Android Thoughts - Opinions, News, Advice & Reviews on Android Devices

"The Army is 20 years and a half-billion dollars into a star-crossed effort to build custom communications and digital-mapping gadgets for its soldiers. Special Operations Command, on the other hand, is taking a simpler approach: They're planning to use Android phones. Last week, the SOCOM asked coders to create a suite of applications for keeping commandos linked up while they're out on missions. The software should include chat functions, file transfers, video display and "multi-touch whiteboarding aka John Madden tool." SOCOM calls it the Tactical Situational Awareness Application Suite, or TactSA, and it has to work in low-connectivity areas - the middle-of-nowhere places you'd expect to send the military's most elite troops. It's got to be peer-to-peer, encrypted "at the application level" and able to recover from "network outages and substantial packet loss." But rather than go the Army route and custom-build hardware, SOCOM is happy to use off-the-shelf gadgetry. It's the software that interests them more."

I guess it's telling - first you see your brother-in-law (who is a 1LT currently in Afghanistan) using a Droid at Christmas time, and before long he's convinced his entire company to adopt Android! Seriously, Android makes a logical choice for the Army: They can control the entire operating system, since it's open source, and build exactly what they need. Not a bad idea - let the hardware be off-the-shelf, program all the software!

It's every citizen of the United States' right (and some would say duty) to keep an eye on what their elected government is doing (otherwise how do we know who to vote out? Purely corruption scandals and tabloids?!?). But that isn't always easy - while one can look up the information, it's not as readily available as, say, sports scores or e-mail. Until now - Congress by Sunlight Labs lets you know what the government is up to (so you can get mad, like I do sometimes). Let's take a quick walk through it's abilities! Read more...