iPad prevents seafood restaurant from overcharging

Thanks to the iPad, travelers in Sanya, a seaside resort town in Southern China, won't have to worry about paying too much for their seafood, says a report in China Daily. After an increasing number of complaints about excessive charges at local restaurants, government officials tried to curb the pricing practices by requiring restaurants with more than 15 tables to use the iPad to process food orders.

Orders are processed by custom software on the iPad and sent to the kitchen via WiFi. Pricing will be determined by the government and restaurants will not be allowed to raise prices. If they try to overcharge the customer, an alarm will go off and the customer's bill will not print. All sales data will be stored and monitored by city officials.

According to M.I.C. Gadget, about 20 of the 200 restaurants in Sanya have adopted the system, which costs 6,000 yuan (US$950) to implement. The local government is offering up to 9,000 yuan per restaurant to help with the cost of the iPad ordering system.

[Via M.I.C. Gadget and nddaily]