Obama BlackBerry alert: it's a BlackBerry
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted January 29th 2009 6:29PM
posted January 29th 2009 6:29PM
posted January 29th 2009 6:29PM
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Truth is - he didn't want to switch from Verizon to AT&T, you know, the coverage being what it is.
Enough of the crap. Does RIM not realize the business opportunity here? There's a reason General Dynamic's can sell a phone for $3,500...our government will buy them! I hope someone, somewhere at RIM is thinking about starting a government division!
Do we really want a president who needs to copy and paste? Isn't he supposed to have his own fresh, new ideas?
Yes, because when he wants to copy and paste a url, he could come up with a fresh and new one.
Please surrender your internet.
There are so many areas of the tech regarding a president that are undefined!
Lets say the president forgets to charge his battery, who goes and gets him a replacement. Is he to remain tethered to a wall to charge, or does he have an external charger. Also, does the White House have cords all over now to charge blackberrys or are they going to install auto-retracting blackberry chargers in all of the walls?
Next burning question, does he have a PSP or a DS?
I'd love to see a pic of him with a pink DS, playing Animal Crossing.
It's an 8830, even if the article didn't say that, because it's one of the few (maybe the only?) new Blackberries that can be had without a camera. There are still rules to these things, and cameras aint cool.
OH MY GOD!
GUESS WHAT IS NOT A QUESTION! WHY IS THERE A QUESTION MARK!?!?!?!
that is my NUMBER ONE pet-peeve.
Oh, if only I still had my blackberry. I went iPhone and have regretted it ever since - slow, prone to bugginess and, did I mention slow? It's impossible to type upon confidently and email updates are slow and frustrating. Lamenting the loss of my b-berry.
wow sounds like u got a dud. im the opposite i dropped my curve on june 29 2007 n havent looked back ever since. now i enjoy full html (the real internet).not to mention on july 11 2008 i now 3g at 1.8 mbps- 2.6 mpbs on a good day.
He's a pretty tech savy man. He more than likely pulls RSS feeds straight to his blackberry for perusal while traveling from place to place. Do you think Engadget is in that list? Mr President, what's your Engadget comment handle?
--
sent from my RIM BlackBerry 88xx -B.Obama
The Blackberry is Canadian. Why can't the AMERICAN president use an American made e-mail device?!?! On a serious note, I wonder what his email address is? Boss@whitehouse.gov?
The.Chief@whitehouse.gov? Who wants to be the first to try one of them?
Its ok to encourage our colder neighbour. I pity them since AMD buyed ATI and Cirque du Soleil is being slowly buy by some big Saudi Arabia conglomerate.
Sectera Edge is much suckage, I hope he's not using that thing
Its over 1 friggin' pound!
damn near need a backpack for your PDA lol
All kinds of congress critters have Blackberrys.. they are all over the Government.
RSS feeds would be a good idea, since we all know those things suck for everything other than phone calls and e-mail.
It gets down to this. He's the President, if he wants to keep his Blackberry, he can. Just like a former President didn't have to eat broccoli to appease the broccoli lobby. Thing is though, that there are e-mails that he will not get, because they cannot be sent to it, or decrypted by it. and calls he won't receive because he cannot establish a secure call. My bet is that an aide/secret service guy, will be lugging the Sectera, or equivalent, and hand it to him when such an e-mail/call comes in. As far as RIM making an approved device...unlikely. We don't buy a lot of US approved cryptographic equipment from foreign companies. In this country there are laws about how you handle classified material, and yes, even the President is subject to them.
I take back my vote n regret attending inauguration. What kind of president we have that chose to clearly support non american cell. Resorting to canadian,not to mention any canadian IT idiot working at NOC can easily decode his emails. what kind of president relies on cell that cant even replace his video ipod,what a dee dee deee! by the way he's not the first black president,he's the first 50% black ,50% white president that was raised by all whites .i can see it now.barack emailing minister of defense,"ok we gonna invade iraq at 2100 hours,shock n awe etc" some minimum wage canadian IT nerd trying make an extra dollar n selling secrets to al qaeda.this is freakin great.yeah i feel safer now.
look at all these haters.
