Politics

After a petition to the U.S. Federal government to review cellphone unlocking legislation gained more than 114,000 online signatures, the White House was required to officially respond. On Monday it did, citing consumer support for legal cellphone unlocks. The petition, started by Sina Khanifar, was filed in response to a Jan. 26 date that put Continue Reading →

Iceland is a very small country with a big “brand” influence in a state of recovery, discovery and evolution. “Few countries blew up more spectacularly than Iceland in the 2008 financial crisis. The local stock market plunged 90 percent; unemployment rose ninefold; inflation shot to more than 18 percent; the country’s biggest banks all failed. Continue Reading →

Dozens of major U.S. companies have come out in support of marriage equality, including Apple, Facebook, eBay, and Intel. In legal briefings submitted to help overturn California’s ballot initiative, Proposition 8, which made same-sex marriage unconstitutional, the companies argue that “recognizing the rights of same-sex couples to marry is more than a constitutional issue. It Continue Reading →

In President Obama’s inaugural Fireside Hangout on Google+, he faced the public and answered a bevy of questions along a wide range of topics, including immigration, gun violence, and even technology. One of the five Americans selected to speak with the President happened to be Limor Fried, an entrepreneur and CEO of Adafruit, an electronics Continue Reading →

While the President gave his State of the Union address on Tuesday, earlier in the day he signed an executive order intended to improve the network security of “critical infrastructure.” As noted by The Hill, the order charges the National Institute of Standards and Technology with the task of creating a framework of best practices Continue Reading →

After the most Twitter-heavy election ever, the Obama administration is continuing its strong social media presence. If you only watched last night’s State of the Union on TV, you missed a data-enriched version of the speech that the White House streamed on its YouTube, Facebook and Google Plus pages. Last night’s address was also accompanied Continue Reading →

The White House is planning a series of digital follow-ons to Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, including a tool called Citizen Response that people can use to share specific parts of the speech through social media. People using Citizen Response will also be able to send the Obama administration messages describing how specific Continue Reading →

All 100 United States Senators are now using Twitter, while 90% of House of Representatives are on the network, according to Twitter. Those numbers have increased dramatically in the past two years: When the 112th Congress began in 2011, 44% of the Senate and 35% of the House were on Twitter, said the company in Continue Reading →

Barack Obama’s second inauguration ceremony is happening Monday, Jan. 21 at 11:30 E.T, followed immediately by the inaugural parade, the commander-in-chief’s ball and the inaugural ball. Looking for a place to watch online? Mashable has rounded up nine options for you. Note: Obama’s official swearing-in happened Sunday morning in a small event at the White Continue Reading →

Have you ever had a hankering to tweet at UK Prime Minister David Cameron? He tweets as @Number10gov. What about South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma? You can find him at @SAPresident. And Russia’s President Vladimir Putin? That’s @KremlinRussia_E, for the English-language account — but don’t expect a reply there, it’s more or less just a Continue Reading →