In his first press briefing today, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed that President Obama will keep his BlackBerry, for what Gibbs called limited use.

“The President has a BlackBerry through a compromise that allows him to stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends in a way that use will be limited,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Thursday.

The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder is reporting that Obama’s BlackBerry will receive a super-encryption package:

On Monday, a government agency that the Obama administration — but that is probably the National Security Agency — added to a standard blackberry a super-encryption package…. and Obama WILL be able to use it … still for routine and personal messages.

With few exceptions, government Blackberries aren’t designed for encryption that protects messages above the “SECRET” status, so it’s not clear whether Obama is getting something new and special.

Perhaps the NSA and US telecommunications companies have created a special, more secure digital pathway for Obama’s messages to travel on…

This is even more good news for the progress of technology use in government. It’s larger than just the BlackBerry itself, because it shows Obama is serious about pushing to get past obstacles to change where others have hidden behind the potential legal problems and simply maintained the status quo.

Engadget sums it up perfectly:

Finally, a clear indication that for the first time in the 21st century, the President of the United States will act like it’s the 21st century.

In other news, Obama’s staff has found that the technology inside the White House looks more like a museum than an office:

The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. Laptops were scarce, assigned to only a few people in the West Wing. The team was left struggling to put closed captions on online videos.

One White House official, who arrived breathless yesterday after being held up at the exterior gate, found he had no computer or telephone number. Recently called back from overseas duty, he ended up using his foreign cellphone.

I guess there’s more to worry about than the security of a single BlackBerry.