Although there aren’t very many devices that have Bluetooth 4.0 yet, There are a lot of different applications that are being tossed around.
- Applications that will help you FIND your phone or give you an out of range alert, if someone is walking off with it!
- It could include wireless locking and unlocking of your phone
- Sports / Running apps could send your stats and vitals to your device and monitor your health with things like a heart rate monitor, blood pressure, or glucose monitors
Remember that this is a LOW ENERGY spec. It could mean that these devices could operate on a battery like a typical watch or hearing aid battery, which have a pretty long life.
When do we think we might see this all be adopted. Bluetooth.com claims that all smartphones will include this spec by the end of 2012. Apple is represented on the Board of Directors of BlueTooth, which means that they will have a fairly big push just through iPhone sales alone.
E-Books
There is some news on the eBook front that is going to change the face of E-Ink books a bit. Bookeen, one of the oldest companies in the e-reader space, has developed a new High Speed Ink System (HSIS). The HSIS is similar to the current E-Ink technology, but is adds faster text refreshes. It also adds scrolling web pages and menus. It’g going to hit the market with the Bookeen Odyssey . It will have a 6-inch Pearl touch screen, Wi-Fi and storage for 2,000 books with a microSD slot to expand memory.
I’ll be talking more about some e-Reader news from Amazon this week on Waves of Tech.You can hear me each week on Waves of Tech at NetcastStudio.com. We record each week on Wednesdays at 7PM PST or 10PM EST
For my edTech website this episode, I want to share with you Setgame.com.
This is not only one of my student’s favorite sites, but mine as well. There are two activities that we do there and one of the great things is that it lends itself great to using the Smartboard. The first one is the Daily Puzzle for Set. This game is available as a physical card game that you can find at most teacher supply stores. The online game gives you a daily puzzle that contains SIX sets. On the cards there are four attributes: shape, color, number, and pattern. You are looking for three cards that will make up a set. You have to go through each attribute and find a set that contains either ALL of the same attribute or ALL DIFFERENT. For example, with shapes, you could either have THREE Ovals or you would have to have one of each shape: oval, diamond, and a squiggly shape. You have to go through ALL four attributes and meet these criteria. I will often give them a card to start with and see if they can complete the set. Sometimes I will stop them mid way through their set and have someone else tell me what the third card would need to be. It is a great game of classification and observation and my students LOVE it. Each day is a new puzzle and I remind them that they are competing against people all over the world on the same puzzle.
On the same site, you will find the Quiddler Daily Puzzle. Again, this is available for purchase as a physical card set. Quiddler is a cross between Scrabble(r) and solitaire. You have 16 cards; 8 face down and eight face up on top of them. The cards have letters that have differing point values. The object is to use up all of the cards, while making the longest possible words. Be sure you get rid of those high point letters and combinations, like the 11 point V card. You will have those points taken away from you at the end of the game if they are left over. These two activities are great mind stimulating activities and provide a great warm up activity before you start into a math lesson or language arts lesson.
Show Subscriptions and Apps:
iTunes | Zune | Stitcher Radio | iPhone App | Android App | Miro | Download MP3 | RSS Feed[/stextbox]
Recent Comments