“Blackberry’s PlayBook electronic tablet has been approved for use in all US federal government agencies, becoming the first tablet to get certified, developer Research in Motion said,” Scott Olson reports for AFP News.
“The Waterloo, Canada-based RIM said its PlayBook, which has an 18-centimeter (seven-inch) high definition screen, received Federal Information Processing Standard certification, which is delivered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology,” Olson reports. “Under the Federal Information Security Management Act, which was passed shortly after the September 11 attacks, all computer tools used by the federal government must meet federal certification standards.”
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Olson reports, “RIM’s most famous product, the Blackberry, is already well-established in the US government. President Barack Obama is a big fan, and uses a version modified to meet his security requirements.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Should the U.S. government and U.S. president be using and therefore tacitly endorsing antiquated and incomplete non-U.S. products especially when such products are obviously inferior to those made by Apple Inc., a U.S. company?
Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there. – P. J. O’Rourke
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Analyst: Beleaguered RIM to pull plug on weak-selling Wi-Fi PlayBook – July 18, 2011
RUMOR: Beleaguered RIM axes 10-inch PlayBook tablet – June 28, 2011
Beleaguered RIM slashes PlayBook production plans – June 22, 2011
Beleaguered RIM misses on revenue, announces layoffs – June 16, 2011
“President Barack Obama is a big fan, and uses a version modified to meet his security requirements.”
So he has one that is probably custom developed to fix the security issues it currently has in the masses… maybe his only connects through a US server and not through Canada… would be pretty stupid to have the presidents phone being routed through another country and then back here…. sounds super safe to me… not
Our current government is not only an embarrassment, but seems to make the wrong decision every time.
The fact that Blackberry PlayBook got approved is just another example out of hundreds, if not thousands of wrong decisions.
MDN published this for flame bait. The president has an iPad. He’s been photographed carrying it. Others in the administration use them too.
In addition, it was widely reported last year that the U.S. Army sponsored a contest for iPhone (and Android) apps, which exposes the keening and wailing in this article’s comments as nonsense.
Example: here’s a link http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/tracking-the-bad-guys-yeah-theres-an-app-for-that/ to a Wired story about the military using iPads to display maps.
Just because the president “uses” an iPad, doesn’t mean it’s “approved for federal workers”. He may use it to read news or some non-business purpose. And yes, the Army sponsored a contest. That doesn’t mean the devices are approved and also, that’s a phone and not a tablet which the article is about. The article you link to says the devices were shown at a confab, but not specifically in use by the military yet.
Wonder which of our trustworthy gov. officials got paid off to get this through….
Hahahaha… Your federal gov is really screwed.. !! Hahaha… That is funny!
US Government needs to buy and use US products period
And while ALL (or nearly all) of the current devices are manufactured overseas, at least Apple is an American company.
If the rest of the world follows your misguided logic, Apple (along with many other US companies) might find it more difficult to do business abroad.
Who said ‘logic’ had anything to do with the majority of the posts on this thread?
Hey Joe Mama…ever hear of the US-Canada free trade deal? No? Thought so.
The free trade deal that was thought up and pushed hard by the beloved Republicans.
…also by our conservative party. In the end Canadians got screwed.
Look our dollar is worth more than the US dollar (currently $1.05 and yet I still had to pay 29 bucks for Lion just like everyone else.
The US government needs to buy and use the best PRODUCTS, period. And that’s not the Playbook.
Easy to keep data secure on a device no one uses or would want to steal.
Haha. Right. Just because they forgot it at a bar during the testing period, and came back 6 weeks later to find it untouched and intact DOES NOT mean it’s more secure!
This is embarrassing, you can’t tell Americans to buy American when our own government won’t, lead by example!
FYI: Canadians are “American”, so are folks from Central and South America. If you ever drive across the border into Canada and the border guard asks you your citizenship, do not say, “American”, rather say, “US citizen”; that is, unless you have oodles of time and want them to pick your car to be searched. lol!
And by the way, to get any product/service “approved” for US Government purchase takes a whole bunch of lawyers and federal regulation know-it-all types to be qualified to jump through the melange of ridiculous hoops to meet the tree trunk tomes of regulations that our tax dollars are used to create. Think Apple will expend energy and time on that bs? Heck, no. RIM did it because they’re desperate and have a whole bunch of people with free time.
I’m from South America and I have no issues calling “American” to the Americans.
There are the United States of America, the United States of Brasil and the United States of Mexico. So, all should also be “US Citizens”.
But I call people from the U.S. of Brasil brazilians. From the US of Mexico, Mexicans.
And from the US of America… well… AMERICANS!!
Apparently the current debt problems have not cured Washington of wasteful spending…
Why not approve superior products designed domestically for government use? (Especially when there is no price incentive to buy the Canadian function-lacking, app-lacking dumpster diver!)
Again, this is stupidity in the highest !!!
I’d laugh my a$$ off if it weren’t such a Clusterƒsck!
government bureaucracy: a process that turns useful energy into solid waste.
TOTALLY BANKRUPT!
The Obamanable on Crackberry… Guess the iPhone is too much tech for him, and he is afraid of the Internet, according to his own words, it will destroy democracy.
