Israel Repeals iPad Ban 180
SillySilly writes "The ban has been lifted: The Communications Ministry announced Saturday evening that starting Sunday it will allow Apple's iPad tablet computer into the country, following two weeks of confiscations and confusion."
Re:Tablet computer (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Tablet computer (Score:2, Insightful)
Toy..
I swear (Score:4, Insightful)
Why does anyone need to know this? There's really not much discussion you can have about "this country lets you bring iPads" in, before this whole pages inevitably devolves into endless flaming about 1) Israel's foreign policy and/or 2) how the iPad sucks because it's a closed platform or whatever.
I'm just saying, it'd be cool if the editors stopped and asked themselves, "Are we posting this because it's important news that people should know, or are we posting it because we want to watch it draw trolls like moths to a flame?". This story is firmly in category 2.
Re:I swear (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people travel to Israel for business. It's actually a technological powerhouse, not some godforsaken desert that many think it is.
So anyone with an iPad would be very interested to know that Israel was stealing these computers at the borders.
Sure, there is some levity about Israel's foreign/domestic policy, but the crux of the matter is that Israel was taking stuff that didn't belong to it in the name of "safety". That's pretty important to anyone who might be affected, don't you think?
Very true (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't really consider the iPad to be much of a computer.
And many don't consider the computer (as we know it) to be much of a tablet.
The difference is what makes it better, and why they seem to be succeeding when other tablet efforts have come out flat.
Re:What, why? (Score:2, Insightful)
How important is the small market there that this is being discussed all over the internet?
Re:Ban lifted, but limited to one per person. (Score:5, Insightful)
And of course things that we (the TSA anyway) consider security threats--like water bottles, and nail clippers with a pointy file on airplains--are seen as harmless to them. I think maybe they understand some things about terrorism that we don't.
Re:Trolls are not attracted to bait (Score:2, Insightful)
I resent the insinuation that anyone who has something negative to say about Apple or Israel is somehow a troll.
If you can't have an intelligent conversation about the merits and demerits of a technology, maybe this isn't the site for you
The problem is that people posts have nothing to due with technology. (Some do but how many post can you get out of Israel now allows the ipad?)
Instead, we hear about how they are building homes in places we think they shouldn't or how they are murders of innocent Palestinians.
If you want to bash Israel, at least keep it technology related, but hate does not usually allow one to restrain oneself.
Re:US made laptops? (Score:4, Insightful)
I find it pretty hard to get excited about a computer "made in the USA" when you know pretty much every component in the thing was actually made in China.
Re:Supply problems... (Score:1, Insightful)
Eh? Hard to imagine Apple wouldn't want, and tries to achieve, the excellent press of being unable to meet initial demand. This isn't like typical Christmas product sales, where shortages just means your potential customers go buy a competitor's product instead.
Re:Trolls are not attracted to bait (Score:3, Insightful)
I am cool with that. But at least the editors could be honest and use a humanity story. There are plenty to choose from.
Re:US made laptops? (Score:5, Insightful)
Intel, AMD and others have fabs in the US. The RAM in my laptop was produced and assembled in the US. I bought it because it was cheap, it's the fourth time I've bought this brand and no problems yet, knock on wood. I don't really understand how something American made can be cheaper, but whatever, I'm happy to vote with my dollars.
Re:Trolls are not attracted to bait (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah... like how that iconic picture of the 12-year-old Mohammad al-Dura screaming in terror moments before he was brutally murdered was finally proven to be a staged "Pallywood" production. Or driving the Palestinians out of their homes in Jerusalem. Oh, you mean those Jewish homes purchased over 100 years ago, whose owners the Jordanians drove out, renting the homes to Arabs and holding the rent in "escrow" for the legal Jewish owners? Until the Arabs stopped paying the rent and tried to claim the homes as theirs? And finally got evicted for not paying rent for years? Wish I could live in a rental house and then decide to just stop paying the rent and get to claim title to the house.
Or how about building some apartment buildings in a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem that in no way expands the borders of said Jewish neighborhood? Well, I guess facts really aren't all that much fun, are they? After all, "thousands of illegal settlements driving the Palestinians off their land" sounds a lot more exciting than "Jews legally building apartments in their own neighborhoods".
Re:What, why? (Score:2, Insightful)
Everything that intentionally emits a wireless signal has to have a prototype sent to the FCC here in the USA.
That's only if you plan on using it in the USA, without a licence that makes it exempt from FCC approval. A lot of phones available in Europe aren't FCC-tested, because there's no point shipping them to the US since they don't have the infrastructure to use them.
Re:What, why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ban lifted, but limited to one per person. (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes. The Israelis are interested in providing security; the TSA is only interested in providing security kabuki theater.
Re:US made laptops? (Score:3, Insightful)
I've given up. Cheap and good is better than country of origin. Although if a product comes from a democratic country I will probably buy that item. Like if it made in India or France or something. But if the American one is cheaper than the French one, I'll buy that.
Re:Ban lifted, but limited to one per person. (Score:3, Insightful)
And of course things that we (the TSA anyway) consider security threats--like water bottles, and nail clippers with a pointy file on airplains--are seen as harmless to them. I think maybe they understand some things about terrorism that we don't.
Different culture, different superstitions. Do not seek deep logic into either nation's arbitrary pain points. We laugh at people in the past for fearing broken mirror or throwing away salt would bring them a bad fortune. Today we fear nail clippers and mobile gadgets will do it. As any superstition, it's remotely based on some real rare occurrence or situation that has been overblown and distorted beyond recognition.
And some still think modern people are logical.
Re:What, why? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ban lifted, but limited to one per person. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. The Israelis are interested in providing security; the TSA is only interested in providing security kabuki theater.
On the contrary, it is Bunraku [wikipedia.org]. They entertain you with puppets, all the while saying "pay no attention to what the men in the black suits are doing".
Re:Tablet computer (Score:3, Insightful)
I suspect it'll be like all of the other Apple products I've used since my Apple IIe.
Apple IIe can run BASIC programs entered at the keyboard. iPad explicitly cannot.