Teachers favoring iPads as educational tools

A Study of technology managers at educational institutions has revealed that many schools are testing or deploying Apple iPad tablets in their classrooms to use as educational tools. Apple has been quick to point out that iPads are in use in schools across the country, and that every state has a pilot program in place to put the tablet in the hands of K-12 students.

Altho the review, conducted by Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, was small in size, numbering only 25 educational technology directors, it shows the general trend that educators are moving towards. All of those that participated in the survey said they were already deploying or were planning to implement iPads in the schoolroom. None of them said that they had planned on testing or using other tablet platforms, such as Android or RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook. Apple has said that nearly 1,000 K-12 schools already have a one-to-one iPad program in place, which allows each student with their own iPad to use while at school.

According to Munster, the schools in his survey currently have about ten students per computer in the schoolroom. It is expected in the next five years that the number will shift to 6 students per tablet, which, if the trend continues, will likely mean 6 students per iPad, and not additional tablets. [via All Things D]  mobileburn.com

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Ford launches ‘new’ ’65 Mustang

today.msnbc.msn.com

 Everything old is new again — especially when it comes to the classic 1964-1/2, ’65 and ’66 Mustangs.

Like many makers, Ford has a catalogue full of parts for those original pony cars, everything from brakes to seats. But now, it seems, you can even order all-new, factory-approved Mustang bodies rather than having to scrounge up rusted and dinged-up originals.

“The 1964-66 Mustang is the most restored vintage vehicle,” said Dennis Mondrach, Ford refurbishment Parts licensing manager. “But the number of original 1964-66 vintage bodies is shrinking every year. Most of the original Mustangs left in scrapyards are rusted or wrecked beyond repair.”

So, for those determined to have an “original” Mustang, Ford turned to Pennsylvania-based Dynacom global, which was given access to original technical drawings, blueprints and specifications for parts. The supplier is producing precise duplicates of the original body – albeit with a few modifications that customers are likely to appreciate.

“The new body shell is made of virgin metal and uses modern welding techniques,” explained Mondrach. “It comes rustproofed, and after last adjustment and finish preparation of the body panels, it is ready for painting and final assembly.”

In fact, the steel used in the new bodies is a higher grade than the original Mustang’s, according to Dynacom Vice President Jim Christina.

“We use a modern universal automotive-grade steel that is actually stronger than the original, and advanced welding techniques along with more welds to strengthen the body,” he said.

The ’65 Mustang body includes virtually all of the original car’s sheet metal from the radiator support to the taillight panel, including trunk id and doors. The only thing missing are the hood and front fenders, which are sold separately.

The body kit costs $15,000 and is shipped directly to a customer.

The kit can be transformed into anything from the original ’64-1/2 Mustang – which comprised introduced by one-time Ford President Lee Iacocca at the New York World’s Fair – to a ’66, depending on the powertrain and trim parts.

Someone purchasing the body shell simply has to transfer the engine and transmission, electric systems and additional parts from a beyond-repair original Mustang – or they can order just about all the replacement parts to build an “original” pony car from the ground up from Ford’s restoration catalogue, at fordrestorationparts.com.

Meanwhile, the maker also has body shells for the 1967-68 and fastback 1969-70 Mustangs available.

Ford will debut the new ’65 body shell at this week’s SEMA appearance, the annual aftermarket extravaganza in Las Vegas. today.msnbc.msn.com

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HP’s TouchPad: The Tablet That Refused to Die

Unceremoniously killed under HP’s prior CEO on Aug. 18 after letting down sales, the device quickly found a market after retailers and HP itself slashed the prices on remaining stock.

This time, according to a Best Buy press release, a 32-gigabyte TouchPad is going for $149 with the purchase of an HP or Compaq-branded notebook or desktop PC. Sold separately, the price jumps to $599.99.

HP, for its part, has sold out of its internal stock of the device, according to a command on it is Web site. They can however still be found on Amazon and on eBay.

By bundling the TouchPad with PCs at its biggest retail partner, HP is affording itself an arguable edge against Acer Dell and Toshiba in what is sure to be a cutthroat holiday season for PC and tablet sales. After about a month on the market, and before the product wound up on the chopping block, Best Buy was able to sell less than 10 percent of the 270,000 TouchPads it had in inventory.

