Year: 2012

More on iOS Management →

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Erica Sadun at TUAW:

We don’t know what Apple’s event will cover, but this kind of large-scale deployment sets a bar that Apple needs to meet – soon if not next week. At TUAW, we believe that winning the classroom will win the tablet. If Apple cannot respond to Whispercast, they cannot win that classroom.

Apple’s enterprise tools for iOS and support for mobile device management have advantages for big organizations, but the textbook (and app) volume purchasing setup doesn’t have quite the fluidity of what Whispercast will deliver. MDM at a basic level is doable with Apple’s Mountain Lion Server, but larger deployments may require extensive IT support and investment, which most schools don’t have at their disposal. In contrast, Whispercast is cloud-based and free. (There are several cloud-based MDM options for iOS, to be sure, with Meraki, Zenprise and MaaS360 among them, but they aren’t free.)

Smaller iPad Aimed at Education →

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Adam Satariano at Bloomberg:

For districts around the country, though, it’s the price as much as the cool quotient that could draw them to a new, smaller version of the iPad that Apple will unveil tomorrow at an event in San Jose, California. Apple has long been a leader in education, and schools began embracing the iPad soon after its 2010 debut. Yet as fiscal budget shortfalls crimp spending all the more, schools in growing numbers are warming to the handheld devices as an alternative to more expensive laptops.

While I think a smaller, cheaper iPad will draw educators in, Apple needs to do some serious work on its iOS management tools.

On iTunes UI Elements and OS X →

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Daniel Eran Dilger:

Over the past five years, Apple has introduced a wide variety of new iOS features that have percolated their way “back to the Mac,” as well as having introduced OS X features that have later shown up in its mobile devices. However, Apple’s own first party apps, and in particular iTunes, have also served as harbingers of new user interface directions.

I suppose we should welcome our new iOS-like overlords.