Just because e-books are available on better (the new Kindle) and more
(all cell phones) devices doesn’t mean people will read them. But mark
my words, read them they will. Six trends will conspire over the next
year to drive e-book reading to levels that will surprise just about
everybody.

Here comes the e-book revolution

To boost the sinking economy, government needs to invest in
modernizing and upgrading school buildings, expanding broadband
internet access, making public buildings more energy efficient, and
launching a public works program to rebuild the nation’s highways, said
President-elect Barack Obama in a Dec. 6 radio address.

Top News - Ed tech central to Obama’s recovery plan

“OLPC had promised that it would be possible to mass produce a sub-$100 laptop. The folks at OLPC tried to realize that dream by re-imagining what a laptop looks like. How large of screen and keyboard it has. What OS runs on the laptop. Now that OLPC has decided to super size their systems to run Windows XP, the $100 price point has slipped beyond their reach. A Chinese firm has realized that dream. Taking the best from both the OLPC and EeePC. They ditched x86 compatibility and switched to a MIPS architecture to further reduce production costs. HiVision has managed to create a UMPC that sells right now for $120.00. They say they have refined the manufacturing process and have learned from building this laptop how to mass produce a laptop that will sell for $98.00.”

Slashdot | Sub-$100 Laptops Have Finally Arrived

Cubans are getting wired. The island’s communist government put desktop computers on sale to the public for the first time Friday, ending a ban on PC sales as another despised restriction on daily life fell away under new President Raul Castro

LINK

HP has launched a new line of mini notebooks designed specifically for schools. The new 2133 Mini-Note PCs, which were announced Tuesday, weigh in just above 2.5 pounds and start a hair below $500. They’re aimed largely toward students for school and home use.

LINK 

Elementary schools in at least seven cities are piloting an innovative handheld computer that costs only $50 and can be used to help teach reading and math.

LINK 

Birmingham’s City Council has approved a $3.5 million plan to provide schoolchildren with 15,000 computers produced by the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child Foundation, which aims to spread laptops to poor children in developing countries.

The foundation says the deal marks the first time a U.S. city has agreed to buy the machines, which also are headed to such countries as Rwanda, Thailand, Brazil and Mexico in addition to Peru and Mongolia.

LINK 

Oklahoma Christian University (OC) officials announced Friday that the university will begin providing Apple’s MacBook to incoming freshmen and faculty who attend a new student orientation this summer. Current students will be offered a program where they can trade in their used laptops for a new MacBook.  Included with each MacBook will be the student’s choice of an iPhone or an iPod touch.

LINK 

If you think that iPods are used just for listening to music, you obviously haven’t been keeping up with the latest technology. The Apple-developed music player now features all kinds of accessories to help you study better, and now other companies are in a rush to get their designs in sync with the iPod. Pre-teens, college kids and even adults are taking advantage of the educational benefits an iPod affords them.

LINK

An Apple iPhone or iPod touch will become a central part of Abilene Christian University’s innovative learning experience this fall when all freshmen are provided one of these converged media devices, said Phil Schubert, ACU executive vice president.

LINK