iPhone on Schedule

It appears Apple's long-awaited iPhone is on schedule to ship in June, at least according to this email from AT&T (formerly Cingular).

As the release approaches, a number of iPhone rumors are making the rounds, including:

Updated iPhone specs from MacDailyNews
• more memory than the original 4GB and 8GB
• user replaceable battery
• 802.11 n wireless support
• iWork-like software
• streaming from iTunes
• direct downloads (via WiFi or data service) from iTunes Music Store
• AT&T will include a rebate with a 2-year contract and special iPhone plans

And in another rumor, Mobile Magazine reports that in addition to Google Maps, the iPhone may include other Google applications - speculation includes Google News, Google Reader (RSS), mobile Blogger, and Google Calendar. These may not ship with the device, but instead be available via software updates.

Neither of these rumors would surprise me. Remember, of late Steve Jobs has taken to under-promising and over-delivering - Intel Macs shipped six months earlier than promised and were faster than promised.

Web 2.0: Copyright and Fair Use Explained - Sort of

Here's a great video (about 10 minutes) from Eric Faden that uses small pieces of Disney films to explain copyright law and fair use. As educators in the new Web 2.0 world, this is one of the biggest challenges we face - understanding these concepts and their implications for what we can and can't do in the classroom and online.



For even more on copyright law visit Lawrence Lessig's blog http://www.lessig.org/blog/

Web 2.0: RSS Explained

Here's a great video created by CommonCraft - a consulting company focused on helping companies and organizations integrate online communities into their businesses.

All organizations would be wise to adopt CommonCraft's core belief:

that, in the future, organizations will rely on their community of customers to remain competitive.

Amazon, YouTube and digg are great examples of businesses that not only value their community of users, but have built a business model around that community.

In just under four minutes, the video provides a simple, easy to understand explanation of RSS - a technology that I and many other have become dependent on to get our news and information. The video also uses a really clever presentation method - yet another alternative to the overused powerpoint slideshow.