Now we know why America is broken.
Didn’t BB pull the plug on the PlayBook? Perfectly fitting…
Casino mogul and Democratic donor Steve Wynn on the idiot he helped elect:
Fine speech. Now what do we do?
Elect a president who understands how the U.S. economy works and what makes the U.S. great and give him or her a congress that will work with him or her to get our financial house in order.
Government is not your mommy. Government is not a panacea. Government is a necessary evil. Keep it as small as possible.
Couldn’t agree more. We placed someone into the most important leadership role in the country who had no leadership, management, or government experience. He doesn’t understand economics. He doesn’t comprehend budgeting. He doesn’t know how to lead. He is hostage to his far left advisors who are far from mainstream.
Americans (US Americans) must get tough on our elected officials. We need to insist on term limits, and vote swiftly to remove those more believe more in reelection than making tough decisions. Whether it’s the Tea Party, or some other grass roots uprising, we must take our country back from the career politicians.
The Grade 2 dropout Palin and her ilk care no more about you than Bush did. Small variations in a system that mind-bogglingly rewards those at the top while others starve in the same city is utterly screwed, whatever small variations those at the top may introduce. Sure – people should be rewarded for hard work, brilliance and taking risks (with their own money) — but a system where the top 1% hold almost all the wealth of a country? No. And the frothing hatred of anyone who suggests anything other than this system of pathological greed is no more than shooting yourselves in your feet.
Sadly, @First 2010, Then 2012:
There is not one Republican in sight who has a sane brain in their head. I have given up on them and now fittingly call them the:
ReTardlicans
Could the Tea Party be any more Tard Party? Could the Neo-Con-Jobs be any better butt lickers of the Corporate Oligarchy and wealthy? I don’t think so. Feed the rich; Kill the poor.
And what do we have on the other side of the 1 dimensional political spectrum? The wimpy and alternatively deranged DemoCraps. I’m supposed to vote for this BS?
Welcome the America. We’re totally screwed. 😯
Welcome TO America. <–At least I can spell.
The Home Depot’s Marcus has expressed similar sentiments, as have a few others. The only ones still publicly “in the tank” are those crony capitalists like GE’s Imelt whose company stands to earn billions from “green” investments, cap-and-trade, and the like. Most are remaining silent though, knowing how dependent they are on government business and how vulnerable they are to the whims of selective enforcement. Look at what Obama’s NLRB has done to Boeing over its South Carolina aircraft plant.
Governmental idiot contest! WTF will they do with a half asses unfinished garbage like that?
SNAFU
So buy American doesn’t apply to our own government ,this is plain stupid and typical of these idiots.Rim must be giving them to the government for free.this needs to hit the networks .why dont they have the best tech?
Apple REFUSES to support Fed Govt security needs; RIM is more than happy to oblige. That’s the reason the PlayBook has been approved for use. There is no way to access secure Fed Govt websites with an iOS device, since Apple does not support Comman Access Card security in iOS; RIM devices have had this capability built in for over 3 years. Apple has even deprecated CAC support in Lion! They just don’t care enough about Fed Govt needs to merit being approved for official use.
Aaaaarrggh! Facts! Everyone, avert your eyes
Figures…
Yea and how many “free enterprise” IT doofuses have kept superior apple products put of the hands of workers? Contrary to the ramblings of the anti-govt crowd including macdailynews, incompetence is almost a universal human trait and ain’t limited to govt. I suggest this site stick to apple news and lay off the political lest it become as dumb as Rush
Go Figure.
What’re they gonna do when supplies run out. I thought I read the thing had been canned by RIMjob.
Next thing you know the government will be buying Toyota’s for its official vehicles and Samsung telephones for their offices and Lenovo computers. Let’s not buy American, let’s just keep shipping jobs overseas until their isn’t a single job left in America. Now that’s change we can believe in! Not.
This reminds me of the Oil deal Obama made with Brazil. Amaricans could no longer drill while at the same time he gives Brazil 2 Billion of US Tax money, for them to drill.
Government is fscking up royally!
How right you are.
Notice that our fine newspapers and news media hid this little piece of news.
I feel, the problem isn’t that US govt. has approved/cleared a foreign made product for federal workers (I suspect it is just a first of many others, including Apple’s, awaiting approval); it’s just that better/superior product exists to RIM Blackberry-PlayBook in iOS platform featuring devices (which happens to be designed by a local company).
Chill, folks. First of all, this is essentially a news release by RIM. Second, RIM has long focused on corporate, government, and military sales and their associated rules and regulations. Third, just because the PlayBook is “approved for use” does not mean that anyone will buy it.
Please do not try to inject reason into this thread — you’ll ruin the entertainment value provided by the ‘gubmint is evil – Obama is the Antichrist’ crowd. Even SNL can’t come up with their crap so quickly.
More proof that the government is hopelessly insufficient. Government is not the solution to our problems.. government is the problem.. Ronald Reagan
If Ronald Reagan believed what he said, why did he dress up in a monkey suit and pretend to be the president? The whole government is incompetent and corrupt, but less government won’t solve our problems any more than more government will. What’s really needed is a social revolution, and it sure looks to me like the American people don’t have the stomach for it. More’s the pity.