As BlackBerry fully adopts Android as its operating system,
the company is bringing the security features it is renowned for to an OS with
a dubious track record when it comes to security. This includes regular updates
as well as introducing new apps, which address security and privacy issues. The
roll-out of the March security updates come after the introduction of the new
KEYone phone at MWC 2017 in Barcelona. This month there is a new app called
Privacy Shade, along with additional updates to the existing line of
applications.
On the company blog, Michael Clewley, Director of Software
Product Management, says:
“Privacy Shade will let you read emails, messages and
personal content at any time without worrying about snoopers, even if someone is
looking over your shoulder. The app allows you to view private information in
public places — like on the train or in a restaurant — by obscuring the parts
of the screen that you’re not actively viewing or using, while still allowing
you to interact with the obscured parts.”
While worrying about people looking over your shoulder might
seem a bit paranoid, visual hacking is a serious problem. It’s one that has led
PC, monitor and screen protector manufacturers to come up with solutions to
address this issue. With Privacy Shade, BlackBerry has created an app that
prevents anyone around you from easily seeing what is on your screen. The
concept is actually quite ingenious. Privacy Shade lets you control the area of
the screen you are viewing and block out everything else, while still allowing
you to interact with the entire screen.
When you turn the BlackBerry Privacy Shade app on, you
adjust the transparency of the shade depending on the lighting condition of
where you happen to be. Once you make the adjustment, the app exposes the area
you are reading or typing in, leaving everything else dark.
The other updates to Blackberry’s Android operating system
include a new version of BlackBerry Hub that adds dual-SIM support for
BlackBerry smartphones, as well as new features for Kik and Telegram, Android
Wear Notifications, Contacts, and DTEK. Kik and Telegram are popular messaging
services for mobile devices, and with the update, users can enable auto cc: or
bcc: when sending a message. And according to Clewley, the settings can be
applied to individual accounts.
Android Wear Notifications, which is in beta, will let you
read and delete Hub items via Android Wear devices with Hub+ notifications.
Another feature has been added finding and linking duplicate
contacts to get rid of the clutter. As for DTEK, BlackBerry’s security
monitoring app, users will receive a notification if an OS Integrity issue has
been detected.
But in a rather unfortunate twist, BlackBerry has finally
acknowledged problems with the much-delayed 10.3.3 update to BlackBerry 10 that
users began to receive late last year.
In September 2015, as it announced the company’s first
Android device, BlackBerry CEO John Chen promised that its home grown BB10
platform wasn’t dead. It had last received an update with new features in February
2015. Chen explained that BB10 users would receive two further "platform
updates focused on security and privacy enhancements", the first coming in
March 2016.
That was a way of saying that the BB10 platform was going
into maintenance mode, and users shouldn’t expect any new features. As we
explained, the Qt-based Cascades development environment needed significant
investment to bring it up to date, and BB10 devices sales didn’t justify it.
Since then BlackBerry Mobile has been created as a software and licensing unit,
with partners, principally TCL, handling the design, marketing and logistics of
selling BlackBerry-branded phones.
The promised update, which qualified for US National
Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) certification, only rolled out in
December, and only initially for US users. (UK devices began to receive 10.3.3
last month.)
But even though 10.3.3 didn’t contain any new features, it
has caused users problems, BlackBerry acknowledges in a release note. These
include:
- Slow/poor performance
- Menu items missing or slow to respond
- Device temperature warmer than usual
- Applications not opening
- [The device being] unable to connect to wireless networks
The advice? Walk away from your BlackBerry for 24 hours!
Users aren’t impressed, partly because it was typical for
users to expect a “settling in” period after a fresh install, and partly
because it doesn’t acknowledge that 10.3.3 has brought new problems.
Alas, the problems are compounded by other evidence of decay
in the BB10 world. For users to backup their mission critical phone logs, or
migrate them to another device, BlackBerry’s desktop software Link needs to be
used. But the combination of BlackBerry Link and 10.3.3 works only erratically,
or not at all, with Windows 10 and Mac OS Sierra, and there’s no indication it
will ever receive an update. To keep backing up that vital data, users need to
keep their phone on 10.3.2 and an older version of Mac or Windows: preferably
both.
Two years ago BlackBerry’s enterprise chief told us the
company had “left people behind” in its migration to BB10 in 2013. Internal
network data showed that millions were clinging to their older BlackBerry
devices. Now it’s BB10 user’s turn to be left behind, too.
Via:
Express.Co.Uk
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