“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.
Wait a minute……………………………………….
You said that George Bush was forced to give up his e-mail……..
And Barack Obama is resisting using better technology………….
Uhh…………………something just does not add up here………….
Popular view is that George Bush is a caveman who wouldn’t know e-mail if he saw it……………….
And Barack Obama is the all-knowing…….all-seeing version of Karnack the Magificent……………………….?
Uh, never mind………the article must be an illusion…..guess I must be wrong…….this could just not be!
Let the flames begin! I am already ducking! Have fun
how is he resisting using better tech? thats what i want to know. instead of email/phone what do they use up there in the ‘house’?
@ Peruchito – The ones who are not doing anything the need to conceal are using e-mail. It’s only the crooks and traitors who have to avoid it. It was the taped conversations that brought Nixon down. W knew he couldn’t take any chances. I suspect Obama will go through his term(s) with very little to hide.
Stupid people always resent change for the better!
there is a NOC right here in the US in a “secret” location that obama’s emails would go through. it is used to satisfy those crazy people at the redundant department of redundancy.
“how is he resisting using better tech? thats what i want to know. instead of email/phone what do they use up there in the ‘house’?”
I am the first kenh. How is that someone else can use the same username?
i need to register
“i need to register”
ok, thanks for clearing that up
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If Obama wants a private e-mail account, he should just go with something totally off the wall like 69shebang@gmail.com
If it’s then used just as a private e-mail account with no national security/work-related stuff on it, I’m thinking no one would be the wiser.
Please, no Clinton jokes.
Jeez, I didn’t realize on my last post that’d give that e-mail address a hyperlink. Hope no one really has that for their e-mail . . .
Actually, if they do, they deserve random e-mails from strangers. Probably would even like them.
First let me say that I am a daily (multiple times) reader of MacDailyNews and I proudly use my iPhone. I truly enjoy the website, its content and the MDN editorial slant.
However, this dialogue on the Prez Elect and his choice of device hit a nerve.
You are right to fear a central server, but not because it is in Canada.
“Foreign soil” be damned, Canada and the U.S. are so inextricably connected (no pun on geography), we are almost one. Despite your near apology to Canucks, you display another example of your country’s lack of understanding and near paranoia of Canada.
Despite your size and power, it never ceases to amaze me how protectionist your country can be. Even when I try to buy something on-line, numerous companies turn inside out over the prospect of shipping across the 49th parallel.
The Prez should drop his “Berry” simply because it is a “Berry”, not because it comes from Canada. Even we Canucks, self included, can see the error of our ways. I gladly made the switch to iPhone (despite the carrier limitation) and my Blackberry is a relic of the past.
Part of the issue is that all communications that the President makes, should be recorded and made available to the public as decreed by the “Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978. (http://www.archives.gov/about/laws/index.html#presrec)
Another concern would be the ability to track his exact location when he is using a GPS cell phone.
Imagine how we could have gotten Bin Laden if the news media had not let the cat out of the bag and told the world that the CIA was listening in on his phone calls. And he didn’t have a GPS cell phone at the time.
We get it MDN, Rush Limbaugh loves the Mac…Doesn’t keep him from being a first-grade a**hole. Seems like 90% of your links are about him.
…besides, I don’t think the iPhone has been approved for U.S. Government offices. No matter how you slice it, email is inferior on the iPhone to the Blackberry, no contest (and I’m a happy iPhone user).
Remember also that virtually everything that Obama does from now on is being watched and recorded.
Unfortunately, there are a lot sick folks out there that are dying to distort what he says, writes or does.
As he is required to do by law, i.e. PRA, Obama will be supported by a staff that will not only ensure that the law is followed, but that all written communication is virtually perfect in a language, legal and constitutional sense.
Emails by their very nature can be fraught with interpretation. And as the adage goes, people that live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, let alone hand out bricks.
@BillMart,
The only reason why we’re so “close” is because Americans, the most civilized of the North American population, have the power to defend ourselves. If Canada had our military and monetary might, you wouldn’t hesitate to kill us all and pillage our land.