David Handy - Blogger

Apple's New iBooks Won't School College Bookstores Any Time Soon | Epicenter | Wired.com

2012-01-27T15:38:00.001-08:00

Apple's New iBooks Won't School College Bookstores Any Time Soon | Epicenter | Wired.com: University professors, along with other experts and stakeholders in the college textbook market, are even more skeptical. Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Pomona College professor and Director of Scholarly Communication for the Modern Language Association, was troubled by the limited view of interactivity modeled in the new iBooks — interaction between a student and a screen, not students with one another — as well as the limitation of these new textbooks to only Apple’s platform and format.

Macworld | iWorld 2012 Best of Show winners | Macworld

2012-01-27T11:40:00.001-08:00

Macworld | iWorld 2012 Best of Show winners | Macworld: What’s more impressive about the app is its remote-camera feature, which lets up to eight shooters record an event at the same time; the footage can then be edited together on one iPhone.

Review: The futuristic OnLive Desktop runs Windows apps on the iPad | VentureBeat

2012-01-26T02:17:00.001-08:00

Review: The futuristic OnLive Desktop runs Windows apps on the iPad | VentureBeat: Today, OnLive Desktop is a solid application client that has all the basic functions of a Windows computer freely available for all iPad users. Along with the basic Office apps and the Windows 7 Touch environment, OnLive Desktop has the potential to change the way we use tablets and smartphones, and perhaps even PCs. With a Windows-based machine as readily available as an internet connection, this technology may be paving the way for the future of cloud computing.

Invisibility's Next Frontier: Scientists Cloak 3-D Objects

2012-01-25T21:40:00.001-08:00

Invisibility's Next Frontier: Scientists Cloak 3-D Objects: A team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have successfully "cloaked a three-dimensional object standing in free space." Not only that, but they've managed to make the object invisible to any observer, no matter their distance from the object or where they're looking from.

More iPhones sold than babies born in the world every day

2012-01-25T08:49:00.003-08:00

More iPhones sold than babies born in the world every day: Apple is now making iPhones at a rate that exceeds the amount of babies that humans produce on earth every day...

Apple shares hit new all-time intraday high; Apple passes Exxon as world’s most valuable company

2012-01-25T08:49:00.001-08:00

Apple shares hit new all-time intraday high; Apple passes Exxon as world’s most valuable company: Apple Inc. shares today rose $34.14 in early morning NASDAQ trading to set a new all-time intraday high...

Why Rakuten's Kobo Is Amazon's Only Global Competition

2012-01-24T16:17:00.001-08:00

Why Rakuten's Kobo Is Amazon's Only Global Competition: It's quite possible that soon Kobo will be the only company standing between Amazon, Apple and world domination of e-publishing. So if you haven't been paying attention, this is just the time to tune in.

iBooks Version: 2.0 Review | iPhone and iPad Books App | Macworld

2012-01-24T08:50:00.001-08:00

iBooks Version: 2.0 Review | iPhone and iPad Books App | Macworld: With optimized books, the app succeeds too—but in a different way. It’s not at all complicated to read an optimized textbook in the app, and anyone familiar with an iOS device should mostly be able to navigate such a book without trouble. (The one gotcha is remembering the pinch gesture to get back to the Chapter view.) But you do need to examine each element on the page to know what it can do: Is this just a photo, or is it a slideshow, or a model, or an animation, or a video, or something else? Again, it’s not hard to answer such questions—you just look at the interactive element’s description to see what it does. It’s a different way of reading, and it makes the books feel much more like exquisite webpages than texts. That’s not necessarily either good or bad—but it’s undeniably different from traditional reading. Where iBooks does a superb job getting out of your way as you read regular books, it screams “THIS IS AN IMMERSIVE MULTIMEDIA EXPERIENCE” when you read fancy ones.

Happy 28th Birthday, Apple Macintosh!

2012-01-24T08:32:00.001-08:00

Happy 28th Birthday, Apple Macintosh!: On January 22, 1984 during the Super Bowl, Apple ran their famous "1984" commercial...

