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Apple announcement roundup: iOS 4.1 and 4.2, new iPods, new Apple TV

Earlier today, Apple held their annual fall product announcements. Industry experts have come to expect new music-related products at this event, in time for the holiday season. For the first time in eight years, Apple provided a live video stream of the event, so we were able to keep up on the announcements as they were made (as opposed to frantically refreshing live reports from gadget blogs). For the most part, the video presentation was phenomenal–you can watch the recording for yourself–but people weren’t glued to computer screens around the world to critique Apple’s cinematography skills. Here’s a rundown of some of what Steve Jobs announced:

iOS 4.1: Apple’s taken its lumps over the past few months on a number of bugs and general shortcomings with the iPhone 4 and its operating system (iOS 4). To address these, Apple is releasing iOS 4.1 in the coming days. In addition to the bug fixes (including a promised fix to the proximity sensor, the only problem I have with my phone) Apple’s rolling in some new features, including HDR photography and direct high definition video uploads over WiFi to YouTube and MobileMe. The update will be free for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and most iPod touch models.
iOS 4.2: Following the 4.1 updates, an iPad-specific round of updates will be available in November. Of note, this will include the multitasking feature already present in iOS 4 and brand-new wireless printing functionality. Yet another yeah-but-the-iPad-can’t-do-this argument is in trouble. This update will also be free.
iPod shuffle: Apple took the best things of the last two models and merged them into the latest iPod shuffle. The new model has easy-to-click buttons and VoiceOver technology, and costs $49.
iPod nano: The iPod nano might have received the biggest overhaul of any iPod announced today. It’s tiny and no longer sports the iPod’s trademark scroll wheel. Instead it’s all touch-based, like its bigger brothers the iPod touch (more on that in a minute), the iPhone, and the iPad. I’ve seen mixed reactions but of all the products announced today this is the one I’m most likely to buy, to replace my first generation nano. The new nano starts at $149, available next week.
iPod touch: Jobs announced that the iPod touch is now the world’s most popular handheld game player, outselling Nintendo and Sony combined. I still have trouble believing that, but if it’s true it’s very impressive. New features: Apple’s new Retina Display technology (if you haven’t seen it, go to your local Apple Store and look at a demonstration iPhone 4–the screen is almost as crisp as paper), front and back video cameras to support Apple’s FaceTime video conferencing technology and high definition video recording, and a slimmer design. We’re planning to pick up a few of these to send to schools for experiments with mobile data collection and mobile coaching via FaceTime. The iPod touch starts at $229 and is also due out next week.
iTunes 10 and Ping: iTunes 10 is available now and has an updated user interface and a more modern icon (no more CD, since iTunes is coming close to outselling CDs). The big new feature is Ping, a built-in social network for music fans. I was skeptical that users will flock to this until I read the suggestion that Ping is not so much another Facebook clone as it is a blow toward MySpace; whose remaining audience tends to revolve around music. I am a little concerned that this new social network being built-in will cause some knee jerk blocking of what is otherwise very useful software for educators, when you consider the vast amounts of podcasts and iTunes U content available from the application. Time will tell.
Apple TV: To round out the product announcements, Jobs introduced a revamped version of Apple TV, a device that connects to your television and lets you stream content from iTunes on your computer, rent movies and TV shows, stream Netflix (if you have a Netflix account), and watch podcasts. The new version is tiny–no more built-in hard drive; everything is streaming–and costs $99 (the original model was $229 and included a hard drive). I was a faithful user of the original Apple TV until mine gave out on me earlier this year. I’ve since replaced it with a Roku box, which is priced similarily and also streams Netflix (as well as content from other providers) but not local media (that is, stuff from my computer’s hard drive). I’m on the fence on this one–I use my Roku to stream Major League Baseball; I may stick with it through this season and reevaluate after that. I do miss being able to stream music and video from a computer to my larger television screen.

Jobs also showcased some beautiful new Apple Stores in London and Paris, and Game Center, a system to help game developers make their games more social.

By Aaron Sumner | September 1st, 2010 | View Comments

Too busy to blog? Try tumbling instead

I was telling someone the other day about how I currently post to three blogs (this one, a personal blog, and a technical blog for the Ruby on Rails application framework). I got the response I usually get–I just don’t have the time to do that.

