Outline: The Education Apple - episode 15


“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. Week in Review

    • Smart mind says Dumb thing

    • Says iPad is being “held back” by lack of physical keyboard and MS Office

    • MS Surface has 1.8% global market share

    • Gates said “A lot of those users are frustrated, they can’t type, they can’t create documents, they don’t have Office there.”

  • Microsoft Concedes Windows 8 is Struggling (Wall Street Journal)

    • After just 6 months MS going back to drawing board

    • Changing sales strategy and software to address user complaints

    • Update coming called “Windows Blue”

    • Users complaining its too confusing to use

    • Windows 8 may show how difficult it is to run the same OS on laptop, tablet, and phone

  • Ex-Apple Adman Predicts 2013 Will Be The Year Of The iPhone’s iPod-ization

    • Apple’s ex-Ad Guru, Ken Segall, predicts that the iPhone’s biggest years are still ahead of it

    • Segall thinks we’ll finally get an iPhone Mini, iPhones in color, and maybe even a big iPhone

    • Apple would never follow the “cheap” path, but will instead use a smaller screen, a plastic casing like the iPhone 3GS, and maybe a weaker processor

    • One surprise in Segall’s predictions is the claim that Apple will offer an iPhone Max or larger screened iPhone

  • iOS lead over Android in US web traffic share growing steadily

    • Despite the fact that Android devices sell in bucket loads, when it comes to usage, it’s been shown on various occasions that iPhone and iPad users are far more engaged with their products than any other platform

    • iOS devices make up well over 60% of mobile web traffic

    • Android web traffic decreasing over last three months: Feb 29.7%, March 28.7%, April 26.5%

    • Site’s monitored to get these figures included 10 of the top 100 including: Answers.com, Tumblr, ChaCha, Examiner, LinkedIn, Bleacher Report, Hubpages, White Pages, Squidoo and Dictionary.com

  • Yahoo’s Mayer Has Met With Hulu Execs in a Preliminary Look-See at Premium Video Unit

    • Mayer recently met with top execs at Hulu, the premium video service whose media company owners have been considering selling it for some months

    • The discussion is taking place in the wake of Yahoo’s failed bid to purchase a majority stake in France Télécom’s Dailymotion video service, after a government official in the country said Yahoo could not own 75 percent of the company

    • Mayer has explicitly told investors that video was a key to the strategy under her tenure

    • Mayer was at Google when the search giant bought YouTube, ironically snatching it at the last minute from a competing bid by Yahoo

    • Yahoo has also looked at some smaller video sites, including Blip and Grab Media


Fun Category

  • Competes directly with the slightly more expensive Nike FuelBand and Jawbone Up wearable fitness bracelets but also includes some unique features including NFC and real-time syncing

  • Flex is the first fitness and sleep tracking wristband on the market to automatically sync wirelessly via Bluetooth 4.0

  • LED indicator lights offer a visual display as you reach 20 percent increments of achieving your goal (such as walking 10K steps), while a vibrating notification celebrates with you as you hit your goals throughout the day

  • Tracks how long and how well you sleep, and offers a Silent Wake alarm that gently vibrates to wake you


3. BCS Learning Unleashed Update


  • Barrett - What’s new with the program?

    • Moving forward from the Pilot to phase I rollout

    • iBook Author Training

    • Vancouver Symposium on 21st century Christian education


4. A little about iBooks

  • On iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad - iOS only

  • iBooks Author - only on OSX

  • Not pre-loaded on iOS devices (but it is free to download)

  • .ePub format - nice ebook format

    • Searchable text

    • Speak text

    • Notations

    • Highlight

    • Share text

    • Bookmarks

    • Index

    • Change text size

  • PDF files

  • With iBooks2 came iBooks Author and interactive iBooks textbook capability

  • iBooks app new category of “Textbooks” where many of the interactive books are located

  • .ibooks format is interactive (CSS extensions which enable widgets)

  • Version 3, iBooks renders text written in 18 different languages

  • iBooks - switch between bookshelf layout or listing

  • Collections

    • Books, Purchased Books, PDFs by default

    • Can add additional custom categories to organize works

  • In list view can sort books by Titles, Authors or Categories

  • Go directly to store for purchase and downloading

  • Can put PDFs in iBooks by moving them into iTunes


  • iTunes must be set to Sync Books (all books is best, otherwise you have to select the books you want to sync)

  • Good to have sync over wifi enabled (otherwise sync only happens when connected to usb cable)

  • Whenever the computer and the iOS device are on the same network, the iOS device will appear in iTunes, and you can sync it. The iOS device will sync automatically when all of the following are true:

  • The iOS device is plugged in to power

  • iTunes is open on the computer

  • The iOS device and the computer are on the same Wi-Fi network

  • You can force a wifi sync by clicking the “Sync” button in iTunes (when device is highlighted)

  • Using Sync Collections with PDFs in iBooks

  • If you have Sync Collections set to ON, iBooks will keep your PDFs (and non-iBookstore books) in the same collections across all your iOS devices. For example, if you move a PDF to your Sci-Fi collection in iBooks on your iPhone, and then open up iBooks on your iPad, a copy of the PDF will appear in your Sci-Fi collection.

  • If you delete a PDF (or non-iBookstore book) while you have Sync Collections enabled, it only affects the copy on the device. For example, if you delete the copy of the PDF from your iPad, it will still be present on your iPhone.


5. Apps and Followings (please update your pics below when you have determined what you will cover)

  • Barrett -

    • App pick 1 (ByWord)

    • App pick 2 (Omnioutliner)

    • Twitter pick (Wired: nearly 2M followers, Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and online periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics.)

  • Bill -

    • App pick (LiveCams Pro) - $3.99 Universal

      • Public cameras include beaches, Universities, landscapes, traffic, attractions, retail, ski hills, golf courses, airports, animals...

      • Private cameras you own

      • Works with a wide variety of camera models


  • App pick2 (Action Movie FX) - Free and can purchase extra affects Universal

    • Distributed by Bad Robot (Star Trek producer)

    • Very easy, fun, special effects applied to short video clips

    • Laser explosions, Star Trek enterprise fly-by, etc

    • Impress your friends!

  • Twitter pick (@LarryJordanFCP)

    • Final Cut Pro training, Adobe training, editing techniques & filmmaking tips

    • Digital Production Buzz podcast

    • Youtube tips and training

    • LarryJordan.biz

6. 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:  The 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.