Snipers in Afghanistan Use iPhone to Kill Taliban

[tkioz]

This is pretty old news isn't it Funk?

Still cool though, Apple is helping in the war on terror. What do you think of THAT Microsoft? Eh?

Microsoft helps catch kiddy fiddlers, i.e COFFEE. So... yea... out of the two I know which group I detest more.

 

[dalek sec]

PS Triple

Anyway, to be more on topic, that's both really neat, and kinda dumb all at the same time. That's awesome that our soldiers have easy access to tools like that, but I have to echo the sentiments about our soldiers having to own iphones in order to have access to that sort of technology. Especially considering that I highly doubt the iphone was built to handle the rigours of combat in a shithole like the middle east. All that dust and sand can't be good for them.

Well you could consider it baby steps, see if the app works before you try and make something that can handle the riguors of battle.

 

[tkioz]

I'm surprised that there wasn't already a military device for this precise purpose. Whatever gets the job done though.

http://www.impactguns.com/store/66000-1SYS.html
There's been one for years. Downside is that it's made by Barret so it's 10 times as expensive as it would have been if it was made by anybody else.

Ah, cost-cutting. Is there any better way to supply armies?

There is skimping on costs (i.e buying crappy guns / boots / etc to save money) and cutting costs like this. If one product costs $10 and one costs $100 and they both do the exact same thing, why would you buy the $100 one?

Another thing a lot of people don't see is that purpose built devices only have one job... a smart phone with 5 or 6 uses (this app, maps, books, etc) actually saves not only money, not weight that they've got to carry around.

 

[Jou]

stuff

While I was reading what you typed I had a constant chuckle all the way through it. You definately talk about this stuff like you looked it up on wikipedia. It is quite obvious that you have never been in the military or done anything other than read about stuff like weapons and such. Please save us from your BS. Soldiers today are under supplied and equipped therefore we have to buy our own crap to get ourselves through the day. If that means getting an iPhone app or buying plates for our vests, we will do it. Honestly, do you think that the snipers out there are relying solely on this app? Take the tinfoil hat off please.

 

[Ossum]

They're probably going the iPhone + app route because there's a more direct line from money to usable product that way than there is for money + project definition + bidding phase + contract negotiation + budget and time overruns + scope creep + testing phase + rengineering phase + bugfixing + release + bugfixing + release.

And that's not including several orders of military politics and bureaucracy. The iPhone app gets the needed tech in the right hands immediately.

 

[wooty]

Touch, the Gunnest iPod ever....................(crickets)

I'll leave now

Then again, thats be a great add on for MW3 and a chance for some cheap product placement

 

[stabnex]

OH FFS APPLE, WHY?!

That's it, the next person I meet with an iPhone I'm punching in the stomach and erasing their account thus ending their life!

 

[Wadders]

Dont they already have stuff like this, that the sniper's spotter uses?

 

[DarkSaber]

The slathering mob of Apple fanbois outnumber the US military. If Steve Jobs tells the US military to buy his iPhone, then they will buy his iPhone lest they suffer a fate too terrible to even imagine.

You don't mean *gasp* being stuck with last years functionally indentical but cosmetically inferior model? NOOOOOO!!!

 

[skeanthu]

<insert Boom Head Shot.gif here>

 

[Trivun]

You know what? By next Christmas every country in the world apart from the UK will have an updated and much more efficient version of this, as standard military equipment, and meanwhile us Brits will still be arguing in The Sun's letters page that we should be demanding that the Armed Forces get this version (i.e. the current gen one which will by then be obsolete), while the politicians and generals will be arguing that carrying iPhones into combat is a breach of Health and Safety rules...

Still a great idea, though, but why can't the military simply put this app into proper equipment instead of an iPhone? Seems more sensible to do that, methinks...

 

[spartan773]

What ISN'T there an App for?

sexy games.

IDK. my friend has a legal app that shows a penis on his screen when he switches songs. How do you switch? By shaking the ipod up and down.

ok... that's probably a sexy app most don't want...

 

[FightThePower]

Now all there needs to be is an iPhone app that makes me a good Sniper in Team Fortress 2.

 

[Croaker42]

All I care about is that Apple makes an accessory that allows you to clip your iPhone to a gun. I mean that?s just fucking bad ass. I am imagining one of those apple commercials with the solid color screen and people jumping around like morons...... but with assault rifles.
OT; That makes me sad, I want this for my ZUNE HD. Though I guess I should be happy with my Audio

 

[NicolasMarinus]

That's not an iPhone in the picture!

 

[deltasniper1640]

Um, the weapon in the picture isn't a sniper rifle. Just saying. Oh, and it looks like a toy.

It is actually, not to be rude or anything but its an SR-25 or the M1101 SASS

Really? It looks a LOT like an M16. And my point still stands that it looks like a frickin toy.

Ya the M1101 uses the m16/m4 firing system, so the only difference is the barrel and some internals.

 

[deltasniper1640]

That's not an iPhone in the picture!

it could be, just looks different bc of the case attachment.

 

[supagama]

That is the coolest thing ive ever seen from apple