iPod Touch to help explain things to simple soldiers on the modern battlefield.
The US Army is splashing out on ipod touches, according to Newsweek.
However the newspaper is so keen on selling Ipods to its readers it is not really clear what the soldiers will be using them for.
In amongst all the references to 'innovation' it seems that the soldiers will store films on them which will be used to provide a user-friendly explanation of what the man with the big gun is trying to say to them.
Soldiers may upload pictures of suspects that they might be looking for. Newsweek said that software could match faces, making it easier to track suspects after they're released, although there was no indication that the software had been written that would allow this.
"Apple gadgets are proving to be surprisingly versatile," coos the publication. But it points out that the iPods are only any use to the Army because it can do something the great unwashed can't. Since they do not have to pass their software through Steve Jobs, they can do what they like with them and develop military applications.
They are coming up with software which enables soldiers to display aerial video from drones and have teleconferences with intelligence agents halfway across the globe."The iPod has already transformed the way we listen to music. Now it's taking on war," Newsweek says.
Odd, we can remember when Newsweek was a respected news source now it seems to be printing Apple adverts. Apple did not invent the MP3 player guys, so it didn't change the way we listened to music. That was probably the work of Napster.
Issue: 111 | April, 2010