I understand. I make the time for myself because I think blogging is important to me for five reasons:

It helps get my name out there, about topics I theoretically know a little bit about. My name is surprisingly common, but thanks to my blogging habits I come up at the top, or at least near the top, when someone searches my name.
It lets me give back to a community in a meaningful way. I don’t know everything there is to know about Ruby on Rails, but I certainly remember what it was like to be in a middle area in my expertise–seasoned enough to not need the beginners’ tutorials, not advanced enough for the tough stuff. So I write for people in that middle ground with the hopes that people can learn from my own work, rather than having to reinvent wheels. I’m a much better writer than I am a coder or public speaker, so blogging is a good medium for my contributions to the Rails community.
It helps me learn. Teachers who use The Paraphrasing Strategy and other reading strategies from the Center for Research on Learning know that being able to put something in your own words is one important step toward understanding. When I blog about something–whether it’s how to add a useful function to your web application or ways I think the iPad will change education–it gives me the opportunity to read up on a topic, think about it, and report on it in my own words.
It gives me a bigger audience. I tell people that I’m writing for an audience of one when I write. For my personal blog, it’s me. For my Rails blog, it’s me two years ago. For the Stratepedia Blog, it’s Don Deshler (my boss; Director of the Center for Research on Learning). In the last case, rather than typing an e-mail that only Don can see, I type up a blog post that anyone can read and, hopefully, learn something from.
It helps me frame my thoughts for larger, more important pieces like grant proposals.

Still too busy to blog?

If these reasons have changed your mind, and you’re ready to give blogging a try, great! Here are some ways to get started blogging right now. Would you rather start a little more simply? I suggest starting a tumble blog, or tumblog, instead. Tumblogs are a little more stream of conscious-driven than the longer forms of writing you typically see in blogs. They can also be multimedia–photographs, inspirational quotes, video clips, or random musings are all fair game.

Technically, most blog platforms can be used to create tumblogs, but arguably the two best services are Posterous and Tumblr. If you’ve never blogged before, start with Posterous. Its biggest selling point is you can do everything you need to do to start blogging via e-mail. Attach media to your message for instant online galleries, no web programming required. If you want to customize your blog, use Posterous’ administration backend in your web browser to tweak settings. Scott McCleod’s Mind Dump is a good example of a Posterous-based tumblog for educators.

Tumblr is a little more web-centric, but includes a nice bookmarklet to make it super-simple to post interesting things you find on the web to your Tumblr-hosted blog. Your blog can be ready to go in about five minutes. Check out Things For Teachers to see an education-oriented Tumblr site.

Have you started a blog or tumble blog? Share a link to it in the comments below. Please word things so we can be sure it’s not spam.

Photo: churl han on Flickr

By Aaron Sumner | August 31st, 2010 | View Comments

Looking at data visually

It’s not that I’m sharing video of TED talks every Monday morning; it’s just that they make it so darn easy. Today is David McCandless’ talk from this past July about “beautiful data.” I had a couple of takeaways from this: First, sometimes the raw numbers don’t tell the story (or the whole story, at least); and second, sometimes it takes more than one set of data to really gain some perspective on an issue. McCandless’ visualizations illustrate these points in the video below.

Want to see more of McCandless’ work? Check out his blog Information is Beautiful.

By Aaron Sumner | August 30th, 2010 | View Comments

5 ways to make learning new technology easier and fun

Last week I poked a little fun at the misuse of technology in presentations. This week I’ve put together a list of steps you can follow to get you past that newbie phase so you’re using technology in your presentations, teaching, communication, and everyday life like an old pro.

If you take one thing away from this list, it’s that anyone can learn new technology. (Don’t believe me? Let me remind you of the 99-year-old woman who never used a computer, but took to the iPad in no time.) like everything else learning a new technology takes time, dedication, and planning. Hopefully these suggestions will help you find and apply all three to your own learning.

1. Make a wish list

Don’t worry, you don’t have to know everything about every new technology that hits the scene. Nobody has time for that. I have a list in my tasks list of things I’d like to learn or get better at someday. It’s loosely organized, and not set in stone by any means. Wherever you keep your notes or to-do lists, start a list. Then, as you learn new technologies to the level you want to learn them (you also don’t have to be an expert at everything), cross it off and move on to the next thing. Remember to start small, and work from the basics to the hard stuff.

Need some ideas? Here are some starters:

How to use social media (Twitter, Facebook, blogging …)
How to create digital videos (Flip cameras, iMovie, YouTube …)
How to get better at presenting (PowerPoint, Keynote, Presentation Zen …)
How to use online conferencing tools (Skype, iChat, DimDim, Adobe Connect …)

2. Set aside time for learning

This might be the most important thing you can do when learning something new on your own: Set aside a couple of hours per week for learning, and keep it sacred. Block it off on your calendar, turn off your phone and e-mail, and focus on your learning project. You can set a loose agenda for yourself going into the learning session, and also give yourself an out if it turns out you really don’t want to learn this topic. If that happens, don’t play hooky! Pick something else from your list and proceed from there.

