“The decision follows the refusal of the ministry’s engineering staff to compromise on testing the device’s suitability and compliance with Israeli wireless networks,” Ben Ari and Blumenkrantz report. “‘The iPad device sold exclusively today in the United States operates at broadcast power levels [over its WiFi modem] compatible with American standards,’ explained the officials. ‘As the Israeli regulations in the area of WiFi are similar to European standards, which are different from American standards, which permit broadcasting at lower power, therefore the broadcast levels of the device prevent approving its use in Israel,’ said the officials.”
Ben Ari and Blumenkrantz report, “The ministry has requested all the relevant information on the iPad from Apple’s Israeli distributor, iDigital, so as to approve importing iPads… The head of customs at Ben-Gurion International Airport said yesterday they have confiscated 10 iPads, including those their owners declared and on which they offered to pay the 16% VAT required by law.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lava_Head_UK” for the heads up.]
I love Israel. This is bullshit. I only expect this from a third world country.
Net – & Yahoo wants them all!
Oh come on. This is silly. So many stupid rules.
16% VAT tax too, ouch.
Will they shoot them full of bullet holes too, like the MacBook from a while back?
New terrorist strategy. A massive assault team breaches Jerusalem with thousands of iPads then starts running the Netflix app and MDN app at the same time.
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deepdish “16% VAT tax too, ouch.”
Just wait, Obama’s advisors are already talking about the VAT they are preparing for the U.S.
Somebody has to pay for all these programs he’s put in place.
Osama could get a thousand suicide jihadists on scooter, each with a hundred smuggled ipads. They’d tear thru roads dropping ipads, all synch’d to download iTunes movies and run MDN at the same time. Israel would stop it all with countless rounds, but not before Apple wifi had said hello. Bad Apple wifi. Not kosher.
Osama could get a thousand suicide jihadists on scooter, each with a hundred smuggled ipads. They’d tear thru roads dropping ipads, all synch’d to download iTunes movies and run MDN at the same time. Israel would stop it all with countless rounds, but not before Apple wifi had said hello. Bad Apple wifi. Not kosher.
Osama could get a thousand suicide jihadists on scooter, each with a hundred smuggled ipads. They’d tear thru roads dropping ipads, all synch’d to download iTunes movies and run MDN at the same time. Israel would stop it all with countless rounds, but not before Apple wifi had said hello. Bad Apple wifi. Not kosher.
Osama could get a thousand suicide jihadists on scooter, each with a hundred smuggled ipads. They’d tear thru roads dropping ipads, all synch’d to download iTunes movies and run MDN at the same time. Israel would stop it all with countless rounds, but not before Apple wifi had said hello. Bad Apple wifi. Not kosher.
Osama could get a thousand suicide jihadists on scooter, each with a hundred smuggled ipads. They’d tear thru roads dropping ipads, all synch’d to download iTunes movies and run MDN at the same time. Israel would stop it all with countless rounds, but not before Apple wifi had said hello. Bad Apple wifi. Not kosher.
Osama could get a thousand suicide jihadists on scooter, each with a hundred smuggled ipads. They’d tear thru roads dropping ipads, all synch’d to download iTunes movies and run MDN at the same time. Israel would stop it all with countless rounds, but not before Apple wifi had said hello. Bad Apple wifi. Not kosher.
Probably didn’t want the Palestinians getting their hands on them…
@Burrell:
Are you really that ignorant and stupid? Getting all your talking points from Faux news and repeating them without, oh, fact-checking before opening your yap, exposes you for the uneducated fool you are.
@Mac4lfe, anti-semite.
: )
16% VAT seems like a bargain compared to the 25% VAT in Sweden and Denmark.
I’d be okay with a VAT in the US if they eliminated the income tax entirely. The only problem would be that the same mentality that persists in municipalities would flood congress. “It’s only an 1/8th of a cent more,” they said. Those small increases are too easy to justify.
Israel does seem to be a bit over the top when it comes to technology. Sounds like Apple needs to engage in a little diplomacy. Steve could invite Netanyahu to some event. Give him a sneak peak at a new product or something.
Uh, Huey, before you accuse @Burrell of getting his talking points from “Faux news”, you might want to read the following article by Charles Krauthammer from the (often liberal) newspaper the Washington Post, “Obamacare’s next trick: the VAT”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/25/AR2010032502406.html
The Washington Post is hardly what you would call a right-wing newspaper. And Charles Krauthammer is a well known journalist. I found this in a quick Google search. Perhaps you should check YOUR facts next time before making blanket accusations.
For the record, I am a registered Democrat. But I object to a VAT (value-added tax) on the grounds that it is highly REGRESSIVE, meaning that the poor will pay a disproportionately higher percentage of tax than the wealthy, even though it is a tax on consumption.
Our government would serve us better by cutting expenses rather than raising taxes. And as noted previously, I am a Democrat.
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I believe this dumb rule has be rescinded. Too many American Jews travel with iPads, and don’t want to spend 50 shekels a day to store their iPads.
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Charles Krauthammer is about as conservative as one gets, and the ‘liberal’ WP agreed with just about everything W did. They’ve been war mongering with the best of them for years.
Try again.
Nothing surprises me about the state of isreal. The sooner they all pack their bags and move back to Europe the better it will be for world peace. Leave the middle east to the people that understand the politics of that area. All middle eastern countries may not like each other but they learn to live alongside each other with tollerance; apart from isreal who thanks to the assistance of the USA and UK think they can ride roughshod over everyone who gets in their way.
There will come a day when the rest of the world will be too busy protecting it’s own people to worry about isreal and on that day they will wish they had the old exodus there to sail safely home to Europe.
I am not anti Semite but I am ( as can clearly be seen from this text ) anti isreal. It is time they realised that you cannot keep going around treading on everyone like a great big bully boy. They should remember that that is what hitler did to them and we all know what happened to that bastard in the end.
Is the delayed launch in Europe in reality tied to this? Hmmm…
@Macduff — Cut the crap. Couldn’t resist showing how “not” anti-Semitic you are once you saw the magic word “Israel.” You are amazingly ignorant and full of hate. Keep your bile off this site. It’s a fun, tech place dude.
HueyLong, I think I love you.
Lucky for Israel the Communications Ministry didn’t need to approve their “we don’t have any nuclear arsenal”, you know those WMDs that don’t exist officially and that would break all those NPT’s that are used to wack Iran over the head with…