Android Phones

[buglerbilly]

iPhone Likely Loser For DoD Biz



By Colin Clark Monday, June 14th, 2010 12:21 pm

White Sands Missile Range -- As the Pentagon and Boeing explore the best uses for smartphones on the battlefield, it looks as if the iPhone’s proprietary software may mean the military will give it a miss and gravitate to Android phones because of their open operating systems.

This comes even after the Army’s vice chief of staff, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, stood up last year, waved his own iPhone in the air and said it offered lessons to the Army for rapidly designing and moving equipment to the field. The potential military smartphone market is enormous since it could mean tens of thousands of Army and Marine troopers would be armed with phones designed to connect with secure mobile Internets created by the software radios, known generically as Joint Tactical Radio Systems.

Both the Army and Boeing are exploring how to use smartphones to improve soldiers’ performance on and off the battlefield. As Col. Marisa Tanner of the Army’s Future Force Integration Division puts it: smartphones provide each soldier with more sensors. The phones, coupled with those sensors and tied to a network, would also enormously increase the sharing of data between front-line troops, Special Forces operators and their commanders. In addition to the sensors on them, the phones could use custom-designed apps to speed data collection and sharing. The Pentagon’s advanced research arm, DARPA, is building an experimental app store, roughly modeled on Apple’s business model, which Tanner said “should open any day.” Soldiers would be able to build apps on the fly. Once they get approved for service-wide use, they could be shared online through secure Army portals.

The Army is trying Android, Windows Mobile and iPhones, Tanner said.

Boeing has already sunk some of its own research money into the idea of an app store, using iPhones to do it. They built, among other apps, one for processing detainees after hearing from an 82nd Airborne trooper that he regularly spent three to four hours to process detainees. That did not include the time he spent moving them from the field to a FOB or operations center where he could do the processing.

I tried the app out. It’s simple. Open it and there’s a button to use the iPhone camera to snap a shot of Osama bin Laden’s new driver. Another button allows you to grab a quick fingerprint. And there are fields to note exactly where, when and in what conditions the detainee was seized. If the smartphone was connected through a secure mobile Internet, that information could easily be shared with a Tactical Operations Center or with intelligence officers through something like the Army’s FBCB2 system.

Another promising app would be one for precision fires, Army and Boeing officials said. Imagine a smartphone in the hands of a Special Forces operator or a squad leader. The fight is in close, making a bombing run problematic or there aren’t any air assets available. The trooper uses the targeting app, feeds the data to the Accelerated Precision Mortar Initiative, the result of an urgent needs request from soldiers in Afghanistan, and wipes out a Taliban squad or sniper without killing or wounding civilians. Of course, that targeting data could also be fed to aircraft or even a Prompt Global Strike weapon for a strike on a High Value Target like Mullah Omar.

The Army is trying out 200 smartphones — Android and iPhones — here to see how soldiers use them, how effective they might be and how secure they can be made. There is no money in the budget to fund it yet, but if the test goes as well as Army officials here think it will, the fielding of smartphones would be made part of son of FCS’ (known official as Brigade Combat Team Modernization) Increment 2, the

The basic problem with iPhones, according to a Boeing source, is that Apple’s produt uses proprietary software. Each app would carry a $200 charge, the Boeing official said, posing what could be a significant costs to the services. On top of that, the Pentagon and the four services are trying to extricate themselves from closed systems — stovepipes — and use only open source systems to which they own the rights or are truly open, like Unix. And troops are showing a preference for a horizontal screen with real keys as they try to input information using gloves and one hand, according to Tanner.

Boeing’s opinion on the iPhone matters because Boeing built SOSCOE, the JTRS middleware that connects the radio’s waveform software to other software like applications. The Pentagon owns SOSCOE and wants to own or use an open source system so Apple would appear to be a deep disadvantage if it wants to supply the Army and other services with its product.

