Just in case my post yesterday appeared too pro-Apple, let me dish out a little criticism today.  Just because they’ve made some smart marketing, distribution, and product development moves over the past several years doesn’t mean that they aren’t kinda evil.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that the iPhone is now available on Verizon ending the exclusivity between Apple and AT&T.  Pre-sales for existing Verizon customers started on February 3rd and the rest of the world is free to get in on the action today.  Various reports project that that 1 million iPhone 4s will be sold in the first week of availability and 3-4 million will be sold in Q1.

What’s wrong with that, you ask?  Well, Apple is predictable in delivering product upgrades on more-or-less a yearly cycle and a new iPhone has been announced or released every summer since its inception.  Do the math - if it’s now February and we can expect our next iPhone announcement in June, then people who buy this month have just four months to enjoy having that ‘new phone feeling.’

I guess you could blame the consumer here too.  I mean, if you’ve already waited four years for an iPhone to come to Verizon, why not wait just four more months to get in at the top of game?  I digress… 

Of course Apple wanted to get this done as soon as possible in order to exploit the hype and sell a bunch of phones.  They know that they have enough fanboys out there that they’ll be able to sell just as many phones (if not more) when the iPhone 5 launches over the summer… probably to some of the same folks that pick one up this month.

In the end, there are reasons why AAPL is trading around the $350 mark today and is expected to reach $425+ in the near future (iPad 2, new MacBook Pros, iPhone 5)… hint: it isn’t because they care about their customers.  Agree?

A private school in Knoxville, TN will require it’s 12th grade class to carry iPads.  Students will be able to either provide their own or rent one for $20 a month.  It seems this is the latest in a series of experiments to see whether the tablet can replace the traditional textbook in the classroom.

While I understand that schools and teachers are doing more and more to keep students interested and engaged, I just don’t see this as being a realistic solution.  Here are some pros… and some cons.

Pros

• Lightweight - No more heavy book bags, no more lockers, no more back aches.
• Connected - Question got you stumped?  With the internet at your fingers it’s wikipedia and wolfram-alpha to the rescue.
• Interactive - In theory, this could keep students entertained, provide tactile learning (in addition to visual and auditory) and beats the hell out of overheads and whiteboards.

Cons

• Connected - Question got you stumped?  Why do the work when you can probably have a computer just tell you the answer?
• Distraction - Why would anyone want to do work when  you could be watching youtube, listening to music, surfing for porn, or playing games?  Of course some of this could be locked down if the school controlled the device, but for BYO - I don’t think so.  Remember what the TI-82 could do?  This will be worse.
• Expensive - At $500 a pop, you’re talking $15,000 for an average sized class and $750,000 to furnish a school with a population similar to where I taught.  Don’t even think of saying “What about the money you’ll save on physical textbooks?” because there’s no way those publishers are going to give away that new interactive content for free.  Add software, security, maintenance… cha-ching!

I think that iPads are pretty sweet, don’t get me wrong, but they aren’t the solution for our horribly broken education system.  Perhaps down the road we’ll all be enlightened enough to augment our learning with a spiffy tablet, but Steve Jobs will have to make do with fanboys until then.

What do you think?

So it’s just a matter of time before people start re-hypothesizing that cellphones give you cancer, especially in light of recent news that Steve Jobs is on indefinite hiatus.

Rather than take the high-road, we decided to be first into the pit, and created this clever infographic to illustrate how the iPhone 4’s antenna might be a game-changer.

We encourage you to sign up for Tumblrs for Humanity if you are offended (or even if you aren’t).

PHOTO: In case $6.1 billion wasn’t enough incentive to be the next Steve Jobs…



Source:   CNBC - President Obama, Season of Progress

Any suggestions for The President on what kind of incentive you would like to be the next Steve Jobs?

Several weeks ago I brought up the question of whether the iPad could hold it’s own as an eReader.  I was lucky enough to score one for a long weekend trip to the West Coast and have had another couple of weeks since to really put it through it’s paces.  So, what’s the bottom line?  Here are my five thoughts:

1. As a piece of hardware - Pretty slick.  Big, bright, crisp screen and very responsive interface.  Navigating the web was pretty nice, although anything requiring more than a sentence was cumbersome to type out on the virtual keyboard.  Also, I was very impressed by the battery life.  Given a couple hours worth of use per day, you could probably make it a week or so between chargers.

2. As a media player - also pretty impressive.  Just as you’ve come to expect of your iPod, Apple excels at making media players.  Movies, music, and even a couple of video rentals were easy to access and played very well.  Although true multi-tasking isn’t available as part of the iPad OS just yet, you can still listen to your iTunes music while playing inside apps etc.

3. As an eReader - there are pros and cons.  First of all, I thought it was easier on the eyes that I had expected, but only after switching to ‘night mode’ which placed white letters on a black screen.  The second nice thing was that I could easily link to my wife’s ‘Nook’ account and get access to all of her books without having to download them a second time.  This is a nice value thing if happen to share similar reading interests.  On the other hand, reading in bright light is a pain.  The reflective nature of the screen means you either have to find an off-angle to read from, or you can’t really read at all.  This isn’t a deal breaker for most folks since, if you’re like me, you don’t do a ton of pool-side reading. (Sorry Kindle)

4. As a laptop replacement - forget about it.  People claim that they’ve gotten rid of their living room laptop after buying an iPad, but I don’t buy it.  Even writing an email was painful on the virtual keyboard, so forget about anything productivity related.  As a bonus, don’t forget that you still can’t view flash content on an iOS device. 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  If Apple could find a way to make the iPad a dual-boot machine capable of running iOS or OSX (when docked, perhaps) it’d be a true killer device.  Until that day arrives, you’re still going to need another real computer in your house.

5. Bottom line - a cool toy if you have money to burn.  At the end of they day you can’t really compare the iPad to any other eReader out there because it’s really just so much more than that.  Had I just brought a Kindle with me on my trip out West, I would have really struggled to stay entertained for the five hour flight.  As it was with the iPad, I had movies, music, and games (apps) at my disposal and it really helped pass the time.  On the other hand, I just can’t justify spending $500 on something that I’m only going to use on trips or as a reading device most other times.  Sure, you could keep it on your coffee table to look something up on the internet real quick, but chances are you’d be better served by a laptop for the same price. 

The iPad is cool, but it isn’t there just yet.  Just as the original iPod was groundbreaking, it’s pretty much a piece of crap compared to today’s iPod Touch.  Tablets aren’t going away, but I say save your money for something better from the next round of devices.