This summer, Politico signed a deal with Random House to publish four instant e-books about the 2012 presidential campaign. Now Politico has opened an online bookstore, powered by Random House, selling politics and policy titles from a variety of publishers.

As election season approaches, Random House’s Crown Publishing is teaming up with political website RealClearPolitics to publish a four-book series on the campaign. Three of the books will be published only as e-books; a fourth will be published in both print and digital formats and will be released on Election…

YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) is launching a new politics site today that it hopes will offer a “holistic” view of the candidates on the campaign trial, and also, via its metrics, provide a snapshot of their popularity among voters. But at the first glance, YouTube Politics seems to be falling well…

The period after Labor Day marks the official start of the political season, so Fox News believes it’s the right time to introduce its first paid app that will provide premium politics-related news and opinion for Apple’s iPhone. The app, which isn’t carrying any ads at its launch, is now…

President Obama sent text messages to his supporters during the election, and now he’s preparing to send messages to all citizens regarding amber alerts, security threats and national disasters. Under the program, called the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), the messages could be sent out based on geography…

Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) and CNN have surveyed CNN’s online audience and found that of those people with mobile internet 56 percent access online content while on the move, via a mobile device or wireless LAN. Almost a third—29 percent—said that they recorded video with their mobile phone, and 23 percent…

Cellphone coverage during the inauguration was spotty and text messages arrived sometimes an hour after they were sent during today’s inauguration activities in Washington, D.C., AP reports. AT&T (NYSE: T) said there was some congestion today; T-Mobile USA said call volume in downtown Washington was 10 times normal in the…

—The Orchard (NSDQ: ORCD) Moves Into Japan: The Orchard has formed a strategic alliance with Japanese company Avex, which is the key shareholder in Label Mobile (described as Japan’s dominant mobile content JV). The deal will see The Orchard’s songs and videos marketed across Avex’s local retail services and digital…

There were two standout mobile events in 2008: The Beijing Olympics and the presidential election—in the latter, text was a critical component of Barack Obama’s campaign and voters used mobile services, like Twitter, to keep people up-to-date on what was happening at the polls. I wrote in a year-end piece…

Several of the mobile ad-technology companies that powered campaigns for Barack Obama are now using his success as a way to sell others on using new technology to reach a targeted audience, according to the WSJ. On the night the polls were closing, companies such as Distributive Networks, which aided…

Well, it certainly eliminates the problem of hanging chads. Starting with its 2011 election, the Estonian Parliament will allow citizens to vote by SMS, putting it on course to make it the first country to allow voting by mobile phone, AP reports. Lawmakers approved the measure last week, which will…

Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) issued a statement today that acknowledged some of its employees accessed the personal cell phone account of President-Elect Barack Obama. President and CEO Lowell McAdam stated: “This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed President-Elect Barack Obama’s…

BlackBerry may be losing at least one more high-profile user, but this time it’s not due to the competition. President-elect Barack Obama has been a heavy BlackBerry user for years, but when he joins the White House, he’ll likely have to break the habit due to security concerns and vulnerability…

Change is on its way to the alphabet agencies with media, telecom, tech and internet oversight—but it’s taking two tracks. While the Obama-Biden transition team fits potential appointees to posts, review teams are diving in deep at the agencies and departments to provide the kind of info needed to make…

A day after the election, names are already being floated as to who will likely be on the president-elect’s transition team, including advisors on issues involving technology and communications. Barack Obama is expected to appoint Washington, D.C. lawyer Henry Rivera to head the team focused on the FCC, reports Multichannel…

Yesterday, we wrote about the Twitter Vote Report which was a site built by volunteer developers to allow voters to provide live updates on polling conditions by calling in, sending a text message or by using a downloadable app available on the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1. Although there was…

In the final month leading up to the election, the Obama campaign used mobile advertising to target the youth demographic and voters in key battleground states, according to Quattro Wireless, which helped run the campaign. Called “Vote Early,” the ad campaign was used to encourage voters to cast their ballots…

In a critical day for the wireless industry, the FCC made three sweeping decisions today, pushing through two mergers and the approval of the controversial white spaces issue, which will allow for an alternative U.S. wireless broadband network. Perhaps, the Republican-led FCC felt it could spend all of its political…

The 2008 presidential vote may go down in history as being the first mobile-friendly elections of all time. You might argue that it started with Barack Obama’s well-documented usage of text-messaging as a way to keep voters informed, but it has now even taken center stage at the polls. Perhaps…