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Sirin Labs Launches Solarin, a $14,000 Privacy-Focused Smartphone (venturebeat.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via VentureBeat: Sirin Labs has launched its high-end Android smartphone called Solarin. The company's mission is to create the Rolls-Royce of smartphones -- an advanced device that combines "the highest privacy settings, operated faster than any other phone, [and is] built with the best materials from around the world." Solarin promises "the most advanced privacy technology, currently unavailable outside the agency world." It has partnered with KoolSpan to integrate chip-to-chip 256-bit AES encryption, which is similar to what the military uses to protect its communications. As for the specs, Solarin features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, with support for 24 bands of LTE, and "far superior" Wi-Fi connectivity than standard mobile phones. There's a 23.8-megapixel rear camera sensor and a 5.5" IPS LED 2K resolution display. The phone goes on sale June 1st for nearly $14,000 ($13,800 to be exact).
> Then again, gotta start somewhere.
Definitely. And (even as a free software zealot I am) I won't spank, e.g. Purism for using Intel chips, although we have a rough idea of what is in them, and it ain't pretty.
But I expect them to be up-front on it. Especially on those mass-produced SOCs, where the processor controlling the boot and having access to all of RAM isn't the one you see (it's the graphics proc or the baseband proc or whatever) and is running a firmware you don't see, which most probably is OTA upgradeable with yet another blob even the phone manufacturer has no say in.
A step in the right direction? Possibly. But don't let marketing paper over the big holes. Not when your game is security.
I know next to nothing about security, but I do know that mobile phones aren't secure no matter how your design them. Their entire purpose it to interconnect with other phones and networks. Once you enter an non-secure network you are not secure.
From twitter:
Farewall, $14,000 phone. We hardly knew ye.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"