Do a simple comparison. In a comfortable chair in a well lit room, read 10 pages of a novel from a book, a Kindle and an iPad and tell me which was the easiest? In fact, start with the iPad. Then tell me eyestrain on portable reading devices is a myth. I dare you. I double dare.
I did the test. Based on your criteria...
Eyestrain is a myth.
I'm at my computer screen (a glossy iMac) all day. I'm also on the iPad reading or watching videos for two hours daily.
My eyes don't get tired.
I also have a Kobo ebook reader. I use this mainly when others are using the iPad and outdoors.
I'd rather have my children *suffer* from iPad eye strain, than suffer life long back pains due to the ridiculous amount of books they carry in their backpacks.
Why bother with a mobile device at all (with all the maintenance and content-control [for children] issues)? The textbooks should all be accessible from The Cloud, tapped into from classroom desktops (literally: built into the desks, not sitting on top) and at-home laptops/desktops/tablets. Elementary-age kids shouldn't be carrying around state-issued $500 devices any more than they should have 40 lbs of textbooks riding in their backpacks.
Critics complain that tablet-shaped devices using Android can be sold for $100 and supply basic ebook reader features. However, low priced ereaders are failing to rival iPad in the marketplace, with numbers from IDC indicating that Apple's iPad, starting at $500, continues to outsell low end ereader devices available for as little as $130.
Boo-hoo, I'll cry a river for the Android fanboys. Let's give everyone a cheap, plastic piece of junk that will most likely not last not 90 days in a classroom setting, will not be OS upgradeable because the manufacturers only make money on selling hardware, and will be incompatible on many apps to due Android fragmentation.
How well did that OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) program go? Crashed and burned. Why? Too many players fighting for a cut of the pie. Just like Android would end up in the classroom, there will be dozens of different tablets, each running a different flavor of Android, some cheaper ones, some better ones, but junk in the end. Some apps will work on one tablet, others may not. Sounds familiar people?
Apple is a one-stop shop. iPads (hardware), iOS (Software), and tons of apps (Developers) that are totally motivated on making the best possible software for the education field. No hassles, no worrying about getting the best price from different companies, and in the end resulting in getting something you didn't want that works horribly.
While everyone has been infighting for the past few decades with how the industry should be, Apple was quietly buying time to change the world. It just showed that patience and perseverance pays off.
I personally know many teachers that are excited about the possibilities that the iPad can provide. Some have applied for grants that were discussed in that video. When I mention Android, they just respond "What??" or "Gosh, I hope not!"
Apple does have an uphill battle in lots of schools though. These same teachers tell me horror stories of IT administrators removing their Mac labs that have given no problems and replace them with cheap, Windows computers that provide nothing but problems yet provides job-security for the admins. Many admins are so anti-Apple simply out of ignorance and do not give-in lightly to having any kind of Apple hardware in their network. It's a shame hearing this stories from the teachers that teach our children.
Why bother with a mobile device at all (with all the maintenance and content-control [for children] issues)? The textbooks should all be accessible from The Cloud, tapped into from classroom desktops (literally: built into the desks, not sitting on top) and at-home laptops/desktops/tablets. Elementary-age kids shouldn't be carrying around state-issued $500 devices any more than they should have 40 lbs of textbooks riding in their backpacks.
The Cloud will be dead in 5 years. Another version will take it's place and we'll continue to try and reinvent the idea of Oracle's Network Appliance while never getting it.
Google and the idea we rely on a CENTRAL MAINFRAME [GOOGLE] distributing all Information is f'n absurd.
It already has. This MobileMe feature is available for all purchasers of iOS devices for free.
Are you sure it permanently locks the device? I thought you could only lock and wipe settings (i.e. A simple reflash and you have a perfectly working iPad again)
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer
The Cloud will be dead in 5 years.
Wow... really? \
You've got to have a much narrower idea of what The Cloud is than I do, because I can't think of a single conceivable situation that would end up with Cloud Computing being dead in 5 years!
How about spending that money on some decent teachers. iPads aren't going to bring Georgia out of the bottom 10% in education in the U.S.
