Prez's Pimped-Out BlackBerry Nearly Ready

President Obama’s super-secure, high-powered new BlackBerry could soon get the thumbs-up from the National Security Agency, which is about to begin final tests on its encryption software. The president could be texting, emailing, calling and Facebooking other high-security personnel—like Michelle O.—within months, the Washington Times reports, replacing a jury-rigged setup with the top-secret version of BlackBerry’s 8830.

Since his inauguration, Obama has used a regular BlackBerry plugged into another NSA-provided handheld called a Sectera Edge, making it quite cumbersome. Software called SecureVoice, developed by Genesis Key, can turn any BlackBerry 8830 or Curve into a device meeting Top Secret clearance levels without fear of information being intercepted by foreign governments or hackers. (More Barack Obama stories.)