Smartphones have made juggling multiple single-purpose gadgets a thing of the past for many, but the blind and visually impaired often use a raft of devices built with eyes-free use in mind
However, according to our AOL colleagues at Engadget, Qualcomm and Project Ray are aiming to consolidate phone calls, text messaging with voice read-out, navigation, object recognition, audio book reading and more for the visually impaired in a system built on an off-the-shelf Android phone. Keep reading →
A new mobile app from the National Military Family Association serves as a central resource to help military families navigate issues with children, deployments, education, and other challenges they face.
MyMilitaryLife offers personalized to-do lists and access to myriad resources to achieve goals. Keep reading →
Want to know where the President of the United States was on a given Thursday afternoon? And what he said?
It’s now possible. Keep reading →
Randy Siegel,a mobile computing executive who has worked with the federal government’s civilian, defense and intelligence agencies on mobile strategies and applications for more than a dozen years, has joined Breaking Gov’s Board of Contributors.
Siegel, who until last month, served as the director of mission critical mobility initiatives at Motorola Solutions, was just named Senior Vice President of U.S. Federal Government sales and strategy for Fixmo, a startup backed by Kleiner Perkins, Motorola Ventures, and other venture capital firms. Fixmo’s mobile risk management technology has been developed as part of a Co-operative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. National Security Agency. Keep reading →
U.S. Treasury Department officials doled out $25,000 in cash prizes and announced the winners of the department’s MyMoneyAppUp challenge contest.
The winners were selected from among eight finalists in a final judging session taking place at the Treasury Department and available for viewing live via webcast at 9:00 A.M. EDT Friday. Keep reading →
The U.S. Army is expected to open a new mobile applications store as part of a pilot program designed to offer a more flexible way to develop and buy software for the government. The online store will provide a space where users can request specific tools and where participating developers can quickly provide or create a product to fill respective needs without getting bogged down in a complex and time consuming acquisitions process.
The new pilot will be a six-month effort that will support the Army’s intelligence service and the potentially intelligence agencies. Keep reading →
The race to meet a series of milestones for advancing federal mobility continues to encounter differing expectations and the underlying need for better methods for managing data, according to a group of federal IT leaders in the throes of delivering the Obama Administration’s Digital Government Strategy.
In a White House report issued last month, Administration officials listed a variety of accomplishments in the first 90 days of a year-long set of initiatives, declaring “agencies are making great strides towards putting a solid foundation for a 21st Century Digital Government in place.” Keep reading →
Federal professionals have uncovered crucial terabytes of data that are now serving as the latest tool for entrepreneurs to create innovative mobile apps aimed at improving safety amid America’s streets, highways, railroads and consumer products.
Safety professionals across government “all want to set our data free,” said Jo Strang, the community leader for safety.data.gov, and the chief safety officer for the Federal Railroad Administration. Keep reading →
While iPhone aficionados may have to wait three to four more weeks to get their hands on the new iPhone 5, Apple officially released it latest mobile operating system, iOS 6, today. And that meant federal IT executives had yet another new mobile issue to contend with as they began in earnest to evaluate how the new operating system, which boasts 200 enhancements, might impact the growing use of Apple devices across the federal government.
“I think it’s safe to say that these continually improving and expanding features are a key reason why government workers find consumer mobile devices in general – and iOS devices in particular – so compelling for use in accomplishing their missions,” said Dr. Rick Holgate, assistant director for science and technology and chief information officer for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF). Keep reading →
Fueled by the widespread adoption of increasingly powerful mobile devices, we are in the midst of one of the most exciting technology eras ever. Half of American adults now own smartphones and over 20% are already using tablets. This pace of adoption is unprecedented as the first Apple iPhone was only introduced five years ago with the Apple iPad arriving in just the past two years.
The rapid emergence of this mass market has shattered the cost constraints for going mobile for every organization, including government agencies. For a technology geek like myself, what’s most exciting is the opportunity this creates to untether knowledge workers from the desktop so that they can be equally effective in the field. Keep reading →