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Monday, 18 July 2011

US Army runs smartphone trial, could see 'limited deployment' later this year

Sure, the US Army could continue to develop expensive proprietary gadgets for use in the field, or they could make the switch to (relatively) inexpensive off-the-shelf smartphones. It's a change that's been considered for some time, and the Army is now at the tail end of a six-week trial of more than 300 Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone devices for military use. The results have been promising, according to program director Michael McCarthy, stating that younger soldiers who grew up with smartphones and handhelds are very comfortable using them for military purposes.

Soldiers in the field can text GPS coordinates, send pictures of their surroundings, or file common reports directly from their phone. Despite positive results, the Army still has some hurdles to jump before taking the plunge -- some of the phones had OS bugs, others (specifically, iPhones running on AT&T) couldn't get signal in the New Mexico and Texas testing areas, and none of the devices were secure enough for use in overseas operations. The Army is considering tying the phones to tactical radios to help encrypt transmissions, and are testing self contained "cell tower in a suitcase" equipment to ensure coverage in sensitive locations. The Military hopes to push out limited deployment this year, and Army program director Ed Mazzanti has stated that they expect to select two mobile operating systems for official use, noting that "iPhone and Android have been very well received." Sure, using multiple platforms may help protect soldiers against cyber attacks, but we can't be the only ones worried the Army is unintentionally breeding a generation of fanboys with guns, can we?
US Army runs smartphone trial, could see 'limited deployment' later this year originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Jul 2011 19:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/16/us-army-runs-smartphone-trial-could-see-limited-deployment-la/
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Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time

We're not entirely sure of the time line here, but it looks like Google has now rolled out the SPDY HTTP replacement to its full bevy of Web services, including Gmail, Docs, and YouTube. If you're currently using Google's Chrome browser you're probably already using SPDY.

We originally reported on SPDY way back in November 2009, when Google introduced it as yet another experiment in making the Web faster, like Go, Native Client and speculative pre-connections. Over the last 18 months, though, SPDY support has found its way into the stable build of Chrome.

SPDY is basically a streamlined and more efficient version of HTTP. At its most basic, SPDY introduces parallel, multiplexed streams over a single TCP connection -- but at the same time, SPDY allows for prioritization, so that vital content (HTML) can be sent before periphery content (JavaScript, video). All in all, the SPDY protocol can halve page load times, which is obviously rather significant.

The best bit, though, is that SPDY is an open-source project. HTTP 1.1 is a lumbering beast that needs to be replaced before low-latency real-time computing really becomes a reality, and SPDY is one of the best options currently on the table. To be honest, we're not sure why SPDY hasn't received more coverage -- it's awesome in every way. At the moment, though, the only way to help speed up SPDY's proliferation, is with an experimental Apache mod.

As far as actually 'trying it out,' your best bet is downloading Chrome, hitting up some Google sites, and then checking chrome://net-internals to see your active SPDY sessions. SPDY is a transparent replacement for HTTP, though, and as such it's rather hard to see its effects. Google's sites definitely feel fast in Chrome, but there are more technologies than just SPDY at work.
Google Chrome now uses SPDY HTTP replacement, halves page load time originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/11/google-chrome-now-uses-spdy-http-replacement-halves-page-load-t/
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