Archive for July, 2011

South Korea Plans to Digitize Learning

James Ruben, Horace Mann School, NY| 5:47 am, July 8, 2011 | Hardware, Mobile, School , , , ,

Attention students: hate carrying around textbooks? Love using technology to learn? Well, think about moving to South Korea! South Korea, ranked 8th out of 176 on the United Nation’s 2008 Education Index (for a comparison: the United States ranks 20th), wants to create an environment in which students can study anywhere and anytime while using better and more interactive content. South Korea’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced that it would invest 2.2 Trillion Korean Won (about 2 billion US Dollars) by 2015 in an effort to develop digital textbooks for all subjects and all schools. The Ministry has stated that these proposed digital textbooks will contain all of the information of the printed textbooks and will also include helpful multimedia and reference sources that would enhance the learning process for all students in South Korea. The South Korean government, perhaps taking a page out of Apple’s, Google’s, Amazon’s, Microsoft’s or any other major technology corporation’s playbook(s), also wants to create a cloud computing system so that students can access these digital textbooks from any computer at any time. Moreover, the Ministry plans to provide students of low-income families with Tablet PCs in addition to setting up wifi networks in all schools. The Ministry also plans to have these textbooks accessible by computer, tablet, and smartphone. Of course, all components of this proposed plan would require a huge server, but South Korea already seems to have plans to accommodate such a device.

In my opinion, these changes sound very cool. Students these days are becoming more and more accustomed to using technology to enhance their working and learning. Obviously there are many down-sides of this plan. Textbooks don’t run on batteries. Computers do. Textbooks are much easier than computers to replace when lost or stolen. The list goes on. Personally, I feel that having to use a Tablet PC for your work can actually be less productive than using a textbook because Tablet PCs have other features that may distract the user (such as internet and games). For this plan to work, students is South Korea would also have to become more computer literate. Textbooks are very simple to use and there is a “realness” aspect of them: writing in a textbook feels like writing; highlighting feels like highlighting. Computers/Tablet PCs on the other hand are not as innately understood. In any case, South Korea’s dedication to the development to digital textbooks is just another chapter in our “Information Age”, and I, for one, am excited to see how this plan evolves.

What do you think about this topic? Leave your questions, comments, and/or thoughts below!

Mark Zuckerberg Uses Google to Become Even More Popular (In Fact, The Most Popular)

James Ruben, Horace Mann School, NY| 2:52 am, July 6, 2011 | Social , , ,

Google+, Google’s new (and awesome) social media attempt complete with Circles, Hangouts, Huddle, Sparks, and so much more, is Google’s latest stab at entering the social market. Social networking has been the one field that Google has yet to get right. Search? Awesome. Gmail? Awesome. The list goes on. But Google Buzz and Google Wave, Google’s last two social networking projects, both failed pretty miserably. So the Google Team has really gone all out on Google+ in an effort to take people away from other social networking sites, more specifically, Facebook. So, you would assume Mark Zuckerberg wouldn’t be too happy about Google+, right? He certainly shouldn’t be shaking in his boots, but it’d be reasonable to assume that Mr. Zuckerberg would try to steer clear of Google+, correct? WRONG. In what I see as a pretty genius plan to clear the tension between Google+ and Facebook and undermine Google’s efforts, Mark Zuckerberg has created a Google+ profile. But that certainly isn’t all. Not only has Mark Zuckerberg updated his profile, created circles, and all that jazz, he has also become the most popular person on the site. Wow. Not bad. Zuckerberg, with 34,759 followers on Google+, leads Larry Page (a founder of Google!) who has 23,633 followers and is the second most popular person on Google+. See the rest of the list here. Granted, 34,759 followers is nothing compared to his 4.6 million friends on Facebook, but it is still very impressive that he has become the most popular person on a rival’s website. All I know is that, for a multi-billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg could have definitely found a better profile picture for his Google+ account.

 

What do you think about Mark’s popularity? Any reactions to Google+? Leave questions, comments, or thoughts below!

iPhone 4′s Finally Arrive in Botswana!

