Keene on Tech

One of the frustrations with the iPhone and iPad is that Apple only lets certain apps use the video out feature to display images or video on your TV or through a projector. One app that I would love to see this enabled on is Safari, but for now we are out of luck. However, for those who are mapping fanatics and want to show off a little part of the world that interests you, there is now a iPad app that lets one project dynamic map images from the device onto a TV or a projector. Pretty cool.

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In the past week or two there have been some interesting thoughts posted about whether we are entering into a new era of computing where the experience is largely curated. Of course the 800 pound gorilla in this area is Apple with its iPhone/iPod Touch and now the iPad. All these devices run apps through Apple’s curated App Store which has generated lots of debate about whether this is a good thing or not. The entire computing process is mostly closed and carefully maintained by Apple. Yet, their devices and software are very popular and the company has grown enormously over the past few years because of this. And perhaps more importantly, they are really innovating in the mobile space and leading the way although Google’s Android is hot on it heals. So what is the big deal about curated computing and why should educators care?

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Gotta love e-Readers and their e-book content. Save some trees and carry a lot of content around in one lightweight device. Nice! However, there is one area of e-books that is sorely lacking and until this area gets sufficiently addressed, I can see students and faculty still giving a lukewarm handshake to the arrival of e-books. This feature is the ability to have more options and features when it comes to annotating text. But, there is a workaround of sorts…

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The iPad is close to appearing in hot little hands everywhere. Orders are being taken and depending on where you get your information, orders and demand are hot…or not. Whatever. It is coming soon enough.

There is no doubt that we will see some of the best iPhone app developers showing off even cooler things on the iPad but one area where it may be a sleeper hit is with mobile field scientists.

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