Mobile Devices

The Future is not HTML5 vs. Flash, it is HTML5 AND Flash

I really don’t understand why Apple seems to hate Flash so much. Maybe Jobs is just tired of picking on Microsoft for now and decided to get a different target?  “Hello, I’m HTML5.” “And I’m Adobe Flash.”  Just doesn’t have the same comedy potential…

If you are in education, you could care less how your streaming video gets to you… as long as it just works when you  press play.  The big problem for education with this battle is that video is just a small portion of what Flash can do.  Most educators have found some educational game or utility (such as Aviary) that uses Flash extensively.  HTML5 is no where near able to replicate any of that. If Flash goes away, so does a huge chunk of good stuff on the web. Not good for education.

According to some… it doesn’t really ever have to be this way. As Remy Sharp points out in HTML5 vs. Flash:

“I personally don’t think HTML will replace Flash. I think HTML5 and the Open Web will replace Flash where Flash has been used as a stopgap…. The native video element will (eventually) allow us to drop using Flash for video. Flash has done an awesome job of pulling the braces up on browsers for the last decade, and we’ve needed it, but Flash is so much more than just video or font rendering…. I still think we’re a long way off HTML being able to able to natively replace applications such as Aviary and games like Bow Street Runner.”

I get that Flash is a bit resource intensive and needs to evolve with the times.  I get that smart phones need to conserve as much energy as possible, but Flash needs as much as possible. But you can still run the current version of Flash on a 10 year-old PC with no problems.

I think Apple is just embarrassed to admit that there are still things that their mobile devices can’t do that ancient PCs can.

In theory, I like the idea of everything happening natively in code.  You won’t have to worry about which students won’t be able to do what with your course activities.

But I also like the idea of being able to get rich, robust, interactive Flash-based games and applications on mobile devices.  Since Flash can be used at times to bring the gap between browser content and desktop hardware (such as cameras and microphones), just think what it would be like to bridge the gap between website and smartphone features (such as cameras and microphones).  Augmented reality could take on a whole new dimension if you could have a Flash based interface embedded in a website that can access your device’s camera. Security issues would have to be dealt with – but think of the possibilities.  Students could lead themselves on a tour of an art exhibit, with Flash-designed question popping up on the screen as the walk up to a painting.  They could answer the question, or leave a comment, or anything right on the camera capture, because they are connected to a website that could store their answer. The website could also store their whole trip in many different ways (geotags, camera captures, videos, etc).

I think I might have stumbled on the answer to my original question.  With Flash on an iPhone, any website could create an app-like program that would never have to go through Apple’s approval process. That might make the whole App Store pointless.  App makers could just embed their app on a website… and even charge for using it.

The possibility exists for an App that resides on a web page, accessing the page content and database, while at the same time able to access all of the functions of a smart phone.  This is what Flash gives us. This is why we need Flash. And this is probably why Apple hates Flash.

HP Lets You Add Any Site to Augmented Reality

Thanks in no small part to the iPhone 3GS, Augmented Reality is starting to grow in leaps and bounds.  Google and others are also helping this growth in many ways.  As I have blogged about in past posts (and many others around the web have also mentioned), the lines between the online world and the offline world are blurring.  Enter into this mix Gloe from HP.

Gloe is a new service that, among other things, allows you to connect any website to a particular location in real life.  When you are at a physical site, your mobile device can then pull up websites that were voted most relevant for that location.  Of course, all of the regular “social” buzz-functions are there – tagging, FaceBook connections, etc. Gloe is still pretty new in some areas, but as this article on ReadWriteWeb points out, even if some function doesn’t work that great – at least the idea behind the function is really interesting.

We may have to wait a good ten years before any educational site or LMS catches on to this, but I like the possibilities of using this for education. I am sure there are more than a few EduPunks that are already using this (if you know of some, please post in the comments).  I love thinking about how one could transfer learning from a desk at home to a mobile device in the real world.  Maybe you could send your students on a scavenger hunt for a place in your city that best relates to your topic, and then they use a mobile blog app to complete an assignment? Or maybe they have to search the tags in the city and find something that relates to the week’s topic? Art students could go paint somewhere, snap a photo of the picture, upload it to a blog, and then tag that blog post to the location.  Humanities students could interview people or take surveys, then post the results online, and then connect the results page to the location where they collected it.  Students could begin connecting research results to locations and maybe even map differences between neighborhoods.

Many possibilities… depending on where the technology takes us.

Will iPad be a Game Changer or the Next Newton?

