http://www.techinfospotlight.com/201...or-apple-ipad/
Quote:
THEY are renowned for seldom knowingly missing a perk. Now MEPs have decided that, financial crisis or not, they will snaffle a taxpayer-funded Apple iPad for every member two times the latest computer must-have is launched on the European market.
The European parliament’s bureau, its administrative office, has earmarked £4.3m for an “IT mobility project”.
Bad as the financial crisis may be, the bureau has decided that all 736 MEPs need to become more “connected” & that the iPad, a transportable tablet computer, is the gizmo to enable them to do more on the move.
The iPads, likely to cost over £500 each, will be highly coveted when they are released on to the European market on May 28. Half a million of the devices were bought in the United States in the week that Steve Jobs, head of Apple, launched them earlier this year.
Although MEPs have recently been equipped with new Hewlett-Packard laptops, some have told the bureau they find them cumbersome in comparison with the iPad.
The driving force behind the idea is Klaus Welle, the parliament’s Italian secretary-general, who is named an enthusiast for the iPhone, already a popular Apple product.
The iPad plan was disclosed by a senior bureau source who was worried to reveal his name. “We could get rid of our elderly PCs, some of which have outdated program such as Microsoft Word 2003,” the source said.
“The majority of MEPs already have iPhones & they are very happy with them. The PC was lovely for its time but the iPad is a much better gizmo.”
Marta Andreasen, the UKIP member who sits on the budget committee, said: “We were told the iPads would actually cut costs as they are not pricey & that they would be able to stay connected while outside the office or on holidays, but lots of of the older MEPs don’t even know how to make use of the net properly.
“I am against that because it seems unnecessary, when European taxpayers are facing such difficult times.”
A parliament spokeswoman denied that there were designs to get iPads for MEPs in the “immediate future” & said he was not familiar with the bureau initiative.
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I'm a bit pissed off, sincerely. Though it is fitting that one of the most obscure organisations in the whole Earth opens its gates to one of the most obscure, closed-source-friendly gizmos ever made, I would like it not shoved in my face.