North Korea 'makes home-grown' Arirang smartphone

bbc.co.uk

22 points·werckerwouter··6 comments

> "In order to make sure the mobile phone frequencies are not being tracked, I would fill up a washbasin with water and put the lid of a rice cooker over my head while I made a phone call.

erm... either you shield all radio at which point, yes, you can't be tracked, but you can't make a phone call either. Or you don't shield the radio in order to make a call, but then you can be tracked.

Where's the flaw in my reasoning?

If he was near the border, then maybe he tried to block the radio in certain directions.

It's called the 'Arirang' and the home screen background is a photo of Heaven Lake atop Baekdu Mountain, which is supposedly the birthplace of Kim Jong-Il. So patriotic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_Lake

> He advised that factory workers should "select and produce shapes and colours that users like".

Because the people of North Korea will love the shapes and colors of the phones, and not the possibility of it bringing them out of poverty, right?

North Koreans are already told that they live in the best country. They wouldn't officially suggest that the situation is terrible.

And because the factory workers are obviously the ones in charge of the "shapes and colors" of the phone!

As the BBC article notes, production was probably in China. The "inspection" at the NK factory was probably more for internal PR than for any practical reason.

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