mLearnCon News and Updates

Adobe has predicted that in the future, apps will be able to install automatically on users’ Smartphones when they enter a particular location.

Speaking during the Open Mobile Summit in London, Adobe’s chief technology officer Kevin Lynch predicted a social and location based mobile computing in the future.

“There's a strong future for us with this social - and location-based kind of computing enabled by mobile,” he said, CNET reports.

Lynch then went on to demonstrate how he received a notification on his Galaxy Tab 10.1 when he visited the Tate Modern museum. The app offered information on the exhibits and paintings on display. 

Lynch said that the app could replace the audio guides that are used in museums currently.

“Proximity sensing will be at a granular-enough level that you'll be able to know where a person is within a few feet,” Lynch explained.

Lynch also used the museum’s app to order food from the museum’s canteen. He also conducted a demo in which an app notification arrived when he entered his hotel room. The app allowed him to browse the movies the hotel had to offer and stream his own photo on the TV.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2011/06/10/adobe-predicts-smartphone-future-claims-location-based-apps-is-the-next-big-thing/#ixzz1PI2na7Q2

According to a new Apple patent application that was published this morning by the US Patent and Trademark Office, future iPhone's are likely to provide end users with effective new ways of communicating in both noisy environments like a restaurant or even during a quiet office meeting without stirring a mouse. The system involves using new text-to-speech and speech-to-text converters as well as providing a means of sending prerecorded notifications to the caller if you're unable to speak when answering your phone. I think that many will appreciate these new features and only hope that Apple could get these to market in good time.  

Problem One: Communicating in Noisy Environments

A smartphone user may sometimes have to make or answer a phone call in a noisy environment. Noise could interfere with a phone conversation to a degree that the conversation is no longer intelligible to either conversing party. A user in the noisy environment may try to scream into the phone over the noise, but the screaming and the noise may render the voice signal unintelligible at the other end.

For example, a user may be talking on the phone in a busy restaurant. The user may not be able to shout loud enough into the phone to cover the noise in the restaurant. The user may not even be able to hear when the other end is talking. The noise may render the conversation unintelligible and may lead to a termination of the telephone conversation.

Problem Two: Unable to Communicate During a Meeting

In another scenario, it may be inconvenient for a user to talk on a phone. For example, users may be in a meeting and don't want to draw attention to themselves by speaking into the phone. The users may try to whisper into the phone, but the whispering may render the conversation unintelligible. The users may choose to send a text message to the other party, but the other party may be on a landline where texting is unavailable, or may not have a texting plan. It could be frustrating to conduct a telephone conversation when the environment is noisy or the circumstance is inappropriate for a user to speak.

Read the full article and Apple's solutions here from PatentlyApple.com

The web and mobile connectivity have been undisputable agents of change across a range of industries, bringing our global economy closer together and providing opportunity for business to thrive where it would previously be impossible. In the education sector, most notably, mobile connectivity, web 2.0 capabilities, and smart software are the catalysts for making quality education available to eager students who may not have access to it otherwise.

The availability of online learning and tools for ever younger students is becoming a new focus today as we realize how dependent our world really is on the skills honed through electronic communication, social media, and abbreviated calculations of how our world works. Tools that build critical thinking through games, encourage collaboration and provide real-time assessment and remediation have become a secret weapon for many schools in helping to prepare their students for the real world.

Students’ formative high school years - especially critical - provide teachers with an opportunity for instilling college and career readiness, an inclination critical to success in any post-graduate environment. Exposure to the unique requirements of online coursework, most notably independent study and virtual collaboration, provide students with experience in developing self-motivation. Students learn time management, prioritization and – despite misconceptions about online learning – practice community building more in tune with today’s actual professional environments.

Read the full article here from International Business Times

The full schedules and session descriptions for two of the learning stages at mLearnCon 2011 have been posted:

A clever Microsoft Surface app makes iPads and Android phones behave like we wish they would: No different from real-life files.

You may not have noticed, but Microsoft Surface is still in the game, having gotten a big reboot at CES last month. And Amnesia Connect, a new gestural multimedia sharing app from Australian firm Amnesia Razorfish, puts the platform to stunning use by linking together any touchscreen-based handheld device (from an iPad to a BlackBerry) and turning it into a kind of magic X-ray window onto photos and video displayed on the Surface. Check out the video and try to tell us you don't want to play with this thing immediately:

Read the full article HERE