Barack is Mac, and Pac?

Apparently, America's president-elect is a Mac user, a Pac Man fan, and likes sticking stickers on one's laptop. I really dig the pac-man eating the Apple logo. Is that a Speck clear MacBook cover? Commenters: let the Apple/Obama fanboy flamewars fly!

Incidentally, he also uses a Crackberry. And Biden is evidently a fellow Mac user, at least on the road. And as long as we're on the subject: I met Al Gore briefly last week, and he was packin' an iPhone. Although, I was so star-struck at the moment, I may have hallucinated that part along with the swarms of solar-powered United Nations black helicopters. DISCUSS.

POTUS uses a Mac (9to5mac.com, via friends list)

Update: Rob Beschizza at Boing Boing Gadgets tackled this burning! hot! politechnical news! earlier today.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

Eduardo Padoan

This is not a Mac vs PC thing, people. This is a Mac vs *Nothing*:

Update: There has been some question as to whether Clinton or Bush used Macs. Clinton sent a grand total of 2 emails while in the White House – which was two more than Bush. They both used PCs.

…not much, as it seems. My joke is that this 3 emails that Clinton + Bush sent was answering mr Al Gore :P
The other day I saw Bush on the TV showing the Oval Office. And I realised that there was no Computing Machine of any form there. Will this be the first time a US President uses a notebook to work daily?
David Carroll

HatOfEdshu (#51)

Two possibilities:

Obama 08 / Hope Bracelet”

Black Wristbands with Know More Â® Logo
pewma

well, of course he’s a mac guy. Or at least his staff is. Have you seen his website?
MrfixitRick

And perhaps McCain and Palin are the PC people then?
Now those political battle ads finally make sense…
CVR

re: black wristbands on both candidates…

Evidently, both wear/wore black wristbands in memory of American casualties in Iraq, according to this article:

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/The-war-of-the-wristbands.3786708.jp

(Don’t know why casualties in Afghanistan wouldn’t rate worth a wristband, but perhaps it’s implicit or something…).

I was amused to read that the photo was shot in my hometown, which is more a PC kind of town (State Capital and all). Glad he came. We turned blue for him.
frijole

BBGadgets might’ve had this earlier, but MacNN had it on Monday: http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/11/10/obama.revealed.as.mac.user/

Don’t keep up too hard ;)
Jake0748

I agree with Eduardo, “This is not a Mac vs PC thing, people. This is a Mac vs *Nothing*”.

I feel good that we finally have a prez who is using, and comfortable with, the technology that most of the rest of us take for granted. Makes him seem like more of an actual human person to me. The fact that he (or his kids) put stickers on stuff is just icing on the cake. :)
Enormo

AH! The black Pacman is eating the white apple!!!
Anonymous

@49

It’s always an “us vs them” argument. Everywhere you go. Coke vs Pepsi. Democrat vs Republican. Liberal vs Conservative. Mac vs PC. Chevy vs Ford.

And yes, this is a marketing thing. It pretty much ensures that there will be only two things in your mind when you think of a product or service: us, or them, regardless of which side you actually choose.

It also serves another purpose: “us” and “them” never go away. Pepsi isn’t going out of business, and neither is Coke. Democrats aren’t either, and Republicans are going to be around a while. It only gets convoluted when 3rd parties enter the fray. See: Toyota et al in the car industry. When people are given actual choices, actual preferences based on quality/price/ect are shown, and then it’s trouble for other competitors.

Eventually, it gets boiled down to “us and them” again. It’s much easier to compartmentalize groups like this. And it’s easier to market to baser human instincts.
buddy66

It’s been Macs for me since ’88. No geek, I never tried anything else; hardware bores me.

It’s simple: If you got the money you get the Mac.
litening

Now I can be confident that the president elect will make good choices in the future. lol
Tgg161

I bought a mac for the first time last year for a variety of reasons. After a year of using it — I hate it. It’s 90% hype. There’s stuff I can’t do AT ALL and when I complain about it, my Mac friends’ responses are always “Think differently!” Very frustrating!
Anonymous

AL Gore is on the executive board for Apple. One would hope they provide him with an iphone and other mac products.
padster123

It’s so boring how, whenever an interesting image is posted somewhere, there’s always a few “experts” who insist they can tell it is fake.

