Leaders and their phones
Gone are the days of presidents with a rotary dial " Big Red Phone " on their desk over which they can quickly negotiate to avoid nuclear Armageddon ( that phone was a myth , by the way). These days, phones are mobile, and though some world leaders carry a cellphone, not every world leader has the same appreciation for tech .Barack Obama's love for his Blackberry is well documented, and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even found herself the subject of a meme, " Texts from Hillary ." But Benjamin Netanyahu has no love for the culture of cellphones and picture sharing , exclaiming, "I'm the only one here without all these electronic devices, I'm a free man, and you all are slaves!"
Lastly, although the hermetically-sealed North Korea has until recently been mostly devoid of Internet and cellphone tech, Kim Jong Un is preparing a state-sponsored cellphone for the North Korean people , that runs a severely locked down version of Android.
Do world leaders - or any kind of leaders - need a cellphone in their pocket? Is it a liability or a way to stay connected? Is it time for the politically powerful to get with the modern age? Or should they have assistants at their side who do that for them? And of course, the most important question: Android, Blackberry, iOS, or something else ? :)
I also never thought I'd carry a smartphone with a camera in it, but hey, here is a Note 3 in my pocket and I kind of love it. With my kids doing interesting things all the time, it's useful to be able to whip one out and capture it. I almost never carry my little video recorder anymore, which is a direct result of the camera phone.
Leaders don't need fancy phones, though. They should be reading, thinking, and speaking carefully, not suffering the distractions of the rest of the world. If they need a gadget, give them a nice, old Palm Pilot - just the basics.