Making smartphones secure enough for military use is one of the biggest obstacles to their deployment. Col. Tanner and others noted. First, the network they operate on must be secure. Then the phones must make secure transmissions. And they must be made be made tactically secure, so that if a soldier is killed or wounded and the enemy grabs their phone they don’t get an open window into U.S. or allied operations, intelligence or capabilities. Tanner pointed to technologies like the Remote Wipe and Find My iPhone services that could be emulated. Also, biometrics such as fingerprint or iris scans could be build into phones so that no one but the user could access them. And there is the standard Common Access Card (CAC) card used across the military services to access computers that could be adapted to phone use.

[Full disclosure: Boeing paid for our flights to and from White Sands.]

Read more: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2010/06/14/iphone-likely-loser-for-dod-biz/#ixzz0qt5P6dhi

[buglerbilly]

Army Testing iPhones for Comms — But Apple Might Lose Out

by christian on June 18, 2010

Our boy Colin Clark reports that the Army is looking at using smart phones like the iPhone the Droid for communications and other tasks netted in with its secure comms networks in the field.

It’s an awesome story that shows how innovative the Army can sometimes (surprise) be…

“They built, among other apps, one for processing detainees after hearing from an 82nd Airborne trooper that he regularly spent three to four hours to process detainees. That did not include the time he spent moving them from the field to a FOB or operations center where he could do the processing.

I tried the app out. It’s simple. Open it and there’s a button to use the iPhone camera to snap a shot of Osama bin Laden’s new driver. Another button allows you to grab a quick fingerprint. And there are fields to note exactly where, when and in what conditions the detainee was seized. If the smartphone was connected through a secure mobile Internet, that information could easily be shared with a Tactical Operations Center or with intelligence officers through something like the Army’s FBCB2 system.

Another promising app would be one for precision fires, Army and Boeing officials said. Imagine a smartphone in the hands of a Special Forces operator or a squad leader. The fight is in close, making a bombing run problematic or there aren’t any air assets available. The trooper uses the targeting app, feeds the data to the Accelerated Precision Mortar Initiative, the result of an urgent needs request from soldiers in Afghanistan, and wipes out a Taliban squad or sniper without killing or wounding civilians. Of course, that targeting data could also be fed to aircraft or even a Prompt Global Strike weapon for a strike on a High Value Target like Mullah Omar.”

But don’t go jailbreaking your iPhone 4 and spooling up the Rock Band game just yet. According to Clark, Apple’s driving a hard bargain with Army contractor Boeing on this program, charging a setup fee of $200 per app they want to use for the DoD-type stuff. The Droid is more attractive since it’s an open architecture, but everyone knows the iPhone rocks the Droid out of the water.

Wonder if Boeing can drive an even harder bargain with Apple? But we all know how strange Jobs can be. Maybe he doesn’t want a company like Apple associated with killing bad guys. But hey, if Patagonia can do it, can’t Apple?

Read more: http://kitup.military.com/#ixzz0rGDDCGhH

[buglerbilly]

Smartphones could be latest battle accessory


U.S. Army soldiers with the 1-320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, are covered in dust as a Chinook helicopter lands outside their base during a firefight at Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar, July 19, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Bob Strong

By Golnar Motevalli

FARNBOROUGH | Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:13am EDT

FARNBOROUGH England (Reuters) - Smartphones could become the next weapon in the United States' battlefield arsenal, as defense companies seek to cash in on the rapidly growing use of sophisticated mobile applications.

Raytheon, which makes the Patriot missile defense system, is developing software which could enable a soldier to find enemies in his or her surrounding terrain using a mobile phone running Google's Android operating system.

The software could potentially be powerful enough to pick up aerial images from an unmanned aircraft or satellite and then focus in on details such as license plates on cars or a person's facial features.

"We're trying to take advantage of smartphone technology to tailor for what soldiers may need in the field," Mark Bigham, vice president for defense and civil mission solutions at Raytheon, told Reuters.

So far Raytheon have added their software to handsets made by Motorola and HTC Corp. Google has been instrumental in helping the company access and understand its Android platform, which is in aggressive competition with Apple's iOS platform for the iPhone.

