Today, Apple held a rather small press event on education at the Guggenheim museum in New York City. Apple plans to reinvent the textbook with the three things they talked about today.
iBooks 2
One of the first things they talked about is the next major update to iBooks. In this update, there are a nice amount of textbooks available for $14.99 or less. In this initial launch, Apple is already partnered with McGraw Hill and Pearson, among others. This is going to make a big impact on education because the things you can do with a digital textbook as far as teaching goes is fantastic. 3D modeling and built in videos aim for a greater learning experience. Last but not least, the prices. I’m a college student, so I know the pain of how expensive textbooks are, so seeing those low prices make me very happy.
iTunes U
iTunes U has been a huge success as far as college lectures go with over 700 million downloads. However, today it is breaking away from the iTunes Store and getting its own app. This app is great for college students if their school is on Apple’s list. It allows for easy course registration, getting your syllabus, getting your professors office hours and much more. This will make taking a course a little less of a hassle and I can’t wait for my college to get something set up with this.
iBooks Author
Last, but not least, Apple introduced a free OS X app which allows educators to create their own digital textbook and put it in the iBookstore. I’m pretty sure major publishers won’t be using this application, but it is great for teachers who want to compile the content they teach each semester into one, easy to download book for the students in the semesters to come.
What do you think of Apple’s education announcements today? I believe that this is going to really change college courses for the better. I’d like to see your thoughts in the comments below.
Today, the day after the ‘blackout’ day to protest SOPA/PIPA, federal prosecutors have shutdown the worlds largest file sharing site: Megaupload. The founder and a few employees are being charged with violating privacy laws. According to the indictment put against them, they owe $500 million in revenue that was lost in software/entertainment piracy. Many people used this site, including myself, for legitimate reasons and it is a shame to see them go. Sites like these will continue to shut down under SOPA/PIPA if they were to pass through Congress. Yesterday’s ‘blackout’ day proved to be a huge success and we can only hope that it helps Congress the terrible things this bill will do to the internet and our freedom.
What are your thoughts on the Megaupload ordeal? Please post in the comments below.
Once again, EA is making a big mistake. As some of you may know, EA is trying to compete with other digital gaming platforms such as Valve’s Steam and GameStop’s Pulse network. Their platform, Origin, is still in beta and is not on par with any of the other digital gaming platforms. Now, you may be asking: What’s the problem? Well, during their last few game releases, most notably Battlefield 3, EA required Origin to play on the PC platform. EA recently stated that it will require Origin for their next big game release, Mass Effect 3. I know this is going to prevent a lot of people from getting Mass Effect 3, at least on the PC platform, because consumers do not want Origin shoved down their throats. If EA were to give players the option to use Origin, it wouldn’t be half as bad.
That being said, do you think it is a good idea for EA to be so controlling with their Origin platform or am I being way to sensitive about this? Please post your response in the comments below.
This year will mark the release of the third iteration of Apple’s iPad and the sixth iteration of their iPhone. Every new release of these products have improved something for the better in these devices. However, one thing the iPhone has lacked since the iPhone 4 and the iPad since its inception is 4G support. Now, many of us geeks can agree that 4G technology is not at the level it should be at this point. If you watch TV, you primarily see AT&T and Verizon battling it out while Sprint just sits back and watches. The two biggest cell companies, both of which support the iPhone and iPad, are shoving 4G down the consumers throats when the speed of it is no faster than 3G. Granted, all three of those cell companies have improved upon their 4G networks over the past few years.
A few days ago, I was reading that Verizon was going to start only accepting smartphones with 4G support in the near future. That being said, wouldn’t you think the next iPhone and iPad will have 4G support? It is about that time that they make the upgrade and it would be a terrible loss for Apple and Verizon as well if the next of these devices aren’t on the network.
What do you think about 4G technology overall? Please post in the comments below.
Imagine a time where magic and the constant fear of dragons is always prevalent. That is the extraordinary world of Skyrim. You would think that in a world filled with magic, there would be no need for a hero. However, do to the horrific civil war and the recent comeback of dragons, there is a cry for a hero to help bring Skyrim out of the darkness. Skyrim not only offers one of the best story lines I have ever seen in a game, but it is also filled with hundreds of side quests that could have you fighting as a vampire or killing a mans wife. It also offers many improved features over the previous Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion. These improvements include, but are not limited to, dual-wielding magic, more weapons, and smithing of weapons. This RPG allows you to be whoever you want, from a human to a vampire. So, the real question is: “Who are you?”
As most of you might know, the US Congress is trying to pass a bill that could change the internet in ways I would rather not think about. That being said, we never have and will never support SOPA (“Stop Online Piracy Act”). Earlier this week, we moved our domain from GoDaddy. We are now registered with Nternic, who is a reseller of Dotster and they strongly oppose SOPA as well. We encourage anyone who loves the internet and technology as we do to make a stance against this bill.
Together we can all prevent this horrible bill from being passed.
The Byte of Tek Team
I have been a big fan of Minecraft since I began playing in June of 2010. It has definitely grown since then, especially the company behind it: Mojang. Since then, Minecraft was officially released out of Alpha and Beta, Scrolls was announced and Cobalt was announced and released in Alpha as their first third-party game. However, in a recent interview with Edge magazine, CEO Carl Manneh announced that Mojang will be releasing (or at least announcing) three new games in 2012. Two of those might be announced before June. We already know about one of those games, currently called Minitale, that Notch is working on himself. For those of you who haven’t heard, during the last Ludum Dare competition, Notch made a game called Minicraft in 48 hours. The game got such a large response, so Notch continued working on it and gave it a new name. So, this is definitely going to be one of those games. No one knows for sure, probably not even Notch, what this game might end up being but I am sure excited to see what it can become. The other two projects are under a non-disclosure agreement with other companies, so no details can be posted until all companies agree on it.
So, with that being said, what kind of game would like to see come out of Mojang? As of now, I’m more excited to begin playing Scrolls. Please post your response in the comments below.
As CES 2012 kicks off today, the main focus this year seems to be about TV’s and ultrabooks. The highlight in this post is today’s introduction of Dell’s first ultrabook: the XPS 13. At the starting configuration, it hosts an Intel Core i3 Processor, 4 GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, Intel HD3000 Integrated Graphics Card. You will be able to upgrade to a Core i5 or i7 Processor and a 256GB SSD. It has a 13″ display with a 1366×768 resolution. It weighs just under 3lbs. and is between 6-18mm thick. It also has a backlit keyboard.
As for a release date, it is due in February at a starting price of $999. We are also hearing that the ultrabook will launch with Intel’s Sandy Bridge Processor, but will be later available with Intel’s upcoming Ivy Bridge processor.
I’ve never been fond of using laptops as primary computers, but I am impressed with the kind of power this ultrabook can put out. It’s unfortunate that it only has an integrated Intel Graphics Card, but I still see potential in devices like these. Dell has definitely made a name for themselves with the XPS brand, and I look forward to see how this laptop sells.
What are your thoughts on the XPS 13? Please post them in the comments below.
Update (2/17/12): For more information, here is a link a Dell Team member sent us to learn more about the XPS 13.
(Photo Courtesy of CNET)
Today, Apple held a rather small press event on education at the Guggenheim museum in New York City. Apple plans to reinvent the textbook with the three things they talked about today.
