Amazon announced a few new Kindles today, the most important, in my mind, is the Kindle Fire. It is a 7″ tablet running a specialized version of Android. The shocker was the price, $199. With todays announcement, every school district that is looking at mobile devices will need to take a pause and examine what the Fire has to offer.

At that price point, it undercuts the iPod Touch by $30. It also sacrifices a camera and microphone. But it makes up for those deficiencies by offering a larger and better display. The main problem with the Fire would be the lack of applications for the educational market. Of course you have access to all the Kindle books, and the explicitly list full color children’s books for it, so it may be just a matter of time before educational software takes off on it.

Does size matter?

In our iOS pilot programs with iPod Touches and iPads it has become pretty clear that it is hard to convince teachers that the small screen of the iPod Touch can still be used for content creation. The students, I’ve noticed, don’t mind using the iPod Touch, so for them, size doesn’t matter. When it comes to content such as PDFs and books, the larger screen size would be very advantageous.

Theft is also an issue in school, but the larger size of the Fire may be a deterrent. The Fire would also be able to be used by more than one student at a time due to it’s size.

Waiting..

I’m going to try to hold off any further mobile purchases until the Fire is released and I get a chance to use one. I could see it replacing a lot of iPod Touches this Christmas, it will be interesting to see what Apple has in store on October 4th. If the applications come, the Fire will be a very compelling device for school districts.

What devices are you investigating for use in your classroom or district?

Android is an open source operating system created at Google based on Linux. Google allows distributes this OS free of charge to be used by manufacturers and cellular providers on mobile devices. It competes against other mobile operating systems such as Apple’s iOS (used on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch), Microsoft Windows Phone 7, RIM Blackberry OS, and HP’s WebOS.

I purchased a Motorola Droid off of eBay and received it this past week. I’ve been playing around with it for the last couple of days, so this isn’t so much as a review as it is my first impressions.

My smartphone history

A little history about my past and smartphones. I bought my first smartphone, a Motorola Q around 2007 (I think. ). While it was my first taste of online connectivity whereever I was, it was also my first taste of, as the French would say, le pew. It was slow, ate batteries like it was going out of style, ugly, and would just restart for now reason. I moved on to a Samsung Omnia, then an HTC Ozone. The Ozone, at the time (mid 2009) was Verizon’s most unlocked phone. It had wifi and the GPS was useable. All in all, not a bad phone, but still running Windows Mobile. In August I purchased a Palm Pre Plus, which was heaven compared to the Ozone. What holds it back is not the OS (which feels like it could be an Apple product) but the hardware and lack of apps. As an aside, AT&T does not offer service in my area, so I’ve gotten by with an iPod Touch (first gen represent!) I bought in 2008.

This “First Look” will try to focus on the software itself, since in the Android universe the quality and quantity of devices would overshadow any comments about the hardware of the Motorola Droid.

Rundown

Things I like:

• The back button: Until I used WebOS I hadn’t really thought about how useful a back gesture (or button) could be.
• Widgets: It’s nice to be able to put my calendar on a screen, or a battery life indicator with other information about the hardware.
• The number of applications: So far I’ve been able to find an application for everything I need. In the market place there are also tons of clones of iOS games, but for the most part these are inferior to their iOS counterpart. Rope Cut is not Cut the Rope for iOS.

Things I don’t like:

• Notifcation bar: To open notifications you have to click and hold on the top bar and then drag down. Why I can’t just click on the top bar for notifications I don’t know.
• Application switching: Unless I’m missing something, the only way to switch apps is to either exit back to home and click on the item or hold down the home key until the recently used applications show up. And heaven forbid you want to return to an open browser window.
• Navigation in applications: This is not consistant. Some apps, like imo.im (the instant messaging app I use) gives me a different menu depending on what screen I’m on, and to navigate to a certain screen may require several key presses and swipes through several other screen.

Uses in Education

Until models are released that don’t require a cellular plan, educational uses of Android are going to be limited. This year is going to be interesting, but if you are currently researching which OS to use in your classroom it would be hard to recommend Android until other models are released. Android will have two big advantages over iOS (which is going to be its biggest competitor in the upcoming year): price and openness.

Price

Schools rarely look at the total operating costs of equipment and instead focus on purchase price. The Android tablets and handhelds will be cheaper than their iOS cousins, and in some form factors will not have competition (the 7 inch form factor such as the Nook).

Openness

Since Android is Open Source, companies can release software to automatically manage a fleet of devices. If you’ve been involved with iOS app purchases, it requires several hoops to jump through, and then it can’t even automatically install the apps. This can change with Android. Unfortunately, this will probably mean that any price savings you received on the purchase of the devices will be eaten in the management.

