Edible Apple

The iPod may evoke images of a teeny bopping 13 year old listening to John Mayer, a 25 year old hipster in Brooklyn, or simply a serious runner who enjoys listening to music on long runs. But one image that probably doesn’t automatically jump into people’s minds is that of an iPod being used on the battlefield.

The US Military has long used iPods to help with Arabic translation during interrogations, and just recently we reported that a group of US Army tech heads recently visited Apple headquarters to take a tour of Apple’s top secret development labs. It turns out, though, that the US is not the only warring force interested in using Apple products on the battlefield.

ZDNet Australia is reporting that Taliban forces in Afghanistan are successfully using the iPhone to help stay one step ahead of attacking forces.

At the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Canberra Branch conference this morning, [CTO Matt] Yannopoilos said “bad guys” in the war-torn country were making better use of available data by “using iPhones and applications — and multiple SIM cards — and going much faster than we are”, despite the fact that Defence had more intelligence at its fingertips.

“Information is what is the thing to sort out in a modern warfare,” he said. “It’s less about how much lead [metal] you can rain down on somebody and more about: Do you know where they are? Do you know what they are doing? And how do you get that information to your forces?”

Streamlining, folks. Streamlining.