It’s hard to know how long the deal can last. Sources familiar with HP’s build plans say the initial TouchPad order comprised for between 1.8 million and 2 million units, though a third source disputed that number without elaborating. Regardless of the number ordered, sources familiar with the deal say that HP’s decision to killing the product had no immediate effect on the build plans, as components had already been purchased, and manufacturing was already underway. A source familiar with the matter says the manufacturer is Taiwan-based Inventec, not Compal, as has been previously reported. HP was contractually obligated to take delivery on the remaining units in the pipeline.

That makes the TouchPad is now officially a loss leader. As an IHS iSuppli teardown analysis in Aug showed, HP’s cost to build a 32-gig TouchPad is $328.65. At $149.99, HP takes a paper loss of more than $178 per unit.

HP isn’t incisively crying over the lost money. Remember that as part of the hot mess of news it announced on Aug. 18 was included plans for a $1 billion charge to account for costs related to shutting down the TouchPad and WebOS hardware business.

Whatever happens, this is probably the last hurrah for the TouchPad, for real this time. That is unless no one takes advantage of the bid to buy one along with a PC. Any stock left over after the holiday season rush will probably wind up in Best Buy’s equivalent of the bargain bin. allthingsd.com

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Android Apps Get Big Break on Google TV

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) unveiled a software update for Google TV on Friday that admits a slew of apps.

These are based on Android 3.1, Google spokesperson Jacques Herbert told TechNewsWorld. This is the latest version of the so-called "Honeycomb" release.

An update based on Honeycomb has been expected for a while.

Sony (NYSE: SNE), a long-time Google TV partner, reportedly showed a Google TV set running Honeycomb at CEDIA Expo 2011, the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association conference held in Indianapolis, Ind., last month.
The Google TV Software Update

The Google TV software update released on Friday focuses on four areas: simplicity, improved search, a custom YouTube feel and Android apps.

The interface is simpler, the customizable home screen has been redesigned to offer swift accession to an owner's favorite content, and all shortcuts are shown within the "all apps" feature, similar to how it's done on an Android smartphone or tablet, Google said.

The search feature has been improved across the board. Further, a new app called "TV & films" lets consumers browse through 80,000 movies and TV episodes across cable, satellite, Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), YouTube and other sites.

Google has also integrated YouTube more closely with Google TV search so consumers can turn any topic into a channel.

The YouTube experience for Google TV has been vamped so consumers can get to videos more rapidly.

Finally, Google TV now has access to the Android Market. So far, 50 developers accept put up Google TV apps on the Android Market.

The update will be available on Sony devices early next week and on Logitech (Nasdaq: LOGI) devices after that. Further updates and more Google TV partners are in the works.
It's The Apps That Count

Google reached out to devs to create apps for Google TV at the device's launch back in May of 2010, so why have only 50 devs responded, given the phenomenal growth rate of Android mobile apps?

"We worked closely with these developers to get their apps ready for the update," Google's Herbert said. The update itself bequeath include Android and Web apps from more than 100 partners when it's released, he added.

More than 50 of these partners have developed new apps for the update, and there will be about 800 Android apps available on the Android Market, of which 30 will work well on television.

"With thousands of developers, we expect new apps to appear on Google TV all the time," Herbert stated. Apps will be offered by partners including CNN Money, Flixter, Fox Business, Kraft (NYSE: KFT) Cooking, NPR, Motor Trend and The Wall Street Journal, he complicated.

"Supporting a new platform such as a TV is not simply about porting the code over," Simon Khalaf, president and CEO of Flurry Analytics, told TechNewsWorld. "It's about developing a great experience."

It will take time to develop Google TV apps, "but the excitation [among devs] is there, and in big numbers," Khalaf added.

On the other hand, perhaps Google hasn't funded app developing efforts sufficiently, suggested Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

Another factor could be that few Android app devs are really making any money, Enderle told TechNewsWorld.
Who Wants Set-Top Boxes Anyhow?

