Looking at Apple’s education announcement and the later statements by McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw that; 1.  school boards would have to pay the $14.99USD “pilot pricing” per year per student and. 2.a paper text book costs $75.00USD per book and is replaced once every five years or so, and that Mr. McGraw expected to make money on “volume”, I had to wonder how Apple was going to knife the publishers? There has to be a plan to take out the publishers, because it is in Apple’s corporate DNA to screw the old school content providers. They almost have to, because the scheme as presented has absolutely no cost savings to cash strapped American school boards, and the prospect of a huge investment into the Apple ecosystem.Here is how I think it is going to play out.  In the US, publicly funded schools are generally overseen by the various states and each county and or city has its own school board that is for the most part funded by local taxes. Apple is going to point out to the state oversight school boards (if the states don’t figure it out on their own) that they can create their OWN textbooks using their own state university resources (ie graduate students) Essentially, once the primary texts are done, its just  a mater of updating and revisions.  For example, the American State of Tennessee has 971,524 students enrolled in K-12. (Think of it as Grades 1-13) The cost of one Apple iTextbook at say $15.00 USD would be $14,572,680. Admittedly, the number includes the entire group of K-12, but, I could see using iPads in kindergarten even if they were not issued to students below 3rd or 4th grade. Assuming 6 courses per student per year and figure 6 textbooks (at least-don’t forget lab books in upper forms)per student, per year, doing the  iMath comes to at least $90USD a year. per student, not counting the cost of the iPads.  However, if the schools create their own content, even at market cost there is about a five year break even for the cost of an iPad. Over, $14 million  US dollars would pay for a lot of work study time to do the basic research and writing of the texts All that has really stopped many state school boards from doing their own textbooks was the economies of scale for for publication.Take out the printing costs and its a whole new match. One the textbook publishers are likely to lose.

Commentators have mentioned that nothing was said about university level textbooks. I suspect not only that was deliberate on Apple’s part, it is where textbook publishers will start feeling the heat. Uni professors love to inset their own spin on the texts they use, even to almost writing their own. In the US, college textbooks are hitting $200USD a book in many subjects. Whilst UK textbook costs are usually 20-50% lower in the US, everyone is looking to cut costs.  Not to mention the potential savings on classes where you get a lecturer who almost never uses the book, but often has other material to read.  In the college setting, an iPad based textbook ecosystem could pay for itself in the FIRST TERM.  The idea of updated content is particularly appealing for technical subjects. From  the university’s perspective, there would not be any real need to issue iPads, students would be expected to buy them.

Where is Apple in all this? Selling a lot of iPads. Where are the textbook publishers? Trying to steal the pudding of the record companies at the home for obsolete business models.

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Is this Apple’s plan for the textbook market?

Thursday, Apple announced the release of iBooks2  and iBooks Author; new and free textbook reading  and authoring tools.  Apple also revealed a partnership to create and sell low cost interactive textbooks with the big three textbook publishers that account for 90% of the sales of textbooks to the first 13 grades of American schools, known as K-12. Finally, Apple expanded its iTunes U uni lecture series to the K-12 market.   Missing from the announcement was any price break for the beleaguered American school system and that it was a closed Apple hardware only system. Also absent was the fact that if you create content with iBooks Author, you have to sell it in the Apple store.

Apple has not indicated any similar arrangement with UK publishers, but as I mention here, that may not be Apple’s scheme in any case. Stay tuned, there may be a bit more to this story as it plays out.

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Apple announces iBook 2 for US schools. Will the UK follow?

The iOS 5 update went live about 1:00 PM -5 GMT.  Users are reporting all over the world that they are having multiple issues with the download and Apple has confirmed that the problem is on their end.  Making matters worse, there are reports that aborting the update is duplicating the contacts list and one user who had set up mail in Mac preferences is getting this message:

The word from Apple is to wait a couple of hours and try again. For those of you with mail issues the link to Apple message boards can be found here.   The smart money is on the iCloud servers being overwhelmed. That said, the Apple iCloud engineers are going to have their work cut out getting ready to activate about three million iPhones in a couple of days not to mention the iCloud music roll out at the end of the month.

Might be some iTerminations come the first of November, but we hope not.

Thanks to crimonsonsky76 for the tip!

