Next time Maverick, Goose and Ice Man enter the Danger Zone, they’ll be flying about 40 pounds lighter, thanks to the U.S. Air Force’s recent decision to replace bulky flight bags with iPads… a move which could save the government $50 million in the next ten years.
You may remember a post I wrote a while back about the Pentagon’s plan to get mobile devices working on military networks, and how we were able to ascertain that yes, they were working on testing iPhones and iPads and no, they were not planning on jettisoning support for Blackberry devices.
According to Spencer Ackerman at Wired today, iPads will finally have passed the rigorous security review set out by the US Military at the Pentagon in about two weeks, allowing the Apple-powered mobile devices onto the military networks. The Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) for BlackBerry 10 devices and Playbook tablets, along with those for Samsung’s Knox Android phone, have already been released.
There’s good news and bad news for both iOS and Android fans in the latest report from research firm IDC.
The good news (for Android) is that by the end of this year, Android will account for most of the tablets in the world, with a 48.8% marketshare to Apple’s 46 percent.
Sony is currently experimenting with a tablet-style PlayStation controller, which according to Slashgear would allow for “dynamic 3D motion control and virtual buttons for gaming and other purposes.” They’re even trying to patent it.
It looks like cool hardware, similar to the capabilities of the Wii U console, which was, of course, Nintendo’s answer to the tablet craze that Apple started back in 2010.
So far, so good. Want to take a guess, though, what Sony wants to call their iPad clone?
Incredibly cute, or the beginning of the end?
When Steve Jobs debuted the iPad back in 2010, he probably didn’t realized that the tablet would one day be used by Orangutan Outreach in zoos around the world. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo has adopted the “Apps for Apes” program, a totally nonfictional initiative that hooks monkeys up with shiny iPads.
Zookeepers let the orangutans play with different iPad apps and the zoo ”hopes to connect its orangutans with those at other zoos using video conferencing platforms.”
Closing its fourth round of funding, the mobile credit card processing company just raised $200 million, making it worth a staggeringly large $3.25 billion. The company, built by Jack Dorsey of Twitter fame, allows anyone with an iPhone, iPad, or other compatible mobile device, to accept credit cards. Square is widely seen as the industry leader in the mobile payment-with-a-dongle space (I just made that term up), as evidenced by other dongles released shortly thereafter by the likes of PayPal and Intuit, among others.
In what may come as no surprise, the COO of Square, Keith Rabois, is on record at All Things D, saying that the transition from current registers and point of sale devices (like ATM card-swiping devices) to iPads or other tablets will happen within the next year and a half. Square’s partnership with Starbucks is only the first of the steps being taken actively by Square to make this a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When people ask why Apple doesn’t make its iPads in America, the usual explanation is that labor costs are so high, there’s no way an iPad could be made in the country for less than $1000. That answer has always lacked weight, as the manual labor of constructing an iPad is actually a very small portion of its overall build cost: building an iPad in America would cut down margins, but not double the price.
No, there’s a better reason why every iPad gets made in China, and you can find it on your local periodic table. Every iPad is made with a sizable number of rare earth metals… all of which can only be mined in China.
If you’re flying on Delta through JFK this holiday season, you’ve now got a new way to wile away the time between flights: Delta has just installed 135 iPads at three of the airport’s gates, including Croque Madame, a French restaurant at Gates 21 and 22 in Terminal 2, and Bar Brace, an Italian restaurant at Gate 15 in Terminal 3.
Although the iPads are meant to encourage commuters to order food from their parent restaurants thanks to the included iPad menu apps, the management company responsible for their installation says that making a purchase is optional, and that the wireless internet connection is completely free.
That’s a swank little perk for flying Delta. Of course, you wouldn’t be caught dead traveling without your iPad anyway, would you?
It sounds like the setup to a heist movie: a speeding truck smashing through a wall, screeching to a halt and almost instantly disgorging itself of a gang of robbers, perhaps all wearing disguising Dead President masks. Take away the masks, though, and you have the real-life caper of a bunch of Apple-coveting thieves who just hit up a reseller in Oregon.
Want to get your iPad engraved with a foul limerick, or a portrait of Woz realized in ASCII, or a hip-hop style roll call of everyone who has ever shown you disrespect, or — I guess — some pithy line of sentiment? Apple’s finally offering to engrave iPads for customers. Like their iPod engraving program, getting some letters laser-etched into your iPad’s case is free if you order the tablet through Apple’s online store.
Isn’t that nice? Just remember that if you opt to get your iPad engraved, you can no longer exchange it unless it arrives as dead as a door stop.
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