The mystery surrounding President Barack Obama's Blackberry has lasted longer than anyone anticipated. But thanks to the deep-dive veteran journalists over at the New Yorker, we can finally know what's really in there.
A game of Tiny Ninja or perhaps a version of Mario Bros.? No. According to artist Bruce McCall, the President has a dedicated button for everything from a message that lets him know whenever Al Gore is in the viscinity, to a flash alarm that goes off in case Malia and Sasha start jumping on Lincoln's bed.
McCall's amusing interactive 'sketchbook' is of course a joke, but it does flush the imagination with other (real or ridiculous) potential features the NSA might have integrated into the smartphone.
It's crazy how much notoriety the Blackberry has received, but we still don't know much about the details.
At first, we heard that the hacking, monitoring, and records preservation risks of the phone were too greatfor the leader of the free world to carry around. Then, we heard he was using a modified Blackberry with security approval from the NSA, and that was followed with a report that it was a Window-based smartphone from General Dynamics. Obama's played into the fun of it all by suggesting it turns into a car, for a 'quick getaway.'
The truth is that we'll probably never know the true features of the phone. For example, Presidential limos from previous administrations have been destroyed so that no one figures out a pattern of their security features. This means we'll be speculating for years and we're OK with it.
Illustration: Bruce McCall/NewYorker.com