Don’t forget: Take notes on what you’ve learned so that the next time you can pick up where you left off.

3. Find the right instruction

Great news! You can find great instructional materials online to kick off your personal learning. Even better news, much of it is free. Here are some places to help you on your way:

Apple has some excellent video-based tutorials for software like iWork, iLife, and the Macintosh operating system.
Many software companies employ a similar approach, providing video tutorials for their tools. Consult the product’s website to learn more.
If you or your school has a license for it, online tutorial sites like Atomic Learning or Lynda.com may have tutorials on what you’re learning, too.
Learn It In 5 is geared toward teachers and provides short (under 5 minute) video tutorials for a variety of technologies.
If these routes don’t lead you to what you’re looking for, a quick search might yield answers. add the word tutorial to a web search about your product, and see what you can find.

If you learn better from books, don’t worry–no matter what you’re interested in learning, someone’s probably written a book about it. Regardless of where you wind up buying the book, hit up Amazon and check their customer reviews to get a good feel for whether it would be a good fit for your learning style. While you’re there, you can also see a preview chapter for many books.

Other places to look: Extension courses from your local community college, webcasts (webinars) from software and book publishers, or professional development opportunities from your employer.

4. Learn with a friend

Your learning doesn’t have to happen in a vacuum. Tap your social networks (online or otherwise) to see if anyone else would be interested in joining you as you learn about new things. If you get a lot of responses, you could even start a learning club, like a book club. Such activities would be particularly beneficial if your learning goals involve, say, social media or online conferencing tools.

If you don’t have any friends with a similar learning goal, check out 43 Things, a social network designed to help self-motivated learners find each other to share ideas and provide support for one another. (By the way, 43 Things is not just for technology–if you want to learn a new language, or live more frugally, or become better-read, there are support groups here to help you meet your goals.) You could also ask around to see if your community has a users group around the topic–for example, Lawrence has both an Apple users group and an ad hoc group of programmers who meet regularly to share ideas.

Alternatively, you could also identify someone who already has the skills you’d like to learn, and ask if you could learn from them in a mentorship. Again, take advantage of your social networks to identify people who can help you achieve your learning goals.

5. Make something with what you’ve learned

Finally, a great way to personalize your new knowledge is to take what you’ve learned from the tutorials and practice, and build something meaningful or useful to you. Start doing this early–as soon as you know how to save your work, start putting your own stamp on things. It doesn’t have to be perfect! We’re talking about technology, so consider this first effort your 1.0 release. This hacker-like approach to learning is how great ideas are born.

As you get better with your tools, you can refine your work. I also like to share my early work, warts and all, with my co-learner and anyone else who will pay attention. It’s a good way to get feedback for future things to add to the product, and thus help fine-tune my personal learning path. You may also get some tips from people who have been there, done that, and can point you to other good learning resources.

Image: alejandro tamayo on Flickr

By Aaron Sumner | August 27th, 2010 | View Comments

How to get the most out of the Stratepedia Blog

I’ve spent some time tinkering with our blog recently. Although it (the blog) isn’t the core of our work at Stratepedia, it does account for almost double the traffic we get for all of our other work put together. This is because our toolkit is designed for a relatively small group of people, while our blog content is geared toward the larger audience of people who want to know more about educational technology and how it applies to strategic instruction and the classroom of today (and tomorrow).

Thanks to all of you who help make my day by checking out the blog, leaving a note from time to time, and telling your social networks about what you read here. For those of you who aren’t, read on for three easy ways to get more out of what we’re trying to do here.

We add new content to our blog every day. As a general rule, we’ll post new, original content each morning Monday through Friday, and a daily links post every afternoon. We also make it really easy to follow along–spend just a couple of minutes a day with us to keep up-to-speed on our work and the world of educational technology as we see it. How to follow? That’s up to you! You can join us on one or more of the following:

Via RSS, using Google Reader, NetNewsWire, or your favorite RSS aggregator;
through Twitter,
by liking our Facebook page, or
subscribing through good old e-mail.

Engage

Blogging is a two-way communication channel. If you like what we have to say, let us know by leaving a comment on the article! More importantly, if you don’t like what we have to say, you don’t have to do so in silence. Comments work for criticisms as well. It’s much easier than writing a letter to the editor was back when newspaper was king. All we ask is you be civil. I personally like it when people leave real names, but if you’d prefer not to, that’s OK.

