Steve Jobs, the late founder and CEO of Apple, was mentioned tonight by U.S. president Obama during the 2012 State of the Union address. As Laurene Powell Jobs watched on from the First Lady’s box, Obama said:

we should support everyone who is willing to work, and every risk-taker and entrepreneur who aspires to become the next Steve Jobs

A beautiful tribute and a fitting one, no doubt. Though we bet any entrepreneur with that type of universe-denting ambitions have no desire to be the next anybody, even Jobs. They want to be bigger, better, and have even more of an impact. They want to be the first of their kind.

UPDATE: The republican response from Gov. Mitch Daniels batted the Steve Jobs references right back, including a frankly awkward play on the name “jobs”.

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In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, President Obama revealed some well placed connections managed to get him his iPad sooner than most.

“Steve Jobs actually gave it to me, a little bit early,” the president said.

Obama used his early-access iPad to read newspapers that he previously read in print, along with skimming blog posts and other content on the tablet. He did mention, however, that he never comments on the blogs he reads because he has more important things to take care of.

Wouldn’t it be cool if he hit TiPb while perusing the blogosphere?

Source: NationalJournal via Cult of Mac

Apple CEO Steve Jobs met with US President Barack Obama alongside other tech leaders such as Google’s Eric Schmidt and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg last night, as scheduled. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said:

“The president specifically discussed his proposals to invest in research and development and expand incentives for companies to grow and hire.”

Any guesses what the cheers was for?

[WSJ]

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is set to once again meet with US President Barak Obama this evening, along with Google’s Eric Schmidt and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

“The president and the business leaders will discuss our shared goal of promoting American innovation, and discuss his commitment to new investments in research and development, education and clean energy,” a White House official said.

President Obama previously called Jobs an example of American wealth.

Anything you’d like to see taken from Apple and used to enhance technology in the country? Pay your taxes via iTunes? Genius Bars at all DMV locations? Money to all be redesigned in the perfect shade of silver?

[ABC News]

During a speech yesterday, President Obama cited Apple’s very own Steve Jobs’ success as an example of someone who Americans should expect to be rich. He used Jobs as an example to show others the possibilities of business in our modern times. President Obama answered a reporters question prior to making his comments about Jobs.

What is…a fact is that people in the top 1 percent, people in the top one-tenth of 1 percent, or one-hundredth of 1 percent have a larger share of income and wealth than any time since the 1920s. Those are just facts. That’s not a feeling on the part of Democrats. Those are facts.

Those comments then rolled right into the President’s comments about the middle class and the American dream, including Steve Jobs and Apple.

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. And that should be our goal. That should be what we’re focused on. How are we creating opportunity for everybody? So that we celebrate wealth. We celebrate somebody like a Steve Jobs, who has created two or three different revolutionary products. We expect that person to be rich, and that’s a good thing. We want that incentive. That’s part of the free market.

We knew President Obama met with Steve Jobs but apparently he has taken quite the liking to Apple’s CEO. Would you agree with the President in saying that Jobs’ success is an incentive for others? Do you think Steve Jobs lives up to these praises given by the President?

[ CNet ]

Sylvester Caan dropped us a note to tell us (and show us!) his iPad being signed by US President Barak Obama. Take it away, Sylvester:

At a rally in Seattle, WA at the University of Washington, the President used the touchscreen on my iPad to give me his autograph.

He looked slightly surprised, but proceeded to use his finger to scribble on the iPad using the Adobe Ideas app.

How well was he able to sign? Check out the results and the video after the break. And if you and your iPhone or iPad have had any brushes with power or celebrity, let us know in the comments!

It looks like US President Barack Obama will be meeting with Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs today. Business Insider reports:

“President Obama is flying to the Bay Area from Seattle this afternoon. He’s speaking at Google exec Marissa Mayer’s house in Palo Alto this evening. Before that, says a source familiar with the details, he will have a one-on-one meeting with Steve Jobs.”

We aren’t exactly sure what they’ll be discussing, but we have a sneaking suspicion that Obama might just have heard what Steve Jobs had to say on Apple’s most recent conference call and is now rethinking the Blackberry device he’s been using since he won the 2008 presidential election.