Reality looks weird sometimes! I see this tendency in my own work (film visual effects). Clients who feel a need to “have their say” even when something is perfect will pick holes. And it’s really funny when they pick something in the image and insist it is wrong. And you know that they are looking at a part of the image that is entirely, 100% real.

So – in terms of this sweet pic of Obama and his (?) Macbook. His face looks a little unusual because:

- it is in focus, when most of the rest of the pic is somewhat out of focus. This is just basic good photography. Focus on the eye. You will note that along his arm, the other thing that is sharp, his wristwatch, is at the same distance from the camera as his face.

- his head is leaning down and forward a little, to face the camera. Thus hiding his neck, and hunching his shoulders a little.

Those are, IMHO, the only reason why people here are saying it’s an obvious Photoshop fake.

If you look to the subtleties of the image – the fact that his face has a slight blueish light falling on it from the laptop screen, the fact that the rest of the lighting on his face perfectly matches the room, the unusually direct gaze that perfectly matches the finger pointing pose. It’s all correct.

Not fake.
Xeni Jardin

@#2, oh! Duh is me.
Anonymous

The cool people engrave their metal MacBooks. Stickers are a no-no!
Anonymous

Think Different. Change.

I’m guessing that Obama, unlike Bush, is not stopping use of e-mail in preparation for the White House.
Anonymous

Either that’s a photoshop job, or Barack has an unnaturally large head and an unnaturally small neck.

Not saying he’s not a mac user, though. I would be if I had the money.
rstevens

I would cut off a finger to give him a “We are not all jerks” USA flag sticker for his laptop. I get to choose the finger. (not one of mine)
nickshulman

Of course Gore uses an iPhone, HE GETS THEM FOR FREE!

Oh and the Pac Man thing is rad.
cherry shiva

resisting mac-daddy joke.
Wimpyboy

Yes, I thought Bush seemed Vista-esque.
minTphresh

after too many harddrives virused and wormed to death in my pc’s, i finally got a mac in ’06. right out of the box, i found the software ready to go, and easy to use. illustrator and photoshop seemed to work smoother and easier then i had ever experienced it! garageband kicks ass over cakewalk, and is compatible with protools. macs even run windows software faster and with fewer problems than p.c.’s, when u run boot camp. they are a bit more expensive, but save for me in the long run, as in the last 2-1/2 years i’ve had no problems with virii, worms, malware, spyware, or anything that seems to slow down pc’s. i have no financial stake in apple ( i wish i did!) nor have i been asked to write this, but , as an artist, i found a huge difference between the two machines.
- Antinous
  
  I’ve used PCs and Macs and I definitely prefer a PC. People do literally think differently. Probably some people have a thinking style suited to the Mac interface and others to the PC interface.
Takuan

it’s the strangest thing… after the forces of darkness went down to grossly humiliating defeat, there hasn’t been even one single “regular Boing Boing reader who is a liberal and supports McCain and Palin”. Not one. Go figure, huh?
noahz

Huh…why didn’t somebody do an “I’m a Mac / I’m a PC” spoof advert during the election?

(except maybe it would have been “I’m a Mac / I’m a PDP-8″)
js7a

I am totally down with this, but if the nuclear launch codes get emailed because they match the attachment he wanted to send instead only case-insensitively, I’ll file a bug report with the HFS team.
travellin_matt

it’s quite possible he was just sitting down at someone else’s desk…
tx_ROOK

It surprises me how quickly people claim fake when it really could be a number of lenses used.

Stop claiming fake as a knee-jerk reaction – what would be the point of faking this photo?

I’m not saying take every photo as truth but please stop with the childish claims.

The only ‘fake’ issue here, is probably the fact he could be sitting at anyone’s desk with anyone’s hardware in front of him.
Phikus

I’ll bet he uses Firefox too.
ToastFrancais

Looks ‘shopped to me, although I’m a Mac user myself.
arttoys

@11
That was my thought. Who says that’s his gear?
fullgl

Probably best not to use the phrase “Our moderators have firehoses at the ready” when talking about the African-American President-Elect.

