David Cameron gets custom prime-ministering iPad app
The crack coders assembled by the Cabinet Office have a new mission: making an iPad app for David Camerons. The app will contain the latest figures on NHS waiting lists, crime, unemployment and other public sector data according to a report by The Times. It will also allow him to read Civil Service documents on the tablet and …
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yeah, right...
...and it'll take a hacker 2 minutes to discover that their way of 'removing' the 'start a nuclear war' option was to change it to white text on a white background...
goodnight Vienna.
How...
How do they get non-public apps onto their device without it being public in the iTunes store? Do Apple provide special means, or is it - shock! - jaillbroken?
Or is it ('shock')
a question you can answer by typing 'iOS enterprise apps' into Google, and looking at the first non-sponsored hit.
It'll probably be an unsecure webpage pretending to be an app. Which will be found by enterprising hacks or members of the public and extensively discussed long before the PM sees it. Anyone willing to wager a beta version with amusing test functions like "Nuke Canada" also gets found and causes a stir?
non store apps?
Not sure how, but my company does it - we have our own "apple store" and company issued iphones and ipads can download apps specifically made for our company from it v0v
Thanks
Once you have the correct search term it's very clear...
I can sleep in peace now
However, if instead of having an app to show well spun statistics politicians got on with the job of sorting the mess out I'd probably sleep even more soundly.
I know the Cabinet Office like to reinvent wheels
So, forgive me if this hasn't already occurred to them... but there are actually 3 separate requirements here, all of which can be fulfilled by existing technology.
'contain the latest figures on NHS waiting lists, crime, unemployment and other public sector data'
Put those stats into an off-the-shelf business scorecard package, many of which have an associated app
'read Civil Service documents on the tablet'
I believe the requirement for reading documents (even double super-secret ones) has been addressed once or twice...
'pull in "real-time" information from Google and Twitter among other news sources'
Many off-the-shelf offerings here also
The only potential requirement not addressed by the above approach is for having one, rather than 3, icons on the home screen, for people who are challnged by complexity.
Didn't they "set they data free" at some point in the last couple of years in which case they can just suck in freely available ONS datasets?
anyone feel like a race?
to see who can produce an app to the same specs before they can?
talk about dumbing down governance.
it sounds nice, getting everything on a handy, time saving app, but how will he read while he's getting his face moisturised and his hair done? not to mention tap the screen during his manicure?
does the app come with a 'fuck the people' button?
An app.....
Do they really need to make an app to do this ? I could probably throw together a website with the basic functionality in a few hours that will work on almost any device not just imbetterthanyoucrap.
Apps vs the Internet
Is an app needed for any of this?
Surely it is information that is already available over the GSi / xGSI / whateverSI so all they need is to set up his DeviceofChoice to run a secure tunnel into the network (which, I assume is going to be needed anyway....) and then let the magic of the existing internet technologies do the rest.
While I am all in favour of spending money on tech - is this the best use of limited government resources? Spending money so DC and a few chums can do things they already do?
Or have I missed something..?
Encryption?
CESG requires that all user computing devices should have encrypted storage. AFAIK, one can't install an encrypted file system on an iPad. I wonder what the risk assessment looks like for "PMs Personal Unique Fondleslab". I can almost feel a FOIA request coming on...
Yes you can
I assume that the gov would utilise some kind of Mobile Device Management system to enforce device encryption
Assume
That's a very big word...
What are the odds on the existing system (if one exists) being Windows-based?
It's 2011
In this era of webby-API-ey-thin-clienty-goodness, the host platform doesn't matter.
So how does this whole computing malarkey work if there is no storage involved? Totallly cashless computing at every step of the way, that may take more than 3 months to bash out!
Well, since you asked
The app is just a thin client. It reads info that is stored on secured systems that are already in existence. There's no need to download docs or data to the app.
It's a bit like that interweb thing.
"making an iPad app for David Camerons."
CameronS? One is more than enough, thanks.
Well, don't forget the mini-me sometimes seen next to him at conferences.
That won't last forever. When the inevitable split with the lib dems happens, Cameron won't have Clegg to stand on.
big red button
no .. not that one .. that makes the cappuchino
Why bother
Doesn't Cameron already have an iPad app that helps him set policy? It's called MailOnline.
"Doesn't Cameron already have an iPad app....................
...........................that helps him set policy? It's called MailOnline."
Many a true word spoken in jest!
why bother hack?
Just let me know what Tube line his personal secretary frequents and we'll have that iPad in no time...
(For those who are not aware, civil servants have gained quite a reputation for leaving laptops filled with sensitive information on seats within the public transport system, taxis and the like).
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