Well, being from New Jersey you must be the preeminent expert on the Georgia school system. Please fabricate more blatantly false information for us to consume if you have the time.
I couldn't find any statistics that placed the Georgia school system that low nationwide. I did find some metrics that placed the state as high as #7 and as low as #20, but nothing close to what you've purported.
They started it then it was hijacked by school administrators trying to save a buck here and there. I am afaid they will go for android or m$ crap, as it's cheaper, who cares if they work well or give joy to the children? Schools are all about saving money and silly me I thought they were about learning. Sigh ...
The support for Android is going to have to significantly improve for that to happen. MSFT had support. With Android tabs you are in the Wild Wild West with no support. It's a use at your own risk type of situation.
I for one think giving attractive teenage girls iPads with front-facing cameras would be an awesome idea... in the interests of their learning.
It makes sense that it saves money as a school will have on average 20 books per student, $50 per book = $1000 per student that lasts 7 years. A $500 iPad per student can last a few years and even if they keep the iPad for 3.5 years, it matches the book cost and they have resale value. Plus the textbooks are included and can be updated at any time, which is such an important feature in certain subjects like world history, finance, modern literature, media studies, even science and math as new discoveries appear.
While iPads seem expensive, we pay tax on top of the sale price but schools won't and might even get volumes discounts.
The costs will go up if the iPads get damaged but they are harder to damage than a laptop and a laptop in no way engages people the way an iPad does and it's much lighter with a higher quality screen.
It will be hard for competing tablet technology to match the price and quality that Apple have in their device because of their exclusive component deals so schools would end up with a worse experience, more easily broken hardware, worse customer support etc.
I didn't believe the iPad would have a huge impact when it launched but the more software there is and the more people are finding ways to adapt it into what they do, it's starting to look like a pretty big deal. I still believe the modular approach plus multiple screens is better vs many fixed form computers despite current costs and there still needs to be improvements to iOS to make it a master OS but for now, the iPad is a nice piece of hardware and the best device at defining this computing genre.
For it to be a first generation device too is impressive.
Are you sure it permanently locks the device? I thought you could only lock and wipe settings (i.e. A simple reflash and you have a perfectly working iPad again)
Wow... really? \
You've got to have a much narrower idea of what The Cloud is than I do, because I can't think of a single conceivable situation that would end up with Cloud Computing being dead in 5 years!
5 Years in Internet Computing is roughly 15 years in other traditional industries.
Having a Distributed Client-Server model which combines the notion of a MainFrame where all content is stored on the Server and the Clients are dumb clients to do all the heavy processing where necessary, but keep all content remotely, is nothing new. The cloud has taken the MainFrame and distributed the load and then fine grained it with Virtualization.
It's like a Distributed RAID Network that attempts to be a Virtual Repository of infinite redundancy that manages your assets for you.
Unfortunately, instead of being a MainFrame it's now a VirtualMainFrame Umbrella that has clusters of distributed nodes. It all sounds theoretically interesting when you apply it to Scientific Applications that need heavy hardware to crunch and large database clusters for Wall Street, etc.
Where I see it failing is it's over extended reach into trying to convince Class C/S/LLC Corporations to manage all their assets for them--a Virtual Big Brother Watch Dog you can call GOOGLE, for example.
They don't stop there. They want the Consumer's assets as well. They want all your information.
That's where it fails when it goes beyond utilizing the distributed networks to solve problems and becomes the distributed networks to store, track and predict everyone's decisions and choices of economic consumption of services and disposable goods.
The necessary level of redundancy to protect that level of scaling will ultimately compromise data, especially government data. It's then that a DMZ style Distributed Network of Cloud Services will arrive.
The Sciences Clouds.
The Health Care Clouds
The Education Clouds
The Governments Clouds
The Commerce Clouds
The State Governments Clouds
The FOX News Clouds
The MSNBC News Clouds
,etc.
The over kill carried to its end will produce nothing but a need to strip back to areas that GOOGLE and others wanting to control information will not want--a limited ceiling on their market opportunities.
We lived in a Central MainFrame solution and it was a nightmare.
We broke free with Client-Server and extended it to Distributed Client Server Networks.
