President Obama makes Smartphone Genius

I thought he was allowed to keep his own BB & not go this route.

Did something change?
Palm850/v0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11)

 

No, I always understood it to mean that he would be allowed to use something, but not necessarily a Blackberry.

 

The White House is not commenting on the exact make/model of the device, as I understand it. However, it should be pretty obvious to reporters who see him using it.



SW

 

heres a picture of it.

 

That's my point. The GD phone has a stub antenna, is two-tone (with the black portion raised), has sharp angles at the edges and a special second screen. Recent Blackberrys have no external antenna, most are one color, don't have a raised central portion and have rounded edges. Of course they don't have the second screen, either. I don't think this can be kept secret from the White House staff or press corps. I just think they have been asked to not talk about it.


SW

 

Not to mention the size of the device, how can that be comfortable to carry around?

 

When the President was on TV before Superbowl, the reporter said "so you got to keep your Blackberry", the president smiled and said "yes" and diffused further questioning.

Other than this was posted on crackberry.com on 1/24/09

"Updated Yet Again: OK, so after CNN reported to everyone that it's probably a Sectera Edge Obama would switch to, it looks like it's actually a standard BlackBerry (his trusty old 8700?!) with a super encryption package added to it... a government agency that the Obama administration -- but that is probably the National Security Agency -- added to a standard blackberry a super-encryption package.... and Obama WILL be able to use it ... still for routine and personal messages. "

Either something has changed or the term "Blackberry" is being used to mean "a handheld E-Mail device".

 

I think they are using "blackberry" as a generic term meaning a PDA/Smartphone.

 

To the untrained eye it could be preceived as a Blackberry or a Palm device.

 

There has been a lot of speculation on this issue, here on WA and elsewhere. We've had several threads about it. After the White House Press Secretary answered questions about this at a January press conference, Engadget reported it and provided the video. Press Secretaries (whether Repub or Dem) speak precisely. They may withhold information or deflect, but typically they do not provide false information about something factual. One has to assume from this that "Blackberry" means Blackberry.

I thought it was odd that a "news" posting from a brand new member came without any attribution or link. Then I did little googling and found that (presumably) the same Terry Hunt has posted the same text on SearchWarp and on that other wireless forum. In both cases, he/she has exactly one posting and lists a Web address as xxxx.com. From the clues in the text (below), I think this is some kind of marketing stunt.

SW

 

Possibly, but what does your trained eye tell you about this?

Obama's BlackBerry Spotted in the Wild




SW

 

You are absolutely correct, thanks for posting this. I also think this was old news (a point I was trying to make in my first reply) that started before the inaugartion and if I am not mistaken you had originally posted it. The thread is a good discussion topic so it should stay inspite of the OP's motive.

As I said, he got to keep his Blackberry with enhanced security or encryption measures.

IMHO, in today's world when someone says a "Blackberry" it is one and not any hanheld device.

 

Yeah...it's not really a blackberry. They probably just pulled out the internals of is BB and replaced them.

 

Here is the interviw I mentioned:

LAUER: Let’s talk about the BlackBerry. You got to keep it.

OBAMA: I did.

LAUER: Can I see it? Do you have it?

OBAMA: You know, I didn’t bring it down here.

LAUER: No?

OBAMA: No, it — it — it’s like — Inspector Gadget, you know? We — the — if you touch it, it might blow up.

LAUER: But that’s — I kind of envision that. It’s like Q in the James Bond movie. (LAUGHTER) Did they give you, like, fingerprint recognition technology or something?

OBAMA: The works. The works. It turns into a car — (LAUGHTER) if I have to make a quick getaway.

LAUER: How many people have that e-mail address?

OBAMA: I handful. Look, there are security issues involved. And so we’ve gotta make sure that I’m not — creating a situation where — you know, potential people can compromise our —

(OVERTALK)

LAUER: — can they contact you on that BlackBerry?

OBAMA: Typically, world leaders are gonna be contacting me through the Oval Office. They know how to reach me there.

LAUER: Sasha and Malia?

OBAMA: Sasha and Malia can always contact me.

Source:

 

They just call it Blackberry because they believe they average user is dumb and doesn't know the difference. But by judging from the picture above, it looks like it runs Windows Mobile? If that's the case, we're in deep trouble! OMG!

 

Sorry to disagree, but I don't think that's possible. You can watch White House press conferences on C-Span, or reruns of the West Wing (where they tried hard to get this right and several real Press Secretaries were advisors). You will see what the Press Secretary does. They answer factual questions all day long. Also, most people may not pay attention to details, but the White House press corps does. You never know what tidbit is going to lead to a story or be important in a story.

"How many American soldiers were killed last month in Iraq?" (It was 16 or 17 but it wasn't any random number.)
"How much money did Tom Daschle owe in back taxes? What years were the car trips taken in?"
"Who is the President meeting with today?"
"Is the Chinese Ambassador coming at 10:30 or 10:45? What is on the agenda for their discussion?"
"When is the President leaving for Ottawa? Will he meet with opposition politicians while there?"
"Will the President ask Prime Minister Harper to keep Canada's 2,800 troops in Afghanistan, rather than withdraw them by 2011 as the Canadians have planned?"
"If Canada withdraws their troops, which NATO allies will take over their mission?"

The Press Secretary does this all day, every day. It is important that he or she has credibility. I don't think they purposely mis-state the number of troops in the NATO force and I don't think they would use a brand name when it is actually another brand. If they didn't want to tell you, they would just say "No comment".


SW

 

I agree whole-heartedly on how the president is going to have to up his standards when it comes to electronic preference because of who he is and what the classified information he is carrying around with him. There are way to many smart hackers and people who have so much time on their hands than to try and hack the presidents phone. But, I think him referring to blackberry would just say that any PDA like the post above stated he is referring too. So, all in all he should use a phone that is best for him and that helps him get through the day in a more safe way of getting his information. I would have to say though that the phone does look uncomfortable.