Your 5 Year Old Might Get An iPad Before You Do… As An Education Aid Obviously

Not all of us have been lucky enough to enjoy the benefits of owning an iPad, unless we work for Leicester council of course in which case we’ve been given one to aid us in our daily duties. There’s also a chance that your 5 year old kid who is unlikely to be able to read this article fully has been given one by their school to make life easier for everybody.

Cedars School of Excellence (sounds like the school in X-Men) in Greenock, Scotland, has made the unique move to give every one of its 105 pupils an Apple iPad so that they don’t have to trouble their brimming minds with remembering to take pen and paper to school with them. It will also remove the need to have science teachers in classrooms and will give kids the perfect excuse to skip school and stay home playing games online.

Apparently, according to the school’s IT teacher (we had green screen BBCs in our school so this story does grate a little) they carried out extensive research to determine the most beneficial equipment to give kids in order to make learning more effective. Fraser Speirs went on to say that it wouldn’t just remove the need for traditional items like pens but it would also mean that science experiments considered too dangerous to conduct in the classroom could be watched on YouTube (we had a TV and video, I seem to remember it doing largely the same thing).

You would imagine there’s going to be a mass of website restrictions placed on the computer but as most 5 year olds are probably more tech and Internet savvy than their parents and probably teachers it’s unlikely this will stop them hitting the sites they want to.

Did you get anything as ludicrously cool as an iPad to help your education?

Will an iPad benefit a 5 year old’s education?

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Facebook Has Overtaken TV And Drunken Nights As Students’ Favourite Pastime

The rumours that students are a bunch of lazy shirkers could well be true and rather than sitting in front of the TV watching Countdown or at the student union topping up on cheap booze, the average student now spends the equivalent of a whole working day on social networking sites like Facebook. In contrast, the 7.5 hours they spend networking is only marginally less than the typical 9.5 hours a week spent doing coursework.

If you’re looking for the ideal source of procrastination then Facebook is apparently it and nearly two thirds of students will attest to that fact citing it as the main reason for them being distracted from work. What’s more, while the hard working masses may not be able to afford the likes of a brand new iPhone or Blackberry it seems that student grants provide an ideal way to buy a smartphone.

Students take more than £1,000 of gadgets with them to university, and around a third of those questioned said that they couldn’t do without their iPhone/Blackberry smartphone.

If you’ve ever considered doing a degree but have held back then maybe the news that you’ll spend 13 hours a week surfing the Internet, watch 2 films a week on your laptop, and spend nearly all of the rest of your spare time on Facebook with the occasional and brief break to do some coursework might be enough to grab your attention to drag you to university.

The survey was conducted by customer review firm Reevoo to coincide with the release of their list of top rated student laptops. The awards were as follows:

• Most portable – Acer Aspire One D250 (£214)
• Best on a budget – HP Compaq Mini 110c (£209)
• Best looking – Apple MacBook Pro (£1,106)
• Best battery – Apple MacBook Pro MC118B/A (£1,307)
• Best movie player – Sony Vaio VGN-AW41MF (£970)
• Best gamer – Acer Aspire 8942G-726G64BN (£1,196)

Are you a student?

Should you doing coursework rather than surfing the ‘net?

Apple To Launch HDTV In 2 To 4 Years?

According to one tech analyst, Apple will release a standalone HDTV that will bring together the features of the Apple set top box and the iTunes service. The update to the set top box, which ITV have been trying to prevent from being called iTV, is likely to be quite a change to the current model opting for a more cloud based system rather than a power sapping psycho of a set top box. It will reportedly include many of the same features and functions as the iPod and other popular Apple devices.

The change in Apple TV’s set top box is apparently paving the way for similar features on the potential future release of the HDTV. Users will be able to pay an iTunes fee that enables them to stream music, storing it in Apple controlled data centres rather than taking up precious hard drive space. This will also allow for the devices to use less power although is probably also a good way of ensuring that Apple is able to tie its users down to their service even further.

A new HDTV from Apple would be pretty much all encompassing. It would be able to stream both music and videos. They also have some experience in providing apps apparently (who knew?) and they have become masters of connecting their devices to the Internet. It could essentially do away with other set top boxes, media players, DVD players, and it could also include Internet access and web based apps.

This really is only the view of one such technology expert, though, and many do disagree that the Apple HDTV will launch. Will they do it? Well, with an estimated value of around $30bn a year, the HDTV market is one market that we think Apple may want to take on in some way.

Would you buy a fully integrated Apple TV?

