Apple And Android Now Make Up 75 Percent Of U.S. Smartphone Web Traffic
via techcrunch.com
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The joy of recording!
because they have spotted a pronunciation mistake or a grammatical error! I mean, how often do you hear students wanting to repeat themselves when they speak in another language??? The recording exercise allows this magical phenomenon to happen! And even better, students love it when they know their recordings will be embedded on the school blog and therefore available for the world to listen to. This week I have decided to try to use it as often as I can in an attempt to make my students visit the blog and leave comments. I have noticed they do visit the blog but they have not yet stepped into the commenting phase. Do you have any suggestions to make students comment on a blog? If you haven't tried this yet, please do. You can find microphones at a very affordable price and they are so easy to use with Audacity. You can then save your recordings as .wav or.mp3 files and easily embed them onto your blog or website. You will see your students being motivated to SPEAK ;) What about you? what do you do to make your students speak in another language?
"get social" client feedback + want a #peek ?
Met one client each day the past three days and I’m introducing them to the new “get social” concept. I’ll try and get everybody together next week for a more intense session. They are from different fields so the experience each one can bring into the game is thus more valuable. I’m talking about the people at Alto Rendimiento (online and print sports magazine + sports web shop) – www.altorendimiento.net , A.E. Gestión (business consulting, analysis etc.) – www.aegestion.com and 17Groc – Comprar Regalos (online fun gifts shop) – www.comprar-regalos.com .
The good thing is I get very valuable feedback from them when presenting the “get social” concept. Like for example websites that are not traditionally viewed as social media yet could be applied a similar strategy. I’ll keep you posted on how this is going.
Unrelated note, does this device really have a market??? Talking about Peek www.getpeek.com . Or is it just another dust-gathering device for tech addicts with too much money on their hands? People seem to think it would make for a great Xmas present. Who knows, maybe I’ll get grandma to use email this way.
Your company? There's an app for that.
We tend to forget that the iPhone is still from the future in a way that most of the other devices on the list above aren't. It will take time for device makers to make up that difference.
via kottke.org
great article from Kottke on iPhone and other mobile devices!
A Big Week For The Mobile Web
When I use the word "mobile web", I am not referring to the web running in mobile browsers, although I understand that is what the words have come to mean. I believe that mobile devices are bringing web services into our pockets and purses, onto restaurant tables and bars, and into schools and stadiums.
I am not particularly concerned about whether these web services are deployed in a browser or in an app running on a mobile device. I realize that these are big issues for developers and that the mobile web suffers from too many browsers, too many operating systems, and too many device configurations and screen sizes.
But the power of the web in your pocket is so large that none of this really matters at the end of the day. The "mobile web" is where "it" is at right now. And it is also where it is all going.
And this past week was a big one for the mobile web. We got three big things we've needed badly:
1) A real competitor to the iPhone - the Droid
2) A scalable business model for mobile apps - in app transactions in free apps
3) A standard for broadcasting video (and audio) to mobile devices
Here's why I think these are all big deals.
First and foremost, we need competition in the mobile web market. If Apple were to own the mobile web opportunity that would be very bad for developers, for consumers, and for innovation broadly. Nothing against Apple, it would be true with any company. Android is the best hope for a strong competitor to Apple. In fact, as I've written here before, Android is a lot like Microsoft's Windows OS. It was a copy of Apple's operating system in many ways, but it was open and it could run on many devices. And it became the standard with Apple retaining a small but important share. I believe the same thing will happen with Android and the Motorola/Verizon Droid looks to be the first really great Android phone to come to market.
In addition to competition in the mobile web market, we need a scalable business model for mobile web apps. Display advertising is not likely to be that answer. In app transactions seems like a good one. It has worked very well in social gaming and is starting to show up in other web apps. But it is even more powerful on mobile devices where the user already has a transactional relationship with one or more providers of the device. Apple has decided to allow in app transactions on free iPhone apps, something they have been reluctant to do until now. This is a big deal. I think this could be an "order of magnitude" kind of inflection point for monetizing mobile apps.
We also need a way to offload bandwidth sucking applications from the carrier's networks. The AT&T network has suffered as iPhone users have adopted rich media on their devices. The same could happen to Verizon if the Droid is as popular as I think it can be. But there are ways to offload much of the high bandwidth services. Instead of watching the Yankees game via the AT&T or Verizon network, you can watch it over the digital TV broadcast spectrum using the ATSC standard that will ultimately find its way onto mobile devices. We've already seen this happen with the digital audio broadcast standard, HD Radio, that is now on Microsoft's Zune and will soon be on all kinds of mobile devices. Last week, I started listening to last.fm radio on the Zune via the the 102.7 hd2 channel here in NYC. There is a lot of one way spectrum out there that is now digital and can be used to push high bandwidth content onto mobile devices. I expect we'll see mobile device manufacturers and carriers work to leverage that spectrum to free up their networks for more interactive uses.
As important as these three developments are, I suspect we'll see like weeks like this past week a lot in the coming years. The mobile web sector is developing quickly and innovation is happening all over the place. It is very exciting to see.
via avc.com
Personally Owned Devices or whether or not using them in the classroom.
