New addition to Israeli soldier's battlefield weaponry - iPad

Jerusalem

DURING Israel's seven-week Gaza Strip war with Hamas last year, company commanders were just as likely to be holding an iPad as an M-16, as the mobile wireless device took on an unprecedented critical role.

It was the first war in which a fully integrated network allowed all branches of Israel's armed services to deliver and simultaneously see information about militants' movements, rigged homes and the location of friendly forces.