Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
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.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
We've all had a good laugh at that clause but they may actually be close to breaching it.
For all your warfare needs, iWar includes anything a soldier needs! Ballistics calculations for artillery, able to say "we mean no harm" in fourhundred and twenty six different languages, a full guide of where to find usable drinking water and much much more. Subscribe now and you'll get free add-ons for a full six months! iWar, saving the lives of soldiers not near you!
Not. Unless they are getting milspec units I wonder how many lives are being put in danger by using consumer products in such varied environments. The mountains of Afghanistan in winter and the deserts of Iraq are probably both well outside of the rated range of these devices. Not only that but what happens when they get a little wet? I think the average joe shmoe probably treats his electronics a bit better than your average grunt. I personally love the idea of using something like this to control things (my wife has a sewing machine that uses a gameboy color for a controller), I'm just not soldiers are the best target audience for such efforts.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
According to the Ballmer testing division they make excellent projectiles, they have a 99.9% chance of putting an eye out.
Senators were heard saying quote:"These iPhones have become quite useful to the military. I guess it was a good thing we bought a couple to try out even thought they can't really 'jailbreak' you if you get caught taking bribes.
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
Ever wanted to blow up the **** out of terrorists?
There is an app for that.
I like the idea. Smartphones have enough computing power and sufficient battery life to perform militarily useful functions, with a minimum of added weight to the soldiers gear.
I'm not sure about the platform choice though. One company controls the hardware and software. There are no alternatives in either category that allow you to benefit from prior investments- replacing the hardware or OS requires junking everything you already have. And if the public APIs don't let you do what you need, and Apple can't or won't, it won't do what you need and thats that.
Android, or even Windows Mobile, I think would be better. A lot easier to switch to another device and minimize training costs, a lot easier and cheaper to get a device custom designed and built for specific military applications. These two are far more open- anyone with a properly trained engineering team and some money can make devices for these platforms. You need a specialized gadget integrated? You'll have a dozen companies salivating at defense budget dollars. You'll get it done, balancing capability and cost will be a meaningful choice and you can make it based on the needs and the budget, not because it's the best of limited options.
I could shoot 'at' an iPod all day long and not damage it. It's when I accidentally hit the target that there may be problems.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
While, as you say, these are probably being used somewhat past their rated specs, I'm not sure that that is a critical problem. Touches are solid state and reasonably well sealed by default, and I'm sure that shoving them in a Pelican case isn't exactly rocket surgery. I suspect that, in practice, they survive pretty well.
Beyond that, though, there is some truth to the old cliche "the perfect is the enemy of the good". Which are you better off with, the Touch running off-the-shelf software for under $250 a unit now, or the hardened mil-spec widget wending its way through the contractor process that will cost 4 times as much and be available in small quantities in 8 months?
I'd be very disappointed to hear that soldiers had grown critically dependent on the things, and wandered around lost whenever they didn't have them; but, assuming that is avoided, what is the issue? If a device improves your performance, and is available 90% of the time, you are better off on average. If these devices turn out to only last an average of 6 months, then we'll need to treat them as a consumable, hardly a novel procedure. Anybody who operates on the assumption that consumer gear will survive as well in Tora Bora as it does in Starbucks is a moron; but that isn't the only assumption you can operate on.
The right spelling is Gandhi.
Gan as in "gone" + dhi as in the first portion of 'this'.
what could possibly go wrong?
there have been stories about the Chinese sneaking counterfeit chips into military application some of which have made there way into military aircraft.
using a consumer gadget built in china seems like a truly epically bad idea.
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
I dunno, you should ask this guy!
Bush hating
Hey! Some of us absolutely LOVE bush.
Stop the Apple users are gay innuendo!
Much of the clothing, camping, and cold weather gear available at a local REI performs better than what is issued to U.S. soldiers. The military has been slow to adopt consumer products which may work better than what is currently being supplied. This is gradually changing, and it's a change for the better. You don't always need everything to be radiation hardened. Sometimes the best product for a given job is available now, and you don't want to wait for it to be tested ad nauseum, debated, defended, and advocated through the convoluted military procurement process. An iPod Touch is relatively cheap, cheap enough that it's almost disposable. On the other hand, it's too bad there's not an option for AA batteries. Recharging is tough in the field.
Make love, not reality television.
I was more reminded of this Doonesbury.
PDAs/Smartphones which have the desired functionality have existed for many years before the iPhone/iPod touch. .NET compact framework is much nicer than developing for the iPhone (background processes, yeah!)
And using C# with the
I am the maverick of Slashdot
You may remember that, in the earlier days of the Iraq war, soldiers would write home begging for their families to send them Talkabout FRS radios. Yup, those little handheld radios sold in blister packs at Wal-Mart for camping trips.
Those things are, doubtless, less secure, less durable, less resistant to interference, and less powerful than purpose-built military communications systems would be. However, they had one big advantage: they were available to the soldiers when they needed them.
If the military has trouble getting a mature technology like handheld radios into the hands the troops, you can bet that they'd flub something like handheld computers even worse. Sometimes, it's better to just buy the darned things at Wal-Mart.
Back in the day when the Steves ran Apple there was a very strong understanding the Apple won't sell anything to the military for any reason, especially for warfare. Of course the military wasn't ever directly sold Apple products, but they aquired them through third party purchasers and ended up being in the missile silos anyway.
I would imagine this business decree was tossed out with Jobs to help bolster sales any way they could.
That, my friends, is where my fanboy history ends - I bought a PC and ran linux. The rest I read in the flame wars here.
DEVICE SELECT: DRONE='predator1'
DRONESTATUS=predator1: >IN RANGEONLINEINVENTORY>WEAPONS>AVAIL
WEAPONSAVAIL>MISSILE=0,1,2,3
SELECT MISSILE=3
MISSILE=3> TARGET=2
MISSILE3/TARGET2: 'fire'
ERROR: This device is protected by DRM. Please contact your dealer or reseller, call Apple directly at 1-800-APL-CARE, or you can visit our knowledge base on the World Wide Web at www.apple.com/support/ipodtouch/.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
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.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Although I have nothing wrong in general with items made in another country, I woudl think that military items should be created in the country within which it is issued. Take for example, the recent thing about spys infiltrating the national Grid.
Have a nice day!
They're working on a french version. It will be called the iSurrender.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
How many vietnam veteran does it take to change a lightbulb? you weren't there man, you wouldn't know...
Of Code And Men
Heard this a few years back in a political discussion, and I must say I agree with it:
"I'm pro-bush, but not the George W kind."
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.