5 Essential And Free iPhone Apps For Shopping Junkies

The iPhone is an absolute phenomenon especially in terms of its app store that operates under the premise that if there’s just about anything you want to do or be able to do then there’s an app for that. Whether your thing is sport, movies, or news you can get an app to keep you updated, find venues, and more. For shopping junkies there are apps to find your nearest high street stores or to buy anything from a pair of socks or a pint of milk to a new house.

View The Top 5 Shopping Apps…

Google Chrome OS Tablet Release Date 26 November… Maybe

Google itself aims to release a touch screen tablet PC just in time for Christmas apparently (in the US at least). The tablet, which will be manufactured by HTC and will be released on the 26th November.

Obviously it will be using the new Google Chrome operating system and other sketchy/leaked/assumed (delete as you see fit) details include the fact that it will have a multi-touch screen and will use the Tegra 2 chip from Nvidia. Whether it will dethrone the iPad remains to be seen but is unlikely given the incredible popularity of that particular little Apple gem, however, it could be a decent alternative.

Acer is also planning on releaseing a Google Chrome OS based system and has taken to the whole Google thing like a duck takes to water. With the popularity of the iPad ever growing, thanks to the fact that it has few viable rivals and offers a mass of apps and the such, it is unsurprising to see a number of manufacturers and companies throwing their hats onto the table and declaring themselves as Apple’s next rival.

The Google Chrome OS is being launched on the back of the increased Android mobile operating system popularity and it’s main aim is to get users logged on and online as quickly as possible. The Internet is where most of the system’s wizardry will occur so the system files and registry stored on the computer itself will be minimal.

While the operating system is initially being targeted at netbook users, mostly because of the fact that it should prove to be tiny in comparison to Microsoft offerings, it’s likely that any kind of success would see Google taking it mainstream with updated, and bigger and better versions.

Will Google Chrome OS be rocking your netbook?

Is Google going to take over the world some day soon?

Branchr Founder Is A 16 Year Old Millionnaire Modelled On Steve Jobs

It’s all well and good saying that you’re inspired by the likes of Steve Jobs but very few people actually do anything about following in the footsteps of their inspiration. Christian Owens, however, has done exactly that – he set up his first website at the age of 14 and has since gone on to become a millionnaire despite the fact that he’s still only aged 16. He’s clearly got the drive and determination as well as the vision to ensure it happens, but how has he made his money?

Using his pocket money at the time, Christian established the website Mac Box Bundle just two years ago in 2008. The website sells applications for the Mac and in the two years since then the website has gone on to bring in an astonishing £700,000 – now that’s a better return than the average paper round; even if you include Christmas tips.

Last year it was time for the juvenile entrepreneur to branch out and that’s exactly what he did setting up the pay-per-click company Branchr. He worked on the site in the evenings and at weekends. To say the site was popular would be a massive under statement, a bit like saying Steve Jobs has got a bit of cash tucked away. It has made £500,000 since its lanch one year ago and means that Owens has become a millionnaire long before he’s even old enough to go out and celebrate the fact.

Christian comes from Corby in Northamptonshire and says that it was seeing Steve Jobs take his company to global success that led him to become such a success. He’s not ready to retire yet though and has said that he won’t leave Branchr until it has made him £100m.

Are you a secret teenage Internet millionnaire?

Do you use Branchr or have you bought anything from Mac Box Bundle?

iPhone Owners Have More Sex Than Android Users

It could be the confirmation you were looking for or the reason you need to go out and buy an iPhone rather than a Blackberry or an Android mobile phone. According to a survey conducted by dating site OkCupid.com iPhone owners have more sex and with more partners than owners of other smartphones – wow, there’s an app for that?

Male owners of the Apple wonder phone will have had 10 different partners by the time they reach the age of 30 so it seems that antenna problems only stretch so far as the phone itself. Blackberry owners will manage 8.1 (we’re not sure about the use of decimal points in such figures because it makes us wonder how you have 0.1 of a sexual partner – a toe, maybe?) and Android owners are lagging behind with just 6 partners.

The figures get even more disparate for women too. Female iPhone users have 12.3 sexual partners by the time they reach 30. Blackberry owners only manage 8.8 and Android based smartphone owners rack up just 6.1 by the same age.

The moral of the story? The kind of people that buy iPhones are sexually promiscuous – you decide whether that means it’s time to swap phone or not.

The survey also looked at the type of photo that was most likely to make you appear more attractive on dating sites. Rather that considering whether photos of oneself taken in the mirror are considered good or bad, the dating site looked at far more technical details.

