iPad Not Ready For Higher Education?

It seems that the iPad is attracting the wrong kind of attention from a number of high profile universities for reported issues with connectivity and degradation of the school's networks when a number of the devices are connected. The Wall Street Journal is reporting "The tablet, lauded by many as the next wave in education technology, is having difficulty being accepted at George Washington University and Princeton University because of network stability issues. Cornell University also says it is seeing connectivity problems with the device and is concerned about bandwidth overload."

In addition to the networking woes, some educators are also complaining about a lack educational content available via the iBookstore application. Regardless, I am sure that Apple will be working hard to solve the hardware issues and attract more content. Not to mention, too many consumers Apple products are simply irresistible!

Find Twitter Tweeps To Follow With Google's Help

Google seems to be paying some attention to Twitter these days, perhaps the Jaiku acquisition hasn't quite paid the dividends they were hoping for. Google has announced a couple of tools aimed at Twitter this week. First, they announced a replay feature that helps you search the public archive of updates from Twitter, and now from Google Labs, Google Follow Finder to help you identify tweeps to grow your Twitter network. The tool uses public following and follower lists to generate it's list of tweeps that you may wish to follow. It's not really ground breaking but it is interesting that these announcements come as Twitter announces it's plan for generating revenues through promoted tweets via it's search feature.

Twitter Takes A Shot At Revenue Generation

Well, Twitter has finally dipped it's toes in the advertising pool but they have done so ever so carefully. Twitter is taking things very slowly in an attempt to not affect the user experience, the ad must first be tweeted by the advertiser and then it will show up in search results as a featured tweet. However only tweets (ads) that are popular with users, in that they are retweeted or replied to, will be kept in the queue. “The one thing we are most excited about is these are simply tweets, not ads,” Chris Buzzo a Starbucks spokesman said. “There is one big difference between a promoted tweet and a regular tweet. promoted tweets must meet a higher bar — they must resonate with users. This means that if users don’t do the things with promoted tweets that would normally do with a regular tweet such as reply to it, favorite it, or retweet it and so on, the promoted tweet will disappear.”

I find it intriguing that they are only displaying the promoted tweets in the search results, only because I have recently discussed with a colleague my use of Twitter to discover relevant recent information via search, over even Google in some situations... 

Read More at Wired.

Google's Schmidt Tells Party Goers That Google Will Challenge The iPad

The NYTimes is reporting that Eric Schmidt of Google fame has eluded to a Google Android based tablet to rival the iPad. This probably shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone but the interesting talk that revolves around the Google slate is that it is rumored to support Adobe Flash, something that Apple has refused to do and that will have many developers heaving deep sighs of relief.

Eric E. Schmidt, chief executive of Google, told friends at a recent party in Los Angeles about the new device, which would exclusively run the Android operating system. People with direct knowledge of the project — who did not want to be named because they said they were unauthorized to speak publicly about the device — said the company had been experimenting in “stealth mode” with a few publishers to explore delivery of books, magazines and other content on a tablet.

 I, for one, am likely to want to give the iPad a try but will definitely be waiting to see what Google's offering is! I truly do love my HTC Dream and would not trade it for an iPhone, ever!

Google Docs Updated

This is a timely piece of news for me as my new employer extensively uses Google Docs, Google Talk, and Google Calendar in day to day operations. If you've followed this blog for any length of time you'll know that I am a big Google fan boy and this discovery was a very pleasant surprise... not to mention the fact that my Android phone integrates very nicely with these Google offerings. The news... well Google Docs has just gotten better with new collaborative tools, reminiscent of Google Wave, and speed enhancements. Here's a video compliments of the Official Google Blog:

Is iAds Apples New Revenue Stream Or A Developer Support System?

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says the companies new ad platform for mobile devices, namely the iPhone, iPad, and iPod, is not a get rich quick scheme for his company but a support system for application developers by which they will be able to keep the cost of apps down, increasing the likely hood of continued interest in app development. The iAds program offers developers a platform onto which they can "build complex interactive ads into apps..." according to the NYTimes. Apples plan is to keep 40% of the revenues with 60% going to the apps creator, following a similar model as the iTunes App Store. “This is us helping our developers make money so they can survive and keep the prices of their apps reasonable.” said Jobs. When comparing his iAds network to Google's Adsense Jobs said “Search is not where it’s at” on phones, he said. “People are not searching on a mobile device like they are on the desktop.” I tend to agree with the observation but I have a hard time believing it's all about helping the developers...

The iPad Unboxed - bow chicka wow wow

The folks at Revision 3 decided to poke fun at Apple's iPad with an unusual unboxing, in a video segment reminiscent of a 70's style porn movie... not that I would know what they looked like.

iPad Content Work Around For Canadians

The Globe and Mail is reporting that Canadians will be faced with a copyright issue when the iPad is released north of the border. It's an issue that we're already used to regarding video content from US television networks. The apps, books, and video content that is catching fire with our neighbors to the South, may not be available to us here because of domestic licensing and copyright ownership laws regarding certain content. Bummer! The article goes on to describe the dilemma, but the most valuable piece of information that you'll get is the following:

Workaround Tip:

Globetechnology reviewed the iPad earlier this week using a pre-paid MasterCard purchased at Shoppers and created a U.S. iTunes account with a throw-away U.S. mailing address. That allowed us to download all of the apps available on the U.S. store, including iBooks, the ABC Player and Netflix. Some apps are geo-blocked, such as the ABC Player, but we were able to buy and download books from iBooks.

Enjoy your new iPad!

North Korea Trumps China On Sensorship And PC Usage Spying

According to the BBC a Russian student studying in North Korea, of all places, has revealed a government created operating system (OS) sold to residents known as Red Star. The OS, according to researchers in South Korea, is aimed at monitoring user activity, though very few North Koreans have computers or Internet access.

It is designed "to control [North Korea's] own information security", a report by South Korea's Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) said.

"Due to few applicable programmes available, Red Star will not even by easily distributed in North Korea," it added.

Red Star is Linux-based and is influenced by Microsoft with versions Office embedded and an e-mail system called Pigeon as well as a Mozilla Firefox browser - which opens to the North Korean government website as the home page.

I'm not surprised by this, just that it's made the news! Would we expect anything less of this dictatorship? Perhaps the BBC is simply looking for anything to report other than iPad...

And Now For Something Completely Different Than iPad

In order to resist the urge, and because the only thing you can find online is iPad news I'll present you with something completely different. Happy Easter... enjoy!