Word on the street is that the BlackBerry 9630 code name “Niagara” will actually be called the BlackBerry Tour. We don’t actually have official confirmation just yet, the fact that both www.blackberrytour.com and www.blackberry9630.com were both registered on the same day and point to the same IP address seems like pretty compelling evidence.
Gee even the POTUS doesn’t get one of these yet….
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/04/obama-to-get-ba.html
The presidential CrackBerry is undergoing final testing before being handed back. The NSA is hammering on the SecurVoice software which has been loaded onto the Obama-phone and is in the last stages of testing just how secure it might be.
The BlackBerry is an 8830, the standard business handset, but the added software encrypts both calls and messages. Cellphone calls are encrypted anyway, but there are some back doors if you know where to find them (and of course, the NSA knows exactly where they are).
The company behind the SecurVoice software is Genesis Key, which is handily based in Washington DC. Be careful not to confuse this with spam-alike secure-voice.com, whose site reads, rather unconvincingly, thus: “The development of the Secure Voice lasts from 2001 and we have now a wide range of devices as well as Landline version of the solution.”
Since winning the election, President Obama has been limping along with two devices — a standard BlackBerry and a secured handset called the Sectera Edge, an unwieldy device that not only offers encrypted communications but is also so ugly that nobody would ever want to steal it. Both machines need to be tethered to each other to work, making every presidential e-mail look something like a game of Wii Boxing.
If the NSA tests come up clean, he could have his customised BlackBerry in his hands soon, which in governmental terms means a couple of months. And of course, secure communications aren’t much good if the person you are talking to is an open and easy target. To this end, Mrs. O should be getting one, too.
The odd fact is that the NSA usually likes everybody else to be locked out but itself. Giving the SecurVoice such a big endorsement will either mean that the encryption is indeed unbreakable (and therefore fit for the president) or that it wants everybody to think that it is unbreakable, therefore giving the NSA back-door access to every single SecurVoice customer. Paranoid conspiracy theory? Hell yes. Accurate speculation? Maybe.
Are you sure that there it will be called “The Blackberry Tour” instead of it still being called Niagra (or some other name) and Blackberry plans on having a Blackberry concert tour event to coincide with the launch of the device?
Just a thought…
Eric
You can never be sure until you’re sure, but, the rumor seems pretty legit…
Take a look at the VZW site and do a search for “BlackBerry 9630.” Based on the verbiage, my guess would say that it will be released possibly towards the end of May. Interesting…and a good sign that it should be coming soon if the model number is coming up in a search.
They’re probably planning on a road show called the BlackBerry Tour.
I say it WON’T be called the BlackBerry Tour, because the domain registrar for those sites is GoDaddy. RIM uses CSC Domain Services for all their other sites, there’s no WAY they would use CrapDaddy all of the sudden. Chances are that you saw a fanboy purchase two domains as once from GoDaddy, and the IP is the same because they’re both parked on GoDaddy.
My vote is “not legit”
Someone bought 2 domain names at the same time??!!?!?!?! OMFGWTFBBQ!!!!!!! Stop the presses!!!
LOL this pic was taken in winnipeg!!