Just sayin’, lots of really bad images brought to mind.

Biden-style gaffe Xeni
agentbuzz

I don’t understand what the point of post 93 is, but 93s to you, anonymous! I say that it does not have to “boil down” to us and them.

As for myself, here on my desk, I have 1) a Mac, 2) a Windows XP box and 3) an Ubuntu Linux box. Each has merit. To me, Windows is boring sometimes, but corporations love MS SQL, Exchange, etc. Mac is for artists. I used to work for a publishing company and all the artsy types used Macs. Also, you can’t knock the Unix-based Mac OS X. Linux is great for servers, and is catching up in work-station usability; witness Ubuntu Studio, which I also use.

I believe in integrating systems. Notes and Exchange. Sendmail and qmail. Unix and Windows. BIND and tinydns.

I also believe that people everywhere can get along, especially when they talk face to face. I have talked to some lovely people in Soviet Ukraine and Russia. Also in France. Never believe the lies about the French being unfriendly or snooty.

I took my daughter to Monterrey, Mexico recently. Everybody, from taxi drivers to doctors to policemen, were so endearing that I wish I could have them all as neighbors.

You do have a point when you say that marketing appeals to baser instincts. But we are so much more than playthings for marketing people.

Surely you have read some good books lately, have gone for a walk in the woods, have felt joy at the symphony, have laughed out loud with your friends over a beer.

That our President uses a Mac is interesting, and his black Pac-Man eating a white apple is truly funny. I wish him well in all his endeavors.
Xeni Jardin

@#14, in honor of your superior wisdom, I’ve yanked the line, and I’m departing the laptop for sustenance and caffeine.
TheNipponese

The reason I doubt the machine is his:

Why would Obama need two external drives?

(I will leave the pr0n jokes for the rest of yall)
Xeni Jardin

@#11, @#13, the UK Telegraph newspaper says so, as do a few other sources reporting that Mrs. Obama bought a pair of MacBooks for her husband and kids, so they might voice-chat one another during the campaign.
arttoys

@xeni
You cannot keep taking refuge in your caffeine deficiency!
padster123

@ #80 – you said it! When I was forced to work on Windows a few years ago, it was hellish. Just ugly.
David Carroll

ChrisCombs (#68) & Frijole (#79)

Yep. As soon as I posted that P&S speculation in #44 I knew I was wrong, as I typed in #46.

But I like “going to school” so I performed a little test:

PS vs SLR DOF Test.

I also sent an email this morning to Peter Yang (the talented shooter behind this now controversial Obama photo), complementing him and asking for shooting details so we can settle this once and for all.

P.S. Yes I know I need a haircut!

Sigh..
chetoverton

Clearly, I can no longer be an Obama supporter.
Rezpect

If he’s a Mac user I love him even more.
Xeni Jardin

#18 arttoys no, but I can keep taking refuge in caffeine.
girlstyle

For the unbelievers: according to this article, he is in fact a Mac user.
Sijay

#14: Eh, I get it, but it’s a stretch. Reminds me of the brokerage client I used to design for that TO THIS DAY refuses to use any aviation imagery in their print materials. “You know. Because of nine-eleven.”

I really do like the Pacman, but y’know? I could really give a Lesser Eastern Sh*t what laptop the Prez2B uses. It’s right up there with the classic questions: Ford or Chevy? Bic or Pentel? Hanes or FTL? Craftsman or Cobalt? Swingline or Boston? Fop or Dapper Dan?
morcheeba

Al gore is definitely a mac user – check out this photo: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1622338_1363003,00.html

And, I saw a recent picture of Palin’s desk in AK – it had an imac on it.
cniebla

#17 (Xeni) “Mrs. Obama bought a pair of MacBooks…” so this settles two things: first, Mrs. Obama knew that Mr. Obama didn’t have a notebook (a very sad/wrong thing) and put hands to the work by buying him the machine (a good thing, nevertheless), and second, it wasn’t Mr. Obama’s choice. The Pac-sticker? Obama’s girls, of course. Anyway, a good thing he had a notebook for the road, but clearly not a tech-oriented guy (he hadn’t a notebook in the first place).
Stefan Jones

Now that the campaign is over McCain is going to have a crack at learning that Kaypro thing his kids bought him for Christmas a few years back.
arkizzle

Doran,
“I would have been more impressed if he was an Ubuntu.”