Much has been written about the new Apple  iPad recently. I wanted to avoid getting in to the discussion until I actually got to try one out, but realized I was spending too much time tweeting and commenting other places about it. So here is my take on the worst-named device in the history of Apple products:

  • The biggest reason not to buy one: no Flash support. I’m no Flash lover, but how on Earth can you expect to surf the web without it? Even if Flash dies, it will be years before you can get around without it. Can someone please tell Steve Jobs to get over himself?  His anti-Flash rants are just sounding silly.
  • Multi-tasking is pointless on an iPhone (or any smart phone).  I mean really – why would you want to do multiple things on a tiny screen? So what that you can’t listen to Pandora and write an email. Just turn on iTunes (you’ll get a better song selection, anyways). But on the iPad – kind of impossible to think of really using something that large without it. Another big gaping feature hole. Right next to where the camera should be.
  • For that matter, why not just go with a regular OS instead of iPhone OS?  Well, one reason really – $$$$$. Can’t make money in an app store if people are free to install whatever program they want.
  • Everyone keeps asking why get an iPad instead of a full featured laptop. My question with full featured laptops has always been “why do I have to buy all of these features I don’t use?”  Full featured laptops are usually overkill. And bulky at that. Get me the features I need in an easy to use interface like the iPad has, and you have a winner there. I can see the iPad becoming a laptop replacement for people that don’t want everything and the kitchen sink.

Will I get one? Probably not. I will probably wait for the Google Chrome OS to come out in a multi-touch pad device. The combination of an iPad experience with the openness of a fuller OS sounds killer to me. Not to mention cheaper.

So, a note to all educators pondering Kindles, Nooks, or even iPads for their schools/classes/etc: wait for the followers to come out with better ideas. Just because they haven’t been able to do that with iPhone doesn’t mean they won’t succeed here.

Is Augmented Reality Here?

I’m not sure why I am so interested in augmented reality.  I guess it seems more practical and immanent that virtual reality.  Maybe I was really, really scared by The Matrix and I don’t want to be enslaved by the machines.  Maybe it has been a slow week in EdTech news.  After all – is FaceBook buying FriendFeed all that big of a shock?

But the thought of a way to have your portable computing device actually interact not only with the World Wide Web, but also the actual world around you just seems so.. incredible.  But how close are we to making augmented reality a true reality in our lives?

Vuzix is working on a product that might just do that: the Wrap 920AV.   The 920AV is a pair of sunglasses that have a see-thru screen that allows you to watch a display from your iPhone and still see the world around you through the same display.  It even mentions on the page that the glasses are designed for augmented reality. Click on the accessories tab for some other cool options, like a motion sensor that tracks your head movements, and cameras that attach to the top of the glasses.

This is the kind of thing I was thinking of when I first blogged on iPhones and augmented reality.  Just think:  with these glasses you don’t have to have to hold the iPhone like in the video from that post – the metro map is just displayed on your glasses in front of you.  What if you mix this with Sixth Sense technology?  What if you just saw your iPhone display floating in front of you, and moved your hands to interact with the apps (kind of like a portable version of the computers in Minority Report)?

Talk about true mobile learning.  You know those audio tours you can rent at tour spots like Alcatrazz – the ones that talk you through the attractions?  Those can now make the jump from audio to visual – adding historical re-enactments, or showing you what lies behind the walls that they don’t want to tear down.

I’m sure this kind of thing will be expensive at first, and I really hope they don’t hype just watching movies on these things.  What I hope is that Apple catches a vision for this and makes it look really cool so that everyone will want it.

iPhones and Augmented Reality (and Some Crazy Futurist Dreaming)

This video is pretty cool – it shows how the new iPhone is already making augmented reality a true reality.  It also got me thinking about what this could mean for the future of personal computing.  More about that after the video:

What would happen if iPhones could combine with Sixth Sense and video glasses?  Maybe the smart-phone would become something you just wear… maybe like one of those headphones that wrap around the back or of your head, but thicker and wider around the back (of course, with a smaller microphone and headphone buds instead of those earmuff looking things in the picture I linked to).  I say bigger in the back because this is where the phone, hard drive, GPS, compass, tilt senor, wi-fi, battery, etc are.  Maybe even some small solar panels to keep power levels up.  Then, you buy a pair of sunglasses in whatever style you like, plug those into your smart-phone, and the lenses become heads-up displays for augmented reality.  You would see maps like in the video above, but for anything you want – directions, site-seeing, etc.  That is pretty cool… but there could be even more.

People have been talking about getting video calling on smart-phones for a while now.  But that is obviously limited.  I’ve always wondered if the “G” in 3G stood for “Good-night-i-wish-this-would-hurry-up-and-load.” What if we take the technology that creates realistic 3-D avatars based on photos.  You create an avatar for yourself.  When you call someone, instead of using video to slow your smart-phone down to 0.5G – you send your avatar.  Tilt sensors and maybe even tiny cameras built into the lenses would send info to the avatar, making it mimic your moves.  Each person in the conversation would see a realistic CG avatar in front of them talking to them.  No more “freaky eyes staring off in some random direction when you are trying to have a conversation” like in video conferencing.