Longtime Google TV partner Logitech had to cut the price of its Google TV offerings double this year, from US$299 to $249 and then again to $99, in an attempt to boost sales.

To put things in perspective, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) quietly discontinued its 40 GB Apple TV set-top box and slashed $100 off the 160 GB model to bring the price to $229 back in September of 2009.

One year later, Cupertino announced a fresh version of the Apple TV for $99.

It could be that consumers may not want to shell out money for a set-top box from a third party when cable companies bid them as part of a subscription package, Enderle stated in a previous interview.

"HP was in this market and it got out," Enderle elaborated. "NetGear and LinkSys had products that never dealt well. The only product that has really moved well is the Xbox, but that's probably because the vast majority of people bought it to play video games." technewsworld.com

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Fiat 500 Abarth coming to US, to debut at LA Auto Show

slashgear.com

Back when I went to the Texas Auto appearance, I got my first up close look at the little Fiat 500 cars and thought they looked pretty cool. Our resident Brit, Chris Davies, pointed out at the time that if I thought the normal Fiat 500 was a cool car, I should see the hopped up enthusiast grade Abarth edition of the 500. That Fiat 500 Abarth version will indeed be coming to the US.

The car will be officially unveiled at the LA Auto Show in November. At this point Chrysler hasn’t offered the fully details of the Abarth version of the car so we don’t have all the specs and pricing on the car. What the maker has confirmed is that the Abarth will use the turbo charged 1.4L MultiAir engine under the hood. In Europe, the base Abarth edition makes 135hp and 152 lb-ft of torque

That certainly isn’t a lot of power by American muscle car standards, but the Fiat 500 is a lightweight and little platform to begin. I would bet this car will match up well against the Mini Cooper S. Also available in Europe is a package called the Esseesse package that ups the power to 160hp and 170 lb-ft of torsion. We will find out all the specs for the America edition in a few weeks. slashgear.com

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China denies it hacked US satellites

THE GLORIOUS People's Republic of China has refused involvement in hacking US environment monitoring satellites.

Last week the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission released a draft report about several incidents where America satellites were interfered with in 2007 and 2008.

The Commission did not say that the attacks were traced back to China, but it did cite China's military as a prime suspect, due to the similarity of the processes used with "authoritative Chinese military writings" on disabling satellite control.

The hackers gained access to the satellites on at least four occasions through a ground station in Norway. The unauthorised access lasted for between two and 12 minutes. While the attacks did no real damage, they did demonstrate that it is possible to hijack satellites, which is a worrying realisation when military satellites are accepted into consideration.

China has a bad reputation throughout the world for alleged cyber attacks, frequently being the first to blame when a major attack has been discovered. The US has not been the only target either, with alleged attacks against Canada and France having been reported earlier this year.

"[The US] has always been viewing China with colored lenses. This report is false and has ulterior motives. It's not worth a comment," said Hong Lei, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, according to Reuters.

Hong also repeated China's assertion that it is also the victim of extensive cyber crime, suggesting that them therefore cannot be behind these attacks. The Chinese government has claimed it was the victim of close to half a million cyber attacks in 2010 lonely, but that does not, of course, eliminate it as a suspect. theinquirer.net

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Samsung surges past Apple in smartphones, upbeat on Q4

video reuters.com

Samsung (005930.KS) only entered the smartphone commercialise in earnest last year, but its sales have skyrocketed thanks to a sleek production system that rapidly brings new products to market. Apple (AAPL.O) introduced its first iPhone in 2007.

"In the handset division, Samsung has no real rival models to challenge its products exclude for the iPhone 4S. Apple and Samsung will continue to dominate the market in the fourth quarter," said Kim Hyun-joong, a fund manager at Midas Asset Management, which owns Samsung shares.

Profits from the South Korean firm's telecoms division, annunciated on Friday, more than doubled from a year ago to a record 2.5 trillion won ($2.2 billion) and accounted for 60 percent of Samsung's total profit, offsetting a plunge in earnings from its bread-and-butter memory chips.

