Long notorious for crippling their phones and strangling app developers who wanted access to their devices, the carriers have loosened their policies, since AT&T made its fateful deal with Apple, which ripped control of the device out of AT&T’s hands. The result showed to the world how the wireless industry had purposely crippled cell phones…
I always felt like computers were meant to be used with at least a hand poised on the home row, because without that arsenal of verbs things just take too long. As a power user, watching someone who isn’t familiar with all the shortcuts can put your patience under observation. To some folks, everything about…
06 Jun 2010 (updated); by Dennis G. JerzUsability Testing: 8 Quick Tips for Designing Tests If you already have a prototype and you want to conduct a usability test, and you’re eager to learn how to make the most of your opportunity to learn from your users, then this document is for you. Keep the…
I am still looking for a good iPad ebook app. I was frustrated that neither Apple’s iBook app nor Amazon’s Kindle app let you do all of the following: Highlight in multiple colors Type annotations Look up words in a dictionary The B&N app lets you highlight in a single color (gray), and permits both…
I’ve been using a Kindle DX for about a year, and an iPad for about a month, with both Amazon’s Kindle app and Apple’s iBook app. (Update, June 2: I posted about the Barnes & Noble iPad app, as well.) I’m excited that all full-time SHU students will have iPads next year, though I’m frustrated that…
Reblogging this excellent set of ProfHacker productivity tips on Evernote. Similar:Rest assured, there will soon be enough Rey toys to monetize the imaginations of the littl…The problems of female characters being …BusinessHow Social Media Silences DebateThe Internet, it seems, is contributing …CultureThe Religious Origins of Fake News and "Alternative Facts"A good exploration, in the light…
The data suggest that 80 percent of professors, with little variance by age, have at least one account with either Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Skype, LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr, Slideshare, or Google Wave. Nearly 60 percent kept accounts with more than one, and a quarter used at least four. A majority, 52 percent, said they used at…
A form I just got from the Academic Affairs office, as part of Seton Hill University’s plan to provide iPads to its faculty (along with all full-time students). This is just my roughest first draft. What do you think? What would you do with iPads in the classroom? If you wish to…
“Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”– A US general, speaking out, not against firing projectiles, but against the popular oral presentation crutch, PowerPoint. Similar:Evita in Zelionople CultureBias is a noun. CultureGoogle worker says he was fired for blowing whistle on cultA former Google video producer has sued …BusinessPlato's Allegory of the CaveIn The…
Even for those who love books enough to persevere with reading without e-ink will soon face another problem with the awesomeness of the iPad. The device does so many different things so well that there’s a constant urge when you’re using one to do something else. Two or three pages into a book, you’re already…
Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age (1995) features a fantastic interactive book that educates a neglected guttersnipe, turning her into a capable, intelligent independent heroine. The iPad doesn’t quite match the vision of that book, but this video is still amazing. Similar:First time experimenting with depth of field. The pilot's perch in a fancy #steampunk crui… …
The iPad is mentioned a couple times during this feature on how wonderful Seton Hill University is. Just kidding. Seton Hill is mentioned twice about a minute into the clip (after the advertisement). Similar:Three different sized buildings. Still working on variations for the biggest one. #blender…Three different sized buildings. Still w…AestheticsMaking Connections in Virtual One-ShotsI…
What drives players to spend forty, eighty, or more hours with a computer RPG? If we look only at the quest journal, where the operations of quest flag logics are exposed to the player, the appearance is of a massive indulgence in the pleasures of the to-do list. And certainly there is some of that.…
Very cool design! Thanks for the suggestion, Jefe! An episode of Star Trek TNG featured a character who carried around a roll-out piano keyboard, but the prop they used looked more like just a piece of cloth. This looks very believable. Similar:Books vs. Kindles: The Choice No One Made Ever”I bought a Kindle. I didn’t…
If that doesn’t make you want to read more, there is probably something wrong with you. Dr. Michael Sykes, a San Diego molecular biologist who runs the International Center for Bathroom Etiquette blog says he’s surprised at how long it’s taken for high-tech toilets to hit the U.S. —MSNBC Via Karyssa Blair, who also notes…
Today, programmers, web-developers and designers possess countless different ways to display digital words online, much like an artist with a blank canvas. As words float across our computer screens, code may be considered the underlying thought and form of expression that supports online words, preventing the words from physically or metaphorically “disappearing into [cyber]space” (Richards,…
These are interactive news packages I’ve selected to show to journalism students as we discuss some of the capabilities of Adobe Flash. Many are very recent. —Mindy McAdams Similar:Lessons from the Covington Catholic FlashpointMy social media network includes people …CultureOh, No. YouTube is Deleting Videos.Oh no. First YouTube institutes a “COVI…Current_EventsPick Up Your Smartphone Less…
A good analysis from Christian Science Monitor. (Thanks, Eric.) BlogPulse, an analytics company operated by Nielsen, shows hundreds of new blogs launched every week. In fact, as the Pew study indicates, blogging has actually climbed slightly in popularity among American adults over the age of 30, from 7 percent in 2007 to 11 percent last…
I didn’t watch that movie awards thing, but I understand this ad premiered last night. Here we see the iPad as a tool for monetizing the consumption of the internet. I saw brief flashes of a keyboard, e-mail, a desktop publication program, and a photo album, so the ad does acknowledge the role of user-created…
Brilliant. Now what do we do about all the workers who get tipsy from the cleaning fluid? In 2002, a group of Babson College entrepreneurship students ran out of room on their whiteboard. They had spent hours brainstorming new business possibilities, and the sudden space crunch threatened to cramp their creativity. Instead, it sparked a…