"Google has helped us push the limits of the phone," Bigham said, adding that the U.S. internet giant would stand to financially benefit once the Raytheon Android Tactical System (RATS) is rolled out to the defense market.

The U.S. Army is a potential customer for the software and some members of U.S. Special Forces teams have tested the product and advised Raytheon, Bigham said, adding that the Indian military was also a possible huge market for Raytheon.

Each handset, which has a color touchscreen, would cost about $500, in line with prices for unlocked consumer smartphones, but Raytheon would be responsible for providing the encryption software and communications system necessary for the application to work in remote areas where signals do not exist.

"What you have to do is provide your own communications networks ... communication coverage is absolutely an issue but there are very cost effective solutions that you can use which give you a pretty big foot print," Bigham said.

The software would also allow soldiers to interact as 'buddies' and enable them to track each others' movements on the battlefield, as well as help them identify potential enemies in a way similar to social networking sites such as Facebook.

If the phones do take off, then potentially thousands of handsets could be in circulation on the battlefield, and the risk that they would get into the wrong hands would be high.

But Bigham said identity recognition software would be installed on the phones, allowing only select users to unlock them. GPS would also allow forces to track the phone.

(Reporting by Golnar Motevalli; Editing by Ben Berkowitz)

[buglerbilly]

Rugged Phones Ready For War

By Matthew Cox Friday, July 30th, 2010 5:04 pm

Just as smartphones have become an icon of the civilian world, they may soon find their way into every soldier’s kit.

Take a look at General Dynamics’ version of the battlefield smartphone.

The GD300 features a highly-sensitive GPS, 3.5 inch touch screen and the ability to connect door-kickers to the tactical network.


“It’s a commercial GPS as a stand-alone unit, but the beauty of it is with a click of a cable you can connect it to” secure communications gear such as the Joint Tactical Radio System, said Jason Jacob, product manager for General Dynamics Itronix, a commercial arm of GD C4 Systems.

“We are looking to supply these to every dismounted soldier,” Jacob said.

GD is one of several companies developing military-style smartphones in response to the Army’s acknowledgement that the technology could prove useful on the digital battlefield. The Army has been testing a mix of 200 iPhones and other smartphones at Fort Bliss for several months, trying to figure out their best uses and to see how they hold up.

The Android-based GD300 can be mounted on the forearm or chest. At 8 ounces, it’s a “lightweight, fully rugged device” that measures 5.8 inches long, 2.6 inches wide and .7 inches thick, Jacob said. It has a 600MHz processor and a Lithium-ion battery good for 8 hours of use.

A simple cable will connect the GD300 to tactical radios that use software such as the Enhanced Position Locating Reporting System. Once connected, the GD300 can send and receive text messages and graphics and use situational-awareness tools such as Blue Force Tracker.

GD wants the Army, and other services to buy it, but the company also plans to sell the GD300 commercially.

“In the future, I do expect that any soldier could order it,” Jacobs said.

It won’t be cheap though. Right now it costs about $1,200, Jacob said, but the price could drop below $1,000 on bulk orders.

[buglerbilly]

Is GD’s New TacSmartPhone Grunt Proof?

by christian on August 2, 2010



Our good friend Matt Cox, who recently pulled up stakes at Army Times to launch into a full-on freelance career, posted an interesting piece over at our sister site DoD Buzz on the development of a battlefield smartphone.

As we reported a month ago, our boy Colin Clark talked to the folks at Boeing who are honchoing the whole Brigade Combat Team modernization (the remnants of the FCS program) and developing a tactical App Store with programs for in-processing detainees and calling in 9-lines.

One of the problems is architecture — Droid, iOS4, Microsoft — and Clark reported that the folks at Apple might be a bit on the anti-military side, charging $200 setup for mil-related apps.

