Photo found on Dominic Kamp's Flickr page.

A well respected doctor and disaster response specialist recently shared with me a list of iPhone applications he has found useful while working in the field.  Certainly, the iPhone isn't for everyone, but I believe it has raised our collective expectations in terms of what services mobile devices should be able to provide their users.  When technology helps the people whose job it is to help others, everyone wins.

AOL Radio (free) - Besides having over 200 streaming music stations, AOL's Radio App has 150+ stations from across the US, including news programming from major cities.  The usefulness of radio as a source for information during disasters has not dwindled in the internet age, making this a great tool for getting updates.

Google Maps (free) - This one's a no brainer, but easy to take for granted given the abundance of map services found on the internet.  I've always found Google Maps to be very easy to use, and with the addition of GPS on the iPhone it became possible to track your location in real-time on the map.  Google does a nice job of integrating search as well, making it possible to quickly chart a path from your current location to new destination with ease.

MotionX GPS ($2.99 or free lite version) - This is an app that utilizes the iPhone's GPS for tracking your movement across terrain, and does a nice job of integrating with Google Maps, Twitter, and Facebook for sharing your paths with others.  For many people this could replace a hardware GPS device, decreasing the burden of carrying around extra equipment.  With the new iPhone 3Gs magnetic compass sensor, it also records orientation for more accurate estimates on distance and estimated time of arrival calculations.

Epocrates (free or premium subscription) - The free version of this app opens up a wealth of information on prescription drugs, such as pill identification and adverse drug reactions.  Medical professionals who encounter sick or injured people can use this to app to avoid potentially harmful drug interactions, or in a case where the injured person can't communicate but is carrying pills, the identification tool provides drug information directly to the phone.

The US Military is finding a lot to like about Apple’s iPhone, as more troops carry the device with them for specialized tasks like language translation and range-finding.  The iPhone’s off-the-shelf availability, ease of use, and relative low cost are all factors contributing to its increased use amongst soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and application developers are working in tandem with the Department of Defense to design more apps that allow soldiers to do more in the field.

Via Newsweek:

“Since sharing data is particularly important in counterinsurgency operations, the Pentagon is funding technology that makes it easier for the soldier on the ground to acquire information and quickly add it to databases. Next Wave Systems in Indiana, is expected to release iPhone software that would enable a soldier to snap a picture of a street sign and, in a few moments, receive intelligence uploaded by other soldiers (the information would be linked by the words on the street sign). This could include information about local water quality or the name and photograph of a local insurgent sympathizer. The U.S. Marine Corps is funding an application for Apple devices that would allow soldiers to upload photographs of detained suspects, along with written reports, into a biometric database. The software could match faces, making it easier to track suspects after they're released.

Apple gadgets are proving to be surprisingly versatile. Software developers and the U.S. Department of Defense are developing military software for iPods that enables soldiers to display aerial video from drones and have teleconferences with intelligence agents halfway across the globe. Snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan now use a "ballistics calculator" called BulletFlight, made by the Florida firm Knight's Armament for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Army researchers are developing applications to turn an iPod into a remote control for a bomb-disposal robot (tilting the iPod steers the robot). In Sudan, American military observers are using iPods to learn the appropriate etiquette for interacting with tribal leaders.

Translation is another important area. A new program, Vcommunicator, is now being issued to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It produces spoken and written translations of Arabic, Kurdish and two Afghan languages. It also shows animated graphics of accompanying gestures and body language, and displays pictures of garments, weapons and other objects. Procurement officials are making a "tremendous push" to develop and field militarily useful Apple devices, says Ernie Bright, operations manager of Vcom3D, the Florida firm that developed the software.”

Read more here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/194623

Imagery in disaster areas can be incredibly useful for planning and
communication, but is often difficult to obtain because of the need
for specialty equipment and outside resources.  On my recent trip to
Afghanistan I experimented with image stitching to get better pictures
using low-cost and easily available hardware.

The picture above is Afghanistan from cruising altitude of a
commercial jet, but as you can see it is quite large and detailed.  I
took a series of 90 photos using a cell phone, and then stitched them
together in a mostly automated fashion using free and open-source
software on my laptop.  The resulting picture is much more useful than
any individual photo, because of the wide field of view.

The software used was Hugin, which is free and open-source.
http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

There are also similar systems commercially available.
PTGui  http://www.ptgui.com/
PanoLab (for the iPhone) http://panolab.tumblr.com/

Another example below: