"Bricking" a piece of electronics like a router or mobile phone is what happens when, usually through a firmware load, the device becomes inoperable. It's fairly common among people whom try and change the stock firmware on a Linksys router with one that can actually do something useful.

According to The Consumerist, a Vonage customer got an update pushed to their Linksys router/VoIP gateway. After this firmware update, the router got locked into a continual reboot cycle, effectively bricking the gateway. The router cost over $150, yet Vonage is only willing to give the customer $40 for their trouble.

Of course, I always thought the whole "buy a locked device at full retail" idea was stupid to begin with. If I'm going to spend good money for hardware, I'd better get full access to it. And furthermore, if you're going to lock