One Trick Pony

A UK company has announced a Tablet PC designed for use in schools. Some of its features:

• Mark homework by annotating directly over common file formats.
  
• Collect homework, naturally hand mark it, and return it to their network folder with your comments attached. (when used with our RM Community Connect 3 network).
  
• Include hand drawn sketches, diagrams and drawings quickly and easily to any assignment.
  
• Gather data and take detailed notes during?field trips, writing and drawing your notes in a format you can use later on.
  
• Present a lesson to the whole-class, while facing them, using Easiteach Studio.
  
• Prepare lessons from the comfort of your home, on the train and in the staffroom.
  
• Read and annotate electronic texts during study or discussions.
  
• Notes are stored in Microsoft’s new ink format, and can be searched later as if they were text.
  

What’s interesting about this is the price: around $1250 if my conversion is correct. That sets it apart from the Tablet PCs coming out next month which are pricier than laptops and aimed at the mine’s-bigger-than-yours business user. Once these get down to $300 or so, we’re onto something.

From BBC NEWS: Large world found beyond Pluto

“A new planet-like object has been found circling the Sun more than one and a half billion kilometres beyond Pluto. Quaoar, as it has been dubbed, is about 1,280 kilometres across (800 miles) and is the biggest find in the Solar System since Pluto itself 72 years ago. The object is about one-tenth the diameter of Earth and circles the Sun every 288 years. It is half Pluto’s size, but apparently larger than the ninth planet’s moon, Charon. “

Why do I think this is cool? It gives me something further out to anticipate. I’ve always been fascinated by Pluto because of how little we know about it, and now there’s something even mysteriouser. Bring on the closeup photos! Let’s get a Kodak Brownie out there right away!

The birth and demise of an idea: Teledesic’s ‘Internet in the sky’

“This is how a plan to take over the world ended with a whimper.

With that, the Bellevue company started by Craig McCaw and Bill Gates deep-sixed its plans to build a global broadband satellite network.”

Very disappointing. For the last two years I’ve been talking about Teledesic in my keynotes. It’s one of those things that would have changed everything fundamentally, especially in the way it would bring the internet to remote spots that will never see a cable truck. Like Iridium, this looks like a technology that was ahead of its time. Blame it on the economy, and you can blame the economy on whomever you choose. Drat!