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Grab your US Army-issue iPod touch, soldier!

by Dave Caolo May 19th 2009 at 1:00PM



Contemporary soldiers are fighting what Newsweek calls "Networked Warfare." Portable electronic devices and other equipment keep them connected to each other, weapons systems and real-time intelligence where ever they may be. In Iraq, the iPod touch is finding a role with the US military.

In one scenario, touches with language software have replaced much pricier translation units. In fact, soldiers are finding that iPods can replace several devices, lessening the burden of gear that must be carried around. Indian development firm Next Wave Systems is reportedly developing a system that would allow a soldier to receive intelligence almost instantly from a picture snapped with the iPod. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Defense is developing software that will let soldiers monitor video from aerial drones.

As for the iPod's durability, Newsweek reports that it's held up to military life with the proper outer casing. What's more, most of today's soldiers have used or already own an iPod touch, so training time can be kept to a minimum.

At one point, the article notes that, "Apple devices make it easy to shoot, store and play video." Of course, neither the iPhone nor iPod touch we all know can shoot video, though it's possible the Newsweek author is thinking of another Apple product (or just maybe there's a milspec iPhone that does video in advance of the 3.0 release). It's interesting to see a consumer product being used in such an important role. Good luck and be safe to everyone who lifts one in service.

Photo via tikigod at Flickr (here's the story behind it).

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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Contemporary soldiers are fighting what Newsweek calls "Networked Warfare." Portable electronic devices and other equipment keep them...
 

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19 Comments

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jonzey231

That is an iPod Classic. It has a hold button. lol

June 01 2009 at 11:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brian Gillespie

Left my iPhone in the car and it got up to about 145-150 F. (Love that Arizona sun) Unlike my Blackberry or my Ericsson I didn't have to wait for it to cool to use it again. It just worked. I did have to use a spare T-shirt to keep from burning my hands.

May 19 2009 at 7:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jake J.

Maybe when they said "Shoot, store, and play video", "Shoot" and "Store" were referring to photos, and "Play Video" obviously referred to video.

Just my 2 cents worth.

May 19 2009 at 5:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
directeco

Next Wave Systems is an company based in Indiana, not India...

May 19 2009 at 2:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to directeco's comment
natebrogdon

Indiana, India...tomato, potato...it's all the same, right?

May 19 2009 at 2:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jemaleddin

Ummmm - an iPod touch doesn't have a camera, making this sentence even more confusing than the one about video:

"Indian development firm Next Wave Systems is reportedly developing a system that would allow a soldier to receive intelligence almost instantly from a picture snapped with the iPod."

May 19 2009 at 1:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
russ d

Maybe that hole is where they tried to add a cmos chip, since the ipod touch doesn't have a camera on it...

May 19 2009 at 1:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
GCarden

"...a system that would allow a soldier to receive intelligence almost instantly from a picture snapped with the iPod."

Are these the new Touches with the built-in cameras that haven't been announced at WWDC yet? ;-P

May 19 2009 at 1:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to GCarden's comment
Taylor

I was gonna say.

iPod touches can't snap pictures.
Perhaps some of these soldiers take their iPhones from home and keep em in airplane mode?

May 20 2009 at 5:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Albenheimer

And with the US Military Handbook app (as reviewed by TUAW last week) available, our soldiers have a wealth of information at their fingertips.

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/05/12/us-military-handbook-for-iphone-ipod-touch/

May 19 2009 at 1:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
SpinThis!

I highly doubt the military is sending out civilian-band wi-fi (even encrypted)... these devices are definitely heavily modified with receivers tweaked and running custom software and hardware so the Touch can receive military transmissions on whatever band they want.

May 19 2009 at 1:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
4 replies to SpinThis!'s comment
mad matt

thats not an ipod touch in the picture ;)

May 19 2009 at 1:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mad matt's comment
LD

That's why they linked to the story behind that photo.

May 19 2009 at 1:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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