Now we're trying to Virtualize that into a Virtual MainFrame of Services--a Gatekeeper.
It's obnoxious and technically bound to cost a fortune, ultimately ripe with security holes and cost overruns.
Ultimately, any dolt who thinks the cost of housing a server or two for a small business [scale up accordingly to the size of your business] far exceeds the cost and risk of storing that information remotely through a contract is deserves to see all their IP stolen and used to compete against them.
In Europe a lot of universities are trying this magnificent surving device in a pilot project: does it add a value for students or teachers. For now the results are: just for mailing and still than you need a filesystem to organise attached files locally. The (free) internet or Dropbox is not permanent available: train, plain, car. Nor is it always reliable. My USB-stick is.
As a student or a teacher does I want to use my Ipad as a netbook? Yes, please. Why not?
I am ignorant to the administrative side of running a network with iPads on it. Is it possible to push updates (or new books or apps) to select clients? I was under the impression that each device had to be done manually.
I for one think giving attractive teenage girls iPads with front-facing cameras would be an awesome idea... in the interests of their learning.
Yes yes and higher efficiency/productivity. Whereas in the past, girls would look away from chalkboards/whiteboards/textbooks to check their makeup and hair in their always-handy pocket mirrors, the highly reflective glass screen on the iPad, with it's awesome clarity, will allow these girls to CONTINUE looking at their screens WHILE ensuring they're still looking attractive.
Furthermore, not only have we eliminated textbooks from their backup, but we have further reduced the weight of all the those pocket mirrors they used to carry!
Apple truly understands what these kids need. Highly impressive, especially in a first-gen product.
The issue of eyestrain on a computer monitor is a myth that hasn't been true since the very early days of CRT screens. People who believe it's true however usually base it on "well, it happens to me," which is both subjective and un-provable so it continues to hang around and be believed.
Scientific tests have proven innumerable times that this just isn't true however. Eye strain is eye strain, it has nothing to do with computers vs. books per se. You can get eyestrain from reading in too dark an environment, or from squinting too much at a screen or from following rabidly moving action. In the bad old days you could get eyestrain from computer screens because the refresh rates on CRT's were very low and the sharpness wasn't very good either, leading people to lean in close to fuzzy screens with flickering electron beams, which of course caused eyestrain.
There is no evidence at all that computer screens (at least today's computer screens), as a category cause any more eyestrain than reading a paper book for the same amount of time under the same lighting conditions. What's happening is that people are selectively remembering the eyestrain caused by the "evil computer," but selectively forgetting the last time it happened when they were reading their favourite paper book.
It's a myth.
That's pure fud.
Viewing into a glossy light source causes more strain than reading from piece of paper unless your children are reading in a cave.
I'm at my computer screen (a glossy iMac) all day. I'm also on the iPad reading or watching videos for two hours daily.
My eyes don't get tired.
I also have a Kobo ebook reader. I use this mainly when others are using the iPad and outdoors.
I'd rather have my children *suffer* from iPad eye strain, than suffer life long back pains due to the ridiculous amount of books they carry in their backpacks.
Umm, no. A paper book, even a glossy one, does not have the level of glare that a typical iPad has.
Moreover, numerous studies have shown that passively reflective surfaces & screens - like paper and Kindles - are much easier to read and can be read for longer durations with out fatigue than transmissive surfaces like the iPad.
Do a simple comparison. In a comfortable chair in a well lit room, read 10 pages of a novel from a book, a Kindle and an iPad and tell me which was the easiest? In fact, start with the iPad. Then tell me eyestrain on portable reading devices is a myth. I dare you. I double dare.
I'm a big fan of the iPad and I'm all for replacing books with readers - just not yet. I think the product needs to mature a bit, become easier on the eyes with crisper text and a anti glare screen optimized for static rather than moving images.
I also think that for most work, kids in school need a larger, "two page" iPad that is closer in size to the average open text book, and folds open like one.
The good thing is that AppleInsider has reported a rumor that the next screen will be improved (sadly not retina display) by being matte.
Comments
I bet the day they started replacing the Slate with pencils and paper, people protested as well.
They didn't complain because the populace didn't see the slate. That was reserved for those of wealth.