Darren Fine, Maru-a-Pula High School, NY| 9:55 am, July 3, 2011 | Hardware, Mobile , , ,

Hello GadgetHigh readers! My name is Darren Fine. I live in Botswana (the country just north of South Africa), and this is my first post on GadgetHigh. For many of you Americans, the iPhone 4 is nothing new. In fact, an entire year has passed since you have been able to lay your hands on one. But for me, and for all Batswana, the iPhone 4 is new. Apple says that the iPhone 4 is the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone. But does it live up to the hype? How much better is it than its predecessor? A lot better. It’s much thinner (though slightly heavier), lasts longer on a charge (thanks to Apple’s A4 chip), and will offer two-way FaceTime video chat. You also get HD video recording and an all-new three-axis gyroscope that should make gameplay even more immersive. What’s more, the new iPhone is also now offered by Verizon and AT&T in the United States. Here in Botswana, our two main service providers are Orange and Mascom. Orange just recently begun to sell the iPhone 4 starting at P8000 (for those of you who are not familiar with the Botswana Pula, P8000 is about $1,220). In America, Verizon and AT&T are selling iPhone 4’s starting at just $199! What a deal! Mascom and Organge also sell 8GB iPhone 3GS for about P4500, or about $690 dollars. In America, it would cost you as little as $49 when bought from AT&T!  So, is the switch worth it? I certainly think so. If I haven’t convinced you, see the chart below for more information. Thanks for reading!

Have you made the switch? Surprised by the high price increase in Botswana relative to America? Leave any questions, comments, or thoughts below!

Specs  

iPhone 3GS

  

iPhone 4
Operating System iPhone OS 3 (Upgrade to iOS 4.3 and soon to upgrade to iOS 5) iOS 4.3 (soon to have iOS 5)
Size (inches) 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.48 4.5 x 2.3 x 0.37
Weight (ounces) 4.76  ounces 4.8 ounces
Processor 600-MHz ARM Cortex A8 Apple A4 processor
Display 3.5 inches  (480 x 320 pixels, 163 ppi) 3.5 inches (960 x 640 pixels, 326 ppi)
Camera 3-MP 5-MP with LED flash, VGA front camera
Video Recording VGA @ 30fps 720p @ 30fps
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g 802.11n
Sensors Accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light 3-axis gyro, Accelerometer, proximity, ambient light
Internal Memory (max) 8GB 16GB, 32GB
Talk / Standby Time up to 5 hours (3G)/12.5 days 7 hours (3G)/12.5 days
Internet Use (3G/Wi-Fi) 5 hours/9 hours 6 hours/10 hours
Video/Audio Playback Up to 10 hours/30 hours Up to 10 hours/40 hours

 

 

In Theaters: Wimbledon In a New Dimension

James Ruben, Horace Mann School, NY| 12:45 pm, July 2, 2011 | Hardware, Movies/TV , ,

The Wimbledon Championships, for those of you who are not tennis fans, is one of the four major tennis tournaments throughout the year. The two weeks of excellent tennis at Wimbledon in Great Britain comes to an end this weekend with the women’s singles finals on Saturday and the gentlemen’s singles finals on Sunday. 3D sports has been on the rise. ESPN3D has been out on DirecTV for over a year now, and major sporting events have been broadcasted in glorious 3D to those willing to dish out some more money for a 3DTV and wear those funky glasses. Wimbledon has been no exception in the trend toward 3D broadcast of sporting events. ESPN3D has shown the matches in 3D in the United States and, more than three years after testing their first 3D broadcast (it was of some rugby match) BBC will show its first 3D broadcasts.

Now, 3D Wimbledon is becoming much more accessible to the public. For the first time, select movie theaters around the world will be showing the gentlemen’s semi-final matches, the women’s finals matches, and the men’s finals matches in glorious 3D. In Ritchie, chief executive of the AELTC (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club) describes the reason for the change: “We are always looking for ways to improve the presentation of the Championships by successfully blending that tradition with innovation.’” So, if you haven’t already enjoyed Wimbledon in 3D either by actually going to Wimbledon or heading over to a participating cinema and watching Djokovic take down Tsonga, Nadal power his way past Murray, and/or witness the match termed “Battle of the Babes”in which Kvitova grunted her way passed Sharapova early today in the women’s finals, I recommend that you try to get your hands on some tickets to see the Nadal vs. Djokovic final in 3D. If you still think 3D sports is a joke or a waste of money, at least go for the huge screen. I won’t choose sides in this match, but let’s just say I’d like the new World’s #1 (as of the coming Monday) to prove himself on the grass of Wimbeldon. Enjoy!