Apparently, sharp focus on the subject and blurred focus on the background makes the individual look more attractive. Photos taken late at night and late in the afternoon are best and the use of a flash is strictly a no-go if you want to appear more appealing.

What photo do you use on your dating site profile?

Which smartphone do you use and do you follow or buck the trend for sexual partners?

Blackberry Owners Don’t Know Who RIM Are; iPhone 4 Now On Vodafone

Blackberry Mobiles – Who Makes Them Again?

It also seems that the main reason people turn to the Blackberry is because they dislike the touch screen phones on offer. Approximately 65% of the users gave this as the reason that they use a Blackberry rather than the more popular iPhone.

Whatever the reasons for people choosing one phone or another, the RIM (we’re trying to drum up some branding for them) is not really a direct competitor of the iPhone because they have different target markets and different uses. The Blackberry phones are designed more for business use while the iPhone 4 and its touch screen and fun apps are aimed more at social and personal users.

Speaking of the iPhone 4, if you don’t have one yet and were waiting until it was released on a contract with a company that you preferred or you wanted to keep your existing Vodafone number then there’s good news. The Apple iPhone 4 is now available on Vodafone Pay As You Go contracts although you will have to shell out a few pounds to get one. The 16GB version costs £480 and the more sensible 32GB option is £570. You can still the older 3GS which costs a little less at £385. Early adopters will enjoy one year of free mobile Internet usage and 1 year’s free access to the BT OpenZone WiFi network.

Have you got an iPhone or a Blackberry?

Do you know who manufactures your phone?

iPod Zombies Causing Road Accidents And MyTown Available On UK iPhone

On the day that Apple opens its largest store yet in London, the AA has warned that iPod zombies are becoming a major cause of accidents on UK roads. You can barely open a new Internet page without being inundated by Apple news so it’s hardly surprising to learn that the iPod is causing such a stir and to many drivers it definitely won’t come as a shock that it’s actually the pedestrians that are getting the bad press for once. Maybe the next problem for UK road users will be pedestrians that are too busy checking out local properties for the iPhone game MyTown.

Apparently, pedestrians are too busy checking emails and listening to music on their iPhone to notice that they are crossing a road and should be watching for traffic. The AA has said that accidents caused by pedestrian inattention have risen 5% and they have listed the iPod as one possible cause for this increase.

The location based game MyTown is already a massive hit in the US and developers BooYah have announced that it will also be released in the UK, Canada, and Australia. Boasting 2.8 million users already it is one of the most popular games on the iPhone and it combines elements of the classic board game Monopoly with location based gaming.

Users can purchase real life properties using game cash. They can then upgrade their properties and enhance their property empire. As in the board game version, users can also charge other gamers rent when they stay in their property. As a gamer collects more cash and purchases more property they also earn experience points which can be used to give themselves a competitive edge by upgrading their own abilities.

Have you downloaded MyTown yet?

Are you an iPod zombie?

Leicester Council Approves Of The iPad As They Plan To Spend £40,000 On 54 Of Them

Councils across the country may be facing the harsh reality of budget cuts and spending cuts imposed by the new coalition government but that hasn’t stopepd Leicester council from saying that they will spend £40,000 ensuring that every council member in the area has their own iPad. Apparently, it will cut down on printing costs and make councillors’ jobs easier. There’s a ringing endorsement if Apple ever needed one – maybe you’ll see it on their website one day soon.

One councillor claimed that it helped him because he could write down notes and start researching immediately, as soon as they were approached thanks to the iPad’s ability to connect to the Internet anywhere in Leicester city centre. Unfortunately for the council, the announced spending has come at a time when they are also suppsoed to be cutting 1,000 jobs in order to save money; maybe not the best move at this time then.

Perhaps instead of a top of the range iPad each, the council should have announced they would be giving their councillors an Archos 7 Home – unfortunately, though, while it is considerably cheaper at around £130 it’s also severely limited in its usefulness and, we suspect, enjoyment.

The Archos runs an almost obsolete version of Android and doesn’t offer access to the app marketplace, instead offering 1,500 of its own applications (that’s really not very many). It also doesn’t have Flash and offers moderate battery time. Without 3G, GPS, or Bluetooth it’s also pretty much useless on the go but did we mention that it’s really quite cheap?

If you or your council officials are basically looking for a quite nice multimedia player at a cost that is significantly lower than the iPad then the Archos 7 Home could (we said could) be the answer you’re looking for.

Could you save £40,000 on printing using an iPad?

Is Leicester Council right to replace human councillors with iPads?

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