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Blackphone
The Blackphone is a smartphone built to ensure privacy, developed by SGP Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Silent Circle. Originally, SGP Technologies was a joint venture between the makers of GeeksPhone and Silent Circle. Marketing is focused upon business users, stressing that employees often conduct business using private devices and services that are not secure and that the Blackphone service readily provides users with options that ensure confidentiality when needed. Blackphone provides Internet access through VPN. The device runs a modified version of Android called SilentOS that comes with a bundle of security-minded tools. Versions of the Blackphone were sold from 2014–2016. While precise sales figures were not released, it is widely speculated to have been a financial disappointment due to the resulting near-bankruptcy of Silent Circle combined with Silent Circle canceling the phone. Background The concept of an encrypted telephone has been an inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GeeksPhone
GeeksPhone was a Spanish smartphone company founded in 2009. GeeksPhone's most notable products are open Android phones and developer devices of Firefox OS. History GeeksPhone was founded in early 2009 by Javier Agüera and Rodrigo Silva-Ramos. Its first product, the GeeksPhone One, was announced in 2009 and started shipping in early 2010, becoming the first European brand to launch an Android smartphone to the mass market. It subsequently manufactured the Keon and Peak smartphone models, the first developer preview devices running Firefox OS. A consumer model, the Peak+ was announced later. It was thought to be a refinement of the Peak model, geared towards a non-developer audience, but problems concerning the availability of batteries from the Chinese ODM led to the discontinuation of the project without a single unit being marketed. In November 2013 the company announced a new model of smartphone called Revolution. It was thought to be a high-end model, but it was then rev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silent OS
PrivatOS was an operating system used in the Blackphone from June 1, 2014, to June 30, 2016. It was targeted at users who sought improved privacy and security. It provided encryption for phone calls, emails, texts, and internet browsing. PrivatOS was a modified version of Android, forked from Android 4.4.2, that came with a bundle of security-minded tools. However, in contrast to Android, PrivatOS was not open source. The company that shipped PrivatOS, SGP Technologies is a joint venture between the makers of GeeksPhone GeeksPhone was a Spanish smartphone company founded in 2009. GeeksPhone's most notable products are open Android phones and developer devices of Firefox OS. History GeeksPhone was founded in early 2009 by Javier Agüera and Rodrigo Silva-Ramos. I ..., and Silent Circle. Background The concept of an encrypted phone had long been an interest of Silent Circle founder and PGP creator, Phil Zimmerman. In a video on Blackphone's website, Zimmerman said, Feat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silent Circle (software)
Silent Circle is an encrypted communications firm based in Washington DC. Silent Circle provides multi-platform secure communication services for mobile devices and desktop. Launched October 16, 2012, the company operates under a subscription business model. The encryption part of the software used is free software/ open source and peer-reviewed. For the remaining parts of Silent Phone and Silent Text, the source code is available on GitHub, but under proprietary software licenses. History In November 2011, Mike Janke called Phil Zimmermann with an idea for a new kind of private, secure version of Skype. Zimmermann agreed to the project and called Jon Callas, co-founder of PGP Corporation and Vincent Moscaritolo. Janke brought in security expert Vic Hyder, and the founding team was established. The company was founded in the Caribbean island of Nevis, but moved its headquarters to Le Grand-Saconnex near Geneva, Switzerland in 2014 in search of a country with "stronger privacy l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tegra
Tegra is a system on a chip (SoC) series developed by Nvidia for mobile devices such as smartphones, personal digital assistants, and mobile Internet devices. The Tegra integrates an ARM architecture central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), northbridge, southbridge, and memory controller onto one package. Early Tegra SoCs are designed as efficient multimedia processors. The Tegra-line evolved to emphasize performance for gaming and machine learning applications without sacrificing power efficiency, before taking a drastic shift in direction towards platforms that provide vehicular automation with the applied "Drive" brand name on reference boards and its semiconductors; and with the "Jetson" brand name for boards adequate for AI applications within e.g. robots or drones, and for various smart high level automation purposes. History The Tegra APX 2500 was announced on February 12, 2008. The Tegra 6xx product line was revealed on June 2, 2008, and the APX ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telephony
Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is intimately linked to the invention and development of the telephone. Telephony is commonly referred to as the construction or operation of telephones and telephonic systems and as a system of telecommunications in which telephonic equipment is employed in the transmission of speech or other sound between points, with or without the use of wires. The term is also used frequently to refer to computer hardware, software, and computer network systems, that perform functions traditionally performed by telephone equipment. In this context the technology is specifically referred to as Internet telephony, or voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Overview The first telephones were connected directly in pairs. Each user had a separate telephone wire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virtual Private Network
