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Google refutes Trump accusation over State of the Union links
After earlier tweeting, deleting and re-posting unsupported claims that Google is "suppressing voices of Conservatives," this afternoon the President's personal Twitter account posted a new attack video. It claimed that the company failed to promote his State of the Union address with a link on its homepage after doing so for President Barack Obama, but several things about it don't hold up. In a statement to the media, Google explained that isn't quite true, since a President's first address to Congress (like Donald Trump's this year) is not technically a State of the Union address, and explained that it did not promote Obama's speech in 2009 or Trump's in 2017. While the video claimed that it did not post a link for the 2018 speech, Google said it did. Buzzfeed News points to a Reddit post in the pro-Trump The_Donald section containing a screenshot showing the active link, posted during the speech earlier this year. Additionally, it points out that the video doesn't match Google's logo during the time in question. Meanwhile, Rob Graham points to an Internet archive page showing the link was active during the speech. Even if the video's claims were true, which all evidence available shows they are not, it's unclear why a link to a YouTube video -- which is also posted on the White House website -- would provide bias for or against a speech that also aired live on all major network and news TV channels. Google spokesperson: On January 30 2018, we highlighted the livestream of President Trump's State of the Union on the google.com homepage. We have historically not promoted the first address to Congress by a new President, which is technically not a State of the Union address. As a result, we didn't include a promotion on google.com for this address in either 2009 or 2017.
President Obama wants US to 'reignite its spirit of innovation'
President Obama gave his final State of the Union address on Tuesday. In it, he discussed how far the country has come over the last year and where he sees it going in the future. But beyond the expected talk of a rebuilt, stronger economy, soaring high school graduation rates and new civil liberties, he laid out a bold plan to, as he puts it, make "technology work for us, and not against us."
Must See HDTV: State of the Union, 'Workaholics,' 'Teachers'
After President Obama finishes his State of the Union Address, there are still a bunch of new choices for your TV watching this week. Netflix is premiering a new season of Degrassi, while Amazon has more episodes of Just Add Magic. Workaholics is back for a new season on Comedy Central, while TV Land is premiering its latest comedy Teachers. The Martian set the record for video on-demand sales with over 1 million in its first week, and now it's on Blu-ray, along with season on of Mr. Robot. For gamers, Gone Home is out on PS4 and Xbox One, plus new DLC for the latest Assassin's Creed game. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Apple takes center stage in Presidential State of the Union address
All eyes and ears were on President Obama last night during the State of the Union address, but Apple inadvertently stole some of the President's spotlight. While political commenters discussed the President's new policies following the speech, the talk of the tech world focused on Apple and the prevalence of the Apple logo in the press gallery during the event. This tweet by Michael McAuliff captures the Apple moment. Wow. The press gallery over the House floor for #SOTU looks like a damn Apple ad. pic.twitter.com/uubqdon5qc - Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) January 21, 2015 This preponderance of MacBook Pro and MacBook Air notebooks is not surprising as we've seen this phenomena before. High-profile press events, even those events hosted by rivals such as Microsoft, seem to attract with a large number of Mac-using attendees who are there to cover the event.
What's on your HDTV: State of the Union, 'The Fall', 'Justified'
Tonight President Barack Obama's State of the Union address gives us a great chance to compare the quality in feeds of different networks (oh, and the political stuff), but we're really waiting for the premiere episode of the final season of Justified. We missed the return of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Workaholics and Broad City last week, but those -- along with the new show Man Seeking Woman -- are probably worth catching up on. Netflix is about to add season two of the excellent show The Fall to its streaming queue and of course The Interview on Saturday. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Talkcast tonight, 4pm HI/7pm PT/10pm ET: Post Valentine's edition!
It's the Sunday after Valentine's day, and it's time once again to feel the love of fellow Apple fans by joining a bunch of them on the TUAW talkcast! Regardless of your political leanings, it was nice to see Tim Cook at the SOTU, and even nicer to hear the shoutout he got from the President for "insourcing" plans for one of Apple's product lines. Tim didn't even have to make a special trip to the east coast; he was already in New York to speak at the Goldman Sachs investor conference. We'll also be discussing the other news of the week, and what have you. Kelly hosting means aftershow, so do try to come by if you can! Since it's really all about you, the community, do see if you can join us, won't you? To participate, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for +5 Interactivity, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (Viva free weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free X-Lite or other SIP clients (aside from Skype or Google Voice), basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight!
Obama's State of the Union address goes Web 2.0
Tonight, President Obama will deliver the annual State of the Union address, and while partisan politics (and some great shots of various people nodding off) will rule the night, the US government is getting into the Web 2.0 game in a big way tonight. The speech -- scheduled for 9:00 pm ET -- will be streamed live on the web, and immediately following said speech, the White House will host an 'Open for Questions' event on Twitter making use of the hashtag #sotu, while other government officials will answer questions submitted on Facebook, as well as the White House website's webform. On Thursday night, the President will also answer questions on YouTube. We'll let you know if and when the government hatches a plan to answer questions on Yahoo! Answers. [Image Credit: Pete Souza for the White House]
Poll: Which network had the best SOTU presentation?
We hope you had a chance to check out the pres last night on your network of choice and while some of you left comments in the heads up post, we want to get a general consensus. If you did miss it then follow the link over to the AVSForum for some high res images and let us know what you think? Don't forget to tell us how you were watching and even what kind of TV you have. Free polls from Pollhost.com Which network had the best SOTU presentation? ABC CBS NBC Fox HDNet
Why you should check out the State of the Union Address
Other than to hear how the ol' Union is doing this year, HDTV fans have another reason to check out the State of the Union Address tonight. We all know that it takes a lot of work to get HD programming to your HDTV and like many things in life some have more success than others. That is what makes the SOTU so unique, it is one of the only opportunities we have to truly compare the networks. The reason why this is such a great comparison is because in the past all the networks have used the same video pool. This means that all the networks are using the same cameras, and since you're using the same HDTV as you switch channels, that only leaves all the other stuff in the middle to judge. This year HDNet is also going to cover the event and although the other networks haven't confirmed their HD coverage, we will assume they will cover the event in HD, based on their coverage from the past few years -- well everyone except Fox who has previously covered it with Fox Widecreeen rather than HD. So while your checking out the SOTU tonight switch between all the feeds and look for a poll tomorrow.