Those embedded cameras could also follow your hands and give you a cool “Minority Report”-ish interface with your apps that only you can see.  Or use voice recognition to use apps.  Need to send an email?  Speak it out, or have a virtual keyboard float in front of you for more privacy.

What if this could also become your interface for your computer at home?  The possibilities are endless:  Better control in Second Life.  Self-guided field trips for school.  Truly secure test-taking in distance learning.  Work or learn anywhere you go. Clueless people may never get lost again!

Someone get me 10 million dollars and development team!

eBook Readers Get Bigger – Literally

Desktops are shrinking into laptops, laptops are shrinking into netbooks, and every year every Apple device ever invented is ever so slightly shrinking in comparison to the former version. Our computer screens used to be larger than most home aquariums and now they are thinner than any textbook I had in college.  eBook Readers used to be small palm sized devices and now they are… the size of magazines?

The new Kindle DX is larger than it’s predecessor?

That seems pretty counter-intuitive in the digital world, but in the world of eBooks this concept might just be a plus.  When I first blogged about eBook readers a few months ago, I pointed out that the best market for these devices would be education.  Think of all the back damage you could save by replacing textbooks with a slim, lightweight reader.  Not to mention the damage to your wallet, right?

Well, one out of two ain’t bad for now.  The Kindle DX is attempting to reach educational markets – Amazon announced today that they had reached agreements with three major textbook companies (among other interesting announcements).  But the Ivy League level price tag on this device still keeps it out of reach for most individual college students.  Let’s hope that some deals are struck soon to get these devices into grade schools in place of paper textbook soon.  If just to save a few forests each year.

I’m still n0t sold on the concept of eBooks, but I am becoming more open.  In my book, the size factor is much better now: bigger is better. However, some other things still bother me:

  • No color.  Sorry – that is just hard to accept.  Can someone get to work on that please?
  • The plastic border around the whole thing.  It just seems… distracting.  You usually don’t have a plastic border around your books and magazines.  Why can’t they make that more seamlessly integrated, like the iPhone screen?  That way, it would look more like the blank space around a page than a frame.
  • Better integration with online content.  Maybe this is there and is not being hyped yet. But if you want me to subscribe to newspapers through the Kindle – give me a reason. What about newspapers that update as stories are posted? Or how about the ability to add comments through that keyboard at the bottom?  What about giving me the ability to Twitter or Digg or whatever the stories I like through the Kindle – pushing it out to those services?  That would pull in more paying customers, potentially.

But to be fair, there are some nice features (with even more experimental ones coming down the road):

  • Bookmarks and annotations – essential for educational usage
  • Search across books – not just in one book
  • Access Wikipedia. Yep.
  • A basic web browser (experimental for now)
  • Play mp3 songs (also experimental for now)
  • And, of course, don’t forget about the lower cost of books and the cleared up storage space at home (but, then again – how many eBooks do you have to buy to make up for the high price of the device itself?).

Then there is the one killer feature that I know someone is working on but is not near ready – touchscreen e-ink.  Basically, to get e-ink to look like a real sheet of paper, they had to remove some screen layers – and those layers are where the touch sensitive stuff goes.  But some people do have hope that it will be figured out.  So that means someday your eBook reader might also become an ePad for writing.  Nice.

Of course, I am thinking 10 years down the line, when they might have brilliant HD color touchscreen e-ink portable computers.  Your laptops could one day be a simple device the size of a magazine, with a full operating system and a huge flash hard drive – all displayed through an interface that looks like a high-quality piece of paper. You could  interface with this device like you would an iPhone, as well as take pictures, videos, etc. And it is carrying your entire music, movie, and literary collection in one place.

Mobile Phones and the Death of the Personal Computer?

Everyone probably thought it when they first saw an iPhone: “will this eventually end the need for a desktop personal computer?”  From recent stories in the New York times and other places, it seems like PC makers are not just wondering about that – they are sure it will happen.

The main reasoning is that mobile devices can now handle at least 90% of of the things that most people do on PCs anyways.    Which is true… but there are still many times that I put aside doing something or looking at a site when I am on the go, because I want to see it on a full sized screen.

What is probably more likely to happen is that computers processors will move to mobile devices, while the computer screen merges with the television screen.  While you are at home, or at the office, you plug your mobile device into a docking station on a TV screen and pull out a keyboard and mouse. The docking station will have a faster processor (or a processor booster) to handle memory intense games, graphic design programs, and other programs that will probably always be a little too much for mobile devices.  Of maybe even we will see the screen actually be a holographic touch screen device of some kind.

At least, I hope this is the direction mobile computing takes in the future.  As I have said before, this could take the anytime, anywhere nature of online learning to a whole different level.  Instead of syncing multiple devices, you just have one with different interface options.  Campus computer centers, office buildings, community centers, and anywhere else you would go work on a computer could just set-up several docking stations, and users bring in their preferred work environment with them.  That would include settings, bookmarks, even wallpapers.

