Senate Resignation May Not Halt Release of Evidence

That formal testimony, scheduled for May 4, was the final step as Senate investigators prepared for what were almost certain to be Senate ethics charges against Mr. Ensign, Republican of Nevada. Mr. Ensign?s resignation is effective May 3.

In the letter, issued late Thursday, Mr. Ensign acknowledged he was stepping down to avoid further scrutiny ? hoping that his departure from the Senate would mean the end of any further questions about his affair with Cynthia Hampton, the wife of his former senior aide, Douglas Hampton.

But in interviews Friday, officials said the two leaders of the Ethics Committee ? both the top Democrat and the top Republican ? had decided not to let the investigation disappear. They are likely to take the unusual step of issuing a statement that details evidence of wrongdoing uncovered in the committee?s 22-month investigation, its largest in more than a decade. Those details could include interviews with dozens of witnesses and a review of records of Mr. Ensign and his family.

The investigators were focused in particular on the assertion by Mr. Ensign that the $96,000 payment made in April 2008 by Mr. Ensign?s parents was a gift to help longtime family friends and had nothing to do with any effort to keep Douglas and Cynthia Hampton from disclosing an affair that might wreck a political career.

Mr. Hampton, in an interview in 2009 with The New York Times, said that this was in fact a severance payment, made as part of an elaborate plan with Mr. Ensign to find Mr. Hampton work as a lobbyist so that he could maintain his wages after he left his Senate job. Mr. Hampton had been one of the senator?s closest friends and most influential aides until he learned that his wife was having an affair with Mr. Ensign.

Any charges against Mr. Ensign that the Ethics Committee might have made probably would have revolved around the payment.

If it in fact was a severance payment, it could represent an illegal campaign contribution by Mr. Ensign?s parents because Cynthia Hampton had served as the treasurer of his political campaign. A severance payment to her should have been recorded as a political expenditure.

The senator and his mother, Sharon Ensign, both provided sworn statements to investigators from the Federal Election Commission when it investigated the payment, asserting that it was in fact a gift to the Hamptons, who before the affair were close family friends.

Robert L. Walker, a defense lawyer representing Mr. Ensign, declined Friday to address questions about the matter.

The Ethics Committee also has been investigating if Mr. Ensign conspired to help Mr. Hampton, after leaving his office, violate a one-year lobbying ban by contacting Mr. Ensign?s staff to assist two Nevada companies that Mr. Ensign had helped him get work with. Mr. Hampton has said this was part of their mutual plan to transition him out of his Capitol Hill job.

All of this was to be addressed in the May 4 deposition ? a formal, sworn interview that is considered the final step before the Senate Ethics Committee would have voted on possible charges. At that point, if Mr. Ensign contested the charges and did not voluntarily agree to a punishment of some kind, the committee most likely would have moved to hold a public hearing on the accusations ? and released thousands of pages of documents it had gathered as part of its nearly two-year investigation.

That investigation record will most likely now never become public, as the rules require that the accused lawmaker be given an opportunity to review the record and contest any documents before they are released.

But the Senate Ethics Committee can still choose to make some kind of a public statement ? even after Mr. Ensign resigns ? detailing material it had turned up in its investigation, Senate officials said. It can also still make a referral to the Department of Justice asking it to consider criminal charges based on any evidence of wrongdoing it might have found.

Those choices will have to wait until the Senate is back in session, which does not happen until early next month. Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the Ethics Committee, and Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican of Georgia, the vice chairman, are currently on a trip to China.

One Senate official on that trip, interviewed by telephone Friday, said that both of them expressed determination to not let the case against Mr. Ensign simply disappear as a result of his resignation.

?Neither one is interested in just dropping this,? the Senate official said, asking that he not be named, as he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

In a statement, Ms. Boxer and Mr. Isakson said simply that the case was not yet closed.

?The Senate Ethics Committee has worked diligently for 22 months on this matter and will complete its work in a timely fashion,? the statement issued late Thursday said. ?Senator Ensign has made the appropriate decision.?

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iPad Review: Sword and Sworcery EP

iPad Review: Sword and Sworcery EP

Posted on 11th Apr 2011 at 10:50 by David Hing with 12 comments

Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP for the iPad is like nothing else you have ever played. Described as ?a 21st century interpretation of the archetypical old school videogame adventure? it uses beautifully crafted pixel-scapes to do for video gaming what the impressionist painters did for art.

