Obama gets upgraded from a blackberry to a........."Smartphone". It still isn't good.

[AlTech]

So the president of the United States got a new phone, a "smartphone".

While only himself and the whitehouse staff know what phone he has, we do know several things.

 

 

1. He can't text people

2. He can't take photos

3. He can't make phone calls

4. He can't play music on it

 

Beyond that we don't have much info except that it's not a blackberry in the traditional sense. It most likely is running a highly customized and Secure version of Android (note that Android still isn't that secure)

 

BUT Obama still wants something better, an iPhone.

 

http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/11/11910306/obama-upgrades-from-blackberry

 

Quote

modern — but he apparently isn't thrilled with this new phone either.

 

 

"I get the thing, and they're all like, 'Well, Mr. President, for security reasons ... it doesn't take pictures, you can't text, the phone doesn't work, ... you can't play your music on it,'" Obama said during an appearance on The Tonight Show this week. "Basically, it's like, does your three year old have one of those play phones

 

Obama's been joking about his awful phone situation for years now. While his BlackBerry was considered surprisingly high-tech when he came into office, the situation quickly changed. As far back as 2010, Obama called using his BlackBerry "no fun," and then a few years ago he lamented that security concerns prevent him from using an iPhone. While discussing his BlackBerry on Jimmy Kimmel's show last year, Obama started laughing after a single person applauded. "The one old guy there," Obama said, "He's my age. Somebody my generation."

Obama didn't say what phone he's using now, and it seems like pretty much everything is a possibility. In 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House was testing Android phones for secure usage. Then this April, The New York Times said that some White House staffers were upgrading to iPhones.

 

[JefferyD90]

4 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

So the president of the United States got a new phone, a "smartphone".

While only himself and the whitehouse staff know what phone he has, we do know several things.

 

 

1. He can't text people

2. He can't take photos

3. He can't make phone calls

4. He can't play music on it

 

Beyond that we don't have much info except that it's not a blackberry in the traditional sense. It most likely is running a highly customized and Secure version of Android (note that Android still isn't that secure)

 

BUT Obama still wants something better, an iPhone.

 

http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/11/11910306/obama-upgrades-from-blackberry

 

 

 

This came out when he first got elected too.  He had to give up his iPhone for a BlackBerry, and he wasn't happy.

[Syntaxvgm]

no calls........what DOES it do? 

[Gofspar]

1 minute ago, Syntaxvgm said:

.....what DOES it do? 

looks cool

[Coaxialgamer]

Since nobody makes phone calls anymore,  it's about time they removed that feature /s

[Doughnutnator]

I knew it, it's for Snake gaming.

[AlTech]

7 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

This came out when he first got elected too.  He had to give up his iPhone for a BlackBerry, and he wasn't happy.

I should clarify that this is a replacement for his blackberry

[SansVarnic]

I honestly see absolutely nothing about this as remotely interesting.

Knowing what phone POTUS uses makes no difference to anyone.

This is pretty much a gossip posting.. (IMO)

 

I know its tech but still... You could do better

[Mira Yurizaki]

It could be just to connect to secure networks via  VPN to check emails or use a secure VoIP line. Anything other than that is terribly insecure.

[pagani123]

3 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

I honestly see absolutely nothing about this as remotely interesting.

Knowing what phone POTUS uses makes no difference to anyone.

This is pretty much a gossip posting.. (IMO)

 

I know its tech but still... You could do better

I would not consider this gossip. Its actually quite interesting how his security works. especially airforce one

[Sauron]

Well, he basically can't use it for anything other than work calls and texts... might as well have given him a 3310

[Mark77]

Well he doesn't want to be like Hillary who basically told the IT department of the State Department to go "F" itself, and set up her own personal email server in her basement.  With fetchmail or some similar piece of software scraping email from the State Department's "official" servers.

 

As the rumour mill goes, her IT guy wasn't even competent enough to enable encrypted (SSL) IMAP.

[minibois]

21 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

no calls........what DOES it do? 

it plays Flappy Bird obviously

[Kimmers]

homie justs wants to play Clash Royale

[SansVarnic]

7 minutes ago, Maybach123 said:

I would not consider this gossip. Its actually quite interesting how his security works. especially airforce one

If the article has anything to do with security and how it works for the POTUS I would agree but since the article is all about POTUS getting a new phone and him complaining about it, sooo no.