Of course, to make this happen, we would need to see an increase of faster mobile Internet access speeds.  3-G would have to eventually become the “dial-up” of mobile broadband access.  Online file back-up would become a must.  Wireless elecgricty would need to become a reality.  But most of all, we would need an industry standard for docking features (hardware and software), so that any mobile device can plug into any docking station and run natively inside of it.  Seeing how…errr…. nicely Mac and Windows work together as it is, I would hate to be a non-iPhone user searching for a Windows-based docking station to connect to Second Life to teach a class remotely while at a conference.

If You Still Can’t See The Educational Potential For iPhones…

..maybe you need to get a little more creative.  Like these people:

Those are real apps that those students are playing – they really do turn your iPhone into a woodwind instrument called the Ocarina.

The interesting thing is that there is also and iPhone app that turns the iPhone into a guitar.  Guess the guitar dude is a PC…

Another interesting feature of this particular Ocarina app is that it is globally connected – click a few buttons and you can listen to different people around the world playing their app – live.  The iPhone is just crazy cool that way….

[for more information on this particular app, see the recent David Pogue NY Times post on it.]

iPhone 3G: My First Impressions

Yes – I am as surprised as you that I waited this long to get an iPhone. You can revoke my geek cred if you like – but I had bills to pay. However, the old cell was dying, I really wanted to upgrade to some kind of smart phone, and the iPhone ended up being the cheapest true smart phone out there now (I’ve been on AT&T for years with no problems). So I took the plunge.

And spent most of the weekend playing with the crazy thing! Many of the features of the iPhone are well know. I would have to agree with many that the killer app on the iPhone is the App Store. That is what I spent most of my time playing with.

Much has been said about the apps that add games or to-do lists to your phone or what ever. Those are nice. But what was cool for me were the apps created to interface with websites like FaceBook and Ebay. Which may seem weird to some since there is a web browser on there. But think about the size of the screen on the iPhone. Sure, you can zoom in, but surfing sites like Facebook and Ebay are still a pain. No problem – just download the free app for your favorite site (if they have one), and then log in. You get a one touch login for site, and most of the information from the site is re-formated to fit on your iPhone screen. I was checking eBay auctions, writing on friends walls, and Twittering away all while walking around the house.

Even cooler is how the applications can interact with weach other. I could take a pic with the camera and upload it to faceBook or Flickr or even set it as my AIM avatar. The GPS locator is also a plus, especially when used in conjunction with free Yellow Pages app. In a new neighborhood and hungry for Chinese food? Look up what is near you, pick a highly rated one, and get turn by turn directions to get there. Nice. Unfortunately, there is no free app for Wikipedia, RSS feeds, or Flickr (yet), but the ones that are available are pretty cheap. Twitter was just a ‘meh’ aplication to me until I started being able to send updates from anywhere (I’ve always been too cheap to buy texting plans… pay to send little burst of data through a phone? What a rip-off!). Most apps are still new, and so they don’t have everything, but they are getting there.

The ability to realize “anytime, anywhere” education is greatly expanded by the apps, especially since others are rushing to copy the iPhone. Think about it – have your students do a scavenger hunt. Or maybe have them create a mobile blog (WordPress app is free and nice)? How about intergrate their everyday life in to their learning activities? “As you travel around town today, look for examples of ______ art influence, or _____ policy on city planning, and take a pic and send it to me with 500 words on why it is_____”.

I wish that LMS companies would spend more time creating apps for mobile phones rather than FaceBook apps that don’t seem to be popular or well accepted. Something like this would fit well in to my evolving view fo LMS programs, something I need to blog on soon the in the future.

Is Moblogging Ready to be the Next Big Thing?

According to Wikipedia, “a moblog is a blog published directly to the web from a phone or other mobile device.” Usually, this is in the form of photos, but videos, text, and audio can also be an option. Moblogging has been around for a while, but seems to have flow under the radar. Many online photo and video sites allow users to share what they capture with their cellphone. Blogger allows users to email in blog entries along with attachments. Several services allow users to record podcasts through their phone.

The problem is, there isn’t one application or site that lets you text in a message, picture, or video to site at the same time that you can record a video, and then format all of that as a blog entry. That would be a sweet online suite.

Also, if you can tell from the brevity of the Wikipedia article, moblogging just isn’t that popular either. I think it could have incredible educational potential. Converge Online published an article this week that looks at hoe one educator is using moblogs in class. Very interesting stuff. See the article here:

Moblogging in Schools

The article points to an actual moblog. Poking around those links leads to other moblog sites. I looked at those sites and saw that several of those are using several sites to hack together a true moblog. Interesting stuff.