Google's Chrome Browser Sprouts Programming Kit of the Future

2012-01-23T13:14:00.001-08:00

Google's Chrome Browser Sprouts Programming Kit of the Future: Among Silicon Valley developers, The Next Big Thing is Node. Node is short for Node.js, a new-age programming platform based on an engine at the heart of Google's Chrome browser. It's suited to building network applications that juggle scads of information streaming to and from other sources. In other words, it's suited to the modern internet.

Splendid City 6.8.9 - Organize team sports or game events.. (Free)

2012-01-21T12:34:00.001-08:00

Splendid City 6.8.9 - Organize team sports or game events.. (Free): Splendid City, Team Sport Scheduler, and Sports Scheduling System is useful for people who organize team sport or game events. It can manage sport schedules of any size and complexity. Simply fill in the requested information into the wizard-like interface, and Splendid City automates the season, tournament, league, match, and round-robin schedules. A great first step and time saving tool for anyone who frequently does organizational sport scheduling. Splendid City can schedule games with any user specified combination of dates and times, regular or irregular. Create professional double or single elimination tournaments, multiple or single round-robin schedules, for any sport that requires pairings.

Arts & Letters Daily (21 Jan 2012)

2012-01-21T10:24:00.001-08:00

Arts & Letters Daily (21 Jan 2012):

Freud today is disparaged, even condemned. And no wonder: He didn't indulge our taste for self-help platitudes... more

How to invent a religion: Avoid precise terms, like "brain"; use fuzzier words, like "soul." Create a mythology. Sell it hard. That's the L. Ron Hubbard way... more

William Shirer devoted 1,250 pages and 25 years to understanding the Third Reich. He didn't pretend to have all the answers. Some things are inexplicable... more

The week the web changed Washington

2012-01-20T22:08:00.001-08:00

The week the web changed Washington: Consider the following statistics:

162 million Wikipedia page views, with some 8 million visitors using an online form to look up the address of their Congressional representatives.
7 million signatures on Google's petition.
200,000+ signatures on the Progressive Change Campaign Committee petition.
30,000+ Craigslist users called Congress through the PCCC's website.
250,000+ people took action through the EFF's resources.
2.4 million+ SOPA-related tweets were sent between 12 a.m. and 4 p.m. on January 18.
140,000 phone calls made through Tumblr's platform.
Nearly 1,000 protesters outside New York's U.S. Senators' office in New York City.

Officials: Roseburg residents, please conserve water

2012-01-20T22:07:00.001-08:00

Officials: Roseburg residents, please conserve water:

A major water leak has occurred within the City of Roseburg’s water system, and the city is asking citizens to conserve water and report any leaks you see.

Four open questions about iBooks Author | Macworld

2012-01-20T13:20:00.001-08:00

Four open questions about iBooks Author | Macworld: iBooks Author is an intriguing app and a a big deal for publishers. But while the app is obviously very new, some aspects of the software give me pause. Here are my questions for Apple about the iBooks Author. (And yes, I’ve sent them all Apple’s way, though I haven’t heard back just yet.)

Opinion: Why Apple's iBooks Initiatives Won't Revolutionize Education | GeekDad | Wired.com

2012-01-20T12:22:00.001-08:00

Opinion: Why Apple's iBooks Initiatives Won't Revolutionize Education | GeekDad | Wired.com: There will be a lot of commentary that will make parents and educators think that Apple has done it again. But be wary of reports that say Apple has “revolutionized the education industry.” It hasn’t.

Apple's announcements further iPad revolution in education | Macworld

2012-01-20T12:21:00.001-08:00

Apple's announcements further iPad revolution in education | Macworld: Apple already revolutionized education when it invented the iPad. While iBooks textbooks are a bridge from the past to the future—and we do need a way to get to the future—they are not that future. If Henry Ford had been an educational publisher, his customers would have asked for electronic textbooks instead of faster horses.

iBooks Author 1.0 - Create and publish iBooks for iPad.. (Free)

2012-01-20T09:38:00.001-08:00

iBooks Author 1.0 - Create and publish iBooks for iPad.. (Free):

iBooks Author helps you create and publish amazing Multi-Touch books for iPad.

Now anyone can create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad. All you need is an idea and a Mac. Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. Use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more.

