“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:
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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
Thankfully RIM is Canadian. Can you imagine all the president’s communications being routed through Korea, Japan or Finland? Or worse — Redmond.
Its not like Apple’s products are made in the US, although I’m sure Apple employs far more workers in the US than RIM does.
the ONLY reason the govt certified the Playbook, is that it is a comatose brick when not paired to a Blackberry. All the security resides in the Blackberry.
Ie, for the same reason the consumer side has resoundingly rejected this Rimm POS.
The POS can’t do anything on it’s own, so is no threat to security.
I knew there was a good reason to take early retirement from the Feds. When I left, my agency’s procurement office wasn’t allowing the purchase of *any* Macs, even to replace older hardware.
National Institute of Standards and Technology is the one that certified that the Towers felt down for themselves…just for the fire of the 2 planes… riends of Cheney or am I wrong?
Here we have a country going bust and a Canadian in dire straits (so unfortunate for our good Canadian neighbors) and with Apple and high success rate only for us here to hear this crap. Another waste of taxpayers dollars. I must be missing something.
RIM stock is down 1.5% today. Apple is up about 1%. This tells you what the Market thinks of this.
the U.S government certifies a Canadian tablet that is buggy, poor battery life, virtually no native apps and can’t do email. The ‘secure’ blackberry which Obama uses has all it’s data streamed to servers in Canada.
And people wonder why the government can’t balance its budget, fix the economy etc.
That’s hilarious! Especially since RIM’s playbook is a dead product. Why isn’t the U.S. government endorsing the iPad especially since President Obama already uses one. Not a playbook.
Why the uproar. Rim is more secure…that is a fact. Guess the US gov’t recognizes that. No reason why Apple can’t go after the same certification.
Remember, it is certified, it doesn’t mean people are going to buy it. They would probably prefer the iPad if Apple would go for it.
You guys sure crap so easily on your president for things for even the smallest things…
Oh now I get it. It’s secure because nobody uses one or wants to anyway. Not to mention you can’t even get email with it!
Okay that makes sense now.
Wow! What a stupid move.
Our own Gov doesn’t even support the most valuable innovative American company. Pathetic.
My wife is a CTO for a US Government agency Western Region. Her Office all use iPad and iPad 2. They use both iPhone and BlackBerry
does this mean all other governments should not use apple, hp, motorola or IBM products……
I know that we are all apple fans but come on guys…
The RIM decision was probably reached by a committee of public servant dullards with too much time on their hands.
Hopefully the ‘progressives’ default will insure ‘the check is in the mail’. In the interim, RIM will go bankrupt.
November 2012 can’t come too soon!
“Support your U.S. Government, bringing you yesterday’s technology today!”
Boss: “Listen, folks. Which device can meet and exceed the requirements of the federal government bureaucracy?”
Tech: “Could you list them out please?”
Boss: “Greater inefficiency, more regular f**k-ups, enhanced delays and increased ability to tie up even the simplest things in lengthy red tape.”
Tech: “We have just the device for you!”
FAIL.
This dumbass move is right in line with the US Feds employing ex-Microsoft security ‘experts’ to run government IT security.
Catastrophe indeed. 😯
We’re totally screwed.
If the article is haccurate, the fact that it has been approved doesn’t mean it’s been ordered by any federal agency.