Washington: US President Barack Obama will appear tonight on the famous "Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon on a TV channel, where he has revealed the phone he has been using.
Obama said on the show that he was a ‘super’ Blackberry fan and had has been using his "increasingly rare" BlackBerry device before he took office.
However, with the smartphone world moving faster, Obama said he has been given a brand new device (currently unnamed) which is "so locked down for security reasons that I can't call, play music, send texts or take pictures," The Verge reported on Monday.
"It's like one of those 'play phones' you'd give to a three-year-old," Obama told the TV host.
Since BlackBerry devices are gradually being shown the door by Android and iOS-based smartphones and many app developers leaving its platform in the past few years, the US authorities feel the new Android and iOS devices have strong security measures like end-to-end message encryption.
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The New York Times reported in April this year that some White House staffers were upgrading to Apple iPhones.
The National Security Agency (NSA) first set up the extra-secured BlackBerry for Obama in 2008. It has a special security software called SecureVoice. The device was stripped of every built-in feature -- even no selfie-camera or texting functionality -- that was at the risk of hacking.
According to media reports, the Blackberry was limited to calling only about 10 numbers also packed with same encryption, including Vice President Joe Biden, Obama's Chief of Staff, his press secretary, First Lady Michelle Obama and a few other family members.
(With IANS Inputs)