A collaborative project from indie studio Capybara, rock musicians and art from the Superbrothers themselves, Sword and Sworcery EP is a essentially a point and click adventure game that sees you cast as a warrior out to destroy an ancient evil. To do that you?ll need to solve puzzles, fight bears and collect an artefact called the Megatome ? so far, so adventure-game. What sets is apart from the likes of Kings Quest however are the lashings of surrealism, abstraction and poetry that somehow never slips into infuriating pretentiousness.


The real star isn?t the music or the mysticism, however, but the visual style. It?s absolutely perfect, causing us to frequently stop playing for a moment or two just to admire the scenery ? no mean feat considering the outstanding visual quality of most modern games. The landscapes are rich and detailed and invoke a near painterly quality. There?s a rare sense of artistry to Sword and Sworcery that we?ve not seen in a long, long time.

Sword and Sworcery?s music is still exemplary, however. The sound design has been meticulously crafted, fitting perfectly with the gameplay and creating an absorbing atmosphere that genuinely hooks you in to the moment. The sounds and music towards the end of our first session built a huge amount of tension and it was only after the threat ? which we won?t name to avoid spoiling it ? passed that we realised that our eyes were stinging due to lack of blinking.

A major drawback of most iPad and iPhone games is that they fail to make the most of the touchscreen interface or try to shoe horn in an ineffective d-pad. Point and click games seem like an assured win for touch-screens however, so Sword and Sworcery is a natural fit. It doesn?t limit itself to the conventions of the genre though, using screen-tilting mechanics regular switches from landscape to portrait to keep things interesting. In landscape mode you?re able to move around with your sword and shield equipped, while turning to portrait position opens your Megatome ? a combination spell book and help guide.


Sword and Sworcery isn?t all hard-core art-game, however ? there are points of genuine humour and awesome subtlety. At one point, for example, you have to travel into your dreams to find a lost key, which involves following a bear which dances like Ricky Gervais in the Office. It?s a moment which, like the game as a whole, feels beautifully surreal and yet oddly poignant.

Verdict: Sword and Sworcery could be a landmark in history of mobile gaming, proving to be the first title we?ve seen on the iPad platform which so wonderfully blurs the line between gaming and ambient art. Pensive, intelligent and wonderfully rich, you can feel the deep love and adoration for gaming that has gone into this project and it shines from its every pixel.

Superbrothers: Sword and Sorcery EP is developed by a whole host of talented artist and is available for the iPad via the AppStore.

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Blog - Spins 'n' Turns

Ex-Blackwater Guards Face Renewed Charges

Criminal charges against the former employees of Blackwater Worldwide had been dismissed in December 2009 by a federal judge in Washington, who criticized the Justice Department for its handling of the case and ruled that prosecutors had relied on tainted evidence.

The three-judge appeals panel disagreed with that decision, and sent the case back on Friday, ordering Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of Federal District Court to review the evidence against each defendant individually.

?We find that the district court?s findings depend on an erroneous view of the law,? the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled. The appeals judges called on the lower court to determine ?as to each defendant, what evidence ? if any ? the government presented against him that was tainted as to him,? and whether that was enough to justify throwing out the charges.

The former guards affected by the ruling are Evan S. Liberty of Rochester, N.H.; Donald W. Ball of West Valley City, Utah; and Dustin L. Heard of Knoxville, Tenn., all of whom had served with the Marines before joining Blackwater; and Paul A. Slough from Keller, Tex., who had been in the Army.

A fifth guard had also been indicted, but the charges against him were dropped by the Justice Department before Judge Urbina dismissed the case.

The appeals court ruling was a victory for the Justice Department, which had been bruised by Judge Urbina?s ruling taking it to task for an overzealous prosecution.

?We?re pleased with the ruling and assessing the next steps,? the department spokesman, Dean Boyd, said Friday. Defense lawyers involved in the case did not respond to requests for comment.

The shootings, in the middle of traffic in Baghdad?s Nisour Square, left at least 17 Iraqi civilians dead and set off an anti-American political firestorm in Iraq and an international debate over the role of private security contractors in modern war zones. The Blackwater guards were accused of firing wildly and indiscriminately from their convoy into other cars and at Iraqi civilians. The guards defended their actions, saying they were responding to fire from insurgents.