Well, Cox reports GD has stepped into the breach by developing a combo-pocket computer/smartphone that puts in its lot with the open-source Droid OS. The GD3000 is a downright brianiac of a smart phone, allowing troops to plug in their secure comm devices and flow whatever info back and forth through it.


The Android-based GD300 can be mounted on the forearm or chest. At 8 ounces, it’s a “lightweight, fully rugged device” that measures 5.8 inches long, 2.6 inches wide and .7 inches thick, Jacob said. It has a 600MHz processor and a Lithium-ion battery good for 8 hours of use.

A simple cable will connect the GD300 to tactical radios that use software such as the Enhanced Position Locating Reporting System. Once connected, the GD300 can send and receive text messages and graphics and use situational-awareness tools such as Blue Force Tracker.

There were some interesting comments on the Buzz story, including questions of the phone’s ability to hold up to abuse and whether it will have the battery life it needs for data-intensive battlefield tasks. But the biggest worry is in its security architecture…as the Army has seen from its Aircraft Wireless Intercom System, if the NSA doesn’t sign off, forget it.

Read more: http://kitup.military.com/#ixzz0vSMhG9Ln

[buglerbilly]

More on this...........

General Dynamics Itronix's New GD300 Rugged Wearable Computer Enables Unprecedented GPS and Situational Awareness for Warfighters

(Source: General Dynamics; issued August 3, 2010)

SUNRISE, Fla. --- Combining commercial global positioning and communications technology with battlefield-rugged computing, General Dynamics Itronix is introducing the GD300 fully rugged arm- or chest-worn computer.

Weighing less than 8 ounces, the Android-based GD300 operates like an ultra-sensitive commercial GPS unit or, with the click of a cable, interfaces with tactical radios like the Rifleman Radio (AN/PRC-154) for secure access to the tactical network. The GD300 uses a quadra-helix antenna for real-time global positioning that defies interference even when the user is positioned in mountainous regions or urban environments.

"The GD300 is a game-changing computer that will save lives," said Mike DiBiase, vice president of Computing Technologies for General Dynamics C4 Systems. "We expect the GD300 will become the most important 8 ounces of tactical communications and situational awareness equipment that a warfighter can carry."

The GD300 hosts the open architecture, Android-based operating system to easily accommodate current and emerging applications for warfighters at all command levels. Operating in two distinct modes, the GD300 serves as a stand-alone GPS device or, when connected to a tactical radio, performs as a tactical mission computer. The GD300 supports commercially available standalone applications or military "apps" like the Tactical Ground Reporting (TIGR) System which is currently in use by the military.

When connected to a tactical radio, the lightweight GD300 enables warfighters to securely communicate, share information and collaborate while on the move. Delivering up to eight hours of continuous operation, the lightweight GD300 is powered by standard lithium-ion batteries.

Reginald Daniels, an engineer for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory responsible for testing military wearable computers, said, "Given that the dismounted warfighter's job is not a computer operator, it is imperative that wearable computers be unobtrusive, intuitive to operate and provide compute-on-the-go functions."

The GD300's sleek ergonomic design was the result of input and feedback from wearable-computer users from the military, government and emergency first responders. The GD300 includes a sunlight readable display and functional control buttons typically found on any Android-based device. The 3.5-inch touch-screen display lets warfighters move information around, zoom in or out or place digital 'markers' on tactical maps with the touch of a gloved finger. Comfortably fitting in an adult's hand, the computer fully meets MIL-STD 810G specifications for ruggedness.

General Dynamics Itronix is a leading developer of wireless, rugged computing solutions for mobile workers, offering a full range of field computing systems including laptops, ultra mobile notebook PCs and tablet PCs. The company is part of General Dynamics C4 Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics.

General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., employs approximately 91,200 people worldwide. The company is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems and technologies.

-ends-

[buglerbilly]

iPhone Could be Cracked by Terrorists and Cops

by christian on September 7, 2010



You all know how much I love my iPhone…I mean, I consider it the greatest invention since the wheel and if I could have it implanted in my skull, I would. I call it my “Brain Pal.”