I have noticed there is a lot of talk at the moment about cell phones in schools: should they be banned or could they be used as a learning tool? Teachers I know from my PLN, twitter and from the blogs I read are mostly pro cell phones. However, the policy at my school is that cell phones have no place in the classroom and that students shouldn't be using them during lessons. I understand that if a student uses his or her cellphone to answer a call or a text message during a lesson, then obviously the teacher should stop it. But I have read an excellent post by Steve Dembo where he explains that " a teacher requires that the cell phone be out and ON the desk. In plain site. Not hidden in a pocket or backpack. So if the student is using it, the teacher KNOWS. And if the student is using it when they shouldn’t… Well, that’s when there are consequences. Phone is confiscated until the end of the week, or the parent can pay a $25 fine to get it back for their student. Sure, there were plenty of students who lost their phones, and plenty of fines paid. They used the money to pay for a field trip before the end of the year. But the point is, the students learned when it was ok to be using the phone as a learning device, and when it was inappropriate. Believe me, no student wants to go to his parents and let them know that they need $25 to get their phone back… and explain why."
Now my school has a tight budget and clearly lacks new technology and as Steve Dembo mentions "here we are with millions of dollars in technology that’s being paid for by the parents VOLUNTARILY… and most schools refuse to leverage it because of outdated policies and teachers that don’t want to modify their own classroom management strategies."I must admit I love my computer but I am not really good with cell phones or other personally owned devices, I have the most basic one just in case of emergency. Most of my contacts are by emails or skype calls. However after watching this wonderful presentation from this other excellent post by Lisa Nielsen, I am tempted to have no fear and give cell phones or ipods a go, especially because we don't have many computers in my school. If in any doubt about whether or not you should allow your students to use their cell phones in your lesson, watch this, it's great! The POD's are Coming
Big Brother - doubleTwist: Choice!
via youtube.com
Our vision is simple: to create a unifying media platform that connects consumers with all their media and all their devices, regardless of whether they are online or offline.
We feel that just like you don't use a different browser for every web site you visit (Firefox to read the NY Times, IE to stream Hulu, Chrome to browse YouTube, etc) you shouldn't have to use iTunes for Apple products, Nokia software for Nokia phones, Sony software for Sony products, etc. The typical household today has many such devices and there is a need for a simple and powerful software that connects them.
Thoughts about the Motorola Cliq (Dext)
Since Apple launched the iPhone, in 2007, Motorola is in a bad shape. It probably wasn't because Apple launched their smartphone but people were getting bored by Motorola's products; a blogger said that they were
Repetitive and un innovative. (source)
In January 2008, lots of Moto executives quit their job to go work with Apple. Motorola suffered a lot from the economic crisis and they're now trying to get back on the market with aggressive and innovative products. Their last device is called Motorola Cliq and it features a new technology called MOTOBLUR which streams directly to your Cliq (or Dext in Europe) your web life.
The MOTOBLUR technology, just like HTC Hero's Sense User Interface aggregates and streams your social web life to your phone's screen. The picture, I guess is clear enough for you to understand what I'm trying to explain. Yet, MOTOBLUR is a little bit more evolved than Sense UI because it seems that you need to have a MOTOBLUR account. Actually, MOTOBLUR gathers all your contacts, messages and other social web activities in the same screen and universalized applications such as Universal Messages or Universal Contacts (Facebook, Gmail contacts in the same application).
The MOTOBLUR technology, just like HTC Hero's Sense User Interface aggregates and streams your social web life to your phone's screen. The picture, I guess is clear enough for you to understand what I'm trying to explain. Yet, MOTOBLUR is a little bit more evolved than Sense UI because it seems that you need to have a MOTOBLUR account. Actually, MOTOBLUR gathers all your contacts, messages and other social web activities in the same screen and universalized applications such as Universal Messages or Universal Contacts (Facebook, Gmail contacts in the same application).
Now, it's time to explain what are the modifications made to Android (the core OS of this technology) to make this work. There are two things you must distinguish: OS and User Interface. OS (Operating System) is the interface that links your hardware to your device and the (hardware) resources available to make it work. The user interface is the design of the OS. Now, Hero and Cliq have got the same OS (Android) but different UI's (MOTOBLUR and Sense). Still, Android proposes a default UI if you want a simple interface but it's got limited capacities.
One problem is the screen's size:
Integrating information from various messaging and social networking sources into a single interface is a great idea, but it is hard to pull off on a 3-inch screen. The MotoBlur concept would probably make a great application or browser plugin for desktops and laptops, or even notebooks, but it’s a lot of information to fit onto such a small display.
Now, let's talk about the Cliq (the hardware, guys) itself.
It has got the Hero's processor and when I write that, I mean it's probably going to be slow.
In summary, Motorola Cliq (Dext) has got innovative, smart social skills; it's probably going to boost Moto's sales depending on the Cliq's price. Stay tuned; I'll be there.
HTC Hero's firmware update is due to arrive today
This major update, due to be released today, will fix several bugs such as the extraordinary sluggishness.
More informations here.
