MasHD Blog

Boeing has announced a new Android smartphone called the Boeing Black with security and modular design in mind. The hardware and the software on the phone is built from the grounds up for securely storing and transmitting data especially for the US defense and security community. You get features like disk encryption, hardware root of trust, hardware crpto engine, embedded secure components, trusted platform modules and secure boot to safeguard your data. The phone will even go as far as to delete the data if it detects some is trying to br eak open the casing of the device. The design is also modular to some extent, so you can remove the back cover and attach various modules such as extended battery, satellite transceivers, advanced location tracking sensors, etc. On the specification side, the Boeing Black has a 4.3-inch, qHD display, 1.2GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, microSD card slot, dual SIM support, Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR, 1590mAh battery and an unspecified version of Andro...

The security-heavy Blackphone which was officially announced last month is now available for pre-order with a price tag of $629. Orders of the device will begin shipping in June. Developed by Silent Circle and Geeksphone, the Blackphone runs a heavily modified Android build called PrivatOS. The OS allows users to take full control of their communications’ privacy and security. A quick look at the listed specs of the Blackphone reveals that its pricing carries a notable premium for the added privacy and security features. They include 4.7” HD IPS display, 2GHz quad-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of built-in storage, and 8MP camera. Connectivity options include LTE, HSPA+, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS. GSMArena

One of the biggest problems in recent times is the digital surveillance by that invades our personal privacy. Well, with the upcoming smartphone named Blackphone, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Silent Circle in association with Geeksphone has announced Blackphone, which according to the firm is the world's first smartphone that gives you full control over your privacy. So, what platform does the smartphone run on? Blackphone is powered by a custom build security oriented operating system called PrivatOS that is based on the popular Android software. The new secured version of the Android OS allows you to receive phone calls, exchange texts, transfer and store files and video chat without having to compromise any of your data stored on the smartphone. The newest invention is said to be a result of several careers' worth of effort. Phil Zimmermann, who is one of the creators, said "I have spent my whole career working towards the launch of secure telephony products....

Just yesterday, we got hold of some leaked photos of the upcoming Pantech Vega Note. That smartphone has become official today and we’re discovering that the stylus-enabled Pantech Vega Secret Note sports some rather intriguing features indeed. It is unsurprising that the Pantech Vega Secret Note runs on a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. However, it comes with a RAM size of 3 GB, which is not that common but is quite in line with its rival, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. And indeed, this device also sports an almost similar looking stylus which Pantech calls, unsurprisingly, the V Pen. The Vega Secret Note does sport a larger 5.9-inch display that still keeps the 1920×1080 Full HD resolution. It sports a 13 megapixel camera at the back and a 2 megapixel one on the front. It has 32 GB of storage but, quite surprisingly, also has USB host mode right off the bat, giving it access to external storage capacities of up to 2 TB. Of course, the Pantech Vega Secret Note’s utt...

Well, it looks Samsung is following in HTC’s footsteps and finding ways to make it hard for users to root and flash custom software on its devices. According to well-known developer Chainfire, the Galaxy Note 3 comes with eFUSE technology for the KNOX security suite. What is eFUSE? Well, it’s a technology that allows reprogramming a read-only memory chip in real-time, even though such chips come with hard-coded code that cannot be generally changed after manufacturing. When flashing unofficial software on the device, the status of the system and KNOX is switched to CUSTOM while increasing a binary flash counter, which helps Samsung find out whether the device has been tampered with. However, while Chainfire’s TriangleAway app has let users switch the status back to official and reset the flash counter until now, the KNOX status is based on eFUSE – basically, once you flash custom kernels or root the Note 3, the KNOX code gets rewritten, and this constitutes hardware damage. Apparen...

One of the more ambitious and interesting hardware projects on a crowdfunding platform recently has to be the Quasar IV, a smartphone designed entirely around security, encryption and identity protection. QSAlpha’s Quasar IV uses authentication tech called Quatrix, and a hybrid Android/Linux and Quatrix mobile OS called QuaOS to make sure communications in and out of the phone are protected. The Quasar IV is going to be made, despite the fact that there are only nine days remaining in its Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, and only $48,796 raised out of $3.2 million sought on a fixed funding goal (meaning they don’t get anything if they haven’t got the whole amount committed). While the Quasar IV won’t raise that much money in the next 9 days, it apparently will get made regardless thanks to help from outside investors. On the Quasar IV Indiegogo page, an update posted a few hours ago says that production with “one of the world’s largest consumer electronics OEMS manufacturers” has...