Well, one thing I hadn’t really considered is the way in which the little life keeper could be exploited as an intelligence source — both for ill or good.

A Kit Up! tipster forwarded an interesting piece on how police officers are being trained to pull information on perps from smartphones – particularly the iPhone.


Law-enforcement experts said iPhone technology records a wealth of information that can be tapped more easily than BlackBerry and Droid devices to help police learn where you’ve been, what you were doing there and whether you’ve got something to hide.

“Very, very few people have any idea how to actually remove data from their phone,” said Sam Brothers, a cell-phone forensic researcher with U.S. Customs and Border Protection who teaches law-enforcement agents how to retrieve information from iPhones in criminal cases.

“It may look like everything’s gone,” he said. “But for anybody who’s got a clue, retrieving that information is easy.”

There’s even a cottage industry for law enforcement to understand cracking Apple’s wonder device and a book on how to do it.

While the article focuses on how police and investigators can crack the phone for gouge on crooks, Kit Up! readers will probably be interested in flipping the concept on its head by considering how a bad guy might be able to find out a wealth of information about a military unit from the little bits of info contained on a trooper’s misplaced iPhone.

We wrote about how more and more troops in The Zone arejailbreaking their iPhones and using them on local networks — and with the explosion of apps that can be used for military ops, the iPhone will surely become a much more ubiquitous device on the battlefield. So it’s important to consider security of your iPhone while deployed.

One thing you can do to better secure your iPhone is to enable the password lock feature and couple it with a data erase modeafter some failed attempts at breaking in. While the passcode is only four digits long (which should be easy enough to crack for hardcore sleuths) it’s better than nothing.

Read more: http://kitup.military.com/#ixzz0yqxXys1T

[buglerbilly]

The linked article to the above...........

iPhone makes great snitch for savvy cops

September 1, 2010 By Amber Hunt



Got an iPhone in your pocket? Then you might be storing even more personal information than you realize. And some of it could be used against you if you're ever charged with a crime.

A burgeoning field of forensic study deals with iPhones specifically because of their popularity, the demographics of those who own them and what the phone's technology records during its use.

Law-enforcement experts said iPhone technology records a wealth of information that can be tapped more easily than BlackBerry and Droid devices to help police learn where you've been, what you were doing there and whether you've got something to hide.

"Very, very few people have any idea how to actually remove data from their phone," said Sam Brothers, a cell-phone forensic researcher with U.S. Customs and Border Protection who teaches law-enforcement agents how to retrieve information from iPhones in criminal cases.

"It may look like everything's gone," he said. "But for anybody who's got a clue, retrieving that information is easy."

Two years ago, as iPhone sales skyrocketed, former hacker Jonathan Zdziarski decided law-enforcement agencies might need help retrieving data from the devices.

So he set out to write a 15-page, how-to manual that turned into a 144-page book ("iPhone Forensics," O'Reilly Media). That, in turn, led to Zdziarski being tapped by law-enforcement agencies nationwide to teach them just how much information is stored in iPhones -- and how that data can be gathered for evidence in criminal cases.

"These devices are people's companions today," said Zdziarski, 34, who lives in Maine. "They're not mobile phones anymore. They organize people's lives. And if you're doing something criminal, something about it is probably going to go through that phone."

It's an area of forensic science that's just beginning to explode, law-enforcement and cell phone experts said. Zdziarski said the focus of forensics recovery has been on the iPhone over other smartphones in large part because of its popularity.

An estimated 1.7 million people rushed to buy the latest iPhone version released in June. Before that, Apple had sold more than 50 million iPhones, according to company figures.

Although some high-stakes criminal cases have used cell phone towers to estimate a suspect or victim's whereabouts, few have laid out the information that iPhones have to offer. For example:

• Every time an iPhone user closes out of the built-in mapping application, the phone snaps a screenshot and stores it. Savvy law-enforcement agents armed with search warrants could use those snapshots to see if a suspect is lying about whereabouts during a crime.

