Oklahoma State University to offer students in certain courses iPads
The Apple iPad is examined after its unveiling at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. AP File Photo
Business and media students enrolled in select courses at Oklahoma State Unviersity will receive iPads to use in the classroom this fall, OSU President Burns Hargis has announced.
“This pilot initiative will provide valuable insight into the research benefits of the Apple iPad in the classroom,” said Hargis in a news release. “The iPad has had an amazing impact since it was introduced last April and we are excited to be able to put this powerful and creative tool in the hands of students and faculty and see what happens.”
There’s even talk that by doing this, the students will save money on textbooks.
Read more from The Oklahoman’s Susan Simpson at http://okne.ws/at7aMd.
Wishlist Wednesday: All the new technology, or at least to understand it
Choices, choices, mind-boggling technology choices:
An iPhone 4, an Android or an HTC EVO 4G, which, apparently, is sold out almost everywhere? (I don’t know anything about the Evo. Please enlighten me.)
An iPad, with the 3G network or just wifi?
A mobile phone that tethers to a wireless network so I can have wifi with me all the time? (Or, does the wifi tether to the mobile phone?)
Switch to AT&T or stick with U.S. Cellular? Do I really need an iPhone or can I live happily ever after with my iPod Touch?
A CDMA network or a GS one? What the heck does that mean anyway?
A Wii trade-in at Game Stop so I can get a new one with an enhanced motion-sensor remote for $50 and download Netflix movies onto it?
How do I pay for it all? How are other people paying for all this stuff? Do I NEED it or just WANT it, concepts I’m always stressing to my kids in trying to teach them how to spend money?
With all these new devices, there’s too much technology coming at me all at once these days. I’m trying to sort through it all, and I appreciate the sales clerk at Best Buy who explained some information about mobile phones to me yesterday: The business people still like the Blackberry; younger people like some other phone; developers like the Droid, which is more open and easier to program; different types of users like the iPhone for its ease of use, and so on. At least that’s what I think he said.
My mobile phone contract isn’t up for another year, and my garage sale profits from last Saturday won’t get me anywhere close to an iPad, so luckily I don’t have to make decisions about what I might use as extensively as my iPod Touch anytime soon.
It’s good to be ready, isn’t it? Whew. My brain is tired. Is yours?
I’d love an iPad, but the iPhone 4 is awfully appealling. I could use it to explore all the photo apps, for one. But I will also need a phone that’s I’ll use for real conversations and texting; is the iPhone good for that? I like U.S. Cellular’s network because I can always get through on it at a crowded OU football game while many of my AT&T friends can’t. I’m mostly content with my Blackberry Pearl Flip, although a year from now … ?
The “wow” factor continues for me as I watch all these new products roll out. I want them all, but I don’t know where to start to narrow it down. Also, for which ones do I wait for the second generation? Any ideas?
~ Lillie-Beth Brinkman (lbrinkman@opubco.com)
Steve Jobs and the Apple iPhone 4
Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed the new iPhone 4 Monday.
In case you’ve missed it, Apple CEO Steve Jobs officially announced what Apple considers its latest and greatest iPhone, out June 24.
Calling the iPhone 4 the “biggest leap we’ve taken since the original iPhone,” an enthusiastic and smooth Jobs introduced the new design and new features including:
A new operating system, dubbed the iOs4; new high-resolution display, new folder system for apps and ability to multitask between them, and others. It will also be the first phone that offers video chatting, where both parties who have an iPhone can see each other while talking. Jobs called it “Face Time video calling.”
“I grew up in the U.S. with the ‘Jetsons’ and ‘Star Trek’ and ‘The Communicators’ just dreaming about this, just dreaming about video calling and it’s real now,” Jobs said.
You can read the details at websites like TechCrunch’s blog (www.http://techcrunch.com) or see the speech at places like cnn.com ( http://bit.ly/aHCLJI).
But here are some figures that I found interesting in watching the video:
- 15,000 apps are submitted to Apple weekly
- 5 billion apps have been downloaded from Apple’s app stores
- 100 million of Apple’s devices (iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads) are in circulation right now, using those apps
- The app store has 150 million accounts signed up to download apps
What do you think? Are you going to get one? Are you as impressed as the enthusiastic audience was? In using up 570 wifi connections in the auditorium to get the word out live today, audience members excited to tell the world about the product bogged down Jobs’ demonstration when the iPhone 4′s wifi didn’t work.
E-mail me your thoughts at lbrinkman@opubco.com.
~ Lillie-Beth
