Techno-News Blog

By Nathan Eddy, eWeek

Android-based tablets expanded their share of the market notably in 2012, and IDC said it expects that trend to continue in 2013. Tablet shipments will exceed 350 million by the end of 2017, due to a predicted surge of smaller, lower-priced devices in the market, according to the latest forecast update of IDC’s “Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.” The research firm raised its 2013 forecast for the worldwide tablet market to 190.9 million from its previous forecast for the year of 172.4 million units. Increases in tablet shipments have been made throughout the forecast period, with an average annual increase of 11 percent between 2013 and 2016, the IDC report noted.

http://www.eweek.com/mobile/tablet-sales-rising-thanks-to-smaller-sizes-lower-prices-idc/

By Don Reisinger, eWeek

There was a time when the Windows PC was the computer platform that was most vulnerable to malware and hacking. Although some malicious hackers were targeting Nokia’s Symbian mobile operating system, for the most part, they focused their efforts on Windows. Why? The answer was simple: The many security flaws in Windows made it an inviting target for thieves to steal data and cash for the least effort. It was purely economics. And it made sense. But according to the latest data from security software company McAfee, things are changing. New Android malware samples the company discovered in the first quarter were up 40 percent compared with the previous year. What’s worse, McAfee believes that over the next several years, the number of threats that will impact Android will increase exponentially.

http://www.eweek.com/security/slideshows/10-android-security-applications-to-keep-your-mobile-devices-safe/

By Jeffrey Burt, eWeek

New chips from the likes of Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm—and a new chip design from ARM—and the range of mobile systems they’re powering was a key theme at this year’s Computex 2013 show in Taiwan, Asia’s largest tech show. The improved the performance, energy efficiency and feature sets of the systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) are enabling systems makers to come up with new form factors, many of them designed to give consumers and business users devices that offer the performance and productivity of traditional notebooks and the ease, long battery life and instant-on capabilities of tablets

http://www.eweek.com/mobile/slideshows/intel-amd-arm-unveil-new-chips-designs-at-computex/

By Mark Ward, BBC News

All day. Every day. Anyone and anything connected to the net is under attack. The standard defences, such as antivirus programs, firewalls, spam filters and intrusion detectors will stop most of those attacks reaching their target – be that a person, a computer or a database. Now and then an attack does get through but, if the target is you, the chances are you will spot the fake emails when they land in your inbox.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22656288

By QUENTIN HARDY, NY Times

This week, Dell and Oracle announced a partnership unique to both companies. Dell would offer Oracle software on its machines and would resell Oracle services. Much head-scratching ensued among industry analysts, largely over misunderstandings about where the industry was headed. What bothered many of these analysts was the idea that both Dell and Oracle sell commodity servers based on Intel’s x86 reference designs. Oracle picked up that business when it acquired Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion in 2010. Sun was never a big player in that business, however, having come to it late and grudgingly. It always preferred its own machines, which used the Sparc chip.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/the-new-economics-behind-the-oracle-dell-partnership/

By Leo Kelion, BBC

A physical platform and matching shoes which allow video gamers to control characters with their foot movements are to go into production after securing crowd-sourced cash. Omni will use shoes fitted with sensors to track the motion and direction of the player. They also have pins on their soles which fit into grooves on the stand’s base to prevent users from slipping. Manufacturer, Virtuix, claims the gear offers a more immersive experience.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22807205

by Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC

Imagine a day in your life – thousands of images of people and places, miles walked, driven, and cycled – all disappearing as the memories fade. But what if you could capture, store, and then share your day? Well, now you can.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22767096

by Om Malik, GigaOM

Waze, a mapping data service with social features has been subject of acquisition rumors for a while. There was speculation of Apple buying them. There there was Facebook and its rumored $1 billion offer. Now Israeli-media reports are speculating that Google is the new buyer.

http://gigaom.com/2013/06/09/looks-like-now-google-is-buying-waze-for-1-3-billion/

By Susan Young, Technology Review

Brain network activity contributes to complex brain functions and mental illness, but how these networks change on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis is not well known. Russell Poldrack, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Austin, is undertaking some intense introspection. Every day, he tracks his mood and mental state, what he ate, and how much time he spent outdoors. Twice a week, he gets his brain scanned in an MRI machine. And once a week, he has his blood drawn so that it can be analyzed for hormones and gene activity levels. Poldrack plans to gather a year’s worth of brain and body data to answer an unexplored question in the neuroscience community: how do brain networks behave and change over a year?