The Nisour Square shootings became a watershed event in the Iraq war, and led the Iraqi government to demand greater sovereignty and control over foreign contractors operating in the country. The Baghdad government later demanded and won the right to subject foreign contractors to Iraqi law, while the United States government grudgingly began to impose greater curbs on the freewheeling activities of the personnel guarding American diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The earlier dismissal of the charges against the guards, who were indicted in 2008, was met with angry protests in Iraq, while Friday?s action pleased some in Baghdad.

?This new decision has brought optimism and happiness back to me,? said Talib Mutlak, who was injured in the Nisour Square shooting. ?This is a victory for the blood of martyrs and injured people who were affected by Blackwater.?

Blackwater itself never truly recovered from the shooting. It quickly became the subject of numerous Congressional and federal investigations and lawsuits for a broad range of activities in Iraq and elsewhere.

Among other troubles, five former Blackwater executives, including the company?s onetime president, were indicted on federal weapons and obstruction charges, two other former guards were charged with murder in connection with a shooting in Afghanistan, and the Justice Department opened an inquiry into whether Blackwater sought to bribe Iraqi officials in order to keep doing business in Iraq after the Nisour Square shooting.

After the shooting, Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services, and then late last year the company?s founder, Erik Prince, sold the business. He has left the United States and moved his family to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Omar al-Jawoshy contributed reporting from Baghdad.

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Google may partner with Spotify for Google Music

Google is considering partnering with Spotify to power Google Music. The search giant has told the labels that it has begun discussions with Spotify in recent weeks, though no agreement is in place, according to a source with knowledge of the talks cited by CNET.

This falls in line with previous whispers that Apple would beat Google to a cloud-based music service and that Google Music may be further delayed because talks with labels were going backwards. Information from last week suggested that Google had recently changed its terms, holding up negotiations.

Apparently, Google is considering Spotify because the search giant has been unable to reach agreements with the four top record labels on licensing a cloud music service. Google had originally hoped to launch a new music service by the end of 2010, and then was aiming for March 2011, but now it's indefinite on when it might debut. Unsurprisingly, both Google and Spotify declined to comment.

Spotify teaming up with Google would be great, as the former already has 1 million subscribers. The problem is that the European music service, which is working hard to make its way stateside, also doesn't have all the US labels on board.

Two months ago, Spotify reportedly struck a deal with EMI Music and three months ago, the company signed a deal with Sony Music Entertainment. Spotify thus has two of the four major music labels; the other two are Universal Music Group, the world's biggest label, and Warner Music Group.

All this news is still technically conjecture and speculation based on sources close to the company and the music industry. Google has still not announced its music initiative publicly, though many expect it to show off at least a sneak peek next month at its Google I/O 2011 conference, which is taking place on May 10, 2011 and May 11, 2011.

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Opening Up the Brain with Ultrasound

The cells lining the brain's blood vessels are tightly packed together?like a good defensive line, they keep bacteria and other blood-borne intruders from getting through, shielding the brain. But this protective layer, called the blood-brain barrier, also thwarts efforts to deliver drugs like chemotherapy agents to the brain, so scientists have long searched for ways to disrupt it selectively to allow treatments in. A startup company called Perfusion Technology is developing a technique to open this barrier by bathing the brain in ultrasound waves.

Ultrasound has been investigated for a decade as a tool for opening the blood-brain barrier. Most techniques, however, rely on specialized equipment to focus the ultrasound waves to a tiny point. They also require an injection with microbubbles to amplify the effect, and an MRI machine to guide the treatment. Al Kyle, president and CEO of Perfusion Technology, which is based in Andover, Massachusetts, says that the company's method is simpler and cheaper. Rather than opening the blood-brain barrier briefly at a single point, Perfusion uses a specially designed headset to expose the entire brain to low-intensity ultrasound waves for an hour-long treatment session.

The company is developing the treatment specifically for patients with brain tumors. A patient could receive the ultrasound during an outpatient session of intravenous chemotherapy, to open the blood-brain barrier and let the drugs into the brain. Kyle says it would be "a kinder and gentler way of delivering therapeutics to the brain" than current invasive methods, such as an infusion pump or a surgical implant. He also believes that his company's approach would be better than focused methods when it comes to treating tumors that have spread to multiple parts of the brain, because it reaches the entire brain at once.  