We use the DISQUS commenting service, which means we can host rich, threaded discussions on our blog. You can also ask to be notified of new comments on a post to stay involved in a dialog. You don’t need a DISQUS account to participate. Please note that if your comment includes a link, it may have to wait for moderation. Unless your comment is blatant spam it will be shared with others.

If you’re following us via Twitter or Facebook, you can also leave comments on our messages there.

Tell others

I’ve made it easier for you to let your friends and colleagues know when you’ve found something useful on our blog. Toward the bottom of each article, there are new Like (for Facebook) and Tweet (for Twitter) buttons. Click either (or both) to pass the word along to your social network.

By Aaron Sumner | August 24th, 2010 | View Comments

Dr. Michael Wesch: From Knowledgable to Knowledge-able

Regional YouTube legend Dr. Michael Wesch, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Kansas State University, gave my favorite presentation at TEDxKC a couple of weeks ago. Dr. Wesch is perhaps best known as the creator of the YouTube hit The Machine is Us/ing Us, about how modern technology–in particular, the Internet–give us the capacity to be much less passive with information and to create, collaborate, and share. His talk at TEDxKC continues this theme, asking the question, how do we help learners (and ourselves) leverage this technology to participate in global conversations, make a difference, and solve the world’s problems?

tedxkc on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Want to see more from TEDxKC? Check out the individual presentations, or a single video of all the presenters.

By Aaron Sumner | August 23rd, 2010 | View Comments

5 things to not do or say when presenting with technology

Sometimes, when writing about or presenting technology, it’s the little things that make the difference. With this year’s conference season pretty much behind us, I wanted to pass along some things I observed that stuck out in a negative light, so you can hopefully avoid making these mistakes yourself. Pet peeves? Maybe, but I wasn’t the only one who noticed (and commented) on most of these.

1. Don’t type URLs in the wrong field

First off, if you do this yourself, don’t feel too badly about it. I saw a presenter doing this at a technology conference recently–not once, but at least five times–by someone who should have known better. If you use Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari to browse the web, note there are two fields in your browser’s buttons bar. The one on the left loads the web address you’re typing. The one on the right searches for it in Google, Bing, or whatever your browser’s search engine is set to.

In essence, what you’re doing when you type a web address in the search area is adding work for yourself–you type, you search, you click; versus typing the address and going straight to the site you want to show.

If you find this is a hard habit to break, consider switching to Chrome, which uses one field to accomplish both tasks:

Here’s a related pro tip: If your presentation involves multiple websites, or sections within a single website that would involve a lot of clicking around, consider loading each site or page into a tab in your browser. Then click through the tabs as you progress in your presentation. It will save time and potential headaches during your presentation.

2. Don’t pronounce technology words incorrectly

How do you pronounce Mac OS X? If you’re saying Mack Oh Ess Ex, try again. It’s Mack Oh Ess Ten. It’s a Roman numeral–for those of you unfamiliar with the Macintosh lineage, Mac OS X is the 10th major version of the operating system (and as of OS X 10.6, or Snow Leopard, there have been 10 major versions of Mac OS X). Again, if you find yourself doing this, you’re in good company–I was at a different technology and heard multiple people who really should have known better pronounce the X as ex.

Also:

Linux (the open source operating system) is linicks, not lie-nucks.
Firefox is a web browser, but Foxfire is not.
Related: Mozilla, not Mot-zilla.
GIF (the image file format) is pronounced jiff.

3. Don’t assume everything is an acronym

Technology and education both have an overabundance of acronyms; maybe that’s why some folks assume something’s an acronym when it’s not. Let’s get back to Apple’s Macintosh operating system for a minute: If you get tired of typing Macintosh, just type Mac. Not MAC. I see this a lot and have always figured it’s because people are used to shortening personal computer to PC, but they’re two different things: PC and Mac.

Another one I see a lot is World Wide Web shortened to WEB. If (when) you tire of typing World Wide Web all the time, just type WWW–or even better, the Web.

4. Don’t make up your own iProducts for Apple

As of today, Apple does not sell a product called an iTouch. They do, however, sell an iPod touch.

