[Economist101]

Maybe it'll all depend on how these tablets would be used. Regardless, QNX on PB already has the advantage over IOS when it comes to security and OS infrastructure in the military services.

Would this be the same U.S. military that's using Android? I'm not sure "security" is a priority.

US Army to issue Droid dev kit in July �€� The Register

US Army to issue Droid dev kit in July
Battle-smartphones go to war in 2013
By Lewis Page

Posted in Mobile, 20th April 2011 09:46 GMT

Free whitepaper – Electrical Efficiency Measurement for Data Centers

The US Army has announced that it will soon throw open an Android dev kit allowing apps to be written for use by soldiers on a variety of combat handsets and devices.

The military Droid framework is known as Mobile/Handheld Computing Environment (CE).


"Using the Mobile /Handheld CE Product Developers Kit, we're going to allow the third-party developers to actually develop capabilities that aren't stovepiped," says Lt-Col Mark Daniels. Daniels is in charge of the Joint Battle Command-Platform (JBC-P) handheld device, which is essentially a military Droid phone: it is expected to be issued to US Army and Marine ground units from 2013.

The colonel says that the mobile/handheld CE dev kit will be released in July. Before that point the Army will develop certain core apps that will come with every handset, to include mapping, so-called Blue Force Tracking (displaying where friendly units are in order to avoid "friendly fire" incidents), TIGR map-marking [1] and messaging. According to Daniels there will also be an address book and OpenOffice for document viewing.

"It's like when you get an iPhone and you have the Apple-made apps: the contacts, the email," says J Tyler Barton, Army app engineer. "Then other applications are free to use those apps, or to go above and beyond that."

The base software is being designed to run on a variety of different Android variants. As to hardware, the JBC-P may be either an existing government off-the-shelf unit or possibly a commercial off-the-shelf buy. It will have a "ruggedised tactical sleeve or case".

Networking will be provided by any of a variety of existing military radios: specifically named are the Joint Tactical Radio System, JTRS Soldier Radio Waveform, Netted Iridium, and the PRC 117G and PRC 152A used by the Marines. The system and its baseline apps are expected to tie in with existing vehicle-mounted and headquarters kit provided under previous command-and-control/blue-force-tracking projects,

"That's going to allow us to be interoperable across the entire family of systems, which would include the platforms, the aviation, the logistics community, the tanks, the Bradleys, the handhelds," Daniels says [2]. �

[mjth61]

My point is the US Government has already purchased thousands of ipads. They are being used in Afghanistan as we speak by military pilots. Commercial aviation is adopting them very quickly. If RIM is going to get in the game they are going to have an uphill battle unless they can come up with something way better and I am afraid they are already to late to the game...

[mattycat]

im new!! i got a playbook off craigs in april, bc the bad reviews at the srat?, well that dudes now missin out! i love and rep this thing all the time, this device is soo sweet i even bought a pearl 3G to compliment and bridge (which i have loved for since i got it on sunday) truthfully i had (still) a i4 but.. started using it less since the playbook has the perfect form factor for mee: portable, lightweight, and no more home button! believe mee, apple is cool too. my employer just got an ipad 2, played alittle but, alas, it wasnt for mee.

i understand now how awesome RIM and blackberry are. hehhe i can see why they're using ipads as MANUALS and other reference tools (apple store product info sheets). lol im actually leaning more towards switching my plan to a BB one instead of using a sim adapter. something uber cool with my pearl on top of the form factor, trackpad nav, real buttons! (media keys and TWO convenience keys ) something sooo neat! is.. how.. i can.. use the headset ear speaker to listen the music!!! lol. RIMs not out of the fight yet..

there are people like i would are actually switching from iOS to BB OS and the more amazing QNX.

ps. this was written on, of course, my playbook and FYI this is my first post!!

oh yeah something always over apple.. FLASH!! AHH!-AH!

[TRlPPlN]

Economist101, even though they are going to use it to for development of certain core apps, only time will tell if they are going to use it full blown. They did state "it is expected to be issued in 2013". Expected as in it isn't concrete yet?