Although Perfusion is initially developing the technique to treat primary brain tumors, the majority of brain cancers originate elsewhere and metastasize to the brain; in these cases, the technique might help deliver drugs designed for other kinds of cancer into the brain, Kyle says. He further believes the method could someday help treat other kinds of neurological disorders.

Nathan McDannold, a researcher at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital who has been developing focused ultrasound for drug delivery to the brain, agrees that if Perfusion Technology's method is proved to work it will have advantages, because it doesn't require microbubble agents and expensive equipment. But the company still needs to prove the safety and effectiveness of its approach. The biggest safety concern is bleeding: when a similar ultrasound method was tested on stroke patients several years ago as a way of dissolving clots, it led to excessive bleeding.

Kyle says his company has completed five animal studies over the past few years and has used its ultrasound technique to deliver several large molecules safely to the brain, including the cancer drug Avastin. The company hopes to complete preclinical animal studies in the next year and prepare for initial trials in humans.

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iPhone 5 to Have 3.7-inch Screen, Bigger Home Button and iPod Style Body?

Compiling a series of rumors and tips, Joshua Topolsky of This Is My Next has posted up a mockup of what they believe could be the iPhone 5 along with a set of details about it?s possible features.

They make it clear that this particular set of features could never actually see the light of day but the information that they have is very specific about certain features.

The screen for instance has been rumored to grow to 3.7? in size with a resolution of 312ppi, which is a drop from the iPhone 4?s current 326ppi but still above the ?Retina Display limit? of 300ppi. The change would mean very little additional effort for developers and should not require any change in their apps.

You?ll notice that the mockup also has a larger home button. Topolsky says that the button may be touch sensitive, something that could take advantage of some of the new multitasking gestures that Apple introduced with the iPad 2 iOS 4.3 beta.

You?ll notice that the iPod touch-style back of the device mockup is tapered in a way that mimics the design of the Macbook Air. Topolsky says that the new iPhone will also be thinner than the iPhone 4.

Our sources say the new model (or at least one of the new designs in testing) looks ?more like the iPod touch than the iPhone 4.? The phone will be thinner than the iPhone 4, and may have a ?teardrop? shape which goes from thick to thin (something along the lines of the MacBook Air profile).

Although an aluminum back might seem like  a terrible idea for a device that relies on antennas for communication, Apple has actually been looking into placing the antenna behind the Apple logo on the back of it?s devices. This would enable the antenna to broadcast and receive signals through a window of a more transmissive material.

In addition to the screen being larger, Topolsky suggests that the screen might actually take up the entire front face of the device aside from the home button, meaning that it would have little or no bezel.

Furthermore, we?re hearing that the screen on the device will occupy the entire (or near to it) front of the phone, meaning almost no bezel. Our source says the company is doing very ?interesting things? with bonded glass technology, and has been exploring designs where the earpiece and sensors are somehow behind the screen itself, making for a device where the display is actually edge-to-edge.

Additional details like NFC capabilities for making payments using the device as a digital wallet, dual-band compatibility and inductive charging aren?t nearly as shocking, as most of them have been discussed with regards to the ?next iPhone? before. The interesting nature of this posting lies in the fact that Topolsky and the rest of the crew at This Is My Next seem to have done a very thorough job at digging up rumors and details that have been previously unexplored.

Topolsky is careful to state that many of these features will probably never see the light of day as they may simply be being tested by Apple internally. We recently saw evidence that Apple had been testing several features internally like native Facebook support at the OS level, features that never made it into the final release of iOS 4.0 and that we have not seen appear in later versions.

Regardless of the eventual accuracy of this mockup, it does raise some interesting questions about the design of a future iPhone and just how far Apple is prepared to take the next iteration. If the iPhone 5 is as rapid a departure from the iPhone 4 as this mockup suggests, it would be in direct contradiction to the recent rumors that the next iPhone would be simply a refresh of the current model with small cosmetic changes if any.

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Poll Finds Lack of Passion for Republican Candidates

Only those possible contenders who regularly appear on television ? or have run before ? are well known enough to elicit significant views from their fellow Republicans. And of that group, only former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska are viewed favorably by more than half of the Republican electorate.

