“The agency charged with airport security plans to spend up to $3 million for 1,000 Apple computers and another 1,000 Apple handheld devices, including iPads and iPhones, over the next three years, contract documents reveal,” Dawn Lim reports for NextGov.
“The devices will be used as part of a widening secure mobile computing pilot that will involve ‘several hundred iOS devices’ across the agency, the Transportation Security Administration said in a justification and approval document showing why it would only seek products from the iPad-maker and not invite other manufacturers to bid. iOS is the operating system for Apple devices,” Lim reports. “The agency also said it intends to pilot the use of Apple TV devices with iPads for training and presentations.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Joe Architect” for the heads up.]
Oh-oh! I can just see Google crying Foul! Demanding that its virus ridden, fragmented platform Android be included. I hope saner minds prevail when this happens and they ‘just say no’ to Android! 🙂
Great for Apple, but couldn’t they have just stuck with Windblows and Android crap?
We don’t need those commies getting any better at groping us….
gee, I kinda enjoy it.
You must be sick. 🙂 j/k
Cool
Anyone seen this TMZ article? It is a good example how attached people are to their iPhones
http://www.tmz.com/2012/05/23/michael-mckean-hit-by-car-video-new-york-city/
It is time for the TSA to be shuttered.
Ditto x10
Should have never been formed. Nothing more than a cash grab and trampling of the fourth amendment.
Security theatre, problem is they employee the unemployable and give them absolute power. Bad combination.
Did you know the baggage handlers go through no such screening process when arriving at work? That one fact shows what a farce it is. It is designed to fool consumers into a false sense of security so they keep buying tickets. Ever major test they have failed. It is a joke. A bad nazi-like joke..
I suspect for agency training and development. Something the TSA could use plenty of.
Surprised they are buying them.
TSA, Customs and Border Police have been getting really grabby with laptops and tablets lately. More Customs and Border Patrol than TSA, who seem to enjoy feeling you up unless you wish to be radiated head to toe by the Chertoff Porno Scanner.
I would like to see a poll on how many Americans are tired of the militarization of police and the ever creeping police state (be afraid- be very afraid).
I vote for more Air Marshals, removal of the Porno Scanners, removal of the groping line and abolition of the TSA. Seriously.
No!!!! don’t point out that a Bush admin made a fortune selling the cancer splatter machines. The neocon “small government” heads might explode when confronted with the crony capitalist truth of their hero’s defrauding the government.
Cue the commie, lemming comments, 3..2…1…..
As someone who works in Medical Imaging let me assure you that the ‘safe’ backscatter machines are not safe.
Radiation safety is based upon a number of concepts, but the accumulation of exposure (threshold of exposure) is one. Airline employees, frequent flyers and others would be well advised to avoid the things.
The lens of the eye, the thyroid gland, and the nads are all quite sensitive to radiation exposure and are all in the firing line. Also, when x-radiation strikes dense bone, radiation of various wavelengths is generated and scattered in all directions- so you are getting more than promised in the Chertoff Porno Scanner.
It amazes me that that same person who demands a lead apron be placed on their lap for a finger x-ray will willingly take a full body exposure to avoid a public groping. Neither option is good, but you cannot get cataracts in your eye or cancer elsewhere from the TSA groping line.
So, does that mean that they’ll quit stealing them from travelers?
-jcr
I’m a huge Apple fanboy and longtime stock owner and all that jazz.
But this is typical bureaucratic idiocy.
Let TSA focus on finding bombs, please. Using iPads and airPlay is too complex for the most of them and adds nothing of measurable taxpayer value to the mix.
I can just see the person who “justified” this a a smart move. Clueless people who don’t know how an iPad might benefit them but know they “should” be on top of the movement.
I can’t myself imagine how iPads and AirPlay are going to make their job easier or better.
You think that someone incapable of operating iOS is going to find a bomb or bring any measure of real security? REALLY?
TSA: Employing the unemployable..
This DOESN’T make me proud.
Air travel has been DESTROYED! What used to be an EXCITING-ADVENTURE is now a Curse and a Nightmare! ALL rolled into an experence to avoid if ONE-CAN at ALL-COSTS!!!! Thanks TSA…We LOVE ya, LOL
The State Department has chipped the new passports and passport cards. How long before they offer the option of being chipped like a dog to bypass the Chertoff Porno scanners or groping line?
I plan on retiring outside the USA as I doubt the country is going to be a nice place down the road.
Selling its wonderful products to the fascists of the TSA makes Apple part of the scourge. They should refuse to sell to them. Think different.
+1
The TSA is not only groping and radiating on airlines, they are now popping up at bus stations, train stations and even a few light rail stations to grope and feel you, your kids and significant other up. They promise more is to come.
I am very liberal socially and economically, but am very libertarian regarding human rights and the relationship of citizens and government. The creeping police state/Police-Industrial-Congressional Complex that started with the War on Drugs has only accelerated in the last decade with the GWOT.
Someone needs to tell the morons of both parties in D.C. that you cannot save liberty and personal freedom by destroying it in the name of supposed security.
“Someone needs to tell the morons of both parties in D.C. that you cannot save liberty and personal freedom by destroying it in the name of supposed security.”
I think the problem lies in believing they care. They are the privileged caste and they take their orders from their corporate masters.
The only reason National Airport is still open is the pampered in power in D.C.
The airport should have been shuttered long ago, but they have reserved special parking for those who count and take care of those who control the future of the Prop-era airport.
What’s next, the Taliban requisitioning a bunch of Apple equipment.