Is it a contender?

Yes, Android is a contender in the mobile space. I believe that it is a credible threat to the iPad/iPod Touch dominance we see in schools today. Should you wait? No. If you are looking at implementing a mobile device initiative then don’t wait for Android devices. From an educational point of view there isn’t anything that can be done on one that can’t be done on the other. The Android app store seems to be thriving, and as more devices are sold it will only entice more developers. Mobile devices are set to overtake personal computers any day now .

What device do you use a majority of the time?

If you have $1 and an iPad, this app is well worth it.

The purchase:
I reserved my ipad the day they opened reservations on line so I would be guaranteed to pick one up on April 3rd. I didn’t trust Saturday delivery, so I headed to Columbus to the Easton Apple Store to stand in the “privileged line”, the one which had the others who had also reserved their iPad. When we arrived at 7:30am, there were approximately 40 people in the reserved line and about twice that many in the “unreserved” line, those that were hoping to still pick one up.

Anyway, I bought mine and while my brother and sister played with iPads in the store, I pulled out my Macbook and setup my iPad. Some reviews talk about the iPad ready for use right out of the box, but mine popped up the “connect to iTunes” symbol. The initial sync didn’t take long, but I really wasn’t syncing up too much.

Initial Impressions:
Fast! It is probably the fastest browsing experience that I’ve ever experienced. For the first time it was the speed of the network and not the hardware slowing me down. The onscreen keyboard isn’t that bad, I’m typing this article on it, but it does take some getting used to. The biggest problem is keeping your fingers up off the glass so it doesn’t register additional “key” presses. The other issue is that it is practically impossible to type without looking at the keyboard, so if you are typing in information that is on paper, it will be a lot slower. Im debating whether to buy the bluetooth keyboard. I paired it with my old Think Outside keyboard, which was a piece of cake, but that keyboard is getting old and the k and l keys do not work the best. I also bought the Apple case for it, which helps put the iPad at a good angle to use or type on.

Longer term impressions:
There are more situations where a tablet can be used than a laptop, and the additional screen space makes the iPad a lot more useful than the iPod Touch. For example, at a meeting I can have the iPad in my lap or on the table. Where the iPad shines is when I want to show others information or something on the screen. I can just hold up the iPad or hand it to them without the awkwardness one would experience with a laptop. Maybe it’s just the websites I visit, but lack of Flash has not really been an issue. A lot of the video sites already support HTML 5, which works flawlessly on the iPad.

I’ve been impressed with the number of iPad ready apps already in the app store. Some of my favorite apps, such as Evernote, WordPress, and iSSH are already available.

Educational implications:
That being said about Flash above, students would notice the inability to use some of there favorite sites. Sites such as Starfall, which would be amazing on the iPad, fail from lack of Flash. The availability of Pages and Keynote bring some productivity to the iPad, but the clumsy method of using iTunes to transfer files would hinder their use in the classroom.

Closing thoughts:
I’m going to be posting more as I work with the device longer. I’m excited to use it to teach a lesson in a kindergarten class to see how well it will work as a teacher device. Some accessories will probably end of purchasing include the camera connection kit and the Bluetooth keyboard. The big unanswered question is “who is the iPad for?”, and, unfortunately I can’t answer that yet.

So far, So cool.

What I’ve done now is to create a folder called Flagged for each one of my email accounts. Now when I get a message I need to act upon it later, I’ll move it to this Flagged folder.

Sometimes I will just forward the message to my Remember the Milk account, but that’s a post for another day.

At almost $500 I don’t see it as either. The biggest negative about the Kindle will also be the last thing fixed, if it is ever addressed, and that is the ability to re-sell your content (or at least lend it to others). I’m sure the textbook companies are falling over themselves to support the Kindle. Here is the ability to sell a text book, with no production/delivery costs, and then know that the book will not be resold at the end of the semester.

The newspaper subscription idea has merit, but then again, they need to lower their subscription rates. I’ve looked at transferring my USA Today subscription to digital, but it costs almost the same as getting a paper copy! At least with the paper copy I can lend/give it to someone else, or cut out an article to save.

Is anyone looking at using the Kindle in a school? What would be the advantages of it over something like a netbook?

Nvidia has announced that it plans to power $99 mobile internet devices with its Tegra 600 series chips, perhaps as early as this summer.

If they can get an Android version released at $99 that is something that could be a game changer in education. Although I’m a big fan of the iPod Touch being an option for a 1-to-1 program, a $99 device with keyboard and more openness would easily make one-to-one programs a reality.

It seems like I’m always waiting…