How do you know he isn’t? He could be using windows on his MBP for all we know.

Hardware =/= Software
jimkirk

The big question is “Coke or Pepsi?”
Daemon

Use of mac = sign of bad fiscal policies.
Brad S.

He also has a transparent Speck Products case for his Mac, something I wholeheartedly recommend! They are great for keeping my MacBook Pro stylish, yet pristine. Definitely perfect for someone who wants to apply some stickers, but would rather not dilute the resale value of their MB or MBP.
arkizzle

And why on Earth would anyone call ‘fake’ on this?
michael thorne

re: #9 posted by noahz

“PDP-8″ – now thats funny!

I’m old and I only go back to a PDP-10. :-)
willykea

Those are his arms, alright. He’s wearing the same watch and bracelet in this photo:

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/SCZw7cUhS-U/Barack+Obama+Campaigns+Indianapolis/3R_GJDnrqdU/Barack+Obama
fullgl

@#22 – I don’t think it’s a stretch. Just seemed an unfortunate choice of words.
sonofmarilyn

As we all know, Barack’s right hand man is a white guy. As is his right arm in this shot.
amy bear

i am thoroughly crushed… how much cuter will he get ??
AAAAHH!!!
Eduardo Padoan

[...] aides said he hopes to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first American president to do so.

What have I said again? :)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/us/politics/16blackberry.html
mhlaxp

Obama can use whatever OS and hardware he wants. I’m more of a Macs-are-expensive-and-if-I-spend-any-cash-on-a-computer-it-had-better-game kind of guy so of my four computers all have linux partitions and the ones on which I need wireless or gaming (which is actually 3 of them) have some Windows. Really, it’s just an OS choice, I never saw it as a big deal.

Plus Obama’s said he supports open source software so he can run Windows ME for all I care. Well, THAT might make me doubt his judgment…
- Antinous
  
  xxxxxx,
  
  Feel free to drop Teresa a note and explain why you’d like your account reinstated.
chriscombs

@#43 — Sorry, Mr. Carroll, you’re a bit mistaken about this depth of field thing. Read up… and there aren’t too many point-and-shoots with a lens this wide (or really any of them)
webmonkees

if he’s playing Pac
it must be a hack,
for there is no official release
designed for the Mac.
Trent Hawkins

Maybe Putin can help him Jail Break his I-Phone.
SenorJaime

I think this story is more pertinent:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08317/927129-181.stm
mdh

GAH!!! I’ve peen putting stickers on my apples since I had a ][gs back in the 80′s.

I am in some sort of awe.
Jeff LeRoy Davis

Dmitry Medvedev has an iPhone. He’s a big Deep Purple and Led Zeplin fan as well. He’s going to like Barack. Between the two of them, I’m sure the can convice Putin to chill. Hope!
Alpinwolf

Sooo.. The color of the PacMan? Deliberate?

I’m all for the O-man, but some horrible puns are coming to mind. All off-color, too. *wince*

Guess he’s using it to vid-call his girls. If he can do that at all, that’s leagues beyond my mom, and a fair step in the right direction.

What’s with the eye? Sticker looks wrong somehow.
l’elk!

funny… i have that exact pac-man sticker sheet sitting next to me right. they do exist. it also comes with black ghosts that have white pupils and small versions of both images. someone gave it to me. not sure where it came from. never thought of putting it on the back of my mac, though. maybe i should? how about i sell it to one of you boingboingerz for $5,000,000.00?!?!
Angstrom

no-one has suggested “Mac, Pac and Crack(berry)” ?
l’elk!

er… “right now”
NicoNicoNico

Wooooo!