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iOS5 install problems-Its Apple’s Fault

The worldwide press is saturating all media with the death of Steve Jobs, who passed away Wednesday from complications of pancreatic cancer. Rather than repeat all the typical reporting of his passing, it is better to focus on a celebration of his life and his many, many accomplishments that has shaped and changed the world everyone lives in today.  The list is long, the Apple I, the Apple II, the Macintosh, the Lisa during his first stint at Apple. During his time away from Apple he founded NeXT Computing and created Pixar out of pieces that he bought from LucasFilms. Pixar under Jobs became the gold standard for animated films, and is widely credited as revitalizing the genre and the fortunes of Walt Disney Studios when Disney subsequently purchased Pixar for almost ten billion dollars.

All this seemed to be only a prologue for the return of Mr. Jobs and what was arguably his and his teams greatest contributions to the way the world consumed its music, media, and used its phones. Starting with the iMac, Mr. Jobs and the people he surrounded himself with, went on to revolutionize the way we consume music, the iPod and the Apple Music Store.  Starting in 2001, the iPod completely changed the music industry and in all likely hood stated the death spiral of music CDs.  Moving from that the iPhone in 2005, and then the iPad in 2009. It is easy to forget that Apple did not found any of those product categories. Music players, smart phones and tablets all came about well before Apple entered the scene. The tribute that should be rendered to Steve Jobs and his team was that in each product area, Apple came along and arguably perfected the category.

What are your thoughts of your experience of Apple and thoughts on Steve Jobs?

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A Celebration of the Life of Steve Jobs

The Internet has been abuzz with rumors that Amazon, fresh off its Kindle announcements is poised to buy the bones of Palm from HP. Those bones would be the web os operating system and the substantial amount of patents Palm obtained during happier days.  This is very unlikely to come to pass for several reasons.  First, Amazon has spent a lot of resources creating the Android variant that the Kindle Fire uses. Second, Amazon has also expended a fair amount of coin in creating the Android App store that directly competes with the Google Android App store.

If the rumor does happen to be true, the reason would be little comfort to the web os faithful as such a move would probably be made to obtain he intellectual property and be able to cannibalize web os features for the forked Amazon version of Android. While Jeff Bezos, has proven time and again that he is willing to make unusual moves, Amazon seems to be pretty well invested in their customized version of Android with the App Store and Silk, although there might be some merit in using web os in a European only version of the Fire to get around privacy problems that seem to be preventing the Flame being deployed in the UK

On HP’s side, if Amazon offered say, $1.6BN USD for everything and took over legacy web os support. HP would more than likely jump on that. Its quick money to bolster theirQ4 earnings, and further lets them save having to write off some of the wind down costs.

If Amazon did buy web os, don’t be surprised to see Todd Bradley exit HP, quite possibly for Amazon. Frankly, since HP is likely to not spin off the personal computer division at this point and Mr. Bradley, who has been courted by the likes of Intel for their CEO sport, but twice passed over for the top job at HP, he is getting ready to go elsewhere anyway.

Time will tell, but I would not bet the rent money on it coming to pass.

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Amazon buying web os?

The most one can say for Leo Apotheker at this point is that he lasted longer at HP than he did at his prior gig at SAP. After less than eleven months on the job, the HP board sacked Mr. Apotheker stating that HP needed an executive who could execute on the details.  The fact of the matter the Apotheker reign, brief as it was saw several executions:

-the Web OS hardware and smart phone business, while making vague statements about doing something with the web os operating system.

- business confidence in the Personal Systems Groups’ ability to sell and support  personal computers and printers was executed by the pronouncement that HP was looking at either spinning off or selling the PSG.  Businesses put a hold on, or canceled outright, purchasing decisions and opened the door to inroads by Dell and Lenovo to take lucrative purchases from HP.

-the execution of the purchase of Autonomy, a UK software company for well over its market value. In fact this purchase was the cornerstone of Apothekers’ stated vision of turning HP away from hardware into a software and services group, much as IBM did in late 2004. However, IBM did not telegraph its intentions before a buyer was found and certainly did not tell industry analysis’s that they wanted to dump the business because it was not making the kind of profits HP wanted to see.

-finally, Mr. Apotheker  presided over the execution of over forty percent of HP’s share value.  When a publically traded company’s share value tumbles like that, shareholders want either a human sacrifice or new leadership.