The poll would seem to reflect the late start to the Republican primary season, with many of the major likely candidates seeking to hoard their money and avoid any missteps that they might have to live with later, when voters go to polls or caucus rooms.

The survey at the very least provides a reality check for a race that has received frenetic coverage at times on cable news and the Internet even though nearly 60 percent of Republicans cannot point to a single candidate about whom they are enthusiastic, according to the poll.

A host of potential Republican candidates have a lot of work ahead ? and money to spend ? to make themselves better known to their party faithful and other Americans.

For instance, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota may be drawing media attention as a Republican presidential contender, but nearly 80 percent of Republican voters to the Times/CBS poll said they did not know enough about him to say whether they viewed him favorably or unfavorably (20 percent say they view him positively and 3 percent say they view him negatively).

Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi may be well known along K Street ? where he was once a lobbyist ? and among Washington-based reporters who covered him when he was the Republican Party chairman. But 85 percent of Republican voters said they did not know enough about him to offer an opinion.

Jon M. Huntsman Jr., who is stepping down as ambassador to China, might take heart that five times as many party members view him favorably as view him unfavorably. That is fact, literally: 5 percent of Republican poll respondents said they viewed him favorably, 1 percent said they viewed him unfavorably, and more than 90 percent said they had nothing to say either way because they had not yet formed an opinion about him.

Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana and former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania drew similar responses.

Ms. Palin, the one-time vice-presidential candidate ? who is a regular on the Fox News Channel, which the survey said was the television news network most watched by Republicans ? is the best known of the possible candidates, according to the poll. She is viewed the least favorably by all registered voters: Twice as many voters over all said they had an unfavorable view of her (55 percent) as said they had a favorable view (26 percent).

But her standing among Republican voters was the polar opposite: About half of Republicans said they viewed her favorably, while 26 percent said they viewed her unfavorably.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2008, was viewed slightly more positively than negatively among all voters, with 28 percent expressing favorable views and 24 percent unfavorable views. Among Republican voters, 42 percent said they viewed him favorably and 15 percent said they viewed him unfavorably.

The poll was taken nationally April 15-20 with interviews of 1,116 registered voters, including 524 registered Republicans. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all voters, and plus or minus four percentage points for Republican voters.

The real estate mogul Donald J. Trump has been getting considerable attention as a possible contender, but the poll pointed to potential hurdles should he pursue a formal candidacy. Just about as many Republicans viewed him favorably as viewed him unfavorably ? 35 percent favorably and 32 percent unfavorably ? and nearly 60 percent of Republicans interviewed said they did not believe he was a serious candidate. (Far more of all voters view him unfavorably, 46 percent, than view him favorably, 25 percent.)

If one Republican stood out in the Times/CBS News poll, it was Mr. Huckabee, who has his own show on Fox News. Roughly a third of all voters viewed him favorably, as opposed to a quarter who viewed him unfavorably. And among Republican voters, more than half viewed him positively as opposed to 11 percent who had negative views.

?Watching Huckabee on TV gives me a good idea of how he views things,? Floyd Petersen, a disabled contractor in Thompson Falls, Mont., said in a follow-up interview. ?TV has made me know him better.?

When Republicans were asked whom they were most enthusiastic about, Mr. Huckabee was the second-most-mentioned candidate, after Mr. Romney. But the percentages were small: 8 percent named Mr. Huckabee, 9 percent named Mr. Romney and 57 percent could not name anyone.

How well a candidate is known at this stage of a campaign is not necessarily a reflection of where they will stand when the race engages in earnest. For instance, at this point four years ago, 77 percent of Republicans surveyed by The New York Times and CBS News said they did not know enough about Mr. Romney to form an opinion of him. Yet he was one of the better-known candidates by the time he dropped out in February 2008.

And the best-known and best-liked candidate at the time of that poll ? taken in March 2007 ? was former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, whose campaign ultimately fizzled.

Marina Stefan contributed reporting.

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Meet Heather Poe


This is Heather Poe. She?s a young woman, living in Los Angeles and attending college there, though it isn?t her hometown. She?s kind, happy, eager to please and a little bit geeky. She?s also one of the best features of one of my favourite games, Troika?s Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines.

You find Heather in the hospital, where she?s been rushed into the emergency room for some strange neck wound. As a newly turned vampire yourself, you know that there?s more to this story than meets the eye, but your heightened senses also tell you that she?ll survive her undead encounter if she just gets some fresh haemoglobin. Unfortunately, there isn?t a doctor to hand and the hospital is criminally understaffed.

