By 
President Barack Obama may soon be giving up his trusty Blackberry in favor of something more… green. Before you give Obama brownie points, the switch (like most things) has absolutely nothing to do with his own preference, but that of the White House Communications Agency (WHCA), which oversees all of the President’s communications, both incoming and outgoing.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the WHCA (along with an internal technology team) is still in the early phases of testing smartphones from both Samsung and LG to be used for official use. Because testing is still in its early phases, Obama will still be using his Blackberry — the smartphone he recently used to snap a controversial selfie — for another good couple of months, but should be up and running with Android before his term in 2017 ends.
Because of the open nature of Android, it makes it more appealing for government agencies to hack up and lock down in order to gain clearance. Why not the iPhone? It simply isn’t secure enough to gain White House certification. Not that it matters, but when Obama does receive his new Android, there’s a good it will be running something a little closer to stock Android, without all bells and whistles that come along with TouchWiz (or whatever LG is calling their UI customizations these days).
For those unaware, the President’s current Blackberry only allows him to contact 10 people, something we expect will remain the same once his shiny new Samsung or LG phone arrives. It’s tough being a President.
[The Wall Street Journal | via The Verge]
meh… he can rock an iphone for all i care
I share you sentiment but watch the impending sectarian-like fervor from within the Android community on which manufacturer POTUS should use…
as an android fan, wouldn’t you want android to become more popular?
Oblammer will hardly make a phone popular
Despite whether you like him or not he does have his fans… Just like any celebrity their gadgets,vehicles, clothing, etc. tend to have a little bit of influence
Not only that but if an OEM gets a government contract like say LG it could really be a boom to their business and bring on better competition in the android game… Also oblammer? You can get more creative than that can’t you
Did you create an account just to say that?
Did you think it’d be beneficial to anyone to ask that question?
Idiots all in the house, ^^^^^ that guy up there
He’s gonna make me lose mind… Up in here, up in here!
It will because he will tax everyone in order to provide universal smartphone coverage for ‘undocumented’ workers
And there will be a $700 fine if you don’t have data coverage.
Suddenly android is no longer cool to use.
“tips fedora”
HaHaaaaaaa, shut that nonsense up
It’s all fun and games until a celebrity who isn’t insane starts liking what you like.
I liked Android before the word referred to an OS.
I thought he’d end up getting a Boeing Black phone: http://www.boeing.com/boeing/defense-space/ic/black/index.page
So if his phone crashes does the White House call the NTSB?
No, they’ll call the thought police. That agency makes the NKVD and the Gestapo look like Girl Scouts.
Get the note 3 Obama! !!
Pffff, Bro.. do you even lift?
Only when im not on phandroid
Hehe
So Obummer is getting an Android phone… Am i suppose to celebrate?
Sup Hannity.
Sup Nancy Grace
“Sup Rachel Maddow?” would have been a more fitting retort.
“Sup probable (and somewhat irrelevant) 80’s/ early 90’s tv show/movie references” would be better.
Nancy Grace lives in a depth of hell far below any political party.
Putin is celebrating no matter what phone Obama gets
phuck obama! his next thing will be “Everyone deserves a smart phone. We will pass laws that requires everyone to have a smartphone. It is a birth right!
um…. Ok….
just drunk, thats it. nothing to see here.
Whatcha drinking?
Nunya.
home brewed beer. caribou slobber from northern brewery
Really? This being a law worries you? I worry a lot more about laws allowing paranoid and/or stupid people to have automatic weapons when there’s no good reason for it. .
yeah because automatic weapons are such a huge issue… they should ban fast cars because why do we need anything that goes above 80 MPH? drunk drivers kill people and we always blame the cars. they kill more than all types of weapons combined. But yet, you are worried about laws about automatic weapons because you fear them. If you take the time to use weapons, gain knowledge, you’ll be fine. its kind of like learning to drive. Kind of scary but now it’s probably second nature to you.
I couldn’t agree with you more. If people took the time to learn and educate themselves about self protection and weapons they wouldn’t be so afraid of them.
See thats the thing. Noone ever said anything about banning guns. And this fear you’re spouting about isnt fear of guns. Its fear of people with guns that shouldnt have them. How many mentally unbalanced people have to keep going on these shooting sprees killing innocent people before you guys say enough is enough? Noone is afraid of the damned guns. Its the idiots that are crazy that have them that people are leery of.
i agree. they also seem to go to “gun-free” zones.
yes drunk driving kills more people… thats why it is illegal….
and drugs are illegal and that works too right?
um yeah to a certain extent… there are many more alcohol users than there are drug users. Once marijuana becomes legal in certain cities that user base will multiple exponentially. Accessibility and consequence for breaking the law are major factors in how many people break the law…. so many people drink and drive because its so easy to do… all you have to do is own a car and be 21.
Why do you think certain drugs are done more than others? Because they are cheaper and more easily accessible.
