“George W Bush was forced to give up email when he was sworn in as President in case hackers broke into his system and worries all documents would have to be kept as presidential records,” The Telegraph repots.
“But Obama told CBNC he is struggling to keep the Blackberry so he can maintain contact with the outside world.’They’re going to pry it out of my hands,’ he said, “‘This is a concern, I should add, not just of Secret Service, but also lawyers,'” The Telegraph reports.
“Obama said keeping in touch by email was a way of escaping the trappings of power and staying in touch with the electorate,” The Telegraph repots.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Forget about security and legal issues: Should the U.S. President be using an inferior foreign-made device that routes all email information through a single NOC (network operations center) located on foreign soil* when a superior device has been created by a U.S. company?** It seems logical that the U.S. President should be supporting U.S. companies while also keeping his information off servers located in foreign countries.
*However benign that soil may be. We love Canucks. We’re just sayin…
**Yes, iPhones are assembled in China like nearly everything else on the planet. However, the bulk of the profits stays in the U.S., in the hands of a unique and valuable U.S. company with 32,000 employees, not sent off to another country.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Martin” for the heads up.]
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Hey, son, taking on the trappings of power is part of the job you spent two years asking for. You got the job, so suck it up and recognize that for the next four years, your life is not your own. You can’t tell me that you didn’t know you weren’t going to have to change personal habits when you took office.
so… nobody in governmental positions of power use email?
He still smokes too. Some habits are hard to give up. Like crack.
MDN: You don’t really want Apple to offer Obama an iPhone. I read quite a while ago that he has already tried one. Therefore if he is still using his Blackberry he probably prefers it and giving him an iPhone is only likely to be a PR disaster if he doesn’t like them and says so publicly.
I don’t understand why anyone would prefer a Blackberry keyboard over an iPhone one, but if Obama dissed it, iPhone sales would likely drop overnight.
iPhones are foreign made (in Chinas)
@Jeremy
I doubt sales would drop… people would just start to think he’s not as smart as he appears
@Your Mom Bluray
But the phone is designed, developed and tested in USA.. then sent off to the sweat shops where they are assembled from people makin one or two bowls of rice a day
@Your Mom Bluray
iPhones are foreign made (in Chinas)
****
It’s irrelevant where the iPhones are assembled. The point here is who controls the email server the user will be taking and sending from.
MDN’s point is that the email traffic from your president’s device will go through servers that are located on foreign soil. As they put it:
“Should the U.S. President be using [a] device that routes all email information through a single NOC (network operations center) located on foreign soil.”
It doesn’t bother me, since I’m not an American. But now they mention it, it is an interesting question.
As far as playing music and eco system the iPhone is unrivaled.
But when it comes to things such as email/sms/mms/messaging/notifications it’s seriously lacking.
I have an iPhone myself cause it fits my needs, but have loads of friends who have returned theirs because it’s just not very good for communication/notification just yet.
The iPhone is a iPod/web browser first. Phone is very much secondary.
For example: Swipe to unlock/press phone icon/scroll to letter of name/choose which number to call.
On a Blackberry? just start typing their name. Done.
I can totally understand why Obama prefers the Blackberry.
let’em have it. his presidency is already not starting off the right foot(no pun intended) anyway. some geek will hack his crackberry and some email will be very controversial, and just add to the nimrod things we are accustomed to already. our government is great but just not right now we all have to agree on that.