Samsung, in partnership with the Israeli company Askan, on Wednesday debuted a “kosher” smartphone for users seeking to avoid religiously offensive content.
“We chose Askan as a partner because the company helps the haredi society, which wants to make use of smart mobile devices, and gain access to our advanced instruments in complete conformity with their lifestyle,” said Guy Hibash, director of Samsung Israel’s enterprise division.
Askan creates technology that can program phones with Internet filters in order to block content that haredi users would consider offensive. The “kosher” operating system will run on various Samsung phones, including the Galaxy S6 and S7 series as well as the A5 and J1 models.
Rabbi Tzvi Braverman, a haredi rabbinical judge from Beitar Illit in Israel, approved the new device. But the kosher smartphone is still awaiting an endorsement from the rabbinical court of Rabbi Nissim Karelitz, who oversees smartphone usage in the non-Hassidic haredi community.
(Source: JNS.org)
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7 Responses
So who will be profiting the most from this?
This is actually great news that I was waiting for. Will it be available in the US too?
Not Getting Involved:
Simple.
Everyone who has to use a smartphone and who wants to avoid the shmutz.
Those pictures are iPhones.
so now smartphones are not so ‘treif’ as they used to be? So these have a filter that filters out what we should be taught to avoid anyway!
Didn’t the Rabbonim in Eretz Yisroel just come out against the ‘askan’ smartphone because it isn’t under Rabbinical supervision? There are other solutions in Eretz Yisroel which do have Rabbinic oversight.
Luckshun kugel – you are saying just that! Shtusim & luckshun! Do you recall the gemara – ein apitropes larayos? Did you learn the gemara in kidushin about nura bei amram? Was R’ Amram not taught what he was supposed to be taught? Luckshun – when it comes to shmutz, being taught is not enough!!