Do a simple comparison. In a comfortable chair in a well lit room, read 10 pages of a novel from a book, a Kindle and an iPad and tell me which was the easiest? In fact, start with the iPad. Then tell me eyestrain on portable reading devices is a myth. I dare you. I double dare.
I did the test. Based on your criteria...
Eyestrain is a myth.
I'm at my computer screen (a glossy iMac) all day. I'm also on the iPad reading or watching videos for two hours daily.
My eyes don't get tired.
I also have a Kobo ebook reader. I use this mainly when others are using the iPad and outdoors.
I'd rather have my children *suffer* from iPad eye strain, than suffer life long back pains due to the ridiculous amount of books they carry in their backpacks.
Learn and/or teach anything from/to anyone anywhere anytime.
This is a gold rush folks. What ever people, companies or countries take better advantage of this will be ahead in the global economy.
Go Apple! Go USA.
Time will tell.
"Last week we met with Apple Computers," Williams said,
hahaha. First its not Apple Computer Anymore, is apple inc. Second that's just a funny sentence if you think about it.
Hooray to the south for actually teaching their kids science, though I am sure intelligent design will sneak its way to the ipad as well...
+1 for featuring Chicago in the vid.
Critics complain that tablet-shaped devices using Android can be sold for $100 and supply basic ebook reader features. However, low priced ereaders are failing to rival iPad in the marketplace, with numbers from IDC indicating that Apple's iPad, starting at $500, continues to outsell low end ereader devices available for as little as $130.
Boo-hoo, I'll cry a river for the Android fanboys. Let's give everyone a cheap, plastic piece of junk that will most likely not last not 90 days in a classroom setting, will not be OS upgradeable because the manufacturers only make money on selling hardware, and will be incompatible on many apps to due Android fragmentation.
How well did that OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) program go? Crashed and burned. Why? Too many players fighting for a cut of the pie. Just like Android would end up in the classroom, there will be dozens of different tablets, each running a different flavor of Android, some cheaper ones, some better ones, but junk in the end. Some apps will work on one tablet, others may not. Sounds familiar people?
Apple is a one-stop shop. iPads (hardware), iOS (Software), and tons of apps (Developers) that are totally motivated on making the best possible software for the education field. No hassles, no worrying about getting the best price from different companies, and in the end resulting in getting something you didn't want that works horribly.
While everyone has been infighting for the past few decades with how the industry should be, Apple was quietly buying time to change the world. It just showed that patience and perseverance pays off.
I personally know many teachers that are excited about the possibilities that the iPad can provide. Some have applied for grants that were discussed in that video. When I mention Android, they just respond "What??" or "Gosh, I hope not!"
Apple does have an uphill battle in lots of schools though. These same teachers tell me horror stories of IT administrators removing their Mac labs that have given no problems and replace them with cheap, Windows computers that provide nothing but problems yet provides job-security for the admins. Many admins are so anti-Apple simply out of ignorance and do not give-in lightly to having any kind of Apple hardware in their network. It's a shame hearing this stories from the teachers that teach our children.
i would guess that apple will provide some sort of kill switch to make the ipad unusable in the event it is stolen
It already has. This MobileMe feature is available for all purchasers of iOS devices for free.
Boom! There it is... ...and it's just the beginning.
Learn and/or teach anything from/to anyone anywhere anytime.
This is a gold rush folks. What ever people, companies or countries take better advantage of this will be ahead in the global economy.
Go Apple! Go USA.
Time will tell.
I actually would expect Universities and then High Schools to implement this first, not middle school.
Why bother with a mobile device at all (with all the maintenance and content-control [for children] issues)? The textbooks should all be accessible from The Cloud, tapped into from classroom desktops (literally: built into the desks, not sitting on top) and at-home laptops/desktops/tablets. Elementary-age kids shouldn't be carrying around state-issued $500 devices any more than they should have 40 lbs of textbooks riding in their backpacks.
The Cloud will be dead in 5 years. Another version will take it's place and we'll continue to try and reinvent the idea of Oracle's Network Appliance while never getting it.
Google and the idea we rely on a CENTRAL MAINFRAME [GOOGLE] distributing all Information is f'n absurd.
