Obama

Apple launches new site regarding its ConnectED education program efforts

Apple today added a new section to its website detailing its efforts regarding President Barack Obama's ConnectED education program. As part of its participation in the program, the company will be providing hardware, services and infrastructure to 114 schools across the United States.

According to the site, Apple will give each student at the selected schools an iPad, and every teacher and administrator will receive both an iPad and Mac. They'll also be providing an Apple TV for each classroom, which can be used for displaying lesson content on larger displays via AirPlay.

President Obama signs bill making it legal to unlock your phone again

The White House announced this morning that President Obama will be signing the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act today. The bill restores the copyright exemption that allows customers to unlock their phones, regardless of carrier restrictions.

The bill was first unanimously passed by the Senate a couple of weeks ago, and then agreed upon by the House of Representatives earlier this week. And with the President signing it into law today, it has become once again legal for users (and vendors) to unlock their phones...

Apple pledges $100 million to get kids online

Apple is one of the companies that have put their money where their mouth is in terms of supporting the U.S. President Barack Obama's $750 million initiative to get kids online. According to an Associated Press report this morning, Apple has pledged $100 million in iPads, computers and "other tools".

Other Silicon Valley giants and telecommunications companies are contributing free software, Internet service through their wireless networks, cash and in-kind contributions...

Apple to participate in ConnectED program to help bring high-speed Internet to U.S. schools

Apple, along with other Silicon Valley titans such as Microsoft and carriers like Verizon and Sprint, is going to work with the United States government to help connect schools on America with high-speed broadband Internet. The Obama administration wants to connect as much as 99 percent of schools to high-speed Internet over the next four years and companies like Apple should help advance that effort...

Short video from Obama’s recent meeting with Tim Cook and other tech execs

As we reported yesterday, Tim Cook and a number of other executives from prominent tech companies met with US President Barack Obama at the White House to discuss a wide range of government and tech-related topics.

Among the topics were said to be the recent struggles with the rollout of the healthcare.gov website and privacy concerns regarding government surveillance. And this afternoon, a short video of the meeting surfaced on the web...

President Obama meeting with Tim Cook and others over NSA and health care website

The White House has announced that President Obama is scheduled to meet with a number of tech executives tomorrow to discuss a wide range of subjects. Two of the big topics on the menu are said to be the NSA and the troubled HealthCare.gov website.

In addition, the group—which includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, Twitter's Dick Costolo, Netflix's Reed Hastings, and Dropbox's Drew Houston—will discuss ways the Obama administration can partner with the tech sector to create new jobs and grow the economy...

President Obama says he’s not allowed to use an iPhone

US President Barack Obama has been photographed, on a number of occasions, using an iPad. He says he loves the tablet, and was actually given a second generation model days before it was announced, by Steve Jobs himself.

But it looks like that's where Obama's Apple gadget usage stops. During an Obamacare speech he gave yesterday to a youth audience attending a White House Summit, the President said he isn't allowed to have an iPhone...

President Obama outlines four government surveillance reform initiatives

Following a series of meetings with tech executives a government leaders this week, President Obama held a press conference this morning to describe his plan to assuage concerns among Americans and foreigners regarding the legality of US surveillance activities.

During his speech, the President said that the surveillance programs in use by government agencies right now are "operating in a way that prevents abuse." But the question for his administration, he posed, is how does it make "American people more comfortable?"

So he outlined the following four initiatives...

President Obama meets with Tim Cook and other tech execs to talk surveillance

According to a report from Politico, President Barack Obama met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and a number of other tech executives yesterday for a closed-door discussion on government surveillance. The site says this was the second meeting of its kind this week.

Cook was joined by the likes of AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Google's chief Internet evangelist Vint Cerf, and Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn, to talk about various surveillance strategies and tother topics such as the recent NSA PRISM program scandal...

Obama Administration vetoes ITC’s US sales ban on Apple products

Huge news out of Washington this afternoon, as reports are coming in that President Obama has stepped in and vetoed the ITC’s decision to place a US import ban on a handful of Apple's older iOS devices. The ban came after the International Trade Commission found some of Apple's products infringed on 2 Samsung cellular patents.

The ruling was handed down on June 4, and exclusion orders were sent to the White House, giving Obama's Administration 60 days to veto the ban based on "public policy." And that 60-day deadline would've ended soon, but it looks like the President has heeded to the requests of Verizon, AT&T and others to overturn the ITC's decision...

Verizon asks Obama to prevent upcoming iPhone sales ban

In April, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ordered an import ban on the iPhone 3G/3GS/4 after determining Apple had violated Samsung's 3G cellular technology patent. Apple was hoping the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) would overturn ITC's decision on the basis that Samsung was asserting a standards-essential patent.

Needles to say, Apple asked ITC to stay an order while the court considered the appeal, arguing the sales ban would "sweep away an entire segment of Apple's product offerings." And in an interesting twist earlier this week, the nation's top carrier Verizon Wireless pressured President Obama to intervene in the Apple v. Samsung case and veto the impending ban...