Lest anyone accuse the HP Board of slipshod incompetence, the board quickly threw Leo out of the sled and to the wolves. Or so it appears. More on that later. The HP board them embarked on an exhaustive search for a new CEO. Provided that taking a quick look around the boardroom and noticing that board member Meg Whitman was not going to be governor of the US state of California after all and was at loose ends was exhausting.  In addition, ex-Oracle COO and non-executive chairman of the HP board, Ray Lane became the Executive Chairman of HP. In plain English, that means that Mr. Lane would become involved in day to day corporate decision making, rather than the broad oversight that most corporate boards exercise.

In subsequent interviews, it has quickly become apparent that Mr. Lane may well share at least equal power with Ms. Whitman.  Interviews and communications to HP staff have for the most part been of a joint nature and Ms. Whitman seems to be adopting more of a communicator role, while Mr. Lane does the heavy lifting as it were.  There may well be very good reasons for this. Ms. Whitman, former CEO of Ebay is widely seen as having little tech experience but a lot of consumer expertise.  HP desperately needs to develop a consistent message and execute on it.  This may be the board’s answer.

As for the timing of the termination of Mr. Apotheker, apparently Mr. Lane has admitted in interviews that the wheels for that decision started turning over eight months ago. Which raises the question, which has been asked quite often, what kind of vetting process was used to hire Leo in the first place? According to the New York Times, not much as it was reported that most of the board voted to hire Mr. Apotheker without ac tually meeting him. Since the gentleman in question was terminated after a bare seven months as CEO of SAP, reasonable people would think that a personal meeting was in order. Of course, Mr. Lane is quick to point out that this is not the same board that hired Apotheker, that there have been eight board members replaced since that decision was taken, including Mr. Lane and Ms. Whitman to name two.

What does all this mean for HP? First, innovation is going to suffer, as anyone who can is going to be looking for more stable pastures. Second, it is by no means certain that HP’s personal hardware business will be able to recover from the doubt and uncertainty.   Finally, there is an excellent chance that if things do not turn around fairly quickly at HP, Ms. Whitman may be the next one to walk the plank.

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More drama at Hewlett-Packard

Microsoft gave users and developers many things to think about at the BUILD conference in California this last week.  One that is getting a lot of traction is the idea that Microsoft will be developing a Metro style, touch friendly version of Microsoft Office that will run on tablets. Metro is the name of the user interface language used for Windows Phone 7, and after BUILD, seems to be the direction that Microsoft Windows UI is heading going forward. A lot of analyses are saying that if Microsoft can follow through on the promises made to developers at BUILD, then they will have an OS ecosystem at least on par with Apple.

In fact, Microsoft better be working on a tablet friendly version of Microsoft Office. Office is probably the second largest source of revenue after Windows itself and played a large part in establishing Microsoft’s global dominance.  Microsoft Office has become the default bundled business productivity suite for concerns from mom and pop stores to FedEx and JP Morgan.

However, as tablets become more popular, Microsoft is going to have to rely on a “Metro Office” if it expects to have a chance at blunting the hold Apple has on the tablet market. Apple has a self contained ecosystem of products and apps and right now is so far out in front it is rumored that Apple is delaying the introduction of the iPad 3, because in essence it’s lapping the competition.  Microsoft seems to be adopting a similar approach through its co opting of Nokia to [produce Windows Phone based handsets and the direction being taken with Windows 8 and Metro.

Microsoft has made a lot of exciting promises with Windows 8 and Metro.  Microsoft also has a bit of reputation for talking about new things that never see retail shelves.  However, the last time Microsoft had the kind of competition it is facing now from Apple and Google for operating system market share Bill Gates was writing code for the company and IBM was selling PCs.  In order to succeed, Microsoft needs its star business tools ready for the tablet generation.

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Rumors of Microsoft Office on Metro Tablets? It better be a fact

Microsoft has been demonstrating Windows 8 at the Build 2011 Developer Conference, and it is shaping up to be quite an impressing OS.

Without a doubt the main feature on offer is the fact that Windows 8 is developed for both traditional PCs, Laptops, Netbooks and most importantly Tablets. This is a very different approach to the hugely popular iPad which runs a mobile operating system that lacks many features of their fuller grown OS X Lion.

While laptops and tablets will use the same OS Microsoft have integrated 2 user interfaces to make the most of the form factor. User will be greeted with the Windows Phone like Metro Interface which includes live application tiles and replaces the Start menu, being triggered by the Start button or Windows key, and is also the first screen shown on start-up. Though users can easily go into a more Windows 7 style interface by choosing the desktop tile. The metro interface is also written into the core of the OS so this is not an overlay.