It already has. This MobileMe feature is available for all purchasers of iOS devices for free.
Are you sure it permanently locks the device? I thought you could only lock and wipe settings (i.e. A simple reflash and you have a perfectly working iPad again)
The Cloud will be dead in 5 years.
Wow... really?
You've got to have a much narrower idea of what The Cloud is than I do, because I can't think of a single conceivable situation that would end up with Cloud Computing being dead in 5 years!
How about spending that money on some decent teachers. iPads aren't going to bring Georgia out of the bottom 10% in education in the U.S.
Well, being from New Jersey you must be the preeminent expert on the Georgia school system. Please fabricate more blatantly false information for us to consume if you have the time.
I couldn't find any statistics that placed the Georgia school system that low nationwide. I did find some metrics that placed the state as high as #7 and as low as #20, but nothing close to what you've purported.
They started it then it was hijacked by school administrators trying to save a buck here and there. I am afaid they will go for android or m$ crap, as it's cheaper, who cares if they work well or give joy to the children? Schools are all about saving money and silly me I thought they were about learning. Sigh ...
The support for Android is going to have to significantly improve for that to happen. MSFT had support. With Android tabs you are in the Wild Wild West with no support. It's a use at your own risk type of situation.
It makes sense that it saves money as a school will have on average 20 books per student, $50 per book = $1000 per student that lasts 7 years. A $500 iPad per student can last a few years and even if they keep the iPad for 3.5 years, it matches the book cost and they have resale value. Plus the textbooks are included and can be updated at any time, which is such an important feature in certain subjects like world history, finance, modern literature, media studies, even science and math as new discoveries appear.
While iPads seem expensive, we pay tax on top of the sale price but schools won't and might even get volumes discounts.
The costs will go up if the iPads get damaged but they are harder to damage than a laptop and a laptop in no way engages people the way an iPad does and it's much lighter with a higher quality screen.
It will be hard for competing tablet technology to match the price and quality that Apple have in their device because of their exclusive component deals so schools would end up with a worse experience, more easily broken hardware, worse customer support etc.
I didn't believe the iPad would have a huge impact when it launched but the more software there is and the more people are finding ways to adapt it into what they do, it's starting to look like a pretty big deal. I still believe the modular approach plus multiple screens is better vs many fixed form computers despite current costs and there still needs to be improvements to iOS to make it a master OS but for now, the iPad is a nice piece of hardware and the best device at defining this computing genre.
For it to be a first generation device too is impressive.
Are you sure it permanently locks the device? I thought you could only lock and wipe settings (i.e. A simple reflash and you have a perfectly working iPad again)
Wow... really?
You've got to have a much narrower idea of what The Cloud is than I do, because I can't think of a single conceivable situation that would end up with Cloud Computing being dead in 5 years!
5 Years in Internet Computing is roughly 15 years in other traditional industries.
Having a Distributed Client-Server model which combines the notion of a MainFrame where all content is stored on the Server and the Clients are dumb clients to do all the heavy processing where necessary, but keep all content remotely, is nothing new. The cloud has taken the MainFrame and distributed the load and then fine grained it with Virtualization.
It's like a Distributed RAID Network that attempts to be a Virtual Repository of infinite redundancy that manages your assets for you.
Unfortunately, instead of being a MainFrame it's now a VirtualMainFrame Umbrella that has clusters of distributed nodes. It all sounds theoretically interesting when you apply it to Scientific Applications that need heavy hardware to crunch and large database clusters for Wall Street, etc.
Where I see it failing is it's over extended reach into trying to convince Class C/S/LLC Corporations to manage all their assets for them--a Virtual Big Brother Watch Dog you can call GOOGLE, for example.
They don't stop there. They want the Consumer's assets as well. They want all your information.
That's where it fails when it goes beyond utilizing the distributed networks to solve problems and becomes the distributed networks to store, track and predict everyone's decisions and choices of economic consumption of services and disposable goods.
The necessary level of redundancy to protect that level of scaling will ultimately compromise data, especially government data. It's then that a DMZ style Distributed Network of Cloud Services will arrive.
The Sciences Clouds.
