Obama gets approval for 'first smartphone'.

• Position: INFO SECURITY - Barack Obama - Brief article

U.S. security officials have approved a high-tech, spy-proof, $3,350 smartphone for Barack Obama so he can be the first sitting president to use e-mail.

Media reports said the Sectera Edge, made by General Dynamics, is capable of encrypting top-secret voice conversations and handling classified documents. According to reports, one touch of a button moves the device from non-classified (blue background screen) to classified (red screen) mode.

However, there are strict rules for both the president and those corresponding with him. First, only a select circle of friends and staff will have his address. Second, anyone placed on that exclusive list will first receive a briefing from the White House counsel's office. Third, messages from the president will be designed so they cannot be forwarded.

Of course, all Obama's e-mail messages remain subject to the Presidential Records Act (PRA), which could ultimately put his words into the public domain, as well as under the threat of subpoenas. That caveat, aides said, did not dissuade the president.

Obama had been expected to give up his Blackberry upon...