President Obama's first personal tweet sent from his iPhone

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

The President's new account is as personal as anything named after an office can be — @potus, an acronym for President of the United States. But it's an account that will have tweets posted exclusively by the President, which is different than the long-running, team run, @BarackObama account. The interesting thing for all of us here, of course, isn't so much the first tweet as the first Twitter client: Twitter for iPhone.

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It's not the first cultural milestone for the iPhone and it certainly won't be the last. But it's a big one. It helps highlight the profound change that's happened not only in governments but by people in government. Not so long ago, anyone in office would have been consigned have been consigned to a monstrous mobile device ill-suited for anything beyond arduous text entry and stripped down web browsing.

And now the President of the United States is tweeting from his iPhone.

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

35 Comments
  • Yes he's using a iPhone, it's not a big deal. It's not like he'll get to post or carry sensitive information on the device. It's the same reason he'll always have his BlackBerry for that. Sent from the iMore App
  • Maybe now all his nude pics will leak out. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • 2nd graph, you have a phrase repeated: "have been consigned have been consigned"
  • News for iMore lol
  • Why do you post such crap? Who cares? Another photo op for an ego-maniac. So sad!! Sent from the iMore App
  • iMore chooses to post about this, but not a vulnerability in Safari: http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/05/safari-address-spoofing-bug-coul...
  • So it is his personal account? Meaning that it is he who will be the one behind the tweets? What happens on 20 January 2017? Does he turn the password over to the next POTUS? Or does he keep it? "Personal" account seems to imply it is his. But I am guessing it just means he is the one posting.
  • Maybe if you read the response to Bill Clinton you know where it says the twitter handle comes with the whitehouse....
  • Maybe he can tweet that he is resigning.
  • That would be nice.
  • Lol aw you guys are such dreamers. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Nah odds still are they're not illegal aliens.
  • Except that he's not... AND he's doing a great job. Get over it. Either one of "it". Sent from the iMore App
  • Are you posting this from your free "Obama Phone"?
  • Yes all Obama supporters are welfare mooching leeches.
  • I bet you anything that there is a White House staffer employed just to send these tweets as Barack Obama. The closest Obama came to the posting of this tweet was to give the go ahead to hire that staffer. Posted via the iMore App for Android
  • Rene needs to go back an research, its was not his personal iPhone. Said iPhone is assigned to the presidential detail, which means....he probably just borrow one from his staff to tweet..
  • Who cares. Worst President of all time!
  • No, he still has to instigate a civil war to take that crown.
  • What do you call Ferguson?
  • Was there half a million casualties in Ferguson?
  • Why is Barack spelled incorrectly in the first sentence?
    Also, this isn't news.
  • Cool. Following him now.
  • You people have no lives whatsoever. Smh.
  • Just remember you are also here. Sent from the iMore App
  • And you as well m8. Looks like we all have no lives. Sloths fight leopards. You can't open a bag of chips. Clearly humans are the weaker species.
  • Phone nerds. Lol
  • You included, Einstein.
  • Yeah, but doesn't he still use his BlackBerry for actual work? This was a staff member's phone. Love me some iPhone but this is a bit misleading. Sent from the iMore App
  • Considering how often the Google execs have meetings with him at the White House I would suspect that he's an Android user.
  • This Rene guy is an Idiot for real. He must really think readers here are dumb or something. So damn embarrassing with his fanboyism. I feel sorry for him in a very sad way.
  • Remember when he said the iPhone didn't need the copy and paste feature until Steve Jobs said it was okay and implemented it into the iPhone in a software update? Hilarious!
  • This BlackBG guy is an Idiot for real. He must really think commenters here are dumb or something. So damn embarrassing with his fanboyism. I feel sorry for him in a very sad way.
  • Who even cares? Sent from the iMore App
  • Obama and iPhone? I have heard he uses Blackberry