At this point, it seems like they're testing to choose different OS's for different purposes. We'll see how all these options and development plays out. It's actually quite interesting.

[ekafara]

Regarding the Android being used by military. Will that be such a good idea. Especially using an app where it shows friendlies? From what I understand about Android is that its fairly open and unsecure. Now I'm sure if its made by military it will be fairly secure. But what if an enemy get its hand on a device and cracks it and can then use it to find people? Does android have an option to shut off or wipe certain handhelds?

I'm really happy to see that they are interested in the Playbook. I hope this means others will show interest in the device as well.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[stengel680]

as a service member, the form factor fits the cargo pockets of my uniforms rather nicely. took the pb for a spin my acu's last month and i hardly noticed it was my pocket while marching down the avenue.

true that other tablets are now being used for charting with pilots in the armed forces, but i have a feeling that with qnx, the playbook ( maybe they'll call the army issued models PB-1's ) could potentially be a widely used diagnostic tool in every motor pool in the armed forces among other military uses.

[blackjack93117]

On the ruggedness issue, otterbox + PB

And what about all the ipads Already in Use by US Military Pilots. The FAA has Already Approved ipads for use as navigational tools this last February. Don't get me wrong I love my BB but RIM has one heck of a lot of catching up to do. I hope they can do it before competition has taken the market.

I'm sure they'll require a MilSpec hardened case that will make an Otterbox look like Silly Putty. I've handled enough military equipmentvto know they're not gonna put up with lack of durability.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

My point is the US Government has already purchased thousands of ipads. They are being used in Afghanistan as we speak by military pilots. Commercial aviation is adopting them very quickly. If RIM is going to get in the game they are going to have an uphill battle unless they can come up with something way better and I am afraid they are already to late to the game...

Sorry, but I'm having a little trouble with this - I spent 18 years as an electronic engineer designing Electronic Countermeasures Systems for all branches of the military for airborne, shipborne and man portable platforms.. To say that iPads are deployed to US military pilots especially for any mission critical task is ludicrous and I don't mean the rapper.

First of all the military rarely adopts commercial off the shelf equipment that hasn't even been used significantly for similar critical commercial applications yet - in this case commercial aviation. Yes there is a recent trend toward COTS equipment, but the mil qualification process alone, software development, validation and verification, test equipment development, etc, would take longer than the iPad has had to develop itself for doing facebook and games.

Secondly there is a lot more to "ruggedness" than what can be handled by an imaginary mil spec otterbox - there are also extreme temperature considerations which commercial equipment is NOT designed for.

Full military temperature range is -55 to 125 degrees Celsius compared to the industrial temperature range of -40 to 85 degrees Celsius. Commercial temp range that consumer devices like the iPad is designed for is even less - 0 to 70 degrees Celsius.
There are vibration requirements. There are environmental requirements and tests, (salt spray for example, ice, quick temperature changes etc) EMI requirements and tests, safety tests, durability tests, reliability tests, security tests - accelerated lifetime tests - drop tests etc.... Then there is radiation hardening.

"The FAA has Already Approved ipads for use as navigational tools this last February." God I hope not.

The FAA has nothing to do with the military. The Military generally lags the commercial world in technology adaptation, not the other way around, because of the lower availability of state of the art mil-qualified components and because there are bigger consequences if anything fails, unless we are talking about life critical medical equipment, which the iPad is NOT even qualified for.

To think of an iPad in rugged use by military pilots is laughable. Just using a touchscreen and virtual keyboard with flight gloves on and goggles and helmets and occupied hands, eyes and brains with vibrations and impacts or at night with night vision equipment is laughable. Daylight readability could be a problem - reflections etc...vibrations...impact possibilities, and surviving them...excess light leakage .... light control to match the cockpit ambient light.....there is integration with flight computers and other peripherals via 1553 bus to do anything useful, dual redundancy considerations for reliability , and where do you put the thing, on the dashboard? I'm no mil pilot but c'mon, these guys aren't clowns that need a GPS app or a movie to watch as they fly over starbucks for a wifi connection.

If you want to throw out stuff like this at least provide some sources.

