Air Force Special Operations Cancels Order of iPad 2s

[JMcEntegart]

Perhaps they're waiting for iPad 3?

Air Force Special Operations Cancels Order of iPad 2s : Read more

 

[southernshark]

They realized they could support more sleazy people by continuing to buy the giant paper manuals every 28 days.

 

[djamorpheus]

haha, because it was developed by a russian...

 

[builder4]

They have a trillion dollar budget and can't develop their own viewing app?

 

[Onus]

Although only a drop in the bucket, hopefully it also reflects, finally, a glimmer of awareness about cost. The US Government has no money, and the American people have no more money to extort; most of "us" have long since abandoned the thrift of our grandparents in favor of debt-fueled Consumerist feeding frenzies.

 

[Villers]

The military is no place for a IPad. A fragile consumer device with potential security holes is just a bad idea. if they need to read manuals then they need to develop their own military e-ink reader or something.

Imagine these guys flying a aircraft and need to find something in the manual, they hit some turbulence and oops dropped the ipad and broke the screen, now what.

I don't feel comfortable knowing that there is someone who thought this was a good idea protecting our country.

 

[shardey]

It's obvious that they want to wait for the iPad 3!

At least I would wait to purchase 3k units.

 

[guruofchem]

[citation][nom]Villers[/nom]I don't feel comfortable knowing that there is someone who thought this was a good idea protecting our country.[/citation]

Hear, hear. I'm all for increasing efficiency through appropriate usage of technology, but can we get someone with at least half a brain to make decisions? Maybe if you salvaged all the neurons in Congress, you'd have enough to make half a good brain, which could then be loaned to the Pentagon...

 

[ap3x]

[citation][nom]builder4[/nom]They have a trillion dollar budget and can't develop their own viewing app?[/citation]

Exactly..The fact that they made canceled a major purchase due to software being written by a foreign country is not surprising though. It happens all the time. There are certain firewall vendors that are not used in a large part of the Fed Government specifically because it is written by a foreign company. So it is understandable that they would not want to use a application that opens sensitive documents that was written by Russia. I see this kind of thing all the time and even with applications written by allies.

 

[Guest]

^^ Dude, app was created by a russian man, programmer - developer like hundreds of thousands other in the appstore of Apple's, not Russia (gov. / military / whatever)...

I do however agree with the "trillion dollar budget" comment.

 

[memadmax]

Everything made by apple is a "security threat"....

 

[del35]

A device that becomes unstable above 15 thousand feet is not one that should be used as flight manual replacement for the air-force. Besides there are other superior tablets in the market offering more connectivity and user serviceability and not riddled with the drm infestation and jailing that generally undermines Apple hardware. The Toshiba Thrive comes to mind. Though the screen is quite fragile and as a result I would not recommend it. I think it also has altitude issues in a depressurized cabin at around 15k feet.

Nice to see people coming to their senses concerning iCrap and its shiny overpriced drm infested locked-down el-cheapo prisonware.

 

[ap3x]

[citation][nom]Villers[/nom]The military is no place for a IPad. A fragile consumer device with potential security holes is just a bad idea. if they need to read manuals then they need to develop their own military e-ink reader or something. Imagine these guys flying a aircraft and need to find something in the manual, they hit some turbulence and oops dropped the ipad and broke the screen, now what.I don't feel comfortable knowing that there is someone who thought this was a good idea protecting our country.[/citation]

I can agree with a part of that. I do not believe all has been said of how they plan to use the IPad. My guess is that they where going to use it for more than just reading documents. Like providing intelligence or flight information in real time. Similar to what the airlines are planning to do. It would not make allot of sense to use the IPad if all they where going to do is read documents. They could purchase Kindles or Nooks for that and a much lower price point.

In terms of durability, the IPad is an extremely sturdy and ridged piece of hardware however in a military application I am sure they would put some sort of enclosure around it to "toughen" it up a bit more.

I know you guys might not like this but In terms of security IOS has proven to be much more secure and manageable than Android has. Android has been tough for the MDM companies to build a management solution for. It is not exactly the same as writing a traditional application for the OS. There are solutions that are designed to encrypt sensitive content for both IOS and Android devices. So the use of a consumer device in a high security setting is not out of the ordinary. Companies like good and Mobile Iron do some really cool things around securing and managing mobile devices. I am sure there are other companies that specialize in FED for these types of devices as well.