The Health Care Clouds
The Education Clouds
The Governments Clouds
The Commerce Clouds
The State Governments Clouds
The FOX News Clouds
The MSNBC News Clouds
,etc.
The over kill carried to its end will produce nothing but a need to strip back to areas that GOOGLE and others wanting to control information will not want--a limited ceiling on their market opportunities.
We lived in a Central MainFrame solution and it was a nightmare.
We broke free with Client-Server and extended it to Distributed Client Server Networks.
Now we're trying to Virtualize that into a Virtual MainFrame of Services--a Gatekeeper.
It's obnoxious and technically bound to cost a fortune, ultimately ripe with security holes and cost overruns.
Ultimately, any dolt who thinks the cost of housing a server or two for a small business [scale up accordingly to the size of your business] far exceeds the cost and risk of storing that information remotely through a contract is deserves to see all their IP stolen and used to compete against them.
As a student or a teacher does I want to use my Ipad as a netbook? Yes, please. Why not?
And education is a huge market.
*
I for one think giving attractive teenage girls iPads with front-facing cameras would be an awesome idea... in the interests of their learning.
Yes yes and higher efficiency/productivity. Whereas in the past, girls would look away from chalkboards/whiteboards/textbooks to check their makeup and hair in their always-handy pocket mirrors, the highly reflective glass screen on the iPad, with it's awesome clarity, will allow these girls to CONTINUE looking at their screens WHILE ensuring they're still looking attractive.
Furthermore, not only have we eliminated textbooks from their backup, but we have further reduced the weight of all the those pocket mirrors they used to carry!
Apple truly understands what these kids need. Highly impressive, especially in a first-gen product.
The issue of eyestrain on a computer monitor is a myth that hasn't been true since the very early days of CRT screens. People who believe it's true however usually base it on "well, it happens to me," which is both subjective and un-provable so it continues to hang around and be believed.
Scientific tests have proven innumerable times that this just isn't true however. Eye strain is eye strain, it has nothing to do with computers vs. books per se. You can get eyestrain from reading in too dark an environment, or from squinting too much at a screen or from following rabidly moving action. In the bad old days you could get eyestrain from computer screens because the refresh rates on CRT's were very low and the sharpness wasn't very good either, leading people to lean in close to fuzzy screens with flickering electron beams, which of course caused eyestrain.
There is no evidence at all that computer screens (at least today's computer screens), as a category cause any more eyestrain than reading a paper book for the same amount of time under the same lighting conditions. What's happening is that people are selectively remembering the eyestrain caused by the "evil computer," but selectively forgetting the last time it happened when they were reading their favourite paper book.
It's a myth.
That's pure fud.
Viewing into a glossy light source causes more strain than reading from piece of paper unless your children are reading in a cave.
I did the test. Based on your criteria...
Eyestrain is a myth.
I'm at my computer screen (a glossy iMac) all day. I'm also on the iPad reading or watching videos for two hours daily.
My eyes don't get tired.
I also have a Kobo ebook reader. I use this mainly when others are using the iPad and outdoors.
I'd rather have my children *suffer* from iPad eye strain, than suffer life long back pains due to the ridiculous amount of books they carry in their backpacks.
Ae you a child?
Umm, no. A paper book, even a glossy one, does not have the level of glare that a typical iPad has.
Moreover, numerous studies have shown that passively reflective surfaces & screens - like paper and Kindles - are much easier to read and can be read for longer durations with out fatigue than transmissive surfaces like the iPad.
Do a simple comparison. In a comfortable chair in a well lit room, read 10 pages of a novel from a book, a Kindle and an iPad and tell me which was the easiest? In fact, start with the iPad. Then tell me eyestrain on portable reading devices is a myth. I dare you. I double dare.
I'm a big fan of the iPad and I'm all for replacing books with readers - just not yet. I think the product needs to mature a bit, become easier on the eyes with crisper text and a anti glare screen optimized for static rather than moving images.
I also think that for most work, kids in school need a larger, "two page" iPad that is closer in size to the average open text book, and folds open like one.
The good thing is that AppleInsider has reported a rumor that the next screen will be improved (sadly not retina display) by being matte.