Regarding the topic though - I think those "stupid" CEO's at RIM have had a few tricks up their sleeves all along....regarding professional applications.

[jessebo8247]

I'm sure they'll require a MilSpec hardened case that will make an Otterbox look like Silly Putty. I've handled enough military equipmentvto know they're not gonna put up with lack of durability.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

yep, long term durablility. I like my otterbox, but can't wait to see what they come up with.

[Rootbrian]

This is good news

[MrObvious]

RIM is smart with the QNX. Putting the same levels of encryption that the government loves on the phones as well as the PB will only ensure their business presence remains strong. The only reason they aren't selling phones is because of the obvious blunder of underpowered phones with an OS that isn't speedy either. I for one actually didn't mind the BB OS minus the speed factor.

[shupor]

@ blackjack93117: "To think of an iPad in rugged use by military pilots is laughable. Just using a touchscreen and virtual keyboard with flight gloves on and goggles and helmets and occupied hands, eyes and brains with vibrations and impacts or at night with night vision equipment is laughable. Daylight readability could be a problem - reflections etc...vibrations...impact possibilities, and surviving them...excess light leakage .... light control to match the cockpit ambient light.....there is integration with flight computers to do anything useful, and where do you put the thing, on the dashboard? I'm no mil pilot but c'mon, these guys aren't clowns that need a GPS app or a movie to watch as they fly over starbucks for a wifi connection"

Same can be said for the Playbook. Heck with the smaller screen size, one can only imagine it will be a far worse experience on the plyabook.

[lnichols]

Sorry but you have more confidence in our government than me. The main reason our government buys anything is to support a union, not for any other reason.

I deal with and contract to the Government every day. And nowhere in any of the decisions made for hardware is there a union made check box. There is a list of requirements and decisions are made based off of vendors meeting those requirements. Then once the decision is made it goes out for bid to fulfill the order. For devices like phones and tablets that would communicate with sensitive networks, it better be FIPS approved. There are tons of contractors working for the government, and I've never met a single one of them working for a union.

Also for your question on private enterprise, some of the tax incentives given out to upgrade the energy efficiency in homes have been great for US window manufacturers and they did a story about one here in the DC area that hired a lot of people.

[Branta]

For those who don't know the derivation of "politics"...

Poly (Greek) = Many
Tick - a blood sucking parasite

And it ends here.

[Jake2826]

The normal consumer is on another planet compared to the military when it comes to security. Whereas many consumers ASSUME that security will be taken care of for them, The Military makes it a PRIORITY design feature. The fact that Blackberry and QNX put so much emphasis on security is a HUGE selling point that many people simply don't grasp. But the QNX OS on the Playbook is still young, so I look forward to seeing the new security features RIM adds in the future, especially in light of the huge spike in hacker attacks that is going on all over the world.

[qbnkelt]

What a lot of people who read about these pilot programs don't realise is that they are sandboxed pilots completely cut from any network.
Additionally, the Smithsonian may very well buy them for exhibitions, or airlines may buy them for customers. But that does not mean adoption of the platform because they very simply have much too many security flaws.
I can just see it - "Dude, just got me this Xoom from my boss!!!! Let's root the damned thing and remove all that IT policy sh!t"

[blackjack93117]

@ blackjack93117:

Same can be said for the Playbook. Heck with the smaller screen size, one can only imagine it will be a far worse experience on the plyabook.

True but that's not the point - the poster claimed that iPads were deployed to military pilots in Afghanistan, not Playbooks. I'm not into the ipad/playbook challenge - honestly I could give a rip about iPad...

I didn't even think of the dust issues...
Just think how much fun the Chinese would have with the "military iPad" when they find it in a downed helicopter or fighter jet...the country of copy cats and reverse engineering.

[Economist101]

Just think how much fun the Chinese would have with the "military iPad" when they find it in a downed helicopter or fighter jet...the country of copy cats and reverse engineering.

That aren't many Chinese in Afghanistan where the iPads are being used, but don't let the facts get in your way.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Let's please keep replies on topic and not deviate from the original topic of the thread. Thanks in advance.