President-elect Barack Obama is confident in the person of its share of obstacles during his presidency. But when it comes to one of them - the possibility that he may have to abandon their beloved BlackBerry - he was waxing optimistic that he will be overcome.

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Obama expressed confidence that he will be able to save your smartphone, despite well-publicized concerns about the possibility of listening to hackers and other digital snoops. While Research In Motion offers encryption, the U.S. government has more stringent requirements on the security of communications.

As my colleague Declan McCullagh reports that some mobile devices, such as General Dynamics’ Sectera Edge, were officially blessed, how to ensure that handle even sensitive documents, email and web browser.

But Obama seems determined to hang on to his device of choice.

“I think we can beat it back,” Obama said in the CNN John King. “…. I think we will be able to hang on one of them. Now, my working assumption, and it is not new, so everything that I write an e-mail may eventually on CNN. So I am sure that — think before I click “Send.”

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod told ABC News: “He’s very determined.”

Question BlackBerry has been widely discussed in the media, not only because it represents security challenges for specific BlackBerry era, but also because Obama describes it as a symbol of his desire to stay in touch with the outside world the presidential bubble.

“I welcome that (desire),” Paul Begala, CNN political contributor and former adviser to President Bill Clinton, writes in a commentary earlier this month. “And so I on its side in the battle BlackBerry”.

Research In Motion did not pay for the best advertising campaign.

Of course, BlackBerry is not just consumer electronics devices to share the title of president to be in recent times. Questions about the Obama belong to Microsoft Zune was gadget monitors all aflutter at the end of last year.

Verizon Wireless will find the killer iPhone.

(List of participants: Verizon Wireless) On Friday, Verizon will be the first and only wireless operator in the U.S. to propose new Research In Motion BlackBerry Storm. The device, which costs $ 199 with a two-year contract and $ 50 to mail in rebate, this is the first phone that can give in the Apple iPhone - offered exclusively on AT & T network for the same price - run his money.

I tested the new touch-screen phone, and this week were playing with him for several days. My first impression is that this is very cool. It shares many of the features that have made the iPhone popular, such as touch screen, Media Player, as well as a full HTML-browser, which makes it a strong alternative to iPhone. (For a complete review of the device to verify where CNET Reviews editor Bonnie Cha put the device through the steps.)

But RIM has also been careful to maintain the popular features and functionality, which catapulted their BlackBerry devices for the status symbol among corporate types.

Take a touch screen, for example, BlackBerry users are accustomed to the actual keyboard. And many people I know who has a BlackBerry and the iPhone, that they prefer BlackBerry, when it comes to sending text messages or e-mail because they feel like touching the buttons.

RIM did not want to lose this feeling, so the company is confident that users will still have to press down on the touch screen as if they were really pressing. In the Apple iPhone user, I must admit, it took me a while to get used to the Storm “impetus” to the touch screen. But in a sense, I think that the improvement over the iPhone touch screen. I can not tell you how many times I accidentally called a comrade, or send a text message before I was ready to strike, because my fingers brushed through the area on iPhone touch screen.

Another improvement over the iPhone is the fact that the Storm has 1 gigabyte of internal memory and can use standard MicroSD memory card support up to 16 GB of additional data storage. And because they are the standard storage cards, they can be replaced and replaced. Unlike the iPhone 3G comes in two versions, 8GB model and 16GB model. Storage can not be removed or replaced.

(List of participants: Verizon Wireless) In addition, Storm has a removable battery. Again, this call to me, because the iPhone battery can not be eliminated, which means if he dies, as my iPhone.

Gloomier forecast
But Storm is not a perfect device, either. And there are a few things that I prefer on the iPhone. On the one hand, Storm has no Wi-Fi. Verizon Wireless representatives told me that they have decided not to include Wi-Fi, because it adds, “in bulk, price, and it is draining the battery.”

But the truth is, I think, Verizon, do not want Wi-Fi, because the company is likely to have customers Surf its wireless network 3G. While the 3G speeds huge step forward compared 2.5G speeds, they simply do not hold a candle to the Wi-Fi. I can download e-mail and Web pages on my iPhone using Wi-Fi is much faster than when I was using AT & T in the 3G network. And I can not imagine it would be much different from the Verizon network 3G.

In addition to the lack of Wi-Fi, I would say that I prefer the touch-screen navigation and Web browsing experience on iPhone for the Storm. This, of course, the matter of personal taste. The new BlackBerry browser is slick and it works well. This is definitely a huge step forward compared to older browsers. However, the increase on the Storm need to press the button, or actually clicking the screen. And I prefer the iPhone to pinching and wrist movements. But this is just me.

In general, I think, RIM came out with a device that gives the consumer is seriously considering a new smartphone with a touch screen alternative to iPhone. As a result, I think it can help save Verizon customers who have been tempted to leave the carrier for the iPhone.

Let’s face it, Verizon Previous attempts to introduce the so-called iPhone kliller have been lackluster. LG Voyager and the LG Dare, looked cool and smooth, but they were not as smart phones. RIM BlackBerry other models did not have a touch screen and cool factor.

Even Verizon has not seen a huge number of subscribers to keep their networks since the iPhone was first introduced a year and a half ago, she lost some as a result. But now customers are satisfied with Verizon Wireless coverage and reliability of the network will not have to obtain permission to cool the device.