army

Official Chinese military app requires jailbroken iPhone

The Chinese government has released an official app for people (both domestic and oversees) to keep tabs on what the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is up to. There's just one catch: you'll have to jailbreak your iPhone to use it.

One of the few apps to come from a major group to not go through Apple's App Store (the U.S. Army has its own app available in the App Store), the PLA app requires its users to jailbreak their iPhones before they can download the app.

The report, from ismashphone.com, says that growth in … Read more

Russian campaign: Strip for Putin, win an iPad 2?

Leave it to Russia to combine nudity, politics, and gadgets. With a presidential election approaching in 2012, an active movement is under way to get popular former president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin back into the presidential seat.

What better way to drum up support for the candidate than having women who support Putin appear to suggest stripping down for a chance at winning an iPad 2? According to an article in The Telegraph, a video proposing just that showed up on parliamentarian Kirill Shchitov's blog. You can check it out below. Don't worry. It's safe for work.

The busty woman in the video scribbles, "I will tear my clothes off for Putin" on a tank top with blazing red lipstick. The iPad 2 makes a sultry cameo appearance for incentive. (Clarification, 1:52 p.m. PT: There is some debate as to whether the girls in the vid are literally talking about stripping or are simply using a Russian pun for "I will tear" to say they love Putin so much they will tear anyone apart who is against him and show it by ripping their clothes apart.)

In any case, the video is definitely suggestive, as the girl featured in it says, "Please upload a video where you tear something or someone apart for your president" and she proceeds to tear her shirt apart. The campaign comes courtesy of a group that calls itself Putin's Army. Women are encouraged to submit videos of themselves tearing their clothes for Putin, and one lucky winner will take home an Apple tablet.… Read more

Castle Defense games for iOS

With the introduction of the touch screen on smartphones, game developers had to come up with new control schemes that would work intuitively on the iPhone. And as iOS games evolved over time, new genres of games started to crop up that were perfect for touch screens and on-screen buttons.

One of those game genres is the castle defense strategy game. Even though you could play desktop and browser-based versions of these games, the touch screen on the iPhone worked so well that they were incredibly easy to pick up and play.

This week's collection of iOS apps is all about castle defense games. The first has a World War I feel as you battle your enemies across a series of dug-in trenches. The second lets you play as a character from the popular Evil Dead franchise as you fight off skeletons and other ghoulish enemies. The third is a new game in which you'll choose from three races to fight your enemies in a humorous battle to create the ultimate barbecue sauce.… Read more

Where the Swiss Army knife gets made

IBACH, Switzerland--If you thought it might be cool to see how Swiss Army knives are made, I'm here to tell you, it's even cooler than you imagined.

Picture, for example, dozens and dozens and dozens of bins full nearly to overflowing with some of the little tools that anyone who has ever had one of the famous knives knows so well: the tweezers, the corkscrew, the toothpick, and even the key ring. Or boxes stacked up with long spindles of Swiss Army knife scissors. Or even better, long rows of the blades that make up half of the … Read more

You see this? This...is my boomstick!

Army of Darkness Defense is a castle-defense game based on (and named after) the third movie in the cult-classic comic-horror series "Evil Dead." You play the chainsaw-armed hero Ash Williams, and audio samples of his highly quotable dialogue play a starring role in the app.

Unlike so many movie tie-in games, Army of Darkness Defense manages to be quite good: it's a mix of resource management and arcade action, in which you re-enact the frantic defense of the movie's finale. Waves of enemies--skeletal and/or demonic "Deadites"--advance from right to left inside the … Read more

Army tests 'microgrids' to get smarter about energy

The Army plans to install microgrids in Afghanistan as part of its mission to reduce its energy-related vulnerability in the field.

A three-month experiment will deploy a system designed to use fuel more efficiency and pave the way solar and wind power in the field, the Army said earlier this week.

Right now, the Army uses diesel generators to power its bases. Transporting that fuel for generators and its vehicles comes at a significant financial and military cost as fuel convoys are often targets for attack.

The microgrids the Army plans to install will include diesel generators that are able … Read more

Singapore army gets new weapon: iPad

You might imagine that the Singaporean army might be full of birch-wielders, but certainly not magical revolutionaries.

Allow me to disabuse you as gently as I can. For a report from the AFP tells me that one of the world's more progressive nations has decided to equip its conscripts and volunteers alike with Apple's most novel gizmo: the iPad 2.

Might they be using it to hone a few gaming skills on some intellectual first-person shooter? Not entirely, it seems.

Instead, the Singapore Ministry of Defense announced that it will issue around 8,000 iPad 2s in order … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1495: Lytro: the "magic camera" that's blown our minds (Podcast)

On today's show, we fall in love with Lytro, the game-changing photo technology that we can't wait to get our hands on. Get in line, geeks. Also, will Yahoo buy Hulu? And can we call it Ya-Hulu if they do-do? Plus, Apple scores the broadest patent ever, which makes us wonder if the patent office is even trying anymore, and Shazam is coming to your TV.

Soldiers' angry YouTube video changes baggage policy

I imagine that if I was a U.S. soldier coming home from Afghanistan, the last thing I'd want to think about is my baggage allowance.

Still, Staff Sergeants Fred Hilliker and Robert O'Hair--on their way home with

Delta Airlines--were reportedly offered some delightful extra financial baggage when they checked in at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in order to fly to Atlanta.

According to the Associated Press, the group of 34 soldiers had already enjoyed an 18-hour layover when they were told to find a total of $2,800 for extra baggage.

You see, the folks at … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1482: iCloud details, LulzSec strikes again, and USA rules at cupcakes (Podcast)

On today's show, we discover that Sony may have stored more than 1 million user emails and passwords in clear text, which LulzSec happily took advantage of. Also, the Gmail hack may have targeted White House employees who were using their Gmail accounts for official off-books government business. And iCloud might only stream iTunes purchases at launch which, if true, would be a massive bummer. We'll see. --Molly