MPs to receive iPad 2 and laptop post election
Ethel_Fred
Posts: 34,127 Forum Member
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Nothing is too good for our MPs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/11493656/All-650-MPs-to-receive-iPad-Air-2-and-laptop-post-election.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/11493656/All-650-MPs-to-receive-iPad-Air-2-and-laptop-post-election.html
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Exactly why shouldn't they have them to do their job?
They are idiot proof - perfect for our politicians
I would imagine that there will have been an open tendering process with Apple (or a re-seller?) producing a bid which was adjudged to provide "best value". Government procurement is generally quite a convoluted process - very different to the private sector. It almost certainly will not have been simply at the whim of a procurement manager.
Why not?
If you went to work you would expect a computer to be provided why shouldn't they have a laptop to use on a train?
I did procurement in government department it is complicated and tricky they always changing suppliers and the products allowed.
2) If you get paid to spout crap to the world you should also be provided with the equipment to do it.
3) How else are they supposed to play Candy Crush during the public meetings of Select Committees?
When I left civil service last year we were still using Windows XP and Outlook 2003 and Internet Explorer 6.
The computers crashed all the time and they never upgrade because they are scared of public reaction to them spending money as a result things never worked right.
If people accepted that people need up to date tools to do the job maybe government departments would be more efficient.
Makes sense to give them something portable because they have to work in different locations as M.P.s
Data security nightmare waiting to happen
Reading this, has made my day.
Luxury...when I was there we were still writing on vellum we had to prepare by skinning the calves ourselves and were writing with quill pens we had to pluck from the geese we were obliged to keep at home. Mind we did get to eat the goose on the occasion of the Queen's Birthday for which we got a day's leave ;-)
They paid microsoft a fee to keep providing security as they tried to upgrade the systems.
They have upgraded IE now I believe and they were talking about upgrading to Windows 7 and a upgraded Outlook and people having wide screen monitors but I am not sure if they ever managed to get these in place.
The computers used to crash constantly and you couldn't do much with IE as it always asked you to upgrade.
Have we asked who's getting the percentage yet?
That said, it's probably cheaper to buy 650 in bulk than for them all to each get one and claim for it off their allowance.
Though perhaps the real critical question is as to how well they stick to open standards for their documents, otherwise everything is going to end up with severely limited accessibility.
I wonder how many MPs currently have confidential constituency, government or parliamentary correspondence on their personal devices without any security at all?
I think the point was why Apple, not why have a tablet at all.
There are plenty of non-Apple laptops and tablets.
Because they can't run any useful software.
Not much use beyond doing email or browsing the web and this can be done for half the price on other platforms.
You've seen the procurement tender then?
Don't get me wrong, I made my tablet decision on what i felt was best value (Nexus 7 if anybody cares), but I do not know how much these actually cost the government.
One area where Apple excels is in the ability for a corporation to lock down the devices to only allow them to be used for business purposes. I would hope that Parliament is going to do the same here - no playing Angry Birds by bored MPs during dull commons debates
iPads and Macs can run plenty of useful software. I am not sure where you've got that from. It'll definitely let them do email and read/create documents, which is probably most of the work
Apple may have offered superior service and support, too - most other manufacturers want you to send stuff off for a few weeks to be fixed, Apple might be willing to offer quick exchanges of dead iPads and to allow Parliament IT people to become service technicians
And I doubt that Parliament is paying full retail since it's a large and prestigious order