• iPhone photos are embedded with GEO tags and identifying information, meaning that photos posted online might not only include GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken, but also the serial number of the phone that took it.

• Even more information is stored by the applications themselves, including the user's browser history. That data is meant in part to direct custom-tailored advertisements to the user, but experts said that some of it could prove useful to police.

Clearing out user histories isn't enough to clean the device of that data, said John B. Minor, a communications expert and member of the International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners who has written articles for law enforcement about iPhone evidence.

"With the iPhone, even if it's in the deleted bin, it may still be in the database," Minor said. "Much is contained deep within the phone."

Some of that usable data is in screenshots.

Just as users can take and store a picture of their iPhone's screen, the phone itself automatically shoots and stores hundreds of such images as people close out one application to use another.

"Those screen snapshots can contain images of e-mails or proof of activities that might be inculpatory, or exculpatory," Minor said.

Most iPhone users agree to let the device locate them so they can use fully the phone's mapping functions, as well as various global positioning system applications.

The free application Urbanspoon is primarily designed to help users locate nearby restaurants. Yet the data stored there might not only help police pinpoint where a victim was shortly before dying, but it also might lead to the restaurant that served the victim's last meal.

"Most people enable the location services because they want the benefits of the applications," Minor said. "What they don't know is that it's recording your GPS coordinates."

Bill Cataldo, an assistant Macomb County, Mich., prosecutor who heads the office's homicide unit, said iPhones are treated more like small computers than mobile phones.

"People are keeping a tremendous amount of information on there," he said.

Cataldo said he has found phone call histories and text messages most useful in homicide cases. But Zdziarski, who has helped federal and state law-enforcement agencies gather evidence, said those elements are just scratching the surface when it comes to the information police and prosecutors soon will start pulling from iPhones.

"There are some terrorists out there who obtained some information about a network from an iPhone," he said.

Sam Brothers, who works for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and helps train law-enforcement agencies about cell phone forensics, said he also has testified in state and federal cases about data he has retrieved from iPhones.

Although he can't comment about specific cases, he provided a hypothetical case:

"Let's say you have a gang and somebody's killed a gang member on the street," he said. "The killer takes a picture on his iPhone. ... We as law enforcement may retrieve that image and might have proof not only of the death, but the time of death."

Even people who don't take pictures or leave GPS coordinates behind often unwittingly leave other trails, Zdziarski said.

"Like the keyboard cache," he said. "The iPhone logs everything that you type in to learn autocorrect" so that it can correct a user's typing mistakes.

Apple doesn't store that cache very securely, Zdziarski contended, so someone with know-how could recover months of typing in the order in which it was typed, even if the e-mail or text it was part of has long since been deleted.

Apple did not return phone calls or an e-mail seeking comment for this story.

Adam Gershowitz, who teaches criminal procedure at the University of Houston Law Center, said the new technology brings with it concerns about privacy -- especially when it comes to whether investigators have the right to search someone's iPhone after an arrest.

So far, the courts have treated mobile phones like a within-reach container that police can search the same way they can check items in a glove box or cigarette pack, Gershowitz said, though the Ohio Supreme Court in 2009 ruled to bar warrantless searches of cell phone data.

That case is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Phones are regular tools of the drug trade," Gershowitz said. As police become more familiar with iPhones, they become more adept at flipping through photos, map searches and text messages as they look for evidence.

Zdziarski said some examiners are afraid to touch iPhones because of privacy concerns.

"I personally will never work on civil cases," he said, adding that when he advises law-enforcement agencies about obtaining search warrants for iPhones, he instructs them to add iPhone-specific language to the warrant.

But, he said, as iPhones appear to keep selling in record numbers, law enforcement appears poised to keep up.

"It's no longer about a list of phone numbers and maybe a couple of pictures," Zdziarski said. "You're talking about data that can travel back a year or longer. That's useful to law enforcement."

(c) 2010, USA Today.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.