First, the U.S. Army's Captain Jonathan Springer developed the iPhone app, Tactical Nav, for battlefield mapping and artillery sighting. Now, Ft. Bragg has developed an integrated system for many of the same things based on the Android operating system. According to the Army's Web page on the project, the security of the system is paramount.

"The device, known as a Joint Battle Command-Platform, or JBC-P Handheld, is the first developed under an Army effort to devise an Android-based smartphone framework and suite of applications for tactical operations. The government-owned framework, known as Mobile /Handheld Computing Environment, or CE, ensures that regardless of who develops them, applications will be secure and interoperable with existing mission command systems so information flows seamlessly across all echelons of the force."

This framework was originally prototyped by MITRE. Further development is under the aegis of the Army's Software Engineering Directorate in Huntsville, Alabama.

The Army is inviting outside developers to create apps for the phone. The "Mobile /Handheld CE development kit" will be released to devs in July. The device's baseline app suite includes "mapping, blue force tracking, Tactical Ground Reporting, or TIGR tactical graphics and critical messaging (such as SPOT reports, Medevac and Mayday)."

Given the system being developed for is profoundly unlikely to make its way onto the marketplace for some time, if ever, it may not be as appealing as developing for the Android Market. Of course, designing an app that saves lives or prosecutes a war may be rewarding in itself to some developers.

The fact that the system is based on a technology many soldiers will come into service knowing, that the framework allows extensive, relatively quick adaptation through app creation and was created to interact with different outside structures, such as various radio networks, may insure its rapid adoption.

Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 1St Armored Division will test the devices during the "Network Integration Rehearsal" at New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range in October.

A4A

Last year, the Army also sponsored the Apps 4 the Army challenge. Over 75 days, the Army evaluated 53 submissions, choosing 15 winners and honorable mentions.

Android users, rejoice! Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will now be forced to feel your pain.

The Android app for Facebook  could be charitably described as less functional than the iPhone app. We’re sure there are good reasons for this, the greatest of which is likely market share. With iOS-running phones composing more than half of all smartphones, according to recent research, it’s in Facebook’s best interest to focus on this segment first.

Still, for the ever-growing number of Android device users who also would like a little Facebook mobile action, the pared-down feature set of Facebook for Android makes us feel neglected — the redheaded stepchildren of Facebook mobile users. But now that “Zuck” is one of us, all that’s about to change… right?

Historically, Facebook has made fairly few gestures toward the Android platform. It launched its official Android app last fall and rolled out an SDK for Android devs just a couple months ago.

But Facebook’s iPhone work, which began with an official app launch in the summer of 2008, has been nothing short of fantastic. iPhone users can chat, watch videos and more all from within the app. Recent patents suggest even deeper app/hardware integration. And the app keeps up with Apple’s iOS updates, too.

For reference, we polled Twitter users on what they specifically would change or what they currently dislike about Facebook’s Android app.

The app’s notification system was by far the most-cited annoyance. Another common complaint was the app’s redirects to Facebook’s mobile touch site rather than having more in-app functionality. Users are having a hard time clicking and launching the links posted by their friends, let alone sharing links and items. One user said he’d like to have an easier way to view Pages, and several noted the lack of Facebook Chat features, which the iPhone app does have. Also, a few folks complained that the app is slow and prone to frequent crashes.

As a personal aside, and with my heartfelt apologies to the developer team working on Facebook’s mobile offerings, I have never found that the usefulness of the Facebook for Android app outweighed the frustration of trying to use it, and I’ve lately avoided using the app altogether.

So, returning to our original question: Will Mark Zuckerberg like the taste of his own dogfood? And if he doesn’t, will Android app users see fast-tracked changes and upgrades to the Facebook for Android application?

That’s really not a question we can answer, unfortunately. While we’d love to optimistically assume that Zuckerberg will find the current version of Facebook for Android as tedious and troublesome as some of its users clearly do, we can’t assume that he’ll demand immediate fixes and all Facebook’s other development will be sidetracked accordingly. But we are certain that Zuckerberg will continue to do what’s best for Facebook as a business, something he’s excelled at consistently.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment, but in the event that our questions aren’t answered, we’ll still be keeping an eye out for any releases to this particular application.

And hey, Mark, welcome to “the dark side,” and enjoy your new phone!

Google is launching a new tool on Monday that lets anyone create an app for Android phones.

Google App Inventor claims to enable non-coders to develop complete, working Android   apps by connecting a series of “blocks.” Google has been testing App Inventor in schools for a year, reports The New York Times. At the time of writing, App Inventor is only available to those who apply via a form.

It’s a smart concept. Not only is the Android Market an open platform for developers (with no approval process, a la Apple’s App Store), but now we’ll likely see a vast array of specialized apps built by non-developers. This could radically increase the volume of apps in the Market versus the App Store.

The expansion may, of course, come at the cost of quality. We’ll see thousands of new Android apps, but will they be of a “cookie cutter” nature, offering very little value? There is, however, an upside in the long term: If App Inventor is so simple that schoolchildren can make apps, some those same children will soon become coders themselves and perhaps choose to develop apps for Android rather than iOS.

Google and Apple are currently in a heated battle to win the hearts and minds of developers. Google, it seems, wants to win over the non-developers too.

What do you think? Is App Inventor a winning play on Google’s part?

Google’s child Android is dominating  the smartphone space. So we now question Google, on how they benefit from the Android phones- financially? Paid Content reports that Google has signed  revenue-sharing deals with the major wireless carriers who support Android phones. Google has a revenue sharing deal with handset makers as well. So when 60,000 phones are sold, cash counters at Google Inc is also going “chii—kiii—ng”.

The revenue sharing deals appear to be advertising revenue shared with carriers that support Android. For handset makers, the revenue comes in when they include Google applications like search, maps, Gmail etc which is not a requirement for Android phones. Well, the details are sketchy since Google is not as open as Android. Google declined to comment on their agreements stating they are private and confidential.

By being nosy, we found that the deal is applicable only to handsets that are Google branded like the Droid, Nexus One and G1. It excludes any phone that uses it own User Interface like HTC Evo or Samsung Behold II. Since, all Google applications will generate advertising revenue, Google can still afford to share their revenue. In fact, Google has nothing to loose. At present, direct revenue generation is only from the search application.

So, does this make Google look cheap? This is a common technique employed by Microsoft, HP and other giants to generate revenue. AOL, MacAffe or even less prominent softwares have paid pot load of cash to install their applications to the manufacturers. The largest loop hole in Google’s Model is that Android Operating system is open source, hence it cannot make a dime from licensing the operating system. If an Android phone does not make use of Google Applications, it wont be able to make any money through applications either. A good example is Moto Backflip!

Hence, there is nothing cheap about offering financial incentives to cell phone carriers or handset makers in the form of revenue sharing deals. After all Google’s revenue from these deals might be small, as revenue from apps like Gmail or Maps are nearly zero. However, Google is not a charitable organization to cut such deals if they don’t see a huge potential. After all, they are one of the most innovative companies on the planet.