Electronic doodads for warriors

Another app, called "SoldierEyes," turns a smartphone into a sort of battlefield navigation device. In addition to displaying a digital map, it features an "augmented reality" mode that enables the user to flip on the camera and scan the horizon. Digital markers pop up on the screen, displaying the direction and distance to objectives on the battlefield.

The Army is looking to field cellphone-like devices, smartphones and tablets to Soldiers to help them do better things on the battlefield. I'm all for Soldiers having the tools to kill bad guys, but lets hope the device(s) the Army chooses turn out to be more reliable than the devices that I have. My year old Samsung smartphone catches only one email out of fifty, locks up for minutes at a time, turns off at random, and on full volume can barely be heard. I would hate to hear about how one of our warriors got killed because his I-Trash superphone couldn't muster enough electrons to get that call-for-fire message out. In my experience, electronic devices are not reliable enough for me to place my faith in.