Barack Obama gives his first ever iPad autograph

London, Oct 24 (ANI): US President Barack Obama has given his first ever iPad autograph - after he previously branded the device as a 'distraction'.

The autograph was given to a fan named Sylvester Cann.

Obama, who once said he had no clue how to work an iPad, seems to have become a little tech-savvy, as he gave an iPad autograph when a fan thrust one at him during a political rally in University of Washington.

While others in the crowd settled for a pen and paper, or just a simple handshake, Cann held out his computer tablet bearing a handwritten message that he created using the Adobe Ideas app, a programme that allows the user to doodle on the screen, stating, "Mr President, sign my iPad."

A scowling bodyguard shook his head at Cann and told him "No". But the president smiled and stepped closer, touching his fingertip to the screen and scrawling his signature obligingly.

"Secret Service was leery about the idea, but they got over it and the president thought it was cool," the Telegraph quoted Cann, 30, as saying.

"This has to be the first time an iPad has received a presidential autograph," he added.

Obama's technological breakthrough moment came at the University of Washington in Seattle, a day after he met with the iPad's creator, Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple.

In May, the President bad mouthed about iPads and other computer gadgetry during a critique of modern media, as he said, "With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations - none of which I know how to work - information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment." (ANI)