Whether you agree if assault rifles should be banned or not, there is a certain amount of logic behind that decision.
Do you know why those certain drugs that are done more often and are usually more harmful? because they made the ones that don’t do anything to your body illegal thus the birth of crack and meth… undesired consequences of laws.
Laws are for good purposes but always have a side effect.
I’m saying weed and alcohol are the most commonly used substances due to their accessibility and price. Drugs that are harder to get/cost more are generally used much less.
But i’m not really following what you are trying to say… Are you saying that if they make assault rifles illegal… people will turn to stronger more dangerous weapons? Like grenades and RPG’s?
ehhh no. people who have automatic weapons illegally are generally gang members. anyways, fully automatics are not as efficient as semi for the purpose of causing harm. and they are not used as often as people think. if anything it’ll more then likely be in a gang related crime. even these lunatics have never used a fully automatic weapon
huh? fully automatics are definitely just as if not more efficient at causing harm… squeezing the trigger, closing your eyes, and sweeping a room with a fully automatic and you can kill a room full of 20 people in 3 seconds. Killing those same 20 people with a traditionally referred to semi automatic weapon will force you pulling the trigger 20 times, aiming 20 times, and hitting your target each time… mind you, you’d probably have to reloaded in between as many semi automatic weapons carry less than 20 rounds…
No one is saying that fully automatic weapons are used often… they are just saying that when they are used… its significantly more damaging to crowds of people than a one shot per trigger pull type of weapon.
LOL you have obviously never fired a weapon, let alone a rifle. Yeah stop watching movies… thats the only place where something like that would occur.
ok and when was the last time a “massacre” with an automatic rifle occurred?
have a ever owned these weapons no… but i have ever fired a firearm? of course. I’ve fired .22 caliber handguns and rifles, a .44 magnum, an m4, a shot gun, and a sniper rifle. The gun ranges near new york don’t let you fire fully automatic weapons, but the ones in Vegas let you go to town…..
Was i exaggerating? Of course, i know how hard it is to use those things. But i was just simply giving an example of the logic behind such decisions. No i couldn’t kill 20 people with my eyes closed, however i could kill many more people with much less precision with the M4 than i could with the .22 caliber rifle, even though the rifle was easier to aim due to less kick.
There also doesn’t have to be a massacre with a specific fully automatic rifle in order for their use to be restricted. There were numerous massacres with semi automatic weapons over the past 3 years, colorodo movie theatre where 13 died and sandy hook where 26 died… plus many more injured.
That’s like saying we need wait and see how many boston marathon massacres there will be before we decide to not sell grenades at walmart.
How many massacres have there been with RPG’s? None? We should stock up on thsoe too?
Nothing but a bunch of nonsense in this thread.
I dont think anyone wants to ban those guns. Correct me if I wrong but I thought he only wanted more background checks and with all the shootings, I wouldn’t disagree with that. Taking them away from people you pass the test is a another question. also why are we talking politics on a tech site?
Too bad an Android phone can’t help Obama make better decisions.
Thanks, Obama!
And then after a week of use, he will get an iPhone :-D (It’s USA after all!)
And what is more secure in Android, it just that it’s easier NSA to plant a secret third party daemon/agent in Android than iOS.
“Why not the iPhone? It simply isn’t secure enough to gain White House certification.”
Hey, I like Android, but that’s hogwash. The reason Android wins here is because it’s open-source, not because it’s inherently secure. Read this and see how far behind Android is when it comes to security:
http://images.apple.com/ipad/business/docs/iOS_Security_Feb14.pdf
Come on, Android is light-years behind
If you actually read the article it states Android is open thus having the ability to hack the phone to where its as secure as the blackberry. iPhone will not allow you to touch the OS or the security levels such as Android can thus allowing the geeks in the Gov’t to make his Android alot more secure than what you are stating. Of course it will not be the same Android software that we see, it will be a tightly secured version since Android can be customized to fit the purpose of the phone. smh
Yea but I wonder who (from the Government?) going to put the time into the operating system to make it that secure. It unfortunately does seem like iOS is ahead of Android in terms of security. I find this baffling when the Linux + Google combo should be achieving the best there is.
The Galaxy might fit in at the government. Touchwiz does seem like a convoluted enough mess that only they could deal with.
If the NSA/whoever was going to hack together some security software to achieve better security than Blackberry or iOS can do, you would think they would start with a clean baseline like the Nexus 5.
It does say he may have an LG device so it could be a Nexus.
ridiculous. first he canceled the judgement of the court for banning the iphone 4 and now taking an android phone from samsung. gj
test
Test complete
This is the best new we could ever have! Mr Obama will be able to play Mr President on his phone! He will be able to play himself sticking finger in Putin’s butt and all the other world leader he just pretends to like :) Check it out! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mrpresident.mrpresident.free