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fliptop writes:
"Promising that orders will start shipping in June, Silent Circle has announced the Blackphone is ready for pre-orders. (Domain registered in Switzerland)
Touted as 'The high-end smartphone which puts privacy and security ahead of everything else' the Blackphone has a 4.7" screen, 2GHz quad-core CPU and 16GB storage. It also includes several Silent Circle apps.
The Blackphone makes use of a customized version of Android called PrivatOS, is fully unlocked, and the encryption can be used on any compatible network. Purchase includes a 1-year subscription to the apps; after that it's $10 a month (in addition to your carrier's charges).
In order to take advantage of the encryption, the other person you're communicating with has to have their own Blackphone or use Silent Circle apps on their Android or iOS phone."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mattie_p on Monday February 24 2014, @07:30PM
I thought this was interesting enough to post as an article, but I'm concerned it might be considered a "soylvertisement." Please keep your opinions on that topic to this particular thread. Thanks
~mattie_p
(Score: 5, Interesting) by dmc on Monday February 24 2014, @07:37PM
I would consider it less of a Soylvertisement if the editors had done some reseach and tried to point out the best purely FOSS alternative groups attempting the same basic level of security.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by melikamp on Monday February 24 2014, @08:00PM
purely FOSS alternative groups attempting the same basic level of security
A purely FOSS alternative would in fact offer security and privacy. This phone offers neither, and the sales pitch is a bold-faced lie. From their site:
allows users to regain control over their communications activities
With apps available by subscription, I am assuming they are closed-source. No mentioning is made of OS components being FOSS, so I am assuming the OS and the kernel also contain binary blobs, just as they do in every commercially available android-based phone. Ergo, all claims about security and privacy are pure bullshit. And with the price tag like that, this is a phone made especially for suckers.
(Score: 5, Informative) by hemocyanin on Monday February 24 2014, @08:06PM
RedPhone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org. thoughtcrime.redphone&hl=en [google.com]. thoughtcrime.securesms&hl=en [google.com]
TextSecure: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org
both by: https://whispersystems.org/ [whispersystems.org]
both open source, with a button to download the source right under the the "get the app" buttons.
One thing about RedPhone -- after about 10 minutes you need to wear heat resistant mittens to hold your phone. But I love TextSexure.
(Score: 5, Informative) by melikamp on Monday February 24 2014, @08:30PM
This is all fine and dandy, but it still runs on top of your stock Android, no? I am not aware of a single Android platform that does not contain binary blobs in the kernel. In particular, the wireless adapter and the power management is powered by blobs. The part that authenticates your phone to the network is also a blob. If it wasn't, you'd be able to spoof your SIM ID, which you absolutely cannot on any commercially sold phone.
The only correct effort towards securing an Android phone I am aware of is the Replicant, and I don't think it's usable yet [replicant.us].
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday February 24 2014, @09:15PM
I completely agree. Here's the "but" -- why make it any easier for the spies? A vulnerability in one of the binary blobs would probably be of a type that gives the evildoer root, and they could then get whatever. To get there, they have to target you in some way, or hope you get hit with some bit of malware, and write tools (which will need updating as systems and programs change) that will convert your keystrokes to sendable text, get the content of your received messages and resend them, etc. etc. None of that is impossible or even unlikely, but it is a whole lot more effort than simply putting a splitter on a backbone and copying every bit of plain text as it passes -- no need to worry about patches closing old vulnerabilities, or app updates breaking your tools, or any other myriad issues.
So, while encrypting the data may not be foolproof, it does increase the resources the NSA must expend to get a bunch of cat pics, in which case, conservation of those resources may well seem wise, and encourage them to do their actual job, which is monitoring overseas communications.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 25 2014, @02:57AM
> But I love TextSexure.
And now we know what you use it for. :)
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday February 25 2014, @04:41AM
I've had to reread this several times to see my typo. I was about to write a "I don't get it" note. What a classic Freudian slip that!
(Score: 1) by r00t on Monday February 24 2014, @08:30PM
RE: I would consider it less of a Soylvertisement
I like that the editor had the forethought to take the time and point that out in the summary... so there would be no mistaking it for advertising.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fliptop on Monday February 24 2014, @07:39PM
I read about the Blackphone on zdnet this morning and thought the convergence of tech, privacy, hardware and mobile made it newsworthy. I am not associated w/ any of the companies mentioned in TFO.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Monday February 24 2014, @07:42PM
Silent Circle is pretty heavily involved in the NSA aftermath and Lavabit is working with them on Dark Mail, so it's not that bad. Plus other tech sites are running tons of more mundane phone announcements today, like the Galaxy S5, Intel Atom, Qualcomm Snapdragon, PowerVR, etc.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by mrbluze on Tuesday February 25 2014, @08:42AM
If it's commercial, how can you trust it?
