The Breakfast Meeting: Bill Clinton Grabs Spotlight, and New Tablets and Phones

September 6, 2012, 9:07 am

By NOAM COHEN

Bill Clinton addressed the Democratic National Convention for 45 minutes Wednesday night, giving a detailed and impassioned endorsement of President Obama, Jeff Zeleny and Mark Landler reported. He frequently spoke off the cuff - according to NPR, which paired the written text to a tape of Mr. Clinton's delivery, he added 2,300 words to a speech that started with 3,200 words of prepared text. Mr. Clinton pushed well past the start of 11 o'clock local news on the East Coast.

• Unlike any other headlining prime-time speaker at either convention, Mr. Clinton was not carried by all the networks; NBC was broadcasting the N.F.L. season-opener game between the Giants and the Cowboys. Even so, according to Twitt er's blog, his speech reached a peak of interest that surpassed Mitt Romney's acceptance speech last week. The company is promoting the metric T.P.M., or Tweets per minute â€" Mr. Clinton's peak: 22,087; Mr. Romney's: 14,289. Above them both, Michelle Obama from the night before: 28,003.

On Wednesday, two laggards in the smartphone business - Motorola Mobility and Nokia - introduced new devices in attempt to rival the two dominant players in the field, Apple and Samsung, Brian X. Chen reported. Three smartphones released under Motorola's Razr brand and sold to Verizon customers are the company's first new phones since being acquired by Google - a deal that was announced last year and completed in May. They use Google's Android operating system. Nokia's Lumia phones represent a close partnership with Microsoft; Windows Phone software is built into the phones.

• On Thursday morning, Amazon is expected to introduce new Kindle Fire, hoping to increase its sh are of the tablet market and help sell digital books, movies and music, The Associated Press reported. The thinking is that Amazon will introduce a model with a camera and a faster processor, allowing it to behave more like a traditional tablet.

The Arabic and English Web sites of the broadcaster Al Jazeera were temporarily hacked on Tuesday, apparently by supporters of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, The Lede blog reported. The attack â€" which superimposed a Syrian flag and Arabic text - is among a string of similar hacking episodes: last month, Reuters's blogging platform and Twitter feed were used to publish false reports of Syrian rebels, and Amnesty International last week reported being hacked.