Android-powered smartphones and iPhones have joined the Coast Guard. The first branch of the U.S. military to officially allow personnel to use these devices, the Coast Guard plans to supply them itself rather than let personnel bring their own, reports Elizabeth Montalbano at InformationWeek.

Several federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of the Interior, have approved employee use of smartphones. The Pentagon has run a number of pilot tests with iPhones and Android devices.

Some agencies permit employees to have their own phones configured and secured for work email and other systems. Vivek Kundra, former federal CIO, suggested that it could make sense for agencies to allow the use of personal devices rather than deploy them on a broad scale. In the House of Representatives, members are allowed to use their own iPhones and iPads.

Meanwhile, the VA is making news by considering a wide-scale deployment of tablet computers, Montalbano reports. The agency has amended contracts to procure iPads, Android-based tablets and devices running Windows Mobile. "The VA--spurred by CIO Roger Baker--is emerging as one of the leaders among federal agencies in embracing the latest mobile devices and smartphones for use within the enterprise," she writes.

The Department of Interior previously announced plans to buy a small number of iPads for personnel.

For more:
- see Montalbano's Coast Guard article at InformationWeek
- see Montalbano's VA article at InformationWeek

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