CNET "Apple's iMessage encryption trips up feds' surveillance"

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57577887-38/apples-imessage-encryption-trips-up-feds-surveillance/

They cite a blog post from last August by Matthew Green http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2012/08/dear-apple-please-set-imessage-free.html

I follow Green's blog and can recommend it to anyone that is seriously interested in cryptography and/or data privacy.

Blackberry's BBM (Blackberry Messenger) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Messenger has long been secure as well, though I believe in recent years government pressure has forced some changes in that.

For more on BBM see http://computer.howstuffworks.com/e-mail-messaging/blackberry-messenger.htm

For general info on Blackberry security see http://www.berryreview.com/2010/08/06/faq-what-communication-is-encrypted-on-your-blackberry/

Note there are differences between BES (Enterprise Blackberry) and BIS (Consumer Blackberry), but (AFAIK) in general that doesn't matter for BBM.

According to  http://bgr.com/2013/02/27/blackberry-messenger-security-vulnerability-346634/ it seems that BBM on BIS lacks higher level security options just like email:

"“Although PIN-to-PIN messages are encrypted, they key used is a global cryptographic ‘key’ that is common to every BlackBerry device all over the world,” Public Safety Canada official stated in the memo. “Any BlackBerry device can potentially decrypt all PIN-to-PIN messages sent by any other BlackBerry device.”"

and

"It should be noted that Public Safety Canada has failed to take into account the fact that organizations have the ability to change the encryption key to a unique one, ensuring that only BlackBerry devices using the same BES network can communicate with each other. There are also several ways to encode BBM messages such as S/MIME, which adds another layer of security."

Nerd Gear: Microsoft Surface Pro Insights

After reading Paul Thurrott's Going Pro: Thinking About Performance article http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/going-pro-thinking-about-performance, I came across this in the Comments section from another reader:

saqrkh on Feb 10, 2013

After having used the Surface Pro now for 36 hours, I think it will shine most in an office/work-setting for most people. At work we carry our laptops around for meetings, presentations, to our colleagues and bosses for feedback on work, etc.
Being much lighter and capable (touch and digitizer/inking) the Surface Pro is a superb alternative to the traditional laptop for each of those functions. Even the sub-par battery life would be a non-issue since we always come back to our desks.
Unfortunately, the battery life on this thing isn't good enough to make it a professional's best friend. That said, for the here and now, it's a great partner to have with you whilst in the office.

I have mentioned before, I am real interested in the Surface Pro, but after reading Anatech's article, http://www.anandtech.com/show/6695/microsoft-surface-pro-review, decided I will wait until Haswell before considering it, but saqrkh's comment above really resonated with me.

That is very close to the use case I was looking at from the Blackberry Playbook.

The Playbook was a real disappointment for me, like the hardware, but it seemed more like an Alpha than Beta product.

I had been looking at it as device that would tightly pair with my Blackberry Bold, for me personally I hate carrying laptops or even tablets around if I can avoid it, I already carry a lot of other gear.

So I tend to use smartphone 4-5 hours every day for things most people use Tablets or even Notebooks for, but a larger screen and keyboard will speed things up if you need to do a lot of writing or data entry, also allows one to be involved in a meeting far more than if your squinting at a small screen.

After the success of the Galaxy Note, and the Note 2, I know I am not the only one that feels that way. The Galaxy Note will replace my Blackberry Bold & much of what I wanted to do with the Blackberry Playbook.

Hopefully with Haswell the Surface Pro, or perhaps a Lenovo or ASUS tablet, will solve problems and use cases that the Galaxy Note 2 doesn't.

Otherwise I will still have to lug around a laptop, or what usually happens to me, limp along with my phone, since those situations tend to arise unexpectedly.

Nerd News: BBM VOIP WiFi Only Beta

Press Release from RIM:  http://press.rim.com/newsroom/press/2012/bbm-now-lets-you-have-voice-chats-for-free-over-wi-fi.html

RIM has released a Beta of BBM (Blackberry Messenger) that supports VOIP between BBM users over WiFi.

The Beta is available here https://beta.webapps.blackberry.com/login/

From the press release "BBM version 7 with the new BBM Voice feature is currently available in Beta for BlackBerry smartphones running the BlackBerry® 6 OS or higher."

I have a Blackberry Bold 9780, though I am planning on switching to a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 this Christmas, in large part because I don't have a lot of hope that Blackberry will survive their business mistakes.

I would be happy to be wrong about this, because I really like several features that Blackberry phones have, that no one else does.

Their security is a big one, though newer iPhones (iPhone 4S or newer) have good enough security to replace that functionality.

I also really like the optical track pad of newer Blackberry's, for me that works a lot better than touchscreens, this is a big part of the reason I am going to the Galaxy Note II, the Stylus will provide precision, that I can't get otherwise with touchscreens.

BBM is the third big thing I will miss about Blackberry, if your not familiar with it, it works like Skype Chat, though probably a bit more secure than Microsoft's Skype, considering the news about Skype's password reset hack.

I have been looking at PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) to replace that element.

Mechanical USB Keyboard that switches via Bluetooth to Smartphone or Tablet, & maybe Laptops?

Update/correction 7/31/12 Thanks to anonymous poster comment.

The Matias One Keyboard (Standard $99) is a dome switch keyboard, I thought at that price it would be mechanical.

The Matias Tactile One Keyboard ($199) is the mechanical keyboard, the mechanical one is not yet available, but the dome switch keyboard is currently available.


*********

Last year I was looking for a keyboard that would let me switch between desktop and laptop at home, so I didn't have to use little keyboard on my 13" ASUS lapptop when I was at home.

Nothing existed that I could find.

So I was pretty excited when I stumbled across the Matias One Keyboard, available in both PC & Mac versions, it is marketed at iPhone users, but it works via Bluetooth and will work with Android, Blackberry, etc smartphones, I think it would work with Laptops that support Bluetooth Keyboards as well.

It should certainly work with an iPad.

Note it doesn't charge your smartphone, but does provide a dock/cradle to hold it on the keyboard.

The Matias One Keyboard is a dome switch keyboard, but the will have a mechanical keyboard with the Bluetooth switch, that will be called the Matias Tactile One, that will use Alphs keys and not the Cherry, I am not a keybaord expert, but from what I understand Alphs are good, and Alphs vs Cherry is pretty much a Honda vs Toyota difference.

Fanboys will argue one is better, but in reality it is more a question of slight tradeoffs AFAIK.

I have a Das keyboard that I love, wish I would have spent the money on a Das years ago, they are worth it for people that spend a lot of time gaming or working on a computer.

But I am putting this Matias One Keyboard Matias Tactile One on wish list to get for my girlfriend, she spends all day working on computer, but she also has an iPad and we are getting her an iPhone for Xmas, and this would give her a quality Mechanical keyboard that could double as full size keyboard for her iOS devices when needed/wanted.

Though I will have to test it out of course!  Quality Control.

Link here to Amazon for the Matias One Keyboard (NOTE: the Matias One keyboard that is available now is a Dome Switch model, the Mechanical Matias Tactile One is not available), I am a Amazon Associate, so I will get a small amount of money from Amazon if you buy from that link, doesn't affect the buyers price.