April 2007
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Month April 2007

Entries 8 Total

zomgee iphones!

Apr 11, ’07 3:18 PM

Don’t get me wrong, I think the Apple iPhone has the potential to be big. Really big. Revolutionary in some ways, even. I want one. However, I have a slight problem with a number of stories released this week stating that “High school teens say they’ll plunk down $500 for iPhone”.

The stories are getting their data from a PiperJaffray survey of 500 students. 84% of the students surveyed had heard of the iPhone. Of those 420 students, 24% said they “would buy a cellphone/iPod combo (iPhone) for $500.” 101 students. I’m no expert at interpreting statistics or spinning them into news releases, but what do these 101 yeses really mean? As usual, survey readers don’t know the socioeconomic status of those questioned. And of course no one knows if anyone of these students will actually buy the iPhone.

Apple analysts seem happy enough anyways:

Still, Munster said he’s modeling for the Cupertino-based electronics maker to sell just 660,000 iPhones during the 2007 fiscal year ending September and just another 4 million in the proceeding 12 months.

“We expect increasingly widespread adoption of the iPhone in more price-sensitive markets after the price gradually comes down,” he wrote. “Even if 20 percent of those students (or 5 percent overall) actually enter the market at $500, our estimate may prove to be conservative.”

I’m all for hyping the up the iPhone because of its awesome features (though not the fact that it doesn’t do 3G and maybe has battery life issues), but not because of small surveys.

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pay attention

Apr 10, ’07 8:28 PM

From YouTube user jsdt4, a must see video. He writes:

Since most of today’s students can appropriately be labeled as “Digital Learners”, why do so many teachers refuse to enter the digital age with their teaching practices?

This presentation was created in an effort to motivate teachers to more effectively use technology in their teaching.

Comments (6)

Library MySpace Study

Apr 10, ’07 4:04 PM

Take a look at this MySpace profile: Library MySpace Study. It is by two LIS students and they are using MySpace to, well, study MySpace. Their “About Me:”

Hello, this is Kelly and Lisa. We are graduate students in Library and Information Science at Dominican University in River Forest, IL. We are doing a study on public libraries with MySpace profiles for our Research Methods class with Prof. Kate Williams. Our research plan is to look at public library MySpace profiles to see how libraries are using MySpace to interact with patrons. We will send out interview surveys via MySpace email to a random sample of library profiles. Check out our MySpace blog for updates and information as our study develops. Feel free to leave us comments, questions and suggestions!

They’ve already friended a number of libraries and have a bibliography about MySpace and Libraries.

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sad walkman!

Apr 9, ’07 8:19 AM

Today Apple announced that after 5 years of selling ipods, they’ve sold 100 million on them. The ipod has dethroned Sony’s Walkman as “the fastest selling music player in history.” Poor Walkman.

I realize it isn’t 100% the fault of libraries, but it is a bit telling that libraries haven’t responded with more vigor to the ipod by attempting to integrate them into library services. If more libraries would have copied the homegrown ipod audiobook program of the South Huntington Public Library instead of throwing money at vendors for inferior (in some ways, and to be fair, better in a few ways) products, maybe this would have exerted pressure on vendors to work something out.

My hopes of ipods in libraries has been somewhat renewed with Apple and EMI’s announcement of DRM free music and Microsoft’s announcement that their floundering Zune will follow suit. Could the tide be turning? I’m not holding my breath but I’m afraid that reasonably DRMed content is the only way libraries will be a relevant digital content provider in the coming years.

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compositional wall sconce

Apr 3, ’07 9:11 PM

Not that you come to ‘walking paper’ for decorating advice, but you still need to see these:

Wouldn’t these look nice in a library (or book lover’s reading room)? The white vellum shade can be used as is, or accepts an a provided insert of a William Blake poem or a page from a Schubert symphony. Both are reproduced in their original hand. $236 from GREENculture.

[via]

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orwell’s house watched by big brother

Apr 3, ’07 6:37 PM

Within 200 yards of Orwell’s flat there 32 CCTV cameras monitoring London.

See George Orwell, Big Brother is watching your house from ‘This is London.’

Rethinking privacy, anyone?

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orwell's house watched by big brother

Apr 3, ’07 6:37 PM

Within 200 yards of Orwell’s flat there 32 CCTV cameras monitoring London.

See George Orwell, Big Brother is watching your house from ‘This is London.’

Rethinking privacy, anyone?

Comments (0)

the future of reading

Apr 3, ’07 8:59 AM

The Economist had a great article last week titled Not bound by anything that attempts to answer the question, “Now that books are being digitised, how will people read?”

One of the author’s central ideas is that books are migrating online and ceasing to be books. Take for example wikipedia. He also writes,

Many fantasy fans, for example, have already put aside books and logged on to “virtual worlds” such as “World of Warcraft”, in which muscular heroes and heroines get together to slay dragons and such like. Science fiction may go the same way, and is arguably already being created by “residents” of online worlds such as Second Life.

What makes this claim somewhat more interesting in that it is tempered with the statement that

Most stories, however, will never find a better medium than the paper-bound novel. That is because readers immersed in a storyline want above all not to be interrupted, and all online media teem with distractions (even a hyperlink is an interruption).

I don’t think all fantasy readers have set down print books though I’m sure some have. However, many people are certainly getting the same (or greater) satisfaction from games in addition to reading books. With sales of the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 approaching 8 million units (and let’s not forget the 8.5 million World of Warcraft players), it is safe to say that more people are either replacing or supplementing their reading with gaming.

The article isn’t just about gaming. There’s an interesting bit about recapturing the oral nature of poetry though podcasting, and getting haiku text messages. Both of these things, by the way, are services that any library could offer at no real cost…

Comments (2)