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Education vs. The Education Market⇢

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Carolina Milanesi at Tech.pinions:

Forty years on from the first device that was ever targeted to education, Apple held an event in Chicago at the largest single building high-school in the country. Apple did this not to just introduce an iPad but to tell their story on education, to show the end-to-end solution they now have to help teachers to really transform their curriculum.

I came into this event hoping to see three things: hardware pricing, an improved productivity and collaboration suite and a bigger focus on managing the classroom. Apple addressed my three points but in true Apple fashion it did so in a way that was not obvious to me.

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Pages is no iBooks Author Replacement (Updated)

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One of today’s announcements is that Pages can now be used for ebook creation, both on the Mac and on iOS.

The Pages update is out now, and I took the new Mac version for a spin. It’s pretty basic at this point.

It cannot open my iBooks Author file for my book on the iMac G3 and history of Mac OS X. I’m not super surprised by that, but as the future of iBooks Author is unknown, I’d like a way to know I can edit this file using Pages in the future.

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Thoughts on Apple’s Education Event

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Apple just wrapped up its education event in Chicago. I have some thoughts:

New iPad

The star of today’s show is the new 9.7-inch iPad. Priced at the same $329 ($299 for schools), this new iPad comes with the A10 Fusion CPU and support for the Apple Pencil, which is still sold separately, even for schools.

This new iPad does not include the Smart Connector, so schools who want to use it with a keyboard are still stuck with Bluetooth.

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Future Classics: 24-inch LED Cinema Display

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In my “Future Classics” series, I try to guess what current-era Apple products may become collectable in the future. It’s a weird hobby, I know.

Apple’s line of displays wasn’t always in shambles as it is today. For decades, Apple had a selection of monitors for Mac users to choose from, including my all-time favorite.

In October 2008, Apple started phasing out its 20, 23 and 30-inch aluminum-clad Cinema Displays with the 24-inch LED Cinema Display, shown here with a MacBook Pro:

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Details Emerge on Apple’s Video Plans⇢

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According to an article in The New York Times by John Koblin, Apple is looking to launch its TV streaming service for the TV app on the Apple TV1 in the spring or summer of 2019:

Producers and entertainment executives who have met recently with Apple executives said the company has been leaning toward programming in keeping with its bright, optimistic brand identity. In other words, it seems possible that Apple will shy away from projects that are gratuitously dark or heavy on social issues.

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Bloomberg: Cheap iPads, no Macs for Next Week’s Event⇢

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Mark Gurman:

In Chicago, the world’s most-valuable technology company plans to show off a new version of its cheapest iPad that should appeal to the education market, said people familiar with the matter. The company will also showcase new software for the classroom, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private plans. Apple declined to comment.

And:

A new, cheaper MacBook laptop is in the works and likely destined to replace the MacBook Air at a price less than $1,000, but it probably won’t be ready in time for next week, the people said.

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