 

[del35]

It's obvious that they want to wait for the iPad 3!

Dont think they are that stupid....

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]builder4[/nom]They have a trillion dollar budget and can't develop their own viewing app?[/citation]
multi trillion

[citation][nom]ap3x[/nom]Exactly..The fact that they made canceled a major purchase due to software being written by a foreign country is not surprising though. It happens all the time. There are certain firewall vendors that are not used in a large part of the Fed Government specifically because it is written by a foreign company. So it is understandable that they would not want to use a application that opens sensitive documents that was written by Russia. I see this kind of thing all the time and even with applications written by allies.[/citation]

but that implies there is code in the program that sends the info elsewhere, and that they cant obtain the source code at all review it, and decide if its ok to use... i mean this isnt rocket science.

--------------------

on a side note, can someone tell me what these manuals that need to be replaced every 28 days are?

 

[ap3x]

[citation][nom]del35[/nom]A device that becomes unstable above 15 thousand feet is not one that should be used as flight manual replacement for the air-force. Besides there are other superior tablets in the market offering more connectivity and user serviceability and not riddled with the drm infestation and jailing that generally undermines Apple hardware. The Toshiba Thrive comes to mind. Though the screen is quite fragile and as a result I would not recommend it. I think it also has altitude issues in a depressurized cabin at around 15k feet.Nice to see people coming to their senses concerning iCrap and its shiny overpriced drm infested locked-down el-cheapo prisonware.[/citation]

Have you taken an IPad above 15 thousand feet? Where are you getting that from? I would like to see your source for that one because that is an interesting one being that I fly all the time on Delta and they normally fly at 30-35 thousand feet and have never had this problem with any device I have owned...HP Touchpad included. Nevermind that there are always a number of people with IPads on ever flight that I go on.

Security in highly sensitive markets like the FED and in Finance actually disable things like USB ports and sdcard slots and even CDROM's in some cases as those are attack vectors that people can use to introduce unauthorized applications or steal confidential information.

Your logic is all wrong here.

User Serviceability??? on a Tablet??? Have you ever serviced a Tablet of any kind?

Do you always have to troll on Apple at the mention of their name? Why are you making stuff up and putting it out there like it is fact.

 

[Miharu]

The problem is obvious - Air Force can't run apps that they don't own the code or someone can change the code.
Apple don't allow to develop to themself without share their app to all the world.
So you'll never see any government or company use iPad/iPhone with the current term of use.

Government use it just went you watch a TV show or personal use.

 

[Guest]

Flight pubs are updated monthly, but I don't think hey would use them for that. They would use them for the aircraft tech manuals. The maintenance crews at my base use iPad2s in place of laptops for thier aircraft T.O.s . By all accounts people like using them.

 

[ap3x]

[citation][nom]alidan[/nom]multi trillionbut that implies there is code in the program that sends the info elsewhere, and that they cant obtain the source code at all review it, and decide if its ok to use... i mean this isnt rocket science. --------------------on a side note, can someone tell me what these manuals that need to be replaced every 28 days are?[/citation]

Does not imply anything, the US Federal Government makes these decisions on what to use and what not use based solely on country of origin all the time and allot of the time they can not obtain the source code for some of the applications they consider. Your right though it is not rocket science but when high security is evolved there is allot of red tape. It just is what it is.

 

[ap3x]

[citation][nom]Miharu[/nom]The problem is obvious - Air Force can't run apps that they don't own the code or someone can change the code.Apple don't allow to develop to themself without share their app to all the world.So you'll never see any government or company use iPad/iPhone with the current term of use.Government use it just went you watch a TV show or personal use.[/citation]

False, Apple has a team internally that deals with applications that are not for public consumption or applications that are apart of a larger commercial solution. They work directly with these people to make sure that the application functions properly. NetMotion wireless for example has no IOS support because they require kernel access by the application for Mobile VPN. They do some cool stuff where they can move between networks while maintaining a VPN connection. This application is not for the general public but is apart of a larger solution.