Though it may not be quite ready for full classroom deployment yet, we’re sehr beeindruckt (that’s muy impresionado for you non-German speakers) with IOSPIRIT Gmbh’s recent iPhone port of Remote Buddy. Already available for the Apple remote, various Keyspan remotes, the Griffin AirClick, and Wii controllers (among others), the addition of the iPhone to the list of devices with which you can control a remote computer is a compelling and handy next step.

IOSPIRIT’s software installs on the remote computer (site licenses are available — up to 50 installs for €249 and up to 150 for €399 [that’s around $352 and $564 provided the dollar stays afloat]) allowing an iPhone or iPod Touch to access and control it through Apple’s zero-config Bonjour networking. Remote Buddy requires a password to keep out the unwashed masses, but once entered, you’re in business. You can now control iTunes, various presentation packages, and a whole host of other applications (more than 70!) right from your iPhone, all through the juicy goodness of AJAX and Web 2.0 (meaning no messy losses when iPhone update 1.1.2 comes out).

While we think deployment in a lab or classroom setting might be a bit difficult (”What’s station 16’s Bonjour address again?”), and while we’d like to see a few education-specific features, we think Remote Buddy might be a real boon for teachers, and we encourage you to check out IOSPIRIT’s new port — a task made even easier by the free 30-day trial version available from the site. Don’t miss the video on the Remote Buddy homepage, either… It’s a handy introduction to some of the basic features.

If anybody takes the plunge (or is already using Remote Buddy) for classroom deployment, we’d love to hear about your experiences. Just drop us a line…

Well, this is interesting… The blogosphere is all abuzz with the news rumor that Apple may soon be launching a page dedicated to the bevy of web applications that are being developed under Apple’s Web 2.0 “SDK.” According to 9to5 Mac, Apple’s already got a (for now) nonfunctional placeholder page set up at http://www.apple.com/webapps/ just waiting for the launch, which many suggest could come any day now. 9to5 Mac also reports that Apple is working with Electronic Arts and other developers to bring true 3rd-party apps to the iPhone and iPod Touch, which they believe will be distributed through iTunes. And The Register (largely playing off of 9to5’s info), suggests that the first apps available “will include Remote Buddy (for remote controlling your Mac), Solitaire and a Nutrition Database as well as a WebApp launcher called iHome.”

According to Apple Insider, the new directory will work like a number of Apple’s current application download aggregators (like the one for Dashboard widgets, for example) and will operate with similar submission and approval processes.

So what does all of this have to do with the iPhone in higher education? One imagines that an educational “channel” might appear on such a downloads page in the same way that various “channels” appear for dashboard widgets. And given an officially-sanctioned Apple distribution mechanism, one imagines not only that some great apps would have an easier time finding a bigger audience, but also that the attention generated might drive some groovy new development. So even if the “SDK” for iPhone and iPod Touch development remains Web 2.0 only for the time being, as our friends over at Ars Technica suggest, that might not be so bad.

Okay. So who’s gonna design me the first great Web 2.0 course management and gradebook app for iPhone? I’m waiting…

Update: 11 October 2007 Glenn Fleishman over on TidBITS has an interesting take on the possibility of Apple releasing a real SDK (working in conjunction with Apple’s Xcode) and supporting 3rd-party apps. It’s certainly worth a look.

In an article posted earlier this week in The Guardian, Jeff Jarvis a journalism professor at the City University of New York, responds to speculation concerning the newspaper industry’s “iPod moment.” Alan Rusbridger, Guardian editor, suggests that this moment will arrive with the “emergence of a relatively mass-market device on which reading a newspaper (and watching or listening to it) will seem quite normal.”

As you might have suspected, Jarvis’ article asserts that, thanks to the arrival of Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, this moment is already upon us. Jarvis writes: “Everything that the computer, the web, and the browser have done to content - enabling it to become infinite but personal; instantaneous yet permanent; unrestricted by medium because it offers all media; and enriched by the conversation around it - is now in the palm of your hand. Everything you can do on the web you can do with media on the iPhone, anywhere, any time.”

Jarvis goes on to assert that the newspaper industry must seek to adapt old media to this new technology. He asserts that newspapers should be asking, “how do we use this wonderful device to give people the news and links whenever, wherever, and however they want it? How do we do that with incredible efficiency? How do we make it local and relevant? How do we take advantage of the two-way relationship we now have, enabling people with these gadgets to share what they know?”

These questions are obviously just as relevant for educators seeking to find productive ways to engage students’ screen literacies to enhance teaching and learning in the 21st century.

Okay, okay, okay. We get it. People are a wee bit peevish about the most recent iPhone update trashing their nifty 3rd party apps (quiet down, iThinkEd staff!). But our friends over at iPhone Atlas know a guy who’s been prowling around in the new version of SpringBoard, the “launcher” application that appears whenever you hit your iPhone’s home button. Apparently, some pretty groovy details have turned up in the new version that suggest your days of lonely, Apple-only applications may be coming to a welcome end.

According to the post,

iPhone software/firmware 1.1.1 includes a hidden, Apple-developed feature that allows multiple pages of icons to be displayed. The pages are represented by small circles at the bottom of the SpringBoard, and can be accessed by swiping across the screen or tapping the small circles (see image).