[AlwaysFSX]

Yeah no.. You can actually call and text and email from those things. They function pretty much like every other phone, they're just a security brick.

[handymanshandle]

1 hour ago, M.Yurizaki said:

It could be just to connect to secure networks via  VPN to check emails or use a secure VoIP line. Anything other than that is terribly insecure.

I suppose maybe it's a Nexus 5X or 6P or something like that with a custom ROM of probably Android 5.0 or 6.0 with a bunch of security patches and additions that has some sort of secure internet service that connects to the secured servers in DC and also allows him to connect to their secure VoIP service.

But it does make sense for his phone to not work like a regular smartphone in a traditional sense because Android on its own isn't up to the security standards that the US government wants. Which is fine since it intended for the consumer market. I'd be interested to see some info about the new phone and what version of Android they're using. Since I don't think any of those pieces of information would compromise the security of his phone and any other devices they modified that are identical or similar to that phone.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Most of Android's security issues boils down to two problems: there's no easy way to push updates because everyone's at the mercy of their carrier and manufacturer (except for Google phones, to a point) and the fact that apps require your permissions to run and few people actually stop and think about what permissions are being asked. They must have this app but it's looking into your contacts when it doesn't need to.

 

Things like StageFright are the exception, not the norm. It wouldn't surprise me if iOS or Windows Phone has a similar bug that nobody's found yet. Plus StageFright used an exploit that shouldn't have been a thing in the first place (why would you want automatic media downloads on a metered network?... oh wait, this was a time when we had "unlimited data" plans)

 

So a custom ROM would make sense using Android as a basis.

[BuckGup]

Wait he was using a Blackberry? Well it does make sense guessing the phone is old. Blackberries were used by all employers because they were cheap and reliable, plus safe. But that probably has changed

[Tech_Dreamer]

1 hour ago, Syntaxvgm said:

no calls........what DOES it do? 

[AlTech]

26 minutes ago, wcreek said:

I suppose maybe it's a Nexus 5X or 6P or something like that with a custom ROM of probably Android 5.0 or 6.0 with a bunch of security patches and additions that has some sort of secure internet service that connects to the secured servers in DC and also allows him to connect to their secure VoIP service.

But it does make sense for his phone to not work like a regular smartphone in a traditional sense because Android on its own isn't up to the security standards that the US government wants. Which is fine since it intended for the consumer market. I'd be interested to see some info about the new phone and what version of Android they're using. Since I don't think any of those pieces of information would compromise the security of his phone and any other devices they modified that are identical or similar to that phone.

Did you consider that it might not run Android?

 

One of my friend's who's in Uni said that the only really secure Mobile OS other than Blackberry was Windows Phones.

[handymanshandle]

1 hour ago, AluminiumTech said:

Did you consider that it might not run Android?

 

One of my friend's who's in Uni said that the only really secure Mobile OS other than Blackberry was Windows Phones.

Android would make more sense since they'd be able to add in whatever they wanted to, but I suppose maybe they were able to work with Microsoft or something.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, wcreek said:

Android would make more sense since they'd be able to add in whatever they wanted to, but I suppose maybe they were able to work with Microsoft or something.

Well I was talking security standpoint. But I doubt it for other reasons since they probably aren't that aware of it's existence or their technicians might not be familiar with it.

[SansVarnic]

12 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Did you consider that it might not run Android?

 

One of my friend's who's in Uni said that the only really secure Mobile OS other than Blackberry was Windows Phones.

7 minutes ago, wcreek said:

Android would make more sense since they'd be able to add in whatever they wanted to, but I suppose maybe they were able to work with Microsoft or something.

The US Government has switched from blackberry to Android. Buuuut it is not the Android OS you think it is. It is a sorta re-written version with integrated secure coding of sorts (and yes I know I am not using the correct terminology here) and other things added into it that is only used in government and military applications.

 

*edit

Forgot to add;

Most calls and data that the phones use are routed through the Military's Telnet service also enhancing its security.

[LAwLz]

11 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

One of my friend's who's in Uni said that the only really secure Mobile OS other than Blackberry was Windows Phones.

That seems like a baseless claim. Either that or he was thinking of security though obscurity, which would not help Obama.