He has good taste. Very good taste. (Says the Mac user.)
agentbuzz

I mean, isn’t it obvious that Obama should try Ubuntu (Linux)? He already HAS Ubuntu (the philosophy)!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(philosophy)

He could put Ubuntu on his Mac.
Doran

I would have been more impressed if he was an Ubuntu.
Johnny Cat

I want YOU. To eat Apples like Pac Man.
RumorsofmyDemise

Why is there a photo printout of himself on the desk? Is he snapping MySpace photos or what?
Anonymous

Mac, PC, whatever — Thank goodness the president-elect uses a computer.

And yeah, what’s with the bobblehead effect going on there?
Not a Doktor

@ all the people saying it looks shooped or why he has a photo of himself at the the desk; it’s obviously a reporter who took a photo with a wide angle lense.

Also I may not have a macbook but I definitely have stickers all over my laptop. (I’ve been thinking of putting the apple sticker that came with my ipod on the lid {where there are none} of my very non-mac looking pc)
Anonymous

That looks like a picture of MLK on his desk, not of Obama.
Tom Hale

Something interesting – The other day, NPR spoke about the significance of the internet and the effect that 30 and under voters had on this election. A Republican Congressman was interviewed, and said (paraphrasing), that if they wanted to keep up with the current times and stay in touch with the younger crowd, they would have to embrace technology. The Blackberry was also mentioned.
Hattmannen

@ #82

People do literally think differently.

Quite so. At least PC people do. Mac people only “Think different”.

There’s an old saying: PC’s are built by idiots, MACs are built for idiots.
David Carroll

Not a Doktor (#42)

Agreed. However I would guess it was taken with a point-and-shoot camera zoomed wide. It doesn’t have the DOF of a DSLR lens.

If this was a photoshop, Mr. President Elect would be wearing a classic Uncle Sam hat and goatee with change.org text across the bottom.
SirCrumpet

For what it’s worth, the photo was taken by Peter Yang for Rolling Stone magazine. Original: http://is.gd/6RIT
Anonymous

Those stickers are from Milk photo studios in New York. This must’ve been from a photo shoot there.
frijole

@68

Who said it was taken with a point and shoot?

There are obviously plenty of nice cameras floating around: http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/5574/w9ieztcm2.png
David Carroll

SirCrumpet (#44):

I did not wish to imply that just because I thought it was taken with a P&S (and now that I have seen the original I am not so sure), that it was not taken by a pro. Photo journalists have been known to use Canon G9′s and the like.

Anyway, thanks for the photo credit, and thank you Peter Yang for an excellent candid portrait.
OM

…He’s a Mac Geek? Holy frack! He’s not even sworn in, and he’s already got a perfect reason to impeach him lined up!
Hattmannen

The pacman is facing the wrong way. And on the wrong side of the apple.
Clearly it should be on the other side of the apple (the one with the bite-mark) and thus mirrored to still be facing the apple.

Pth… Mac users…
WalterBillington

He has a curious resemblance to Billy Bob Thornton in this shot.
Macroscopia

I don’t really understand the significance of this article.

I know he’s the new Prez and everything, but isn’t this just a sidestep from those celebrity articles revealing what Brad Pitt’s favourite toothpaste is.

I also don’t understand Mac vs PC – surely that’s just marketing bullshit? Why would anyone care what computer someone else uses? There must be a better cause in which to channel our energy.
ali

@ #9 NOAHZ
During the primaries there was a ‘Obama is a Mac, Clinton a PC’ article in the NYT. Based on the ‘train wreck comparison‘ for the four candidates, there was is also a Obama = Mac version (the post is in German, just scroll to the picture).
Birdseed

#5 – The photo is taken from quite a large distance using a telephoto lens (in order to magnify and blur the background), hence the hand seeming closer to the body than it is.
ChibiR

Hmmmm… I wonder if Apple would finally update the Mac Mini if the President of the United States asked for it…
Eduardo Padoan

He is also a trekker.
Sid Pink

blackintosh
HatOfEdshu

Does anyone know the significance of the black bracelet? I saw one on McCain’s leathery wrist during the debates and in other photos. I thought it was odd then, but now that I see they both have one… GPS locator?

Another thought, his wife may have bought him the Mac because his older laptop didn’t have an iChat camera in it.

I also like the protective skin his Mac is sporting. Shiny.