President Barack Obama’s site, Change.Gov, has released his official presidential portrait. Courtesy of said site:

It was taken by Pete Souza, the newly-announced official White House photographer.

It is the first time that an official presidential portrait was taken with a digital camera.

Pretty cool stuff. The folks over at Engadget have looked through the EXIF data embedded in the photo and gathered the following data:

…snapped with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II on January 13th, 2009 at 5:38 pm with no flash, using a 105mm lens stopped to f/10 at a 1/125 exposure, with an ISO of 100

Obama’s historical inauguration will take place on Tuesday January 20th, 2009.

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On the eve of Macworld, Apple CEO and god to many, Steve Jobs, addresses the rampant rumors about his health over the past year and why he will be absent from Macworld this week.

Courtesy of Apple PR:

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

Read his full letter here.

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Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal:

After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy.

The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl.

Read the rest here.

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