Friday, February 2, 2007

Wi-Fi Phones Reviewed. prostoalex writes "With municipal Wi-Fi taking off and startups distributing free wireless routers for those willing to share their Internet connections, Wi-Fi phones or hybrid phones with both cellular and Wi-Fi access, are attracting interest. Dr. Dobb's Journal runs a review of 6 wireless phone devices available on the market today. The cheapest ones start around $80, but lock you into T-Mobile branded hotspots. The more expensive ones, Sony Mylo in particular, offer support for 3rd party clients, such as Skype, GTalk and Yahoo! Messenger."[Slashdot] 7:19:41 PM      Google It!.

Wireless Portable Cell Phone Drive Unveiled. An anonymous reader writes "According to Ars Technica Seagate has unveiled a new portable drive that fits in the palm of your hand and has a 20GB capacity, but most importantly features Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. It's called DAVE, which stands for Digital Audio Video Experience and it lets you stream music, videos and other data to your mobile. It can also interact with a variety of other devices, such as PDAs, laptops, PCs and cameras, making it perfect for transferring data from your phone to another device or vice versa." Update: 02/02 14:06 GMT by Z : Indeed, you may have enjoyed our recent discussion on this technology. Feel free to draw from it for another round of portable-cell-drive-related conversation.[Slashdot] 9:38:02 AM      Google It!.

Scientists Offered Cash to Dispute Climate Study. w1z4rd writes "According to an article in the Guardian, scientists and economists have been offered large bribes by a lobbying group funded by ExxonMobil. The offers were extended by the American Enterprise Institute group, which apparently has numerous ties to the Bush administration. Couched in terms of an offer to write 'dissenting papers' against the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, several scientists contacted for the article refused the offers on conflict of interest grounds." [Slashdot]  -- follow the money trail --BL 9:37:09 AM      Google It!.

Give Stephen Downes the job, with a good team of assistants. Stephen Downes posts his design for a conference. A vivid depiction of an open and energised space. I could have used this design before we ran FLNW, but we have it now. There are some very unique and exciting ideas in this design. I can[base ']t wait to either be at one, or help organise one. [Learn Online] 9:35:24 AM      Google It!.

The Blackboard Pledge. Inside Higher Education reports on the patent pledge made by Blackboard not to sue open source course management systems. The pledge was elicited by pressures from Educause and Sakai. My own evaluation of this move by Blackboard is that it is merely a political effort to relieve backlash pressures from academic organizations and institutions. The only action that will really protect open efforts to explore and expand course management systems will be if the Patent Office rescinds Blackboard's overbroad patent. ____JH [I completely agree with Joe's assessment of this situation --BL] _____ "After months of criticism that its patent policies had the potential to squelch important education projects, Blackboard on Thursday announced a 'patent pledge' under which it vowed not to assert its patent rights to sue open source projects or home-grown software used by colleges and universities. " [EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online] 9:32:40 AM      Google It!.

Future of Books - Google 'Unbound' Conference. Many of my recent posts (Human Education Network, ECAR, Webpage Documents, Trailfire) focus on the future of education and the internet's role in that. Yesterday Inside Google Book Search posted an short article about a conference they recently had in New York about the future of the book. As part of their post they posted a video montage of the event. The conference, appropriately titled 'Unbound,' focused on the future of books. Here are a couple of quotes. Presumably talking about a website centered around a book one presenter said: "The website should be interactive. It should be forum, there should be author talks, there should be talks the author can participate in." Another presenter said the following about the power of social networking. "Social activity around my work is absolutely the most important thing that can happen for it. To have someone turn to someone else and say: 'I read this book, I love it, you must read it.' Boy, nothing sells books like that." Probably the most important quote comes from David Worlock, Chairman of EPS. "The future of the book is secure. It's what we do it, how we promote it, how we develop it, and how we put new layers of meaning around it in a digital context which becomes extremely important. I post this all just to re-emphasize the importance of the internet. The internet will provide a sphere where we can add these new layers of social networking, collaboration, and a myriad of other new layers that haven't even been thought of yet. I applaud Google once again because they are ahead of the learning curve. Last week I saw some features on their Google book search that is already potentially changing the way we learn from books. I look forward to more developments in the future! (Original Article: http://www.edutechie.com/2007/02/future-of-books-google-unbound-conference/) [EDUCAUSE CONNECT blogs] 9:22:06 AM      Google It!.