Our friends over at Engadget have an interesting story on a new “pico” DLP projector under development by the alchemists over at Texas Instruments. The tiny projector, which can fit into a cell-phone (though it does make the phone kinda chunky), uses frickin’ laser beams to project images that the demo tells us are “bigger than 8.5 by 11.” Apparently there’s also a version in TI’s secret subterranean labs that uses LEDs and is a lot brighter. No word on how this technology will impact battery life, but it might take some interesting efforts to make such a device feasible for classroom use…

While the folks at Engadget note that the images are still a bit dark and low-contrast, this represents emerging technology with really interesting applications for education—making every person’s phone into a self-contained media collection and presentation device. And one imagines that an add-on version of such a mini-projector might also show up at some point…

Of course, in the meantime, there’s still the old-fashioned way of delivering video from a phone…

The good folks over at FMWebschool have come up with an iPhone solution for websites run from FileMaker (and also a nifty Dreamweaver extension that helps users build iPhone-formatted websites from their FileMaker databases).

Given FileMaker’s legendary, cross-platform ease of use, its ability to snag and work with data from SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL databases, and its existing presence in higher ed, we think this solution may help developers and administrators come up with some really useful apps for the iPhone.

Check out the informative demonstration video here.

Okay, this one’s interesting…

VNSea is hard at work on a VNC solution for the iPhone—which would let a user control a remote computer (or set of computers) directly from an iPhone on the road. This has some pretty huge possibilities for all sorts of higher ed applications—from web and server maintenance to allowing students to tap into their “home” machines from class or labs.

Our friends over at 9-to-5 Mac report that it’s still pretty buggy, but it’s a cool foretaste of what’s coming to a whole lot of people’s pockets…

Though it’s not really true GPS — the new solution uses a database of cellular and wifi positioning strength to triangulate a user’s position rather than the system of satellites most of us know and love — Mexens Technology today announced that its Navizon location technology will be available for the iPhone.

Of course, you have to crack the iPhone’s current system to install the software, which can be a bit dicey, but you get 15 days free to check it out before you have to start ponying up your $24.99, or you can join the wardriving research teams who will be driving about with their GPS units helping to calibrate the technology and establish the database that lets Navizon users know where they are.

Hmmmm… So they’re inviting users to help them fill in the “GPS gaps” that’ll actually make this thing work in the first place… Well, you gotta start somewhere. Several sites are reporting that this works for now, though it’s accuracy is a bit off — sometimes a few hundred meters or so… On second thought, this one might not be quite ready to hatch.

Today, Apple announced that the iPhone will make its UK debut on November 9th with O2, the leading wireless carrier in the UK, as its exclusive carrier. While the UK’s iPhone is almost identical to the US version, it does run the 1.1.1 firmware features already offered on the iPod Touch. Engadget reports that the UK version also offers double tap quick access to currently playing songs, options for closed captioning on videos, user selection options for carrier, support for European language keyboards, and an option for turning off EDGE roaming.

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Our friends over at iPhone Atlas have uncovered an interesting difference in the iPod Touch’s Safari user agent string—the code the Touch presents to webpages it’s browsing:

The version of Safari used by the iPod touch is ostensibly the same as the version used by the iPhone, but carries a slightly different user agent string.

iPod Touch user agent string Mozila/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3A101a Safari/419.3
iPhone user agent string Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1C28 Safari/419.3

Notice the different [sic] in device identifier and the different build number.

Unfortunately, this means that the iPod touch will not, currently, navigate immediately to the iPhone-optimized versions to which many sites automatically redirect — a temporary problem until site authors adjust for the change.

As they note, it’s unlikely that this will be a permanent problem, but it may have an impact on deployment of the iPod Touch at your college or university, and we thought you folks should know about it…

We’ve got to admit that we’re pretty excited about the iPod Touch as a cheap and accessible way to prototype use of the iPhone in higher ed, and we’re increasingly interested in the Touch as a solution in itself.

To coincide with its appearance at several Apple Stores today, Apple released an 85-page PDF guide that outlines many of the Touch’s basic features. While there are some glaring (and frankly nonsensical) omissions—why no Mail app? why no ability to add events directly to the calendar?—we’ve also seen some really interesting additions that don’t (yet!) appear on the iPhone.

From an educational standpoint, we’re really excited by the Touch’s support for multiple languages and multiple keyboard layouts. According to the Touch page on Apple’s site, the Touch features

• International keyboard support for English [including several input variants, ed.], UK English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, and Portuguese
• Dictionary support for English, UK English, French, and German

This should make the Touch more at home in a wider range of university applications and suggests that it might be more nimble for data input (surely they’ll release the same notes app that works on the iPhone!?). We imagine that the software on these devices will get more uniform over time, but in the meantime, there may some interesting applications for this snappy little iPod…

According to Macworld UK, “Apple is calling on the UK press for a special media presentation next week to be held at the company’s flagship retail store in London.” Analysts speculate that Apple will use the gathering to reveal long-awaited plans to unveil its sleek, touch-screen iPhone handset to select parts of Europe.

AppleInsider states, “Reports have suggested that the US-based consumer electronics giant has struck a UK deal with Spanish Telefonica’s O2 UK unit, a German deal with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and a French deal with France Telecom’s Orange.”

Six Apart’s new mobile version of TypePad now features an iPhone-optimized interface for updating your weblogs. With this application, bloggers can create and edit posts, manage comments, configure mobile settings for posting photos directly from their iPhones and view their published blogs.

In an age of secondary orality and screen literacy, I wonder how the application of this feature might function in an iPhone-clad college composition course. Imagine how meaning might be constructed collectively through the free exchange of individual ideas and expansion of audience. What would it be like to use the iPhone as a tool for participating in simultaneous, face-to-face and real-time, virtual discussion in the classroom?

In a recent College Planning & Management article entitled “The iPhone is Calling: Resolving Rogue Wi-Fi Access on Campus,” Greg Murphy addresses the fears and anxieties of many university IT departments concerning the impact of Wi-Fi smart phones, like the iPhone, on network performance and support costs.

Murphy asserts that to prepare for the ensuing Wi-Fi smart phone flood, IT departments must develop network management strategies that provide the control and visibility needed to maintain secure, supportable networks. He suggests that an effective IT strategy for managing and monitoring wireless infrastructure must address ways to establish controls over network configuration, maintain visibility to every user and device, and sustain an accurate inventory of devices.