5. Don’t leave other, obtrusive software running

Finally, here’s a true story, with a few details omitted to protect the guilty. A few years ago I saw a representative of a technology company doing a demonstration of his company’s product. He was having some major computer problems, so he did what anyone would do and rebooted his computer. It powered up. It loaded Windows. It loaded his demonstration software. It also loaded about half a dozen other applications, including an instant messaging program and an ongoing chat within it. Again, I won’t get into details, but the chat was most definitely not about his company’s latest product offerings, and he probably wasn’t too enthusiastic about a roomful of strangers learning a little nugget about his personal life.

There are plenty of things he could have done to prevent this–the easiest would be to shut off or mute the projector while his software was loading back up, or maybe just don’t use your work computer for activity you don’t want your work knowing about. My favorite method is to create a new user account from which to present. This is especially useful when presenting software to new users–rather than showing them my customized settings I can show what things look like out of the box.

Image credit: cogdogblog on Flickr

By Aaron Sumner | August 20th, 2010 | View Comments

Manipulating PDFs in Preview

As you may know, PDF support is built into Mac OS X. This means you can accomplish a lot more than just reading PDF files, without having to invest in extra software. Here are a few resources to help you get more out of PDF files on your Mac:

Print, annotate, rearrange, bookmark, crop:

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (“TUAW”) listed five tips for working with PDF files in Mac OS X last week. If nothing else, become familiar with how to print directly to PDF–this is one of the most unsung features of the Macintosh operating system. If you’d like to see this broken down, check out Amber’s brief tutorial on printing to PDF from this past winter.

More on annotating:

If Preview’s annotation tools are too limited for you, or you don’t like the idea of having your annotations saved inside the PDF document, check out Skim, a PDF viewer written by and for the research community. We’ve written some advice on using Skim to annotate PDFs here in the past.

Merge PDFs:

If you’re sharing multiple PDF files, it might be useful to merge them into a single document before passing them along. This is easy to do with Preview–the following video tutorial shows how this works in Snow Leopard (version 10.6 of Mac OS X):

Delete pages:

Finally, a quick tip on deleting pages from your PDF. I find I have to use this more often than I think I would, when deleting intentionally blank pages from electronic books.

By Aaron Sumner | August 17th, 2010 | View Comments

5 alternatives to Google services

Everyone loves Google, right? They’ve got the biggest search engine, the best e-mail program, Android phones, a great RSS reader, YouTube, and excellent social networking services. OK, maybe not the last one, but rumor has it they’re working on something. If you’re like some who think that Google’s getting a little big for its britches, though, and would like to explore your non-Google options, here are five services worth checking out:

1. Search: DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a new search engine that prides itself on its privacy features–read their privacy statement for more details–and “zero-click info,” meaning you can get a ton of information about your query without having to click links for further information. Check out their example query of back to the future or omaha population to see how they pull information from other sources such as Wikipedia (or WolframAlpha) to instantly pull in these data and display them for you, without the need for another click. This is especially useful on a mobile device–DuckDuckGo has a handy iPhone app ready for your next mobile search.

2. Maps: Bing Maps

Bing is Microsoft’s latest attempt to dethrone Google as search champion. They may not have Google beat in numbers, but they’ve got some features that rival or best Google in usefulness. Bing Maps is one such example. The birds-eye imagery is gorgeous, though you’ve got to use Internet Explorer on Windows to use Google Earth-like 3D imagery. Want more functionality? Check out Map Apps to add weather reports, cab fare estimates, and other useful tools to your maps.

3. Video sharing: Vimeo

Vimeo has a lot going for it over YouTube (which, as you may know, is owned by Google): You can upload longer video clips, it’s a much friendlier user community, and it’s less likely to be blocked by school district firewalls. That’s why we use it for our own video sharing needs. Just like YouTube, with Vimeo can upload clips and embed them in blogs and websites. Vimeo’s not the free-for-all that YouTube is–their free level of service is pretty generous, though. If your video sharing needs outgrow their free service, upgrade to Vimeo Plus for 60 bucks a year.

4. Images: Bing Image Search

Back to Bing: Google’s own image search tool had to play catch-up recently and rolled out several new features, but handy tools such as filtering image search results by size, orientation, color, and other factors were already available in Bing Image Search.

5. E-mail:

I personally use Apple’s MobileMe service for e-mail, but it comes at a price of about $100 a year. If you’re looking for a free alternative, check out Fastmail. From what I’ve seen the feature set is on par with that of GMail, and for $5 a year you can use it ad-free.

Want more?

Check out How I Became (Mostly) Google-free in About a Day on zen habits for more alternatives to these and other Google services.

Original photo: TheTruthAbout on Flickr

By Aaron Sumner | August 13th, 2010 | View Comments