*kissing my blackberry*
I can just see what all the news outlets are going to be doing when there's no more news about the BlackBarry (Ooh that could almost sound racist, Im not trying to).
Week 3: BlackBarry status update #1: Still in use.
Week 4: BlackBarry status update #2: Still in use.
Week 5: BlackBarry status update #3: Still in use. Followed up by an editorial as to why this is so great for the country, and it truly ushers in a new era of change.
Week 6: BlackBarry status update #4: We haven't seen any pictures of him using it, and to top it all off somebody said they they saw him talking on a WinMo Phone while jogging. OH NO! Could this Change message all have been a lie? Can we take back our votes?
.............
I'm at least concerned about security. His blackberry is real bait.
Paul Lopez
There is nothing that can beat the perfect combination of having a blackberry and an iPod touch.
OH MY GOD OBAMA USES A BLACKBERRY!
WHAT DOES HE WEAR TO BED?
HOW MANY CIGS DOES HE SMOKE A DAY?
assuming he's using and 8830 means he probably has verizon or sprint. funny that the president that received the highest donations in history from the unions isn't using a union friendly company... not flamin, just sayin...
I heard that the folks at RIM are sending the prez a new BB with a custom case with the initials H.N.I.C. etched onto it. Does anyone know if this is true?
Apple's a software company. The iPhone is all about the software experience of being able to elegantly and simply achieve your goals within the hardware constraints of the device. The App Store is excellent at covering a lot of functionality that the iPhone didn't ship with (e.g. Keynote Remote, iTalk, etc.) -- again, this is a function of software, not of hardware.
The BlackBerry is a great phone for its hardware and is fine for people who need it to do push e-mail. The web browsing experience in the iPhone is far superior, so is its voicemail (visual voicemail is a unique feature, which again is software reliant). The people comparing the BlackBerry and iPhone are not really understanding the intent behind each device.
I am a business user and am very happy with my iPhone. I previously owned a BlackBerry but would not do so again.
Um the IPHONE has no keyboard. Yes it makes a difference! A real one!
who cares?
Great, the Prez and I have the same BlackBerry. There are laws protecting the information I send on mine too, but do I get fancy security stuff on mine? No. I get it gimped so I can't make phone calls with it. Super.
Yeah... about the no camera thing? Cell phones are not allowed in SCIFs at all.... Something about being radios with microphones attached.
Folks, President Obama is likely using something like (if not this actual service) Email2.com. They have a native BB application that connects via SSL to their secured email servers. While it's not DHS approved, I am sure that he can get unclassified emails there. The only current handheld email solution that is DHS and NSA approved is the SME PED (Sectera Edge).
This has got to help sales out somewhat!
From what i saw in the News President obama is actually allowed to use his old blackberry, but "NSA software" has been installed on it
Hmm I bet I can thumb faster than him on my storm with my portrait qwerty. But then again its just a horrible device this... 9530/4.7.0.90
Oh god. Who cares? As long as the phone fits you it's okay. if you like RIM's phones yourself you'll probably never like the iPhone, and if you're an Apple fan you'll probably never like the Blackberry, but that doesn't mean any of these phones suck. it just means you dislike the phone. Never blame a dead object, because it has no emotions.
Even the most basic phone in this world could be ideal to someone living in the other part of the world, and all you can say is that the phone has basic features, but not that it's a bloody sucker. That's exactly why I have no idea how you guys come up with arguments like those up there.
With regards to the Selectra Edge, maybe he has the Blackberry for personal communications and is still going to get a Selectra for sensitive government stuff
Who really gives a fucking shit? This guy isnt even a citizen. He is NOT black, only 12% or so. He's more Arab than anything else. And, the people he chooses to appoint and hang around with have MUCH to be desired about. Transparency, Hope, Change...... my ass.