From Tracy and Matt's Blog - Apple iPhone

IMHO, I still won't touch it if the service is from Cingular! I wish Apple made a better partnership or offered a CDMA version.


Tracy and Matt's Blog - Apple iPhone announced at Macworld

Apple iPhone announced at Macworld

January 9th, 2007

After months (perhaps years!) of speculation Steve Jobs finally and officially announced the Apple iPhone during his speech at
Macworld.

"iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one
small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of
software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone."

Apple iPhone Specifications

Screen size 3.5 inches

Screen resolution 320 by 480 at 160 ppi

Input method Multi-touch

Operating system OS X

Storage 4GB or 8GB

GSM Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)

Wireless data Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0

Camera 2.0 megapixels

Battery Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing

Up to 16 hours Audio playback

Dimensions 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm

Weight 4.8 ounces / 135 grams

Specs are also said to include touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor to turn off the sensor when it's close to your face, WiFi that automatically engages when in range, and quadband GSM radio with EDGE. A
partnership with Yahoo will allow all iPhone customers to hook up with free push IMAP email.

Said to be selling in the US as a Cingular exclusive for $499 on a two-year contract, 8GB for $599. Ships Stateside in June, Europe in fourth quarter, Asia in 2008.

Check out the full details on engadget or the official iPhone site.

mlearning m-learning mobile-learning mobile+learning podcasting iphone apple web+2.0 learing+2.0 eLearning

Life Tools- Power & Time

This provided a good life lesson on balance and priority of power from a Masonic newsletter I received today: (this is unlrelated to design)

...The Twenty-four-inch gauge is an instrument used by operative Masons to measure and lay out their work, but in speculative Freemasonry we are taught by its symbolism to divide our time into three equal parts, whereby are found eight hours for refreshment and sleep, eight for our usual vocations and eight for the service of God and humanity. There is an object in view and an end to be attained. It is, therefore, a symbol of purpose.

Power is the ability to act so as to produce change land cause event. Purpose is the idea or object kept before the mind as an end of effort or action....

Power directed by a good purpose is constructive, and results in achievement. It keeps the cars on the tracks and the wires in the air, it turns the wheels of man's industry and carries the commerce of continents as upon a mighty shoulder...

The lesson is definite and practical. The twenty-four- inch gauge and the common gavel speak to every Mason the language of constructive purpose land personal power. They mean that a Mason should cherish his ideals, the beauty that forms in the mind, the music that stirs in his heart, the glory that drapes his purest purpose, for out of these things he has the power to build for himself la new world in which to live.

From THE SHORT TALK BULLETIN The Masonic Service Association of the United States VOL. 6 April 1928 NO. 4


mlearning m-learning mobile-learning mobile+learning podcasting iphone apple web+2.0 learing+2.0 eLearning

The Tao of Design

The Learning Circuits Blog: once again challenges us with a Big Question Quality vs. Speed




What are the trade offs between quality learning programs and rapid e-learning and how do you decide?





For this big question, I want to look beyond the rapid eLearning tools and more into overall design philosophy.

In all professions, the question of quality versus speed seems to be on everyone's mind. I remember several years ago in a focus group of customer service reps I was challenged with the question of how do they balance the quality of their contact with customers with the amount of calls they are expected to take.

The reps were under the false impression that to provide quality service, they would have to spend more time on each call. As we demonstrated with L3 studies of the customer service course we ultimately developed, proper quality can result in greater speed.


I should emphasize at this point the words proper quality and differentiate that from quantity. As developers, we often are asked to include as much quantity in a program as possible as to improve quality.

For example, in a project I'm currently working on, one of the constant requests is to include more 'adult learning principles' and more 'highlights' in some application demonstrations.

When you look at a program page by page, it is easy to get lost in all the quantity of possibility. Including all of the elements some believe make a program 'quality' at every point you are told by textbooks may seem to result in a perfect course in the eyes of learning theory, but what does it really give your learner?

In striving for quality, as measured solely by quantity, you run the risk of reaching the point known as data asphyxiation. Data asphyxiation is simply providing your learners so much information and so many 'quality' elements that they reach a saturation point. The ultimate quality course you think you've developed has simply drowned your learners in more information than even Steven Hawkin could handle.



Your 'Quality' course now is both too long and not informative.

So where does the balance of Quality and Speed come from? How can you produce a course that is fast to develop, fast to take, and yet provides the quality of content that 'sticks'?

There are a few points to look at when creating a quality course quickly.

1. How much time are you spending on the 'raw' development? I remember when our team used to work from Dreamweaver with home grown eLearning templates. We would factor in almost as much time in the raw development period than we did researching and storyboarding. By using a rapid eLearning tool, you can shift a lot of your time away from the course development and focus on the quality of content.

2. What do your learners already know? Sure, it may be good to explain all the unusual terms they would find in their job, but are these terms familiar to them already? Instead of having page upon page describing these terms, include a glossary if having these terms defined is absolutely necessary.

3. Focus on Where not How. If you are teaching a billing system that has hundreds of transactions, there is no way that your students will remember each and every transaction. If, however, there your students have an on-demand reference system with the instructions, focus on where to find the steps to complete each transaction, not how to process each one.

4. Let your student browse. In training a system, for example, It is easy to get caught up describing each and every field and button with highlights and arrows. When you are developing a course, this may even seem like the perfect way to train, but what does your student see? Cut back on highlighting every point and instead allow your students the opportunity to explore and discover on their own.

Quality doesn't always come from quantity. Sometimes a 'rapid' course can have more sticking power than a course full of every 'textbook' quality example.

Quick and Easy Publishing of iPod Content with MogoPop

Thanks for Brent with Corporate eLearning and Development for pointing us to this tool:


MogoPop offers a FREE and fast way to publish and download content to iPods. MogoPop offers free accounts with 50MB of multi media storage and unlimited downloads of your content.

One of the big advantages of MogoPop is it rolls your video, audio, pictures and text into a single piece of iPod content. This allows for quick development of educational content for the iPod.


This week I will create some content on MogoPop and provide some more feedback as to it's quality and function.

Apple and Cingular Team Up on new iPod Phone

Leaked tonite for tomorrow's Wall Street Journal. One of Apple's big announcements tomorrow will be the partnership with Cingular to market a iPod phone. While I love Apple, I hate Cingular.

Frankly, the service difference won't sell me on this unless it is worth having the phone without service or if it is offered as a multi-mode phone that will work on CDMA networks.