A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The benefits of a VPN include increases in functionality, security, and management of the private network. It provides access to resources that are inaccessible on the public network and is typically used for remote workers. Encryption is common, although not an inherent part of a VPN connection. A VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of dedicated circuits or with tunneling protocols over existing networks. A VPN available from the public Internet can provide some of the benefits of a wide area network (WAN). From a user perspective, the resources available within the private network can be accessed remotely. Types Virtual private networks may be classified into several categories: ;Remote a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Android (operating System)
Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance and commercially sponsored by Google. It was unveiled in November 2007, with the first commercial Android device, the HTC Dream, being launched in September 2008. Most versions of Android are proprietary. The core components are taken from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which is free and open-source software (FOSS) primarily licensed under the Apache License. When Android is installed on devices, the ability to modify the otherwise free and open-source software is usually restricted, either by not providing the corresponding source code or by preventing reinstallation through technical measures, thus rendering the installed version proprietary. Most Android devices ship with addition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pretty Good Privacy
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is an encryption program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting texts, e-mails, files, directories, and whole disk partitions and to increase the security of e-mail communications. Phil Zimmermann developed PGP in 1991. PGP and similar software follow the OpenPGP, an open standard of PGP encryption software, standard (RFC 4880) for encrypting and decrypting data. Design PGP encryption uses a serial combination of hashing, data compression, symmetric-key cryptography, and finally public-key cryptography; each step uses one of several supported algorithms. Each public key is bound to a username or an e-mail address. The first version of this system was generally known as a web of trust to contrast with the X.509 system, which uses a hierarchical approach based on certificate authority and which was added to PGP implementations later. Current versions of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phil Zimmermann
Philip R. Zimmermann (born 1954) is an American computer scientist and cryptographer. He is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most widely used email encryption software in the world. He is also known for his work in VoIP encryption protocols, notably ZRTP and Zfone. Zimmermann is co-founder and Chief Scientist of the global encrypted communications firm Silent Circle. Background He was born in Camden, New Jersey. Zimmermann received a B.S. degree in computer science from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida in 1978. In the 1980s, Zimmermann worked in Boulder, Colorado as a software engineer on the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign as a military policy analyst. PGP In 1991, he wrote the popular Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) program, and made it available (together with its source code) through public FTP for download, the first widely available program implementing public-key cryptography. Shortly thereafter, it became available overseas via the Intern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, which facilitate wider software, internet (including web browsing over mobile broadband), and multimedia functionality (including music, video, cameras, and gaming), alongside core phone functions such as voice calls and text messaging. Smartphones typically contain a number of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) integrated circuit (IC) chips, include various sensors that can be leveraged by pre-included and third-party software (such as a magnetometer, proximity sensors, barometer, gyroscope, accelerometer and more), and support wireless communications protocols (such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or satellite navigation). Early smartphones were marketed primarily towards the enterprise market, attempting to bridge the functionality of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media's proprietary multimedia publishing platform Chorus. In 2014, Nilay Patel was named editor-in-chief and Dieter Bohn executive editor; Helen Havlak was named editorial director in 2017. ''The Verge'' won five Webby Awards for the year 2012 including awards for Best Writing (Editorial), Best Podcast for ''The Vergecast'', Best Visual Design, Best Consumer Electronics Site, and Best Mobile News App. History Origins Between March and April 2011, up to nine of ''Engadget''s writers, editors, and product developers, including editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky, left AOL, the company behind that website, to start a new gadget site. The other departing editors included managing editor Nilay Patel and staffers Paul Miller, Ross Miller, Joann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LTE (telecommunication)
In telecommunications, long-term evolution (LTE) is a Technical standard, standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution, EDGE and UMTS/High Speed Packet Access, HSPA standards. It improves on those standards' capacity and speed by using a different radio interface and core network improvements. LTE is the upgrade path for carriers with both GSM/UMTS networks and CDMA2000 networks. Because LTE frequency bands, LTE frequencies and bands differ from country to country, only multi-band phones can use LTE in all countries where it is supported. The standard is developed by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and is specified in its Release 8 document series, with minor enhancements described in Release 9. LTE is also called 3.95G and has been marketed as "4G LTE" and "Advanced 4G"; but it does not meet the technical criteria of a 4G wireless service, as specified in the 3GPP Relea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
