Tablets are everywhere, and while Apple’s iPad commands the most media attention, there’s no shortage of excellent Android alternatives to choose from, ZDNet reports. Here are the top 5 Android tablets for February 2013. All of the tablets features here are very capable, powerful workhorses, and are ideal not only for home users, but also for enterprise users or those looking for a BYOD tablet…
…Read MorePodcast Series: Innovations in Education
Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.
12 reasons why public clouds are better than private clouds
To see many of the advantages of cloud computing without its risks, many enterprises are turning to private clouds, which are service layers contained within their firewalls that look and feel like public clouds, ZDNet reports. But these private clouds may actually be less secure and reliable than the public services. That’s the view of Jason Bloomberg, who said private clouds often add up to more trouble than they’re worth. In his latest book, The Agile Architecture Revolution: How Cloud Computing, REST-Based SOA, and Mobile Computing Are Changing Enterprise IT, Jason outlined the reasons why public cloud may ultimately be a better choice for enterprises. You may not agree with Jason’s premise about on-premises — in fact, I expect violent disagreement. And this is more of an either/or argument, rather than raising the possibility of blended strategies, such as employing public clouds as test beds, but keeping applications in production within private clouds. That said, here are Jason’s arguments for public cloud and against private cloud…
…Read MoreMIT professor : Windows 8 is a Christmas gift for ‘someone you hate’
Internet entrepreneur and MIT professor Philip Greenspun has cast his critical eye over Microsoft’s latest operating system and concluded that it is the “Christmas gift for someone you hate,” ZDNet reports. But after more than a month of using the operating system, it’s becoming increasingly clear that not all of Greenspun’s critiques are valid. In fact, in some cases, he’s just screaming into the wind. The first criticism Greenspun levels at Windows 8 is the lack of features that are present on other operating systems. He points to the “permanently on-screen Back button” and “permanently on-screen Home button” present in Android, the “permanent hardware Home button” on iOS devices, and the “context-dependent menu of useful functions” found in earlier versions of Windows.
“Microsoft has had since October 2008 to study Android. It has had since June 2007 to study iPhone. It seems as though they did not figure out what is good about the standard tablet operating systems,” Greenspun wrote…
Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD family: The highs and lows you need to know
There’s no doubt that Amazon’s original Kindle Fire tablet was a huge hit. It earned over 10,000 5-star customer reviews, it remained the number-one best-selling product on Amazon since its introduction, and it captured 22 percent of U.S. tablet sales in nine months, says ZDNet. Amazon hopes to duplicate the success it has with original Kindle Fire with its family of Kindle Fire HD tablets. There’s certainly a lot of high-end technology packed into every Kindle Fire HD tablet. First, there are new displays. The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD comes with a 1920×1200 1080p HD display with in-plane switching, Advanced True Wide polarizing filter, and featuring a 1280×800 720p display. 254 pixels per inch that Amazon says are “indistinguishable to the human eye” — in other words: it’s a retina display. Both screen sizes feature 10-point multi-touch support…
…Read More10 excellent iPhone and iPad gadgets and accessories
Looking to spice up your iPhone or iPad while waiting for the next revision to come out of Cupertino? Give some of these gadgets and accessories a try! Says ZDNet. With all the excitement kicking up about Microsoft’s Surface tablet (which comes complete with an unobtrusive keyboard), iPad users may find themselves wanting to get something closer to a laptop experience out of their device. Luckily, that’s just what the CruxCase 360 sets out to do, acting as a protective iPad case that doubles as a stand and a keyboard…
…Read MoreQAMA: The only calculator a student should ever use
Long, long ago, before I discovered the joys of public school administration, before I fled from said administrative post for the easy life of private industry, before I left private industry behind to focus on writing and educational policy, I was a math teacher. And in my math classes, we rarely used calculators, says Christopher Dawson for ZDNet. Calculators are designed to eliminate the need for repetitive, tedious arithmetic, leaving time to actually think about the math. When used correctly in the classroom, modern graphing calculators can do wonders for visualization, simulation, and encouraging that critical thought that we’re all after. Calculators were supposed to eliminate the tedium and simple mistakes that plague many calculations but instead have become the go-to device for any math problem. Worse, students frequently lack the mathematical savvy to know when the answer output by the calculator doesn’t make sense. Estimation, it would seem, is a lost art. Enter QAMA…created by Ilan Samson, a retired physicist and serial inventor, to address exactly the problems I described above, the QAMA calculator forces students to provide a reasonable estimate for their answer before it will output the exact answer…
…Read MoreWatch: Coursera: The new face of higher education?
Coursera, the brainchild startup of two Stanford professors who found great success with free online classes last year, just secured a $16 million round of funding, ZDNet reports. Kirsten Winkler and I had a chance to talk with them late last week and their insights on free education, online learning, and the use of data to drive teaching and business are well worth sharing. Check out the interview…
…Read MoreUniversity admissions site launches 3D platform
A new application developed by the University of Rochester, UK, aim to give prospective students a more transparent and interactive viewof what it is like to study and live on one of its campuses, ZDNet reports. RocRes, created by the university’s admissions office, is aimed at providing an insider’s view of what it is like to live on campus — going further than the usual open days where students only get a limited glimpse of university life. The 3D models feature dormitory rooms, 360 degree panoramic views and interactive views of Rochester’s River campus. If you click on a particular building you would like to investigate, you can view information (as of writing, some remains to be added) as well as view images of the structure — most of them artfully angled…
…Read MoreStudy: Facebook can help identify problem drinkers in college
College students who post references to getting drunk, blacking out, or other aspects of dangerous drinking on Facebook are more likely to have clinically-significant alcohol problems than students who do not post such references, ZDNet reports. The findings are based on a recent study which appears online in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, and is supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) as well as the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Washington, Seattle, examined public Facebook profiles of more than 300 undergraduate students at those universities…
…Read MoreUniversity of Wisconsin hacked: 75,000 social security numbers, student names exposed
The University of Wisconsin’s Milwaukee campus has been subject to a malware attack, which has exposed names and social security numbers of students—past and present—and staff alike, ZDNet reports. Malware was discovered on a database server, which contained 75,000 social security numbers, and was shut down immediately after the malware was found…
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