US soldier Jonathan Springer develops iPhone app to target the Taliban

NewsCore ^ | 1/25/11 | Staff

[Loud Mime]

Can this also be used by the Taliban?

[AFreeBird]

Oh come now. Everyone knows that the iDevices are just toys, not real computers. You can’t do real work with them.

LOL. There’s an app for that... ROFLMAO

[AFreeBird]

There are ways for an enterprise to install apps without having to go through the app store.

I think the military would qualify as an enterprise.

[Vision Thing]

Or expect Apple to provide the app to the taliban and our other enemies for free. Or perhaps they’ll encourage others to create another app that sabotages this app.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

They better be careful of who gets to download that app. Many times I’ve been sitting in traffic and wanted to call in a airstrike on the bozos who cut me off.

[HamiltonJay]

Only problem I see is, for $1.99 they have the app too and are using it against us... Kudos to the guy though.

[AFreeBird]

I hear that. But um, it seems to me, that if you were able to do such a thing; wouldn’t a burning hunk of metal in the middle of the road make the traffic jam all the worse?

Food for thought.

[Fred]

The iphone screen tends to have temperature issues and one cannot wear gloves when using it.

Note the iSausage as a sub for the finger



Koreans use sausage as stylus

[rpierce]

No problem. They'll just upgrade GI gloves to include conductive patches. ;)

[TXnMA]

...and would have required a special $50,000 ruggedized phone the size and weight of a brick — that had no other function...

[Sarajevo]

Chyea......I've already seen this debacle when I was working in the southern PI. The team would parachute in, and 40% of them had either lost their phone on the jump, or had an unfortunate "accident" on landing.

This may seem to be high-tech, but in reality, it is not very secure, nor does it have the capability of transmitting when all other power sources fail.

[rpierce]

I accept your analysis and defer to your experience. I find the whole thing intriguing though; certainly a precursor to what our troops will have eventually.

I'm working on my first iphone app so I find the topic interesting. I applaud the Captain for his initiative and efforts. I know that there's always a balance between field-level initiative and innovation and the overarching concerns of the entire organization/service.