Mac OS X 10.7.2 or later

Download Now

Why Apple’s iBooks Author Will Pave The Way For A Writing Renaissance | Cult of Mac

2012-01-19T23:32:00.001-08:00

Why Apple’s iBooks Author Will Pave The Way For A Writing Renaissance | Cult of Mac: With the announcement of iBooks 2 and iBooks Author, Apple isn’t just giving the education system a much needed boost: they’re attempting to resurrect the dying art of the written word by taking absolute power out of the hands of publishers and putting it in the hands of aspiring writers. We’re on the cusp of a renaissance.

iTunes U for iPad Retools the Learning Experience - Mac Rumors

2012-01-19T15:29:00.001-08:00

iTunes U for iPad Retools the Learning Experience - Mac Rumors: iTunes U lets you take a complete course on your iPad. View the course overview, instructor biography, and course outline. Read posts and keep track of your completed assignments. Watch videos directly within the app, read books, and view all your course notes in one place. Receive push notifications alerting you to new posts from the instructor. And iCloud keeps your notes, highlights, and bookmarks up to date on all your devices.

Apple unveils iTunes U app | Macworld

2012-01-19T15:22:00.001-08:00

Apple unveils iTunes U app | Macworld: Apple has set up several Web resources for teachers interested in creating and distributing courses through iTunes U. You can enroll in the iTunes U portal (at the time of this writing, the site was down for maintenance). The iTunes U support site has links to several how-tos and the iTunes U support community, where you can get feedback from other iTunes U participants. Apple also notes on its iTunes U website that iTunes U is available for K-12 teachers, as well as colleges and universities.

When you're ready to create a course after you've enrolled in iTunes U, Apple offers the iTunes U Course Manager, a Web-based tool. Apple offers step-by-step instructions on course creation, and materials (such as a syllabus and handouts) can be uploaded and hosted by Apple.

Hands on: iBooks Author effortless to use, but iPad-only | Macworld

2012-01-19T14:48:00.001-08:00

Hands on: iBooks Author effortless to use, but iPad-only | Macworld: iPad-exclusivity aside, those willing to work in iBooks Author should be quite pleased. It’s the best WYSIWYG ebook designer I’ve seen on the market so far, and—formatting problems excluded—incredibly easy to work with. If you have iTunes Producer installed, you can even use the Publish button to send your finished book directly to the publishing process; you’ll still need an ISBN and an iBookstore sales account to proceed, but it’s a nice link to unify the process.

Engage: Apple's New Tools for Interactive Books on iPad | Epicenter | Wired.com

2012-01-19T14:43:00.001-08:00

Engage: Apple's New Tools for Interactive Books on iPad | Epicenter | Wired.com: It’s not entirely clear to me that the new and improved iTunes U can become a wholesale replacement to current widely-used learning management systems like the much-reviled Blackboard. I don’t know whether it meets some of the specialized security requirements for handling assignment submissions, grading, and so forth. And again, deploying it as an iOS app rather than a web-based service limits its use to Apple’s proprietary platform. But it is potentially a powerful new tool to add to existing “open education” iTunes U-related initiatives like MIT OpenCourseWare. And it’s exciting to see a company that actually knows how to build software a person would want to use venture into the bone-ugly world of education management systems. Finally, Apple’s lined up a slew of university partners who seem willing to give it a shot. So who knows?

Are There Fundamental Laws of Cooking?

2012-01-19T14:39:00.005-08:00

Are There Fundamental Laws of Cooking?: Cooking is a field that has in recent years seen a shift from the artistic to the scientific. While there are certainly still subjective and somewhat impenetrable qualities to one's cuisine, there is an increasing rigor in the kitchen. From molecular gastronomy to Modernist Cuisine, there is a rapid growth in the science of cooking. And mathematics is also becoming part of this.

Engage: Apple's New Tools for Interactive Books on iPad

2012-01-19T14:39:00.003-08:00

Engage: Apple's New Tools for Interactive Books on iPad: At Thursday's event, Apple's Phil Schiller said that 1.5 million iPads were in use in education settings, leveraging more than 20,000 education applications. Today, Apple's giving away brand-new tools that ensures the company will be able to sell many, many more.