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Recommended Reading: Microsoft's Panos Panay on the Surface Duo
Recommended Reading highlights the week's noteworthy writing on technology and more.
You'll be able to contribute to 2020 presidential campaigns via Alexa
With debates underway and just a few months until the first primaries, 2020 presidential election campaigns are in full swing, and you'll soon have another way to donate to your favorite candidate. Campaigns can sign up to receive contributions via Alexa and, from next month, you'll be able to donate between $5 and $200 to participating candidates through Amazon's voice assistant.
Beto O'Rourke was a member of hacking group Cult of the Dead Cow
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke was a member of the influential US-based hacking group Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC), according to a report from Reuters. The former three-term congressman from Texas confirmed his involvement in the group to the publication, as did members of the hacking collective.
Evidence ties Russia to Podesta and Powell email hacks
Back in March, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta received a frantic-sounding email about his account security and clicked a shortened link that appeared to be from Google. Instead, it redirected to a spoof page that gave hackers access to his password. Half a year later, WikiLeaks started publicly releasing thousands of his emails on October 9th, a month after the seemingly unrelated leak of Gen. Colin Powell's personal messages. Security firms, journalists and a hive of independent researchers have spent the interim analyzing the digital break-ins and have arrived at the probable culprit behind these and several other hacks: Russia. But definitively attributing it to the country's intelligence services is difficult, if not impossible.
Internet meme tries shaming Trump into releasing tax returns
Way back in the years and months leading up to the 2012 presidential election, a loudmouth businessman and reality TV star named Donald Trump continued to push a disproved and fallacious controversy asking Obama to reveal his birth certificate. The paranoid believed it would prove he was born in Kenya and thus ineligible for the office, but the White House released it in 2011 anyway, shutting them down. Still Trump clamored on, shoddily ventriloquizing that not he but others still believed Obama was a fake. Now it's 2016 and the outsider has somehow become the Republican presidential candidate — and a smattering of internet trolls have turned the tables, claiming that someone else told them he'd donated to the pedophilic North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).
PSA: Watch, interact with tonight's presidential debate on Xbox Live
The second presidential debate will be streamed on Xbox Live tonight for Gold members, starting at 9 p.m. ET. Just like the previous presidential and vice presidential debates, this one will be interactive, posing questions to viewers on policy and performance.This presidential debate is in a town hall format, meaning members of the audience will have the opportunity to ask President Barack Obama and republican Mitt Romney questions directly. It will (attempt to) focus on domestic and foreign policy.The vice presidential debate saw more than 30,000 responses to each question, with more than 800,000 individual responses total. Tonight's debate is accessible through the Xbox Live dashboard.
AT&T launches VoteHub, brings the presidential election to your pocket
Need yet another constant stream of election information? AT&T's joined up with the Pew Center to bring election coverage to your pocket, courtesy of VoteHub. The new app is a "nonpartisan clearinghouse for essential voter information," including candidate info, AP press coverage, election results and the requisite social sharing through sites like Twitter, Facebook and Google+. The app's available now for Android, with an iOS version coming in the near future.
PSA: Live presidential debate goes interactive on Xbox Live tonight
Standard presidential debates are so 2008. In the 2012, we expect a bit more interactivity from our presidential debates, and coincidentally Xbox Live is delivering that to Gold subscribers tonight with the first presidential debate.Republican nominee Mitt Romney and incumbent President Barack Obama will begin their debate at 9PM Eastern tonight. During the debate, Xbox Live users will be able to answer polls and even suggest questions for the Xbox Live community through Twitter by using the hashtag #XboxPoll.This is one of four debates that will stream live through the Election 2012 hub on Xbox Live, three presidential debates and one vice presidential. Watching three of the four total debates will net Xbox Live users a free Halo 4 Warrior Armor avatar.
President Barack Obama campaigning in EA games again
Much can change in four years, but apparently President Barack Obama's campaign avenues haven't. For his upcoming campaign towards a second term as President of the United States, Obama will once again advertise through video games – specifically, EA games. Madden NFL 13 across various consoles and other undisclosed EA games are on deck to dish out Obama ads, including EA's casual games portal Pogo and EA Mobile games like Tetris, Scrabble and Battleship. These ads will show up for gamers in Ohio, Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Virginia.Four years ago, Obama paid $44,500 for in-game advertising in Burnout Paradise and other games. You can see some mock-ups in our gallery below. %Gallery-165666%
US presidential campaign trail winds its way to Xbox Live on August 27th with Election 2012 Hub
Can't get enough coverage of the US presidential race even with YouTube in the mix? Microsoft's Election 2012 Hub for Xbox Live may be able to satisfy your inner political junkie. Redmond's initiative will provide video of town hall events at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions, daily content from NBC and full coverage of results as ballots are cast and counted on November 6th. Throughout live streams of the debates, users will be able to rate the performances of public office hopefuls and see what marks other viewers give them in real-time. Information on voter registration, politicians and their take on issues will also be included. According to Microsoft, roughly 40 percent of Xbox-owning voters surveyed aren't concretely committed to a candidate running for the Oval Office, placing them in the highly-prized swing voter category. The service won't launch until the Grand Old Party's pow-wow kicks off on August 27th, but we hear there's plenty of relevant reading to keep you busy until then.
Obama and McCain face stiff competition
If you live in the U.S., you probably know that there's a presidential election coming up this November. As it stands, you currently have a few front-runner options: John McCain, Barack Obama, or ... Mario and Luigi?Yes, the joke's been done before (especially because of the nine thousand Mario Party games out there), but now it's on a t-shirt. Yet, that's not where Nintendo stops interfering in politics.Supporters of presidential candidate (and popular Mii), Barack Obama, have made a ton of 1up themed paraphernalia endorsing the candidate. The "O" in "Obama" was replaced with the green power-up, and the slogan reads, "Obama: 1up for America." Check past the break (or just click here) to see the design made by the Leftique.Now all we need is some game gear for McCain, and Nintendo will have completely taken over this election.
Would you elect the president via text message? 61 percent say 'Y'
According to a recent, sensational survey from Samsung Mobile, 61 percent of lazy, distracted, and impossibly ignorant cellphone users over the age 18 say they would be comfortable casting their vote for President of the United States via a text message. Meanwhile, the totally serious and meaningful survey found that eight in ten (or 80 percent) of teens under the legal voting age would use their mobile devices to cast a ballot in the election. Additionally, Samsung Mobile discovered that 90 percent of cellphone users would like an ice cream cone, while another 87 percent would like an ice cream cone only after eating a quarter-pounder with cheese. Soon Samsung Mobile hopes to determine what percentage, if any, of the people surveyed know who is running for the office of president.
Ron Paul's World of Warcraft rally
On New Year's day supporters of Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul gathered on the Whisperwind (US) realm in World of Warcraft to march across Azeroth and show their support for their candidate of choice. The rally started outside Ironforge with approximately 240 players (with 400 members in their RP Revolution guild) and traveled to Stormwind, Westfall, Booty Bay, Ratchet, and finally Orgrimmar. And if you didn't make it, you can still experience the rally vicariously via our image gallery below (and if you did make it, feel free to send screenshots to us at aroundazeroth@wow.com!) or video above!To the best of our knowledge, this was the first political rally to be held in World of Warcraft -- and looking at their numbers it seems to have been a successful and upbeat gathering (or at least it was upbeat for the participants). Will this event help Ron Paul's chances in the election? It's hard to say until the votes are cast, but the uniqueness of the event is causing it to get a lot of media coverage. (And no press is bad press, so long as they spell your name properly, right?) Read on for impressions of the event.%Gallery-12524%
