Welcome to the first Roundup in the Obama administration!

With the inauguration this week, the tech news was kind of slow…
but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t find anything to Roundup!
Take a look after the jump!I have 5 stories for you this week. Let’s get started.

With the inauguration happening this week and all, I figured, why not have some Obama Tech News:

1:  From : Engadget
Confirmed: Obama gets his BlackBerry, no Sectera Edge in sight
Thursday, January 22, 2009

Obama is keeping his blackberry, again.  But, this time, it was announced that it will be for more than personal use and that it will have extra security. However he will only be able to use it to keep in touch “with [his] senior staff and a small group of personal friends”. This blackberry will also fall under the Presidential Records Act. I think that its great that he will be able to have his favorite gadget to help him keep up to date in his busy life. And thank god he doesn’t have to use that disgusting Sectera Edge secure windows mobile phone, I can’t imagine how he would get anything done with that thing!

2:  From : Washington Post via Digg [Source]
Staff Finds White House in the Technological Dark Ages
Thursday, January 22, 2009

When the new Obama administration entered the white house on Thursday, they had significant problems. The technology in the white house, and the laws regarding its use, appalled the new staffers. Here’s a quick list of some of there complaints:

• No Facebook
• No Instant Messaging
• Disconnected phone lines
• Old Software
• No Laptops

and others. “”It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.”  In order to get work done, the press staff was authorized by the white house to use Gmail accounts, so they could get information out. So much for security. I hope the Obama administration gets everything sorted out and upgraded soon, so they can be productive and get stuff done.

Now back to the rest of the tech world:
There happens to be a lot of news about mobile products this week:

3:  From : Gizmodo
Apple Hints At Palm Pre Legal Battle
Wednesday, January 21, 2009

During the Apple first quarter earnings call, when asked about iPhone competitors, Tim Cook, Apple’s COO said “We like competition as long as they don’t off our IP. And we’re going to go after anybody that does.”, and when asked if he was referring to Palm, “I’m making a general statement…We will not stand for having our IP ripped off” and will use any “weapons at our disposal.” Does this mean they will sue palm over the Pre’s new multi-touch features? Only time will tell.

4:  From : Neowin.net via Techmeme [Source]
Microsoft set to unveil MobileMe competitor next month
Monday, January 19, 2009

At Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona next month, Microsoft is said to be releasing a competitor to MobileMe, as part of Microsoft’s new Windows Azure platform that was announced in October. The code names for the three windows mobile projects are Skybox, Skyline, and Skymarket. Which will sync the phone’s information with the web, auto-setup a phone with a exchange server, a mobile marketplace similar to the App store. These products may also be exported to other platforms, unlike MobileMe. It will work in conjunction with WinMo 6.5 (see above screenshots, thanks smartphonefrance.info ! I look forward to these new developments to the Windows Mobile platform, and hopefully will make WinMo fun again.

And, In general Mac News…

5: From: intego.com
Mac Trojan Horse OSX.Trojan.iServices.A Found in Pirated Apple iWork 09
Thursday, January 22, 2009

There’s a new trojan discovered for the Mac OS X platform. You get this trojan from an infected download of iWork ‘09 distributed via BitTorrent (shame on you for pirating). The trojan is stored is a separate package called iWorkServices.pkg. Intego says “The malicious software connects to a remote server over the Internet; this means that a malicious user will be alerted that this Trojan horse is installed on different Macs, and will have the ability to connect to them and perform various actions remotely. The Trojan horse may also download additional components to an infected Mac.” About 20,000 people have downloaded the infected installer. Make sure you get your shiny new, iWork ‘09 from a legitament source, unless you feel like going through the hassle for removing a trojan.

That’s it for this week! Keep reading The iLife for the best in tech news! and check out our twitter feed at twitter.com/theilife

–Keith Hobin