Aneesh Chopra, the nation's first Chief Technical Officer, has tendered his resignation. Although no official reason was given, it's unofficially considered most likely he is stepping down so he can follow his own political ambitions. Chopra has been in the CTO position since May 2009.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has ripped into Google over what he alleges is its complicity in propagating pirated content in its search results. Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, and a strong backer of SOPA, also accused President Obama of permitting piracy go on unabated after reconsidering his position on certain provisions in the legislation. Since signing up to the Twitterverse in the past few weeks, Murdoch has let his position on SOPA be known to the world.
More details from Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography -- due on the 24th -- are making their way to the media. Jobs almost, for instance, reportedly missed meeting President Barack Obama in the fall of 2010, as he insisted that Obama personally ask him for a meeting, even after Jobs' wife said that Obama "was really psyched to meet with you;" in all Jobs is said to have held out for five days, but finally conceded and met the President at the Westin San Francisco Airport.
After passing a Senate vote by a margin of 89-9, the America Invents Act has become law after receiving a signature from President Obama. The legislation is hailed as the first major reform of the patent system in decades, bringing a wide range of changes, including a first-to-file system, that have been commonplace in many other countries for years.
President Obama, speaking at a Univision-hosted "Town Hall" meeting in Washington DC, confirmed that he owns an iPad in response to a question about his use of technology. He also mentioned that he is still using a Blackberry device as his personal phone, a habit he has had since before his election.
Several major US technology executives have been officially photographed with President Obama at a dinner meeting on Thursday night. As expected, three people on the guest list included Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Google's Eric Schmidt, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Jobs and Zuckerberg were notably given the most prominent positions during the dinner, seated directly to the left and right of the President.
Several major tech CEOs will be meeting with President Obama at a San Francisco event this evening, sources tell ABC News. Amongst the business heads attending the event will allegedly be Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Eric Schmidt, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs. A White House official explains that the assembly will talk about "promoting American innovation," as well as the Obama administration's interests in funding education, clean energy, and research and development.
President Barack Obama has called for wireless broadband Internet expansion well beyond the goals previously set by the FCC's National Broadband Plan. The president has bumped the availability target up to 98 percent of all Americans. Moving toward the higher number is touted as a way to help boost the economic recovery through increased infrastructure spending.
President Barack Obama has cited Apple CEO Steve Jobs as an embodiment of the American dream, according to a report. In discussing the issue of how the wealthiest people in America today are wealthier than ever in America’s history, Obama said, “And something that's always been the greatest strength of America is a thriving, booming middle class, where everybody has got a shot at the American dream…” Obama then moved to talking about Apple and its iconic CEO.
President Barack Obama has promised an additional $800 million for loans and grants related to broadband expansion throughout the country. The funds represent a portion of the latest federal stimulus package, which totals approximately $800 billion.
Apple has reversed course on the rejection an iPhone app featuring art of President Obama, the title's developer says. Start Mobile comments that it today received a letter from the iPhone Developer Program, claiming that after "further investigation," Start Mobile Wallpaper Gallery is fully compliant with all rules. It must be resubmitted to the App Store, but an Apple representative is promising an "expedited review."
In brief: FastMac has announced that it is now offering a special line of Obama inspired T-shirts to celebrate his inauguration as the 44th President of the United States. iRingPro has announced that they will now begin to donate a portion of every sale to a charity that seeks to provide education, meals and medical cares to children in Nepal. Meanwhile, Adobe has started a contest where users must use Acrobat 9 to create a media rich PDF to be entered into a gallery. Adobe is looking for a wide range of entries from general to industry-specific, allowing users of any experience level to win prizes.
The United States' 44th President will be a Mac user, as President-Elect Barack Obama and his children have been revealed as having two MacBooks for personal use. Newsweek notes that Michelle Obama, the soon-to-be First Lady, recently purchased the two MacBooks so Barack and his two daughters can video-chat while he is on the road, something likely to be frequent in his new position.
