Soldiers can use apps to add translated phrases to maps and photos, as well as show villagers video messages from local leaders. A new program called Vcommunicator translates spoken and written Arabic, Kurdish, as well as two Afghan languages.

Another application developed for the iPhone allows soldiers to take a photo of a street sign, upload it and immediately receive intelligence on the local area, such as water and sympathizers." – Alan Cheslow

Vista was the first version of Windows to include the remote-tracking software that had helped Microsoft hone Office, and nearly 11 million Vista users had let their PC activities be logged. Larson-Green's team also surveyed more than 250,000 people around the world and showed other users prototypes, some as simple as sketches on paper.

From these billions of data points emerged big ideas that got boiled down into eight design principles. Larson-Green is already planning Windows 8, though her team continues to tweak the Windows 7 user interface." – Alan Cheslow