BlackBerry announced that it will be collaborating with Boeing on developing a phone that will destruct itself when someone else other than its owner tries to tamper with it. Boeing first revealed details about the self-destructing smartphone back in February and talked about some of the features the special phone will come with, like the fact that it will support a dual-SIM and it will have an expandable back panel used for biometric scanners.
The self-destructing smartphone will also feature satellite transceivers that will allow the phone to connect to different satellites for secure lines of communications. Other specifactions made public by Boeing include a 4.3-inch display of 540×960 pixels and a Qhd, a 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 chipset and a GSM/WCDMA/LTE connectivity.
The self-destructing smartphone made by BlackBerry and Boeing will weigh 170 grams and have 131.9×67.6×13.25.
John Chen, the CEO of BlackBerry said during an official conference that his company is collaborating with Boeing and will integrate the BlackBerry BES 12 platform into Boeing’s Black phone.
Chen said that he cannot disclose any more information about the self-destructing smartphone because he is not allowed to at the moment. Although the self-destructing smartphone will first be available for government officials, a similar version will be released for the public later on.
The BlackBerry and Boeing self-destructing smartphone is not the first phone which is very privacy-focused. The GeeksPhone Blackphone, released in January 2014 is one of the first very private phones that was unveiled at MWC 2014 and cost $629.
The Blackphone was a collaboration between GeeksPhone, a Spanish phone manufacturer, and Silent Circle, a company that makes encrypted communications. The phone runs on special version of Android called the PrivatOS, which lets its users to make and receive secure phone call, send encrypted text messages, browse the web anonymously and store files in a very secure way.
Boeing is an aerospace company based in Chicago and has been testing the upcoming self-destructing smartphone for some time now. The phone is known as Boeing Black and it has been tested with BlackBerry’s BES software. The BES server is compatible with both Android and iOS devices.
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