Technology - Google News

Apple leans on multimedia to convince schools that iPads are better than Chromebooks
Facebook makes its privacy, data downloading and deletion settings easier to find
PlayStation's PSVR cuts price on game bundles, starting at $300

Apple leans on multimedia to convince schools that iPads are better than Chromebooks

Posted: 28 Mar 2018 06:14 AM PDT

Apple has a Google problem — in education, that is. Google has won over a large portion of the education market in the US, something that can be credited to both the cheapness of web-based Chromebooks and the accessibility of Google's apps. Apple knows this, so yesterday, it hosted a "field trip" — that's actually what it was called — for press, teachers, and student journalists at a magnet high school in Chicago.

The event may as well have been called "Sorry, you can't make a cool video with a Chromebook."

That's the point Apple seemed to want to underscore as it presented another iPad and a new and improved suite of apps for teachers and students. The new, $329 9.7-inch iPad ($299 for students) supports Apple's fancy Pencil, as well as a new stylus from Logitech called Crayon. Need to scribble some notes or use a fine point to edit a photo? You can do that on a cheap iPad now. The school iPad also supports ARKit, which means it can run sophisticated AR apps. One example is an app that lets you dissect a virtual frog. (You don't even need to Google"formaldehyde.") And there's a new Apple-designed curriculum called Everyone Can Create, which joins Everyone Can Code as part of a suite of apps for, well, making things: music, art, videos.

Apple even cited examples of students using the Clips app to make videos. Never mind that I haven't seen many real people using Clips in the past year, outside of people at Apple.

"We've been at this for 40 years, and we care deeply about education," Apple CEO Tim Cook said onstage at the event. "We believe that our place at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts makes it possible for us to create powerful products and tools that amplify ... creativity."

There's no question that Apple has a long history of appealing to creative types with its technology. The bigger question is whether that approach will help it grab some of the education market back from Google, which partners with a variety of manufacturers for Chromebooks and has emphasized the utility of apps like Docs and Gmail.

Google's occupation of classrooms has been a swift one. Last year, Chromebooks were estimated to have won half of the market share for personal computers and tablets in the US education market, up from a mere 9 percent in 2013.

A large part of this is cost; Chromebooks sell for as low as $149. Another reason is device management. It's pretty easy for teachers and students alike to sign in and out of web-based Chromebooks as needed, whereas Apple didn't introduce multi-user features for iPads in classrooms until 2016. And Chromebooks run on Chrome OS, Google's always-up-to-date operating system.

But another big factor is Google's software-centric approach. "Apple is fundamentally a hardware company, so they want people to fall in love with their devices and their user interface," says Trace Urdan, a managing director at Tyton Partners who follows the knowledge and education market. "Google has been playing the long game, which is to get all of these kids into the Google apps. They've created enough utility and made it easy enough so it's become the defacto document-sharing, collaboration tool in schools."

"Google's goal is to get everyone into Google," Urdan added.

And it's working: more than half of the students in primary schools and secondary schools in the US use Google apps like Gmail and Docs, which means more than 30 million kids use them. This is a number that was first shared in a New York Times report last spring; a Google spokesperson told The Verge that data is still accurate.

Apple's own collaboration apps and cloud-based features weren't ignored at yesterday's event. Apps like Pages, Keynote, Numbers, were all shown onstage and are getting fresh updates, along with Clips and GarageBand. A spokesperson confirmed that Apple's new Schoolwork app, which lets teachers assign and manage homework and projects, will be easily accessible through the web at iCloud.com. And students will get 200GB of free iCloud storage.

Apple also said that Schoolwork will keep all student data private.

But the overall theme of the event was about making things, not just writing them. After the main stage event, press and other attendees — who were given "class schedules" at the start of the day — were guided through robot-programming, music-making, anatomy-sketching demos in large garage-like rooms. Ditch the fuddy-duddy clamshell, Apple seemed to say, and use touchscreens and high-resolution tablet cameras and stylus pens instead. And it's obviously an appeal the company is making not just to administrators and teachers, but to students themselves.

"They are creators of content, rather than consumers of information," Cassey Williams, a teacher from Woodberry Down Primary School in London, said about her students during the morning's presentation. Williams was one of four teachers that Apple brought onstage to show how her students are using iPads in classrooms.

Of course, a lot of people still like laptops with keyboards. And when you're a school district facing a giant deficit — as is the case for Chicago Public Schools, the district where the event was held — both upfront costs and operational costs for new technology are still a large consideration. Even with the student discount, Apple's new iPad, keyboard, and stylus combo exceeds $400.

But the tide could also turn in Apple's favor as younger kids, who are quite literally growing up with iPads, get further into the education system, Urdan says.

"When you get up into the older grades, that's where Chromebook comes on strong because then they have the ability to use the keyboard. But that's not as much of a barrier anymore," he says. "When you're talking about little kids and educational content, you're talking about videos and gaming and a market that extends from the school world into the consumer world."

