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Subscribe to RSSPope Benedict turned on a Christmas tree in Italy with the help of a tablet computer. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
Pope Benedict XVI touched a Sony tablet Wednesday, lighting "the biggest Christmas tree in the world."
Wait, the Pope didn't go with the iPad?
The "tree" is actually a 2,132-foot-high lighting display on a Mount Ingino above the Italian town of Gubbio, and as you can see in the above video — by msnbc.com's Dara Brown — the Pope did the "lighting" by pressing a virtual button on the tablet from his home, 130 miles away.
A press release published by the Vatican Information Service on Tuesday explained the process:
(Pope Benedict) will touch the screen of a Sony "Tablet" with an "Android" operating system which, via the Internet, will transmit the command to switch on the electric current to the tree.
Our question about the iPad isn't just iOS snobbery — Sony's tablet is elegant looking, and perfectly suited to the task. But it was previously reported that the pontiff would use Apple's tablet. In fact, the Rome Reports video below, which shared news of the lighting, shows him playing with one:
We've reached out to the Vatican, as well as Apple and Sony, to find out the reason for the switch, or if the earlier reports were inaccurate. Regardless of what tablet he used, the intention of the display — to project a "sign of universal peace and brotherhood among peoples" all across the world — remains the same.
(Hat tip to CatholicCulture.org, which reported on both the Sony tablet news and, earlier, the iPad tree-lighting plan.)
More on the iPad's cultural impact from TODAY.com:
- iPad-buying queen now 'Her Royal i-ness'
- 9/11 commemorated on iPhone and iPad
- Boy sells kidney for iPad 2
- College student tracks down his stolen iPad
Catch up with Wilson on Twitter at @wjrothman, or on Google+. And join our conversation on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
Sony tablet lol
Pope can't be using no Zen Buddhist tablet.
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The pope cant use an iPad. That's a whole different religion.
Wasn't it an apple that was the beginning of all of our problems in the first place?
Seems the Pope courts endorsements for product placements, or at least can afford several expensive electronic devices. Whatever happened to a vow of poverty?
Priests don't take a vow of poverty, monks and nuns do.
Don't forget Jesus. He took a vow of poverty too and commanded rich people sell their worldly possessions.
The fact he walks around in Prada shoes and the Vatican owns billions in art while people starve is reprehensible!
Now this.
Using high-end methods to 'light' a tree. Just so a town can have their traditional symbolism for a pagan holiday....there are those in Rome that still call it Saturnalia.
Alverant: Jesus did not take a vow of poverty. Never. Not in any of the Gospels. He did, however, have very little personal money.
Anozoftruth: and if they would sell the paintings, then people would say they were greedy. It's a lose-lose.
AnOzOfTruth
Well practice what you preach, if you have any savings, wealth, shoes I guess you will be selling up your property and getting rid of any assets to feed the poor.
Go Pope! Apple sucks!
Well Steve Jobs was a Buddhist....
SICK of anything apple comes out with, overpriced hype monster...
of course he is part of a pagan ritual. Look up in any encyclopedia the origin of decorating a tree for Christmas.
Because he can't see on that tiny 3.5 inch screen.