Do it yourself, 'cause no one else will do it yourself.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Monday February 24 2014, @08:03PM
What I didn't like about "soylvertisements" on the legacy site was the posting schedule. So you signed an advertising contract, fine, but do you have to post a weekly story every single week on Monday afternoons at 2:30pm eastern? Every week? Always at 2:30pm? Even if you had nothing to say about the topic that week because absolutely nothing happened in the last week? Oh, don't worry, we'll find something to comment on in that situation, I assure you the marketing dept won't find our comments amusing at all.
Another thing is I can appreciate honesty. On HN you'll have the CTO participate in a discussion on HN under his name about how he stole someone else's tired marketing idea, wrapped a CRUD app in bootstrap, and now wants one billlllion dollars for his effort, because he's, you know, entitled to it. So if someone offered you blackjack and hookers to post this, just admit it and I think most people would be totally OK with it. Just be honest about it.
(Score: 1) by hankwang on Monday February 24 2014, @08:32PM
Huh? I never noticed such a pattern. Which subjects were following such a pattern? Only Bitcoin I recall coming back way too often, but that doesn't sound like an organization that would have an advertisement budget.
Would you mind explaining what "HN" is? The usual forum sites that are referred to from here are digg, reddit, and The Other Site AKA Slashdot. "HN" doesn't match any of them.
Avantslash: SoylentNews for mobile [avantslash.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by MechaStreisand on Monday February 24 2014, @09:04PM
HN is Hacker News, at http://news.ycombinator.com/ [ycombinator.com]. There are some good discussions there, but a lot of startup idiocy as well.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday February 24 2014, @09:27PM
One historical example was you could set your clock by the e-ink stories, including adjustment for daylight savings time.
Going back a long time, second life is/was another offender. If I recall correctly it was every Tuesday afternoon for them, although I may not recall correctly. May have been Wednesday.
I suppose its nearly impossible to prove there was or was not an advertising contract, vs perhaps one of the editors just had a huge mancrush on a specific technological story such that he just had to get it out of his system every single week right after the staff meeting or whatever.
Original point still stands. One ad? OK you gotta pay the bills, I can respect that. One ad at X o'clock on Y day of the week, every week, for six months? Um, a little annoying.
(Score: 1) by hankwang on Monday February 24 2014, @09:36PM
hmm, if I search for e-ink, I see a lot of stories between 2003 and present, but no period in which stories appeared weekly.
Avantslash: SoylentNews for mobile [avantslash.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DarkMorph on Monday February 24 2014, @09:06PM
(Score: 3, Funny) by Aighearach on Monday February 24 2014, @09:25PM
Soyledtisement
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jcd on Tuesday February 25 2014, @06:54AM
I really don't consider news of a new product to be an advert. We're supposedly geeks here, which means we keep track of that sort of thing and it is interesting/important news to us. It's when the adverts keep coming, and they're blindly laudatory that they become a problem.
"What good's an honest soldier if he can be ordered to behave like a terrorist?"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Common Joe on Wednesday February 26 2014, @05:39AM
I think you're right that this could be a "Soylvertisement" and I think you're right to be very cautious about it.
With that said, I don't mind Soylvertisements (whether paid for or not) as long as it is clearly pointed out as such or marked as a Soylvertisement kind of story. (I'm sure others will disagree and I think they should post their rebuttals so you can get a feel for community consensus.) The problem with Slashdot as that they simply posted it as a regular story and I do not tolerate that kind of crap. I want the good stuff up front and the time wasters / advertisements in back and out of the way.
Maybe to put it more clearly: The good stuff should always take front and center. If it is an advertisement of some sort, mark it very clearly as such. If it is simply an ad or a time waster, mark it as such and put it in the back. Yes, despite the ad, there can be something cool or interesting or technical about it. (Often, it's just a lot of hype -- oftentime, unwarranted hype and it should not be posted.)
I once tried to post a brief story in Slashdot about a small video I saw. I hate videos but I thought this [slashdot.org] was rather cool. I tried to mark it in my write up as an ad for Western Digital and even where to go in the video to bypass the ad if so desired. (The entire video was only 45 seconds.) What made it cool was the F1 car they built out of hard drive parts. I thought it was really neat looking. (I wished I could have found out more information. I certainly wasn't paid for it.)
Others disagreed that it was Slashdot worthy and it never made front page. Is it Soylent News worthy? Not really, but I still think others would find it cool. Maybe in the future, there is a place where things like this can go so others who are not into Soylvertisements or time wasters like this can go if they have time to burn.