This solves the original version’s 16-application limitation; in the old version, after 16 apps were installed on the iPhone, it ran out of space to show more. So the new version at least suggests the possibility of more apps than were originally possible, but whether those are slots for Apple programs or slots for 3rd-party developers is open to interpretation. Still, discoverer Nicholas Penree of Conceited Software thinks the odds are good. And if it gives people a little hope after 1.1.1’s crushing treatment of earlier 3rd-party apps, well, who are we to stand in the way?

Google today released a bunch of new applications optimized for mobile devices like the iPhone, and we’re pretty jazzed.

Joining Gmail and Google Calendars, both of which have been around for a few weeks, today saw the addition of Search, Maps, SMS, News, Photos, Reader, and Blogger — a whole page of optimized applications. To get to the nifty new optimized versions, click here from your mobile device. Of course, you’ll have to have an active Google account to access most of it…

The beauty part, however, is not merely the handiness of these applications for mobile users, but also the fact that Google has now made more limited devices like the iPod Touch a lot more compelling. After all, the Touch can now access maps, mail, and SMS — all of which are native on the iPhone but missing on the Touch. And, of course, these new Google apps will be great incorporated into the delicious Web 2.0 recipes you’re all cooking up in your secret test kitchens. And for those colleges and universities that have already made the switch to Google Apps for Education, all we can say is mmmmm.

Today, Colorado Technical University’s Online campus announced the launch of CTUMobile—an easy-to-use mobile learning channel that delivers elements of Colorado Tech’s online educational programs via web-enabled cell phones and other wireless devices. CTUMobile works with a variety of cell phones but “is at its most exciting when combined with Apple’s stunning new iPhone.”

CTUMobile includes a couple of essential educational capabilities: a live access technology that allows students to retrieve school-related information such as class assignments, instructor directories, campus email, and grades, as well as a video technology that makes it easy to download and view video courseware and podcasts.

Dr. Wallace Pond, Chancellor of CTU Online, asserts that “CTUMobile makes education a more flexible, more mobile experience, allowing students access to their classroom from just about anywhere in the world, day or night.”

Checkout Business Wire’s full press release.

Apple recently posted its human interface guidelines (HIG) for the iPhone, which covers all of the interface details for would-be programmers and developers. While the information is very helpful for those developing Web 2.0 apps (a task which the HIG encourages), the publication of these details is also a step toward true 3rd-party, native app development — a feature which rumor suggests may be coming either with or hard on the heels of Leopard’s release coming at the end of this month.

So while we lament with those who saw their nifty 3rd-party apps crushed by iPhone software update 1.1.1, we’re hoping that the publication of the HIG portends happy, happy days coming in the future…

In the meantime, there’s some really great stuff to be had in the HIG. Want to accomodate the built-in form interface? No problem. Want to provide custom navigation solutions? You’re covered, friend. So get busy writing that code to transform that list of students into a handy attendance book… And here’s hoping things will only get better from here.

Layers Magazine online has an interesting (though brief) story about the potential of iPhones and iPod Touches as “mobile portfolios,” allowing people to carry around collections of their work. Though the article’s focus is primarily aimed at creative professionals, it wouldn’t be hard to use these devices as student portfolios either. And this means a whole new delivery mechanism for e-portfolios and a whole new way to imagine assignments interacting and building on one another. As the article states:

The Iphone (and now the Ipod Touch) are poised to change your way of interacting with people around you.

• If you are a musician, you can create your tracks, have your artwork setup, and put all of it in your Iphone(touch) and look really polished.
• If you are a video person, [… y]ou can fire up your best clips right then and there. […].
• If you are a artist/photographer, the Iphone’s slideshow will automatically make ALL of your best work available to you. Just pull out and flick.

These advantages aren’t just available for professionals, but for students, too. How will it look as iPhones, Touches, and other converged devices increasingly become our students’ (and our faculty members’) digital wallets?

For faculty eager to see iTunes U media streaming to mobile devices, there may soon be an alternative. This past Wednesday, YouTube announced a new partnership with universities like UC Berkeley and USC that provides custom channels for university media available freely over the web. Berkeley’s initial offering represents over 300 hours of video and its YouTube presence — along with those from other universities — will likely only get bigger. (More stories about YouTube’s new university channels can be found at the Associated Press and the Chronicle for Higher Ed)

For students tired of lengthy downloads, the familiar YouTube interface and handiness of streaming media will likely carry the day. At least for now, YouTube U provides a clean interface with few of the distracting thumbnails and links that clutter the original site. And the ability to link video in external sites and blogs mean that the content can easily be referenced and repurposed by the broader net community in ways not yet possible with iTunes U. In fact, embedded links also make it possible to access media within course environments like Blackboard where content can be played directly from a course module or discussion board.

Currently neither university’s YouTube U site is compatible with the iPhone. Though the pages load, Mobile Safari still lacks Flash support for the videos, and individual content doesn’t seem to be searchable through the YouTube applet. However, YouTube’s increasing support of the H.264 codec promises future compatibility and a powerful new platform for distributing educational media. So once compatibility is resolved, the only question will be how professors and their academic YouTube will fare in head-to-head competition with Miss Teen USA, Charlie the Unicorn, and those guys singing on treadmills…

As we mentioned in the preceding post, John Galloway has written a really handy article for Britain’s The Guardian about the ways that mobile, handheld computing can transform teaching and learning. Although the article focuses largely on primary education, the ideas presented here offer inspiring examples of specific ways to deploy handheld technology in the classroom — and out of it, and the links to the various projects at the end of the article are useful, too…

Check it out; it’s an enaging read.