obama

New iPhone facing supply issues

Friday's tech news roundup has a good, long talk with a chair:

Electronics maker Sharp could be having problems making the screens for the next iPhone, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. There could be manufacturing difficulties that are delaying shipments. Sharp is just one of three suppliers for Apple's screens, so it's unclear how this could change launch date expectations or if iPhones will be in limited supply at launch.

We're expecting a new family of Amazon Kindles to be announced on Sept. 6, but images of the Kindle "Paperwhite" have been discovered … Read more

The 404 1,122: Where we make your day (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Clint Eastwood's RNC Obama chair gets own Twitter account.

- Behold: Eastwooding. Because, of course.

- Live taste-testing Savory Bacon Lollipops and Sriracha Lollipops. Thanks Thinkgeek!

- Nobody gives a _ _ _ _ about Honey Badger BBQ sauce. Except for 1,420 backers.

- Netflix video streaming accounts for 25 percent of all Internet data transmitted in North America.

- Fantasizing about ditching e-mail is like porn for techies.

Bathroom break video: How to make a towel horn.

Video voice mail: Josiah talks Neti Pots, ear wax, and dub step beatboxing.… Read more

Clint Eastwood's RNC Obama chair gets own Twitter account

You know that wooden chair Clint Eastwood was talking to during tonight's speech at the Republican National Convention? It already has its own Twitter account. At least two actually.

For those who might have missed it (but expect to hear plenty about it during upcoming RNC post-mortems), the iconic action actor spent part of his moment in the convention spotlight chatting (transcript) with an empty chair that was supposed to represent President Obama. And if presidents can have their own Twitter accounts, why can't chairs that are standing in as presidents?

Invisible Obama (bio: Stage left of Clint Eastwood) sent out its first Tweet at about 6:20 p.m. PT. It's been busy tweeting since: "The GOP built me." "When Mitt Romney says 'Mr. Chairman', do you think he's referring to me?" … Read more

Windows 8 hybrid-tablet mania

Thursday's tech news roundup calls for a deluge of tablet-PC hybrids:

Everyone is talking about tablet hybrids at this year's IFA electronics trade show in Berlin. Every major laptop maker is getting in the game, all because of the October 26 release of Windows 8. Some choose to have the screen swivel or fold to be held like a tablet, such as the Dell XPS Duo 12 and the Asus Taichi. But most hardware makers are also offering tablets with full keyboards that snap on, like HP's Envy x2 tablet and Samsung's Series 5 and 7 Slates (… Read more

Microsoft, Google folks are top sources for Obama funds

President Obama's campaign is getting financial help from people associated with two big tech firms: Microsoft and Google.

Following the University of California, those companies were listed as the second and third top contributors to his re-election campaign by OpenSecrets.org, followed by the lawfirm of DLA Piper and Harvard University.

Mitt Romney's list is a who's who of Wall Street: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Credit Suisse Group.

The money did not come from the organizations themselves, but from political action committees, individual employees, owners, and family members, and includes … Read more

Does a Reddit live chat give Obama more tech cred?

Ever the tech-conscious politician, President Barack Obama today held a live Q&A session on, arguably, the geekist message board around -- Reddit.

The session may up the president's tech cred, which has already been bolstered in the past by his social media prowess and use of technology in campaigns.

Many have said that his use of social media in the 2008 election helped him get elected and just last week, Obama's campaign became the first to accept contributions via text messages.

Reddit General Manager Erik Martin said he didn't know what this would do for … Read more

Obama answers live questions on Reddit, crashes servers

U.S. President Barack Obama briefly took to Reddit today to do one of the popular social news site's AMA or "ask me anything" sessions.

The interview, which kicked off just after 1 p.m. Pacific and lasted roughly an hour, quickly brought the site to its knees.

Ahead of the overload, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian confirmed that President Obama was legitimately participating in the event, adding that the questions were being answered from Charlottesville, Va., where Obama is currently campaigning for a second term.

The format allows any registered Reddit users to ask questions, and the … Read more

YouTube debuts 'Elections Hub,' a one-stop campaign channel

YouTube launched "Elections Hub" today -- its one-stop shop for this year's election coverage.

The video service announced that with this specialized channel, all live speeches from the upcoming Democratic and Republican National Conventions will be streamed. Also, people can watch Google+ Hangouts and live streams of the official presidential and vice presidential debates. The channel debuted today and will available through Election Day.

"You won't need to go anywhere else for the must-watch moments of this election cycle," YouTube news manager Olivia Ma wrote in a blog post today, "they're all … Read more

European ISPs defend U.N. Internet tax

ASPEN, Colo.--European network providers today defended their proposal submitted to a United Nations body that would allow them to levy fees on content providers including Google, Facebook, Apple, and Netflix.

"We believe that this situation is putting at risk our capacity to invest," said Luigi Gambardella, chairman of the executive board of the European Telecommunications Network Operators, or ETNO. "We need to rethink together and to establish a new balance."

The idea was not exactly popular with representatives of the U.S. government and Verizon, who also spoke at the Technology Policy Institute's conference … Read more