Australian police using iPad mini for citations, ASU goes iPad for stadium concessions

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Users of Apple's iPad are finding a range of novel applications for the device, from assisting in police work in Australia to replacing registers at Alabama State University.



The New South Wales police force has announced the commencement of a four-week field trial wherein officers will use a mobile app on an iPad mini in order to issue traffic infringement notices, reports Delimeter. The trial will begin with 20 customized and locked-down iPad mini devices running a special program called Mobile Notices. The trial will run through the month of September, whereupon the results will be reported back to to administrators in order to determine whether it should roll out more widely.

The iPad minis that officers will be working in are of the Wi-Fi + Cellular variety, with 4G connections enabling speedy downloading of relevant data. Mobile Notes will allow officers to perform secure, live lookups of vehicle registration, license, and other information in the NSW Police database. The app will also automatically capture relevant location data and attach photos if necessary. Data captured by the app is immediately transferred to the central policing database for processing.

Using the app, police can tell drivers the number of points they have lost for a particular traffic incident or simply inform them of the number of points they have already incurred. The app can also provide a cost quote for an infraction's fine. Tickets are generated as PDF documents, and drivers can have the notice sent to them via email or by post.

Should the trial program prove a success, NSW police will develop a business case and then begin soliciting quotes for suppliers. Organizers of the trial expect that it will save NSW police about 240,000 police hours and $1.2 million per year.

Police in Australia have recently expanded efforts to integrate devices like the iPad into their operations. Most recently, police in Queensland deployed 400 iPad minis in order to access police databases while walking their beats.

Alabama State University rolls out full iPad deployment for stadium point-of-sale

Alabama State University has partnered with iPad point-of-sale solution maker Revel in order to outfit ASU's entire stadium with Revel POS equipment. All 30 concession stands in the ASU Hornets' stadium now feature iPads instead of traditional POS terminals.

Revel tells TechCrunch that its iPad-based POS solution is about 14 percent faster per transaction than a traditional solution, allowing vendors to move more quickly through a line of customers. The Revel system also doesn't require a persistent Internet connection in order to function, a fact that reportedly came in handy when a recent power outage at the stadium left the Revel-powered systems unaffected.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18

    But iPads are only for consumption. They should be using the ZuneRT for this cause it can do stuff like... umm... umm.... have two windows at once!

  • Reply 2 of 18
    The acronym for point of sale should really be changed to POP for point of purchase.
  • Reply 3 of 18
    Soon Snowdon will reveal the NSA data on the location of that huge warehouse packed with "shipped" Android tablets and phones...
  • Reply 4 of 18
    dasanman69 wrote: »
    The acronym for point of sale should really be changed to POP for point of purchase.
    Yeah... that one is long overdue. Unfortunately, POP is also fairly heavily overloaded, with one acronym being Persistent Organic Pollutant... close enough to the colloquial POS for me.
  • Reply 5 of 18
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    But... but.. Fandroids... "open"... "free"... and...and... "iPads are toys"... "overpriced"...
  • Reply 6 of 18
    dasanman69 wrote: »
    The acronym for point of sale should really be changed to POP for point of purchase.

    Both are accurate but in the world of retail POP most often describes the display or surrounding material to support product sales. I couldn't imagine asking for a POS display and thinking what I might get.
  • Reply 7 of 18
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    applguy wrote: »
    I couldn't imagine asking for a POS display and thinking what I might get.

    Easy. You'd most likely get an Android tablet.
  • Reply 8 of 18

    And the iOS enterprise steamroller rolls on . .  .

  • Reply 9 of 18

    I'm really excited about this, I can hardly wait to get booked with the new iPad.

  • Reply 10 of 18
    The slightly anachronistic 'Point Of Sale' phrase urgently needs to be rejigged as it is seriously acronym challenged.
  • Reply 11 of 18
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sflocal View Post



    But... but.. []androids... "open"... "free"... and...and... "iPads are toys"... "overpriced"...

    This is the interesting tech thought… typically open/free/competitively-multi-sourced are considered the baseline for commodity business stuff, such as cash registers and the whatnot.

     

    I do think that 'secure,' 'supported,' and 'solid' (reputation, construction, architecture etc). are key words now.  

     

    The price point for support of an iPad is a lot lower than an OEM (or integrator) building a device out of Windows and 'a reasonable set of motherboards, power supplies, and monitors' and then having to make sure it 'sticks together' for  the life of the product.

     

    If you 'trust' apple, then you are at a point where you can build a product around an iPad Mini, and it will likely be around for at least 2-4 years in a similar form factor and a high quality attention to detail    Dell desktops… you'd get a different disk drive controller every other week..

  • Reply 12 of 18
    sflocal wrote: »
    But... but.. Fandroids... "open"... "free"... and...and... "iPads are toys"... "overpriced"...

    You beat me to it :)

    I was going to add "but but but runs Office!"
  • Reply 13 of 18

    But but but but but but how can the police be using them?! They’ll just get lost in the outback! And these are the same police that said it was WRONG to use an iPad! Apple must have paid them off!

     

    Originally Posted by sflocal View Post

    But... but.. Fandroids... "open"... "free"... and...and... "iPads are toys"... "overpriced"...

     

    “Do you know how fast you were going back there, mate?”

    “Well, I…”

    “Not nearly as fast as moi iPad compared to your Android piece of dreck, you whacker! A HA HA HA!”

    *cop just leaves, befuddled motorist gaping after him*

     

    Alternatively,

     

    “THAT’S not a tablet… THIS is a tablet!”

  • Reply 14 of 18

    iPad... Australian for "tablet".  :smokey:

  • Reply 15 of 18
    chris_cachris_ca Posts: 2,543member
    But how will the police in Australia know where they are when issuing a ticket?
    /s
  • Reply 16 of 18
    chris_ca wrote: »
    But how will the police in Australia know where they are when issuing a ticket?
    /s

    Simple, wherever the iPad says they are.
  • Reply 17 of 18

    Point of Purchase?

     

    But the person who's bought it, has already purchased it.

     

    They are buying it to sell to YOU.

     

    So for them, those that pay for it, it's a point of sale, hence POS.

  • Reply 18 of 18
    ianw wrote: »
    Point of Purchase?

    But the person who's bought it, has already purchased it.

    They are buying it to sell to YOU.

    So for them, those that pay for it, it's a point of sale, hence POS.

    POT? Point of transaction
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