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Educators have considered mobile devices as their constant pet-peeve over the years, but recently, they have started to mellow on the gadget and opened their doors for its educational capacity, thanks to iPhone’s varied applications!

Abilene Christian University in Texas is giving out iPhone 3G Smartphone to two-thirds of its 950 freshmen. These gadgets are meant for checking attendance for the mentors; for the learners, these gadgets are intended for brainstorming ideas, getting virtual handouts, and podcasts. Other schools from Michigan to Maryland and Texas to North Carolina have concluded that advanced mobile devices can be used for learning.

New Media Consortium, a nonprofit organization who claimed that advanced technology are magnificent learning aids, wrote that "the time is approaching when these little devices will be as much a part of education as a bookbag." Supporting this as evidence is a survey of 700 students conducted and published by Pew Internet & American Life Project. Of these students, 71% own mobile phones while only 595 have computers.

The major problem foreseen in this is monitoring; how can students be monitored on their usage of these mobile devices, whether as educational aid or as entertainment during an after-lunch boring discussion? I leave this all to the technocrats and mentoring experts.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com

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Freedom in innovation is what Google Chrome is all about. The people in Google want to give its multitude of users round the globe the right to exercise their creativity in enhancing the newest release in browsers: the Google Chrome, Google’s first open source browser.

Google said it released the Chrome to give value to its users and at the same time as a drive for innovation. Creators of the browser also added the V8 JavaScript engine, which allows more future applications to run on it. The Google trademark of speed and cleanliness has been carried over to the Chrome, and its innovators are working on the version applicable to Mac and Linux, claiming also that they are trying to make it faster and more robust.

Another contributor to Google Chrome’s differential output is the detachable individually designed tabs and “sandboxes” that will prevent sharing of damaging codes. Nevertheless, detractors are claiming that anything that Google releases will cause noise in the online community but that the Chrome is far from  changing the landscape of web surfing; they refer to this as some sort of campaign to promote the use of their other products like mail, chat, and cloud computing on the browser.

If we have to take a poll, what do you think is the reason for Google’s release of the Chrome; is it their response to Firefox, or a campaign for the usage of its other applications and products; or simply an innovation that enables its users to implement changes and promote collaboration and unity in practicing creativity among developers and the whole wide world of internet users?

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Google is celebrating its ten-year birthday. The billion dollar company has come a long way from being an unsure Larry Page and Sergey Brin venture in 1998. Google right now is a monstrous force to contend with, having a $150 billion market value with 20,000 employees.

Like any company whose ever-expanding wings have wide reach, Google is currently under scrutiny by other big names in the industry for allegedly monopolizing Internet traffic and advertising. Restrictions and roadblocks for further expansion have caused delays in Google’s current plans. Selling advertisements to Yahoo has been deemed a challenge. There has  also been scrutiny on Google’s ability to retain sensitive information of its users.

Despite all the criticisms fired at Google, it had a successful release of its web browser—the Chrome. Many say that this is one initiative for Google’s applications hyping up, like Gmail, Maps, etc. The company sports a long to-do list for its ten-year anniversary from creating filing cabinets for people’s health records, creating digital copies of world renowned books, and tweaking its search engine to be able to understand and inform using a more human language. But on top of this list is its inclination to develop more applications for mobile phones.

Unknown to many, Google’s corporate motto is “Don’t be evil.”

Amassing billions for revenue, Google has exuded an image of being a maneuvering, dominant force. The same holds true for any business entity whose success is insurmountable.

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That China has a constantly ballooning population will not cause a stir in the global village; but it might when it says that China beats the US in Internet usage. Why is that? It's because it hasn't been long yet since China has opened its arms to other forms of governance (political or not), including capitalism.

But the speed in China's pace for catching up in technological advancement is quite phenomenal; recently, the country has succeeded in their first ever spacewalk attempt as their astronauts landed back on earth.

Now going back to the China's recent Internet hype, the rise has been attributed to income increase among the farmers and laborers who now have the chance to go online. And so what happens is, voila! The Internet becomes the most preferred means of communication among Chinese people, their topmost source of information and entertainment. As a matter of fact, the Chinese Internet audience is equal to the entire audience of its biggest TV channels. Video sharing is figured as most popular among Chinese people.

So how forceful is the Internet in shaping the face of Chinese history? Chinese Internet users, supported by SMS messaging, tried to stage a nationwide boycott of Carrefour, a French supermarket allegedly supporting the Dalai Lama.

One can't imagine how the Internet can liberate the Chinese people as well as what country is next to discover the perks of having technology at your fingertips.