Benjamin Sutherland reports for Newsweek about an increasingly common sight in the hands of our soldiers:
Using a commercial product for such a crucial military role is a break from the past. Compared with devices built to military specifications, iPods are cheap. Apple, after all, has already done the research and manufacturing without taxpayer money. The iPod Touch retails for under $230, whereas a device made specifically for the military can cost far more. (The iPhone offers more functionality than the iPod Touch, but at $600 or $700 each, is much more expensive.) Typically sheathed in protective casing, iPods have proved rugged enough for military life. And according to an Army official in Baghdad, the devices have yet to be successfully hacked. (The Pentagon won’t say how many Apple devices are deployed, and Apple Computer declined to be interviewed for this article.)
If you are a soldier using a Touch in the field, I’d love to know what applications you’re finding most useful.
Photo: d-fens
“If you are a soldier using a Touch in the field, I’d love to know what applications you’re finding most useful. ”
If I was to guess, it’d say it’s the Sniper App:
http://www.geekologie.com/2009/01/boom_headshot_sniping_app_for.php
Aparently everyone the Army officials in Baghdad knows are less skilled than my 12-year-old son. Scary level of cluelessness revealed here…
attack of the unclosed anchor tag!
Mr. Johnson, end this tag!
the devices have yet to be successfully hacked.
Just how would one “hack” an ipod anyhow? mean, I can install different firmware on mine, does that count as hacking it? Or is he talking about viruses written specifically for the ipod, or what?
Looks like the soldier in the picture is listening to some tunes. Good use for an ipod.
There is no such company as “Apple Computer.” A while back they changed the name to just “Apple Inc.” given all the revenue coming in from things not typically thought of as computers.
The End User Agreement for the iPod touch specifically mentions this type of military use.
See Section 8 in http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/ipodtouchtermsconditions.pdf