All Articles Tagged "ipads"
Wired Life a High Stakes Game
(Daily Finance) — It is easy to forget that the cigarette box-sized device in your pocket is actually a computer more powerful thanthe one that sent Apollo 11 to the moon. Smartphones, along with tablet computers, e-readers and wireless laptops, now hold some of our most priceless assets: photos, home videos, work samples, financial spreadsheets, not to mention books, movies, every album by the Rolling Stones, games and more. Plus critical access to our banking, email and credit information. The total value of a wired American’s digital life? Nearly $55,00 on average, according to a new survey from security firm McAfee (INTC). That value is only poised to get higher as digital consumers move more and more of their media — and personal — lives into the cloud. And as the value goes up, so does consumers’ vulnerability to hacking, theft and financial loss.
Use of iPads is Increasing in CPS Classrooms
(Chicago Sun Times) — Using a pencil and paper to solve three times six: boring. Using an iPad app to become a math ninja who, by solving the same multiplication problem, kills evil tomatoes and robotic cats and dogs: kind of awesome. Similar sentiments have been echoed at the 23 Chicago Public Schools taking part in the iPad pilot program. And schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard just announced the use of a $3 million state grant to add 39 schools to the program — reaching a total of 8,700 under-served kids this year. An initial federal grant last year put 750 iPads in CPS classrooms ranging from kindergarten through high school. The new grant will supply elementary classrooms with 4,500 iPads, the last of which should arrive by the end of the week.
What’s the Deal with Those $3 Ipads?
(Smart Money) — An iPad for $3.20? A designer handbag for $41.80? It is possible, due to a new and growing segment of online auctions. Yet it’s not as likely — or as cheap — as sites would like you to think.They’re called “penny auction” sites, because bidding typically starts at zero and goes up by a penny, and in the last two years, they’ve moved from the novelty fringe firmly into mainstream. Unheard of in 2009, there are now more than 120 such sites, according to Technology Briefing Centers, a consulting firm that tracks the sites. Like with other online auctions, the sites offer the possibility to buy, or win, gadgets, designer accessories or gift cards for a fraction of the retail price, and plenty are finding that alluring: Fifteen-month-old site BidHere.com, for example, boasts 1.1 million members in 22 countries and estimates that it gains 1,200 new users daily.
Complaints about the industry, however, are growing nearly as fast. The Better Business Bureau is still tallying 2010 figures, but a spokeswoman says that just four local branches reported more than 1,500 complaints about penny auction sites – more than the total number of complaints logged nationally about internet auctions the year before. And the sites’ biggest critics say they’re no better than playing the lottery or the slots – without the regulatory oversight. “It looks and smells like gambling to me,” says Joseph Lewczak, an attorney at Davis & Gilbert LLP, which specializes in sweepstakes and lottery law.