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Facebook makes its privacy, data downloading and deletion settings easier to find

Posted: 28 Mar 2018 04:57 AM PDT

With Facebook facing a wave of public backlash over how it has handled user data over the years — a backlash that was kicked off two weeks ago with the revelation that data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica had worked on targeted election campaigns using personal and private Facebook data — the company today announced a new set of changes to help users find and change their privacy settings, as well as download and delete whatever data has been collected through Facebook's network of social media services.

To be clear, many of these settings and features already existed in Facebook, but now Facebook is making them significantly clearer for the average user to find and use. It's possible that Facebook would have had to do a lot of this work anyway in light of the new GDPR requirements that are coming into place in Europe.

What today's changes do not do is provide any indications that Facebook plans to do anything different in terms of what information it's gathering and using to run its service, and its bigger, profitable business. (Indeed, even upcoming changes to its terms of service, which will include more clarity on Facebook's data policy, will contain no changes in it, the company says: "These updates are about transparency – not about gaining new rights to collect, use, or share data," writes Erin Egan, Facebook's chief privacy officer.)

We've seen a lot of people already downloading their Facebook data in the last week or so (without today's update), and the impression you get is that they are generally coming away shocked by the amount of information that had been amassed through Facebook's various apps across web and mobile. That in itself — combined with more scrutiny from regulators over how data is collected, used, and shared, and bigger changes that Facebook is making in terms of how it works with third-party apps that link into the Facebook platform (which CEO Mark Zuckberg announced last week) — will hopefully lead to more meaningful changes on that front.

For the time being, however, the main idea here is that if you choose to stay and use Facebook, caveat emptor, and proceed armed with more control. Facebook highlights several areas where changes are being put in place:

User controls. Facebook said that it has redesigned its settings menu for mobile, consolidating all of the primary controls on one screen. This is already a major change, given that previously they were spread across 20: a gating factor that would have meant it was hard to find what you were trying to change, or perhaps leading many to give up altogether. It's also making it clear what can and cannot be shared with apps, specifically: "We've also cleaned up outdated settings so it's clear what information can and can't be shared with apps," writes Egan. The fact that it seems there were some out of date elements in the menus highlights that this might not have been Facebook's biggest priority up to now.
Privacy shortcuts. For those who don't want to dive into their settings, Facebook said it is also going to put in a new item into its menu, directly linking users to privacy settings. Privacy Shortcuts, Facebook said, will come by way of a few taps and will let people add in two-factor authentication; composite access to what you've shared via Facebook with the option of deleting if you choose; controls for your ad settings, which will also include an explanation of how ads work on Facebook for those who might want to know more; and a link to help you control what and how you share on the site — that is, the setting of "public, friends only, and friends of friends." Again, that control has been in place for years already at Facebook, but many don't know how to access it, or what it means. Putting it a little more front and center might change that.
Downloading and deleting Facebook data. The aim here is to make it easier for people to do both if they want. Access Your Information will be a secure link that people can use to collect this, and it will make it easier for people to do both. Will the ease and openness make it less likely that users will decide to leave Facebook altogether? That remains to be seen.

The news comes in the wake of CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week posting an acknowledgement of Facebook's role in the scandal, and a pledge to improve the company's practices with regards to third-party apps and how Facebook works with them, and what data it will provide in the future, which he also followed up with a full-page apology printed in several newspapers. It has not been enough for some, and #deletefacebook has become a trending concept, with the company's stock taking a nosedive in the last two weeks.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

PlayStation's PSVR cuts price on game bundles, starting at $300

Posted: 28 Mar 2018 07:38 AM PDT

Sony's Playstation VR is getting another price cut.
Sarah Tew/CNET

Sony's PlayStation VR is cutting prices, again.

Wednesday, the company said its suggested retail price for PSVR bundled with the game "Doom VFR" or the game "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR" would get $100 price cuts in the US, starting Thursday. The Canadian prices on the packages are coming down too, and European customers will see a discount on PSVR starter packs.

PSVR cost $500 when it was introduced in 2016, compared the $600 Oculus Rift or $800 HTC Vive at the time. Since then, all those high-end systems have pulled back the reins on their prices, as virtual reality systems have struggled with adoption.

The PlayStation VR "Doom VFR" bundle will cost $299.99 in the US and C$379.99 in Canada, and "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR" bundle will cost $349.99 in the US and C$449.99 in Canada. Both bundles include a PSVR headset, PlayStation Camera, PSVR Demo Disc 2.0 and the game's Blu-ray Disc. The Skyrim bundle also includes two PlayStation Move controllers and all the official add-ons for the core game.

Starting Thursday in Europe or Monday in Australia and New Zealand, Sony is lowering the recommended price for its PSVR Starter Pack by €100 euros to €299.99. That bundle includes the headset, camera and a download code for PlayStation VR Worlds game.

Let's block ads! (Why?)