One thing that interested me at Macworld was a Mac for Iraq. Personally I like Apple’s over-the-top graceful designs but I sometimes find myself in situations where I’d like the ease of use combined with durability. The military has similar needs.

There are two strategies about military equipment. One is to buy off the shelf (OTS) gear from commercial suppliers with little modification. The second or “rugged” strategy is to specially build gear to meet extreme conditions. OTS equipment may get damaged but is easily replaced. Rugged equipment can take a beating but is expensive to replace. There may be a third or hybrid strategy using Macs.

Victor Cohen created a company called Victor Systems (what’s in a name?) that can build custom rugged Macs for the battlefield. Cohen starts with a Mac Mini, also known as the Headless Mac and then customizes it for field use. Obviously it costs more than an OTS Mac but cheaper than a PC built from scratch.

Cohen’s rugged Mac works best in vehicles. I wondered if he could harden an iPhone. It is a portable computer with a great user interface. How many of the iPhone’s features could be adapted for ground forces? Obviously they would communicate by phone or messaging, but would a teleconference feature help? A higher resolution GoogleMaps in real time would be nice. Downloading pictures and video of people and places to everyone in your unit might be handy. There are a whole bunch of issues to work out, notably WiFi network security. Anyone interested might want to contact Victor Systems.

Copyright 2008 DJ Cline All rights reserved.

Posted by dj in Products, Reviews [3,944 Views]