Securekey Fault

Lock Industry Mergers - HES And Securitron Combine To Form Assa-Abloy Electronic Security Hardware

Breaking News: Two companies already owned by Lock Industry monolith Assa-Abloy, have decided to merge and form the start of Assa-Abloy Electronic Security Hardware.

HES are a well known manufacturer of electric strikes and electronic access control products that have dominated the access control industry for over 40 years. Their continued wide ranging use in residential, commercial, institutional and industrial markets, cemented their market dominance.

Securitron, began operations in 1977 with the release of their patented "E Profile Magnetic Lock", a game changing product that dramatically increased physical security protection for entry points.
Throughout their years, Securitron have continued their impressive research and development initiatives and released market changing products including, but not limited to, "Touch-Sense Panic Exit Devices" among other products.

Assa-Abloy recognized the important and unique research and development by these two companies and separately, bought them out at different times in the last few years.

Assa-Abloy has maintained a policy of limited interference in a company it has purchased, allowing many of those companies to continue their business models, but with the strength of the Assa-Abloy Conglomerate, propping up and supporting them, keeping them financially viable and producing.

This decision, by the two companies to merge their operations under their parent company Assa-Abloy Electronic Security Hardware, comes as no surprise to market players.

Assa-Abloy recently completed the acquisition of August, the startup company who produced a market leading residential security add-on, that converts an existing residential deadbolt lock into a bluetooth/WiFi controlled access control point, but (as it's unique selling point) without requiring a user to replace their existing deadbolt lock.

Market observers are keenly keeping eyes on Assa-Abloy to see which other companies (already under their umbrella) will be added to this new Assa-Abloy Electronic Security Hardware division.

(source...)