US Military Issuing iPod Touches To Soldiers

644bd346996 writes "Newsweek has an article about the latest weapons in the US military's arsenal. The iPod Touch and the iPhone are being adapted as general purpose handhelds for soldiers in the field. 'Apple gadgets are proving to be surprisingly versatile. Software developers and the US Department of Defense are developing military software for iPods that enables soldiers to display aerial video from drones and have teleconferences with intelligence agents halfway across the globe. Snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan now use a "ballistics calculator" called BulletFlight, made by the Florida firm Knight's Armament for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Army researchers are developing applications to turn an iPod into a remote control for a bomb-disposal robot (tilting the iPod steers the robot). In Sudan, American military observers are using iPods to learn the appropriate etiquette for interacting with tribal leaders.'"

Comments

The real question is....

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

The real question is: are the military funded applications sold through the Appstore? Or is the US army jail breaking their phones? Or is Apple providing the military special unlocked iPhones?

Perhaps Apple should consider rerunning their 'think different' campaign - this time with a sniper rather than Ghandi.

Re:The real question is....

[Mr. Roadkill]

The real question is: are the military funded applications sold through the Appstore? Or is the US army jail breaking their phones? Or is Apple providing the military special unlocked iPhones?

Actually, I'd bet that Apple are providing the military with special phones that are locked to an "Apps Depot" where the military can make available special apps they've sanctioned. You don't want a piece of military hardware able to run any old dodgy thing sold through the app store, and you equally don't want the machine unlocked and potentially vulnerable when the soldiers install the latest piece of iPorn for Unlocked Phones that hits the bazaars. Remember the pirate DVDs/VCDs with viruses and rootkits and all kinds of other goodness on them that went through military laptops a while back?

Re:The real question is....

[Old97]

I'm a Gandhi loving,

There's not many who truly love Gandhi & respect his teachings who see militarisation of an entertainment device as 'great'.

I don't see that as in consistent. I don't agree that Gandhi's approach works everywhere with everyone under all circumstances. His approach of passive resistance works best when confronting a nation of people who see themselves as civilized and decent so it worked against the British. Martin Luther King used Gandhi's approach in the U.S. and that worked well. If the Irish Catholics' resistance to Britain followed Gandhi instead of the IRA, the troubles would have ended sooner and more easily. If the Palestinians used Gandhi's approach against Israel instead of following the PLO there might now be one secular state where people of all denominations were equal.

I don't think Gandhi would have been successful against Hitler or Stalin or Mao. They would have killed him and moved on. There is a time for fighting.

Aren't these things made in china?

[goombah99]

Apple has an enterprise program. You buy the $299 dev licence, and you can install to your own company/platoon/whatever's devices.

That's interesting. Does it also allow you to lock it down so that only sanctioned apps can go on it, or so that only fully approved updates can be installed? They're the kind of features I'd be looking for if I had to approve the phone or touch for military applications.

Well that sort of depends on what backdoors the chinese firmware creators left in.