Perhaps The President will be reaching out to Jobs in order to see how viable the iPhone would be as an alternative — and given the number of apps now available in the App Store for his consumption, we don’t think it’ll be a very challenging pitch for Steve Jobs to manage.

All joking aside, what do you think they’ll be talking about during this one-on-one discussion? Let us know in the comments!

[Business Insider]

by Andrew Wray

During the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama sent out her first tweet, via CNN’s Ed Henry. After light-hearted negotiations and getting clearance from the top — the very tip top — Henry typed the tweet out on his iPhone on Mrs. Obama’s behalf:

“from flotus: ‘here at dinner this is officially my first Tweet. i am looking forward to some good laughs from the potus and jay’”.

POTUS, of course, would be President of the United States. Jay would be Leno, the one who cost Coco his happy.

The story is almost Sorkian and worth a read, so check it out via the link below.

[CNN]

Oh yes, Jimmy Kimmel brought’n'd’ed it with this I Am T-Pain for the iPhone mash-up featuring T-Pain himself, President Obama, and auto-tune.

Warning: there are some things you can never un-watch!

I am T-Pain developer, Smule, also let us know they’re running a “I’m on a Boat” contest, so if you want to get your own auto-tune on, check it out.

[via iPhoneChronicle]

The UI wizards at Gx5 have been a favorite of mine since they saved my old Treo 680 from the Garnet-uglies back in the day. So, when sibling-site leader, TreoCentral‘s own Jennifer was kind enough to forward us news from Gx5 that they had whipped up some iPhone (and iPod touch) optimized Obama wallpapers just in time for the Inauguration, we figured we’d pass it on to you, our readers, as well.

(For those new to the iPhone and unsure how to change wallpaper, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!)

With built-in YouTube, SlingMedia Player in the works, and now Ustream announcing an iPhone viewer, is Flash still going to dominate most-wanted lists, or is Apple actually halting Adobe’s video advance? We don’t know, but we do know we’re really excited by the mobile video options we’re already seeing:

Ustream has developed an application for the 3G iphone that allows you to watch Ustream anywhere w/everyone. Regardless of where you are at and what you are doing, you can choose to be in the moment with others in a shared live experience around a live event. If you are out-on-the-town and know that a guest speaker at a major conference is “going live” and want to watch live and be-in-the-crowd, then you can with this application. You will be able to watch the Inauguration LIVE on Ustream with chat.

If Apple approves the Ustream Viewer in time, who’ll be watching?

Confession: I’m a Canadian. We schedule elections whenever the wind changes, have incredibly short 6-week campaigns with more parties than you can shake a maple leaf at (seriously, I think there’s a Leaf Shaking Party as well!), and don’t directly vote for a prime-minister anyway, so my understanding of the passion and prejudices that go along with every-4-years Red vs. Blue SuperElections in the US is next to nill. As long as you folks to the south keep using our hottie singers, actors, and comedians for those wonderful “television shows” you beam back across the border, I’m happy.

The poor iPhone, however, is getting drawn App-deep into the pomp and circumstance of Decision 2008. Looks like if you search for either Obama or McCain on the App Store these days, you get almost as many results as you do for racing games! Bonus? They look a lot better than the ones our Windows Mobile bearing friends are getting!

So, Republican, Democrat, or Independent, load up your Apps and go get your vote on!

(Now where are my Canadian Election Apps? How will we even know who’s running? Seriously!)

Either sister site Crackberry.com jumped the gun in endorsing Barack Obama based on his favorite gadget being a “Blackberry”, or the Senator once again proved himself the young, hip, agent of change in ditching last year’s Waterloo for some Cupertino chic in the form of the iPhone.

Whether a gift from Oprah, or from El Jobso himself in lieu of campaign donations, this video (after the ad, 1:10 in — kinda) clearly shows Obama pulling out his elegantly styled iPhone, effortlessly navigating its unmatched user interface, and easily receiving the information he needed.

We all know Karl Rove got the iPhone into the Oval, but could Obama’s be the first one in the Big Chair itself? Trick question, if elected we all know he’ll be rocking an iPhone 3G…

[Confession: This post is 100% politics free by virtue of being written by a Canadian in Canada who finds the US election process far too binary and direct to be understandable.]

via