Earlier, a friend of yours told you that vampire blood has certain special characteristics when drunk by humans ? mainly as a healing elixir. You pause, then slit your wrist to save her young life before disappearing back into the night. You have errands to run, after all. Little do you know that this isn?t the last time you?ll be seeing Heather.

She shows up a few nights later, grabbing you on the street and desperate to thank you. She?s babbling and doe-eyed and she knows far too much about you and your kind ? you?ll suffer reprisals if you don?t take this matter in hand, but now is not the time. You send her back to your haven ? that grotty motel in Santa Monica ? and tell her to wait for you.

You have a choice now. Your blood is mixing with Heather?s and creating a potent, mind-altering brew. The more time she spends with you, the more she falls under your thrall, whether you want her to or not. You know you should send her away, break the bond and tell her to forget all this silliness about vampires. You know you should, but a lot of reasons run through you mind for why you shouldn?t ? a lot of excuses.

You?re little more than a servant for others at the moment, so the idea of cultivating your own slave does have a certain appeal. Letting her go may bring the wrath of your superiors if she exposes you. You wonder about the direction you could steer Heather, making her serve you in a way that seems repugnant in the daylight hours.

That?s what's great about being a vampire; not casting a reflection. You can avoid a lot of guilt and shame when you don?t have to meet your own gaze.


Over the next few days or weeks, Heather changes. Sometimes you're the one pushing, telling her how to dress or to surrender her life savings. At other times, it?s the blood that changes her. She was eager to please at the beginning, but now her devotion is fanatical. One day you find she?s bought you home some food - still alive and locked in the bathroom. The longer the ?relationship? lasts, the more you get the idea that it isn?t going to end well, but the harder it becomes to end it.

Heather?s fate ultimately lies in your hands. She?s a nice, likeable person and you want to do well by her. At the same time, though, the rest of LA is working to reshape you. You may have been just an average guy a few weeks ago, but now you?re a vampire; suffering and cruelty is your stock and trade.

As you acclimatise to this new existence, you start to adapt. You already don?t have to look at yourself in the mirror, but now you?re learning to hide the rest of yourself behind your new definition of what you are. You are a demon. Once you accept that, it becomes very easy to do very nasty things to a very nice person.

Then, when the game ends, you realise what?s happened and you learn something about yourself. That?s why Vampire: Bloodlines is one of my favourite games.

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US Army developing Android-based smartphone framework, apps

The US Army has developed the Joint Battle Command-Platform (JBC-P Handheld), the army's first effort to create an Android-based smartphone framework and suite of apps for tactical operations. The government-owned framework, known as Mobile/Handheld Computing Environment (CE), ensures that regardless of who develops them, apps will be secure and interoperable with existing mission command systems, according to Defense Aerospace.

Furthermore, the US Army has announced that it will soon release an Android development kit so that apps to be used by soldiers on a variety of combat handsets and devices can be written by anyone. This CE SDK will be released in July.

Until then, the US Army will develop certain core apps (Mission Command Apps) that will come with every handset, including mapping, blue force tracking (keeping track of friendly units in order to avoid friendly fire incidents), Tactical Ground Reporting, or TIGR tactical graphics and critical messaging (such as SPOT reports, Medevac and Mayday) between all mission command systems. The baseline suite of apps will also include an address book and Open Office for document viewing.

The Mission Command Apps for the JBC-P Handheld are being developed to run on different Android variants. As for hardware, the JBC-P Handheld will be either an existing government off-the-shelf unit or possibly a commercial off-the-shelf buy, but either way it will have a "ruggedised tactical sleeve or case".

Google should be proud that the US Army is choosing its mobile operating system as the basis for the JBC-P Handheld ecosystem. Apple, Research In Motion, and Microsoft probably aren't too pleased.

"Using the Mobile /Handheld CE Product Developers Kit, we're going to allow the third-party developers to actually develop capabilities that aren't stovepiped," Lt. Col. Mark Daniels, product manager for JBC-P. JBC-P, said in a statement. "That's going to allow us to be interoperable across the entire family of systems of JBC-P, which would include the platforms, the aviation, the logistics community, the tanks, the Bradleys, the handhelds."

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