“Somewhere in America, perhaps at this very moment, a bad guy is under video surveillance,” Michael S. Rosenwald reports for The Washington Post. “He is being watched, every movement, every step — but not on a little TV. That’s so 2009. Instead, a special agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is keeping tabs on an iPad.”
Rosenwald reports, “This is not a movie. This is not a Steve Jobs dream. This is the federal government 2.0, where technology upgrades no longer come at a “Little House on the Prairie” pace. Even President Obama, a BlackBerry devotee, has upgraded. He now owns an iPad, and it has been seen on his desk and under his arm.”
“The flashy consumer products that have been adopted in the corporate workforce — upending BlackBerrys for iPhones, Microsoft Outlook for Gmail, and lately laptops for iPads — are now invading the federal government,” Rosenwald reports. “The State Department. The Army. The Department of Veterans Affairs. NASA… The change may damage companies long associated with Washington work culture, but officials say the shift will make workers more productive while slashing billions from the $80 billion spent annually on information technology.”
Rosenwald reports, “At ATF, there are about 50 iPads or iPhones in use, and the number could increase to 100 soon. At the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the 1,000 BlackBerrys used last year have dropped to about 700 as workers picked other smartphones. The State Department is testing iPads. Congress now allows iPads and iPhones on the House floor. And the Department of Veterans Affairs is getting ready to allow its clinicians to choose an iPad or iPhone instead of a BlackBerry.”
Read more in the full article here.
The shortages should keep pace with the government.
I am SO hopeful this is the beginning of the end of Microsoft’s literal stranglehold on American gov’t, military, and industry.
Yes, this is one of the biggest differences between the PC-Era and the Mobile Era. People are finally allowed to chose the platform they want to use and not forced to use what the IT Neanderthals think is good.
The best part is that it’s paid for with tax dollars. Can never run out, if the government wants more – just take more.
Life is wonderful
A liberal, Commie plot no doubt.
At least they’re doing something right for change! BTW I’m not a commie!
It’s official now Apple just issued a statement
I thought you army had settled for Android?
Nope, security liability 😉
I don’t think the army settled for android, but it is going to be the OS on their own device they are making.
They have developed their own application framework which runs on Android for Battlefield communications.
Really it makes sense for the Army, they can take the source code to Android and make whatever changes they want. They can just fork the source. Who cares if they can’t call it “Android” when they are done. lol.
Will the Navy be forking Android & calling it the Village People Gaydroid?
I’d say the odds are better than you developing a sense of humor.
Only a complete moron would choose Android for any use where privacy, security and quality is important.
And in the interest of race equality President Obama will be switching to a Whiteberry to replace his now defunct Blackberry which has been consigned to the trash bin under his desk in the Oval Office.
More likely consigned to a shredder.
The government takes disposal of hardware that may have contained classified data VERY seriously. And it is so easy to do; and fun in a “Mythbusters” sort of way!
This is kind of huge.
And to think… When I left my government job three years ago (a branch of the Treasury Dept.) procurements for Macs – even to replace older models – were being blocked.
Once in a great while, even a bunch of stupid clowns like the U.S. gov’t makes an intelligent decision, which proves that absolutely anything is possible.
Yea, right. Those Stupid Clowns got Osama…but I guess that was just an accident.
BleakBerries. Even their new releases still looks like the same POS with a new button function or something added. Which qualifies it as a brand new spanking model and a new model number. Awesome!
Each year blackberry issues a new model with a slightly different keyboard layout and called it the next best thing. This worked for about 10 years. But now there one hit wonder is tired and needs to be put to rest! Sorry you never found the next best thing while you were kings!