The new denizens of the White House might be stuck in Atari-level technical dark ages (read: the PCs are running versions of Windows that are at least six years old!), but at least the man at the top will be able to stay in the 21st century now that the decision has been made to let him keep his BarackBerry. Er, we mean BlackBerry.
The fate of the First Device has been in limbo for months amid questions over security (the GPS chip could act as a locator beacon), judgment (what if he texts someone the fail-safe codes?) and the Presidential Records Act (will every comment about, say, a White Sox play be recorded for posterity? He’ll need his own wing in the Library of Congress).
But it turns out that President Obama will be able to keep his smartphone for personal use, with his e-mail accessible to a small group of senior advisers and personal friends. Extra encryption, limited use and a stripping of the GPS chip are all concessions for Obama in the deal.
For the president so concerned with keeping in touch with the outside world, who leveraged the Web, social media, Twitter, e-mail and yes, the mobile Internet so effectively, keeping his BlackBerry seems only fitting.
