Outline: The Education Apple - episode 27

“The show that discusses Apple technology in the formal Classroom as well as in the classroom of our daily lives”

1. The Cast

• Barrett Mosbacker, Superintendent of Briarwood Christian School, publisher Christian School Journal

• Bill Brazeal, Technical Architect, Technology Specialist and Principal - ezNet Solutions

2. Technology Review

• Record quarter for Apple's retail stores on back of strong iPhone, iPad and Mac sales

  • As part of the Q1 2014 earnings call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer has broken out some key details for the company's retail stores

  • Total revenue for the quarter was $7 billion, a record figure with 9% growth on the previous quarter.

  • Strong iPhone, iPad and Mac sales through retail stores

  • 6 existing stores were remodelled in the quarter, with a further 4 new stores opened. Apple now has 420 retail stores with 166 outside the United States.

  • Average revenue per store of $16.7 million, up $400,000 on the same quarter in the previous year

  • Average visitors per store per week at 21,000

• Apple today reported record sales of 51 million iPhones in the quarter, up from 47.8 million in the same time period last year (more demand for 5s than 5c)

• Tim Cook said “The mobile payments area in general is one that we’ve been intrigued with. It was one of the thoughts behind Touch ID”
  

• Report: Apple moving into health monitoring

  • Apple iWatch has long been rumoured to have a strong focus on fitness and health tracking

  • Senior VPs have met with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - the topic of the meeting was "mobile medical applications"

  • the company is working on a health and fitness app for iOS 8 - codename Healthbook

  • Is rumored to be able to track steps taken and calories burned, along with more complex records, such as glucose levels and hydration

  • Further supporting these speculations, Apple is making a number of new hires for roles in the health space

  • Specialists - chief medical officer, non-invasive patient monitoring expert, sleep expert

  • iWatch or some similar device would have to play into this system
    

• Yahoo hack stirs passwords debate

  • Continuing wave of reports of hackers stealing consumer data from marquee retailers and tech companies

  • Target was a big one, now Yahoo is the latest example, admitting that data thieves "gained unauthorized access" to an undisclosed number of Yahoo mail users' account credentials

  • Hackers did not penetrate Yahoo's network defenses, instead stealing data from a third-party website that allows the use of Yahoo e-mail addresses to create customer accounts

  • Yahoo is contacting victims individually and advising them to change their passwords and to use distinctive passwords for any online accounts tied to Yahoo mail

  • It's really important for users to understand never to use the same password on multiple sites or services

  • Attackers are focusing on valuable data in defined areas - easier to get large collections of consumer data this way

  • Most major banks, PayPal and even Yahoo support multi-factor services that will issue a single-use security code via a text message. And Google supports an open source service, called Authenticator, that can be used across its Gmail service and many third-party accounts

  • Until organizations move from passwords to stronger forms of authentication, like universal identity solutions, everyone should adopt a one password per site policy

  • Best password manager apps for Mac: 1Password, LastPass, oneSafe, and more!
    

• Apple And Others Fund $750 Million In Education Gadgets And Internet Broadband

  • During the State of the Union, Obama announced that companies would help connect 15,000 schools and 20 million students to speedy Internet

    • Apple’s pledging $100 million in iPads, Macbooks, products and teacher training

    • AT&T is giving $100 million in mobile broadband for 3 years to middle schools and for teacher development

    • The Verizon Foundation is giving $100 million to educate teachers, with the Verizon Innovative Leading Schools program, among other initiatives

    • Autodesk will offer free design software to every secondary school

  • Research on the effectiveness of broadband in schools is uncertain - The Urban Institute found that broadband in the home slightly decreased math and reading proficiency

  • Study in Portugal found the same for broadband in schools  

     

4. App picks

• Barrett -

  • App picks:  SwiftKey Note gives fast and accurate predictions, and makes it easy to add text notes to Evernote.

SwiftKey Note is a free note-taking app for iOS that marries digital organization app Evernote with SwiftKey's predictive keyboard to make taking notes on your phone or tablet faster and more accurate.

• Thoughts on Facebook’s Paper app: Not as good as Flipboard-not customizable, don’t want to share more information with Facebook.

• Twitter picks: None

• Bill -

  • App Picks: 1Password

    • Available on Mac, Windows, iPad, iPhone, Android

    • Pricing at - https://agilebits.com/store (bundles and family licenses)

    • Not cheap but it is relative to being hacked

5. Wrap up and closing remarks...

Don’t forget to follow us on the Internet

Bill: Twitter - @billbrazeal         Web - http://billbrazeal.com

Barrett: Twitter - @BMosbacker

Blog:  Christian School Journal http://christianschooljournal.com/

Thanks for listening in, be sure to tell your friends, watch for our next episode coming in two weeks.  So long for now.