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via The Times (London):
-- Mike Harvey, Technology Correspondent, in San Francisco
Barack Obama looks likely to win his battle to keep his beloved BlackBerry smartphone, when he goes inside the White House bubble.
The President-elect, the world's highest profile "Crackberry addict", has used the cellphone as his connection to the outside world and has been strongly resisting the advice of security staff and administrators to hand it in.
He would be the first president to have his own personal device and use e-mail routinely.
Mr Obama said in a CNN interview. "I think we're going to be able to hang onto one of these. I want to be able to have voices, other than the people who are immediately working for me, be able to reach out and — and send me a message about what's happening in America."
A final decision had yet to be made, according to a transition spokeswoman. The new administration has to iron out problems surrounding the security of the handheld device and how e-mails and other messages would fit into public record laws.
Mr Obama is widely touted as the first "wired" President of the United States, keen to use technology to communicate directly with the American people. "Obama 2.0" has more than 1 million MySpace "friends", 3.7 million Facebook supporters and a YouTube channel. He has posted weekly video addresses as president-elect as part of his change.gov website which is poised to become WhiteHouse.gov tomorrow.
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