
Israel confiscates visiting iPads - jacquesm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/14/ipad_banned_in_israel/
======
quizbiz
I found this out yesterday and submitted
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1264183>

I don't understand the wifi issue. This screwed my plan for my father's 50th
birthday gift. I have been hiding an iPad in my dorm room, still in its
original gift wrapped packaging. What do I do now?

~~~
cycojesus
I'll gladly take it... actually forget that, Vietnamese customs would probably
hold it forever before loosing it in someone's pocket...

So, Israel, Apple? First they shoot Macbooks, and now block iPads from entry?
What's going on there‽

~~~
Maktab
Bureaucracy.

Israel, like my own country, has laws in place which forbid the sale of any
RF-capable devices until they have been expensively and painstakingly approved
by some central regulatory authority. This sort of thing is common in state-
heavy countries. The Israelis are just more competent about enforcing their
laws and regulations.

~~~
notauser
So does the US - the agency responsible is the FCC.

In general regulating broadcast RF is a good thing, because it only takes one
badly behaving device to spoil the air space for everyone.

You might think that it would be possible to rely on foreign certifications
but standards are not totally harmonized between regions and governments worry
that _local_ inspection and certification is required to avoid having B-grade
out of spec product sold in their market.

------
petercooper
_American standards, with which the iPad does comply, allow for lower wireless
power levels than do the European standards. Because of this, Haaretz quotes
unnamed ministry officials as saying, "the broadcast levels of the [iPad]
prevent approving its use in Israel."_

They're confiscating them because they support _lower_ power levels? That
seems weird. Typically radio-like devices run into trouble for being _too_
powerful for local regulations.

Not that that should be an issue. My Airport Extreme lets you turn down the
transmission levels from 100% to 0% in 25% increments anyway.

~~~
notauser
They got it backwards.

IIRC the max effective power on 2.4ghz is 200mW in the US and 100 mW in the
EU. Changing the limit is a software/firmware configuration issue plus a
little calibration with a signal meter so it won't have any impact on a
worldwide launch date.

A lot of people in the EU load US firmware to get more range, even though it's
not permitted.

The lower default power is actually a good thing. 100mW is fine to cover an
average European house/apartment, and it helps cut down on interference and
boost total available capacity in densely populated areas.

~~~
vetinari
Loading US firmware has issues - you are going to lose channels 12 and 13 (I
found out the hard way - I bought an Airport card for Powerbook in US and had
missing channels ever since).

~~~
notauser
In practice nearly all WiFi in London is on channels 1-11 because there are
enough tourists who would otherwise complain.

Some personal WiFi is on 13 because it buys you two-channel separation for
free. (13 and 11 still conflict, but not as badly as 11/12 or 11/11.)

I feel your pain though. Apple are horrific about regional settings. Mine
Macbook is a US model so it's missing 12/13 and there is no region crack for
the DVD drive so it's permanently stuck on region 1. Next time I'm going to
buy a Thinkpad.

~~~
barrkel
Be aware that region free DVD drives don't work with Windows 7 - at least,
they don't play DVD movies, but they do work with data DVDs - unless you're
using VLC.

Some drives have firmwares available which tell the OS that they only support
a single region - the region that's on the DVD, which resets upon every disc
entry.

A bit of a PITA, since region locking isn't really a copy protection
mechanism; DVDShrink or similar still work.

------
tzury
This is not accurate. It is all initiated by few who tried to smuggle it
through the customs at the airport and got caught. Those who paid the fine, or
alternatively declared about it and pay the custom fee, managed to bring it
in.

Yet, iPad being that hot topic in the news woke up some clerks in the
communication ministry saying we did not approved it at all, as if it is
nothing like any other iphone/ipod or just standard iphone.

by the time it would be available by Apple distributor in Israel (as we all
know, it will not be available outside of US before the end of May) I believe
the regulation thing would be sorted out.

