Blackphone , the privacy-focused Android smartphone unveiled back in January, is finally a real product. Collaborators Silent Circle , an encrypted communications firm and Geeksphone , a Spanish smartphone maker today announced that the first handsets have begun shopping to pre-orders customers.
It’s been a long time coming. Pre-orders opened in February , during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and the first handsets were expected to ship in April. The handset itself sports a quad-core 2 GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage and support for LTE networks.
The components aren’t bleeding-edge, but bundled with the $629 asking price is a suite of apps developed by Silent Circle. Some of these, such as Silent Phone , Silent Text and Silent Contacts , are available on other Android and iOS devices, but the following are exclusive to the new handset: Blackphone Security Center, Blackphone Activation Wizard and Blackphone Remote Wipe.
The hope is that this smartphone will offer greater protection than its mainstream rivals and appeal to those who care about keeping their personal data under lock and key.
Read Next: Blackphone: A new privacy-focused smartphone from Silent Circle and Geeksphone
This is what the Microsoft branding on future Lumia devices will look like
Earlier this week, we got confirmation of what everyone was assuming anyway – that Microsoft will use the ‘Microsoft Lumia’ brand for its range of smartphones but we were left with questions over what the actual devices would be branded with.
Now, we have our answer : just ‘Microsoft’. Cunning, isn’t it?
Of course, we still haven’t seen any phones released with the branding as yet, but the company said “we are looking forward to unveiling a Microsoft Lumia device soon”, so it shouldn’t be too long to wait.
While it obviously makes a bunch of sense given Microsoft now owns Nokia’s Devices and Services division, it could also make the company’s job harder in developing markets – the Nokia brand was well loved and trusted in many markets still.
➤ SAY HELLO TO MICROSOFT LUMIA [Nokia Conversations]
Xbox One August update starts rolling out today, bringing new activity feed and mobile purchases
Microsoft promised a series of new features would land in its next Xbox One system update, and now users can finally get their hands on a newly-revamped activity feed and mobile purchases, among others.
The update is rolling out starting today and over the next few days. This means users will see the interface of their activity feed change to a single column scrolling list that is “longer and includes more content,” and they can post text to their feed and like and comment on items. Your friends list will also now show how long it’s been since a friend came online.
Mobile purchases are being introduced too — users can remotely buy games and add-on content using Xbox SmartGlass or via Xboom, and if the console is already programmed for auto-updates, the purchase will start downloading immediately. The Xbox One is also getting a notification when your controller battery is getting low, the ability to disable notifications during video playback, and 3D Blu-ray support.
Thumbnail image via Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images