Shipments of smartphones jumped 44 percent from the antecedent quarter to 27.8 million units, up nearly four times from a year ago, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Apple's iPhone sales shrank by 16 percent to 17.1 million units in the third quarter. Samsung accepted 23.8 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter, 9 points higher than Apple. Samsung's flagship Galaxy line of products is powered by Google's (GOOG.O) Android software.

Apple sold fewer phones in the third quarter, missing street expectations for the first time in year, as buyers held off buying iPhones until the October launch of the latest version.

Samsung shares were up 1.6 percent by 0500 GMT (1 a.m. EDT), against a 0.6 percent gain in the wider market .KS11.

The world's biggest technology firm by revenue reported a 4.25 trillion won operating benefit for the July-September quarter, broadly in line with its earlier estimate of 4.2 trillion won.

That was down from 4.9 trillion won a year ago but up by 3.8 trillion won in the preceding quarter.

Samsung said its fourth-quarter earnings could be better than the third, advanced by one-off gains from its $1.4 billion sale of its hard disk drive business to Seagate Technology (STX.O).

"I am cautiously optimistic on the fourth quarter outlook at this point," Robert Yi, head of Samsung's investor relations, told analysts.

"Looking ahead into the fourth quarter, when industry demand is traditionally at its peak, Samsung expects sales of mobile devices to remain strong and flat-panel TV shipments to increase," the company added in an earnings statement.

Apple, whose iPhone sales account for nearly half the firm's total sales, reported a 40 percent gross margin, or the percentage of sales left after subtracting the cost of goods sold. Samsung's phone division reported a 16.9 percent operating margin, which further takes account of marketing costs.

Nevertheless, Samsung faces challenges as the new iPhone introduced earlier this month is notching up strong sales.

Nokia is also fighting back with its first phones based on Microsoft's (MSFT.O) Windows software. And Sony Corp (6758.T) announced on Thursday it would take full ownership of its mobile venture, Sony Ericsson, in a bid to exploit its music and video library.

Samsung on Thursday announced the launch of its Galaxy Note mobile device, adding to the flagship Galaxy lineup from products. The device, powered by Android, will square off against a series of new models released by Apple, Nokia and HTC Corp (2498.TW).

The iPhone, introduced in 2007 with the touchscreen template now adopted by it is rivals, is still the gold standard in the smartphone market.

Samsung may not have come up with the concept, but it has acquired Apple's breakthrough smartphone idea perhaps better than any other handset maker. It tries to offer the Apple experience at a better price with better functionality.

"Samsung's rise has been driven by a blend of elegant hardware designs, popular Android services, memorable sub-brands and extensive global distribution," said Alex Spektor at Strategy Analytics.

"Samsung has demonstrated that it is possible, at least in the short term, to differentiate and grow by using the Android ecosystem."

Q4 SEEN BETTER THAN Q3

Profits from Samsung's chip business more than halved to 1.59 trillion won, but the division held up well as its relatively high exposure to lucrative mobile chips helped the firm offset a sharp plunge in prices of commodity computer memory chips.

Samsung was the sole profitable firm among major global dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip makers in the third quarter.

Second-ranked computer memory chip maker Hynix semiconducting material (000660.KS) and Japan's Elpida Memory (6665.T) swung to deep losses as prices of DRAM chips used in PCs tumbled about 50 percent in the third quarter.

Samsung's chip business is also benefiting from strong demand for mobile C.P.U. chips used in Apple's iPhone and iPad tablet as well as its own Galaxy smartphones.

Samsung expected demand for PCs to remain weak in the 4th quarter because of weak seasonality, while demand for mobile devices and servers will be relatively strong.

"I see some signs that chip prices have hit bottom as inventories are running out. However, we don't yet know when the industry is going to pick up since macroeconomic uncertainties overshadow the demand outlook," said Park Hyun, an analyst at Tong Yang protections.

Samsung's display business posted losses for a third consecutive quarter on weak demand for TVs and PCs.

But losses narrowed from the previous quarter, helped by strong net profit from the OLED display, which is widely expected to replace LCD as the next-generation flat-screen in mobile devices and TVs.

($1 = 1,115.250 Korean won) reuters.com

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