“Before he ran for president Barack Obama quit smoking,” Seth Borenstein reports or The Associated Press.
MacDailyNews Note: Not according to The Telegraph, “He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn’t,” Jon Swaine reports. “He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry.”
Borenstein continues, “Now that he’s won the job, he may have [attempt] to break another addiction: Checking his BlackBerry for e-mail.”
“The president’s e-mail can be subpoenaed by Congress and courts and may be subject to public records laws, so if a president doesn’t want his e-mail public, he shouldn’t e-mail, experts said. And there may be security issues about carrying around trackable cell phones,” Borenstein reports.
“Obama transition officials haven’t made a decision on what the new president will or will not carry, but those who have been there say it’s unlikely he’ll carry his BlackBerry and he may be in for some withdrawal pains,” Borenstein reports. “Obama has often been seen avidly checking his e-mail on his handheld equipment… Actress Scarlett Johansson said she has had frequent e-mail exchanges with him during his campaign travels, something the Obama campaign downplayed.”
“There is presidential precedent for an e-mail blackout. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton didn’t e-mail while in office,” Borenstein reports. “A few days before Bush took office in 2001, he sent an e-mail to a few dozen close friends saying he would no longer use e-mail: ‘Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace. This saddens me.’”
Borenstein reports, “Bush was unhappy about losing his e-mail and mostly used the phone to talk to friends, former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan wrote, adding, “I am sure the president looks forward to being able to communicate with them via e-mail again come January 20, 2009.”
Full article here.
Brian X. Chen reports for Wired that Obama is “a Mac user [so] it’s highly likely that his chat client of choice is iChat. Michelle Obama told People magazine that the one gadget her husband would never leave at home is a webcam, which he uses to stay in touch with her and the kids whenever he’s traveling. iChat’s the best Mac app for video chatting, and it’s the easiest to use, too.”
Full article here.
David Flynn writes for APC Magazine, “Obama has yet to make good on his promise to give up smoking. Maybe when he sneaks out of the Oval for a cigarette on the sly he might also borrow a BlackBerry for a quick fix.” As for his Mac, “Just as long as he does not do any emailing, blogging or IM sessions he should be OK.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers too numerous to mention for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: The fact that all BlackBerry email goes through a NOC in a foreign country is probably an issue, too.
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