The beauty of this is that user have an OS that is fully optimised for a tablet but can still carry out fully blown PC applications such as outlook, excel, Dreamweaver, Photoshop and FTP programs. Presumably it will also be able to run normal PC games, though how well tablets will run these is another question.

It is also reported that Windows 8 has less system requirements than Windows 7 and can run on a Lenovo S10 which ahs just a first gen Atom CPU and 1GB of Ram.

Some other key features include:

• All Windows 7 applications will run natively on Windows 8
• Security update notifications have been minimized to the lower right of the log-in screen
• Refreshed Windows Task Manager suspends apps when they’re not running on-screen
• New "Reset and Refresh PC" functions enable simplified system wipe and restore
• HyperV virtualization software comes pre-loaded on Windows 8
• Multi-monitor support now enables a single background across screens, as well as monitor-specific task bars
• Multi-touch support enabled for Internet Explorer 10
• Magnifier function enhanced for desktop manipulation
• Optional thumb-by-thumb input mode
• SkyDrive storage support integrated into all cloud-based apps
• Metro-style refresh for Mail, Photos, Calendar and People apps with Windows Live ID
• Settings roam allows for preferences to sync across a user’s Windows 8 devices
• Continued update support for Windows 8 Developer Preview Beta
• Both Metro-style and conventional Win32 apps will be sold in the Windows Store
• Windows 8 devices equipped with an NFC chip will be able to use a tap-to-share feature to either send content from one device to another, or simply receive content from something like an NFC-equipped card.
• Logins will use a photo-based system
• Apps will be able to natively connect and understand one another (if written as such)
• Built-in antivirus software will ship in Windows 8
• There will not be a different edition of Windows 8 for tablets, and presumably, not for Media Centers either
• It’s unclear how many "editions" (Home, Professional, Ultimate, etc.) of Windows 8 there will be
• ARM devices will be supported, but not in the developer preview

Personally we love the sound of cloud storage being built in and roaming profiles, as well as the tap to share features. All very interesting stuff.

One concern is the issues that will arise with the lack of compatibility between ARM and x86 microprocessors. If x86 developers can recompile to Arm then great but i doubt it would be as simple as that.

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Windows 8 Details and Features

Steve Jobs  today informed the Apple Board of Directors that he was resigning as Chief
Executive Officer effective at once and recommended to the board that Tim Cook,
Apple’s Chief Operating Office be named as has successor. According to an Apple
press release issued at the same time as Mr. Jobs letter, the Apple board not
only named Tim Cook as Apple CEO, but also named Steve Jobs as the new chairman
of the board of Apple.

In the  letter, addressed not only to the Board of Directors but the “Apple Community”,
Mr Jobs stated:

I have always said if there ever came a daywhen I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know.Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO
of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the
Board, director and Apple employee.

No reason was given for Jobs stepping down.  While there has been recurring rumors of
declining health since his transplant surgery in 2009, it is equally possible
that he has simply elected to leave the day to day operation to others. Not
only was Mr. Jobs a co-founder of Apple,  but he also has led Apple from the shambles
the iconic co-founder found upon his return in 1997 to create perhaps the most dominant
tech company in the world today. Further, it seems clear that he will still be
playing an active role as Chairman.

Tim Cook has been with Apple for the last thirteen
years and stepped in to run day to day operations during Mr. Job’s prior leave
of absence when dealing with his illness. With his elevation to CEO, Mr. Cook
also will be joining the Apple board.

Source: Apple via
Tech Meme

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Letter from Steve Jobs

Acer the computer manufacturer has teamed up with Mr Gates’ Microsoft and unveiled this beauty of a Laptop/Tablet PC opting for a dual-screen device rather than your standard one screen plus physical keyboard one.

With Dual 720p WXGA14” displays, both touchscreen the Acer Iconia is running Windows 7 Home Premium. Now with both screens being touchscreens this shows that the Iconia is opting for a software keyboard which can be placed or used on either screen.

Other Specs :

• Intel Core i5 processor
• 4GB of RAM
• 640GB HDD
• 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0
• HDMI
• 3G
• WiFi
• 1.3MP WebCam

Looking at them it’s not a bad little machine however it appears to have a slight downfall in having a small four-cell battery only capable of 3 hours off mains use.

The Iconia will be available in the UK in January and will set you back a cool £1500. Acer have also said to keep your eyes out for smaller 10”, 7” and 5” Iconia models in the future.

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Acer Iconia : Dual Screen Laptop/Tablet