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UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

bbc.co.uk

31–40 of 48 posts

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#31

Considering what's a stake for citizens and the govt, one wonders would it make sense to partner with a commodity hardware manufacturer and split the cost of the device? Use recyclable parts and encourage people to return them for a fee?

It needs to be ready and distributed in less than 5 months.

Furthermore, not everyone thinks the Home Office or the government in general is making a good faith effort to do this competently.

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#32
post #12

> The Home Office has also signed a £91m contract with French company Sopra Steria to set up computer terminals at 56 local libraries Just £1.625 million per library? Does that seem a crazy amount to anyone else?

Also, local to who ? There aren't 56 points in the UK such that everyone has a local point for any reasonable definition of "local".

These are the only 56 libraries left that have not been shut down by the current government.

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#33
post #31

Considering what's a stake for citizens and the govt, one wonders would it make sense to partner with a commodity hardware manufacturer and split the cost of the device? Use recyclable parts and encourage people to return them for a fee?

It needs to be ready and distributed in less than 5 months. Furthermore, not everyone thinks the Home Office or the government in general is making a good faith effort to do this competently.

The current government is basically incapable of doing anything competently.

This goes double for anything involving IT or negotiating with other countries.

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#34
This strikes me as an extreme form of premature optimization.

This seems like the sort of thing that should be rolled out to council offices, the Post Office, somewhere like that (libraries, as stated in the post).

Or (and!) airports (they already have the infrastructure!).

Let's maybe not spend 1.5 million per device though. That's something like 10-30 software dev salaries, per location. Graft?

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#36

This strikes me as an extreme form of premature optimization. This seems like the sort of thing that should be rolled out to council offices, the Post Office, somewhere like that (libraries, as stated in the post). Or (and!) airports (they already have the infrastructure!). Let's maybe not spend 1.5 million per device though. That's something like 10-30 software dev salaries, per location. Graft?

The Home Office has also signed a £91m contract with French company Sopra Steria to set up computer terminals at 56 local libraries around the UK to help those without smartphones, or without the necessary digital skills, to apply to stay in the UK.

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#38
post #2

Any idea why Apple doesn't allow use of NFC? It's been in devices for ages, I'm surprise to hear it's not available to developers. Given Apple reviews all apps anyway, and can restrict what it's used for any way they like, I can't imagine why they wouldn't allow apps to use it.

It's really silly – but Apple keep the NFC functionality exclusively for use by Apple Pay. Whilst it is NFC, Apple have never marketed it as such. Presumably they want people to think that it's just Apple Pay 'magic'.

But they prevent competition with their own services in myriad ways already via their review process. Try building your own app store, for example.

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#39
post #36

This strikes me as an extreme form of premature optimization. This seems like the sort of thing that should be rolled out to council offices, the Post Office, somewhere like that (libraries, as stated in the post). Or (and!) airports (they already have the infrastructure!). Let's maybe not spend 1.5 million per device though. That's something like 10-30 software dev salaries, per location. Graft?

The Home Office has also signed a £91m contract with French company Sopra Steria to set up computer terminals at 56 local libraries around the UK to help those without smartphones, or without the necessary digital skills, to apply to stay in the UK.

[deleted]

Re: UK government's battle with Apple over EU citizens app

#40
post #2

Any idea why Apple doesn't allow use of NFC? It's been in devices for ages, I'm surprise to hear it's not available to developers. Given Apple reviews all apps anyway, and can restrict what it's used for any way they like, I can't imagine why they wouldn't allow apps to use it.

Imagine Ford making a car that only accepts fuel bought at a Ford fueling station.

I am sure you can see the advantages?

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