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514886/the-quantified-brain-of-a-self-tracking-neuroscientist/

by Clyde Smith, Hypebot

Berklee College of Music’s online division is taking a somewhat bold move and releasing a free BitTorrent Bundle of music lesson videos and ebooks. Given a still controversial BitTorrent brand, Berklee Online’s choice to take advantage of BitTorrent tech may surprise some but seems in keeping with the online division’s embrace of current options to share educational materials while marketing their online classes. The Berklee Online Musician’s Guide was released yesterday as a BitTorrent Bundle. Such bundles have previously contained multimedia content by musicians and other artists and this seems to be the first example of such related content being distributed as a BitTorrent Bundle by an educational institution or other business.

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2013/06/berklee-online-releases-bittorrent-bundle-of-music-lesson-videos-and-ebooks.html

By Rachel Williams, Central Florida Future

Soon-to-be UCF graduate Stephen McFarlane has witnessed a lengthy list of changes in his 12 years of undergraduate education. The biggest change McFarlane witnessed in that time frame was the increase in technology: from online classes, to communicating online, to even just carrying a laptop. “Online classes were not popular,” McFarlane said about when he first started college in 2001. “There were maybe four or five per degree.” Now, the majority of UCF students have taken online classes. During the 2012-2013 academic year, 74 percent of students took at least one of the 3,576 offered online courses, Thomas Cavanagh, associate vice president of distributed learning, said. “I love them now. If I never had to set foot in a classroom again that’d be fine,” McFarlane said.

http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/news/from-in-class-to-online-student-reflects-on-12-year-journey-1.2829113#.UbTiBefYc3U

By Rachel Metz, Technology Review

Few gadgets have generated as much excitement and hostility as Google Glass, a voice-activated computer-monitor combo worn on eyeglass frames. Now being tested by early adopters, Glass is an ambitious attempt to advance “wearable computing.” It’s also a milestone for Thad Starner, a Georgia Tech professor who has been building and wearing head-mounted computers since 1993. A decade ago, he showed Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin a clunky version of such a device; in 2010 they hired Starner to be a technical lead for Project Glass. He met recently with MIT Technology Review IT editor Rachel Metz.

http://www.technologyreview.com/qa/515681/wearable-computing-pioneer-says-google-glass-offers-killer-existence/

by Michael Fitzgerald, Information Week

EdX, the massive open online course (MOOC) consortium started by MIT and Harvard, has released its full source code, a decision the backers hope will accelerate advances to the platform. “We want contributors,” said Rob Rubin, edX’s VP of engineering. “We’d welcome any company’s contributions and any peoples’ use of the edX platform. We’re in the very early days in the development of the technology to support learning and research about learning. Let’s all contribute to the open-source effort to be able to rapidly evolve that for the benefits of the student.” Much of the code was available previously. EdX had announced the open source of its core architecture, XBlock, in March. Stanford already has two courses hosted on edX code. 10gen, which manages the MongoDB open source database tool, developed training courses with edX source code.

http://www.informationweek.com/education/online-learning/edx-goes-open-source-to-woo-mooc-develop/240156159

by MIT

EdX, the not-for-profit online learning enterprise composed of the leading global institutions of the xConsortium, released its learning platform via open source license on June 1 and today released details of the first educational institutions and organizations that are contributing code to the platform. In addition to the early and continuing contributions of edX founding partners, MIT and Harvard, xConsortium members such as Berkeley and University of Queensland are collaborating on the edX platform. Stanford University and technology providers 10gen and the Concord Consortium are also contributing to the platform. EdX is working closely with these organizations to provide source code, development resources and a collaborative environment to facilitate ongoing enhancements and features.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/edx-builds-community-of-developers-for-its-platform.html

By Susan Young, Technology Review

Disruptions in neural circuits are thought to be the cause of many disorders—from depression to Parkinson’s. Two teams of researchers have pinpointed some of the neural circuitry that underlies compulsive grooming behaviors. The discoveries, reported in Science on Thursday, could guide new treatments for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, autism, and other conditions that exhibit symptoms of repetitive and compulsive actions. Using so-called optogenetics techniques, which precisely control neuron activity with light, one of the groups induced repetitive grooming behaviors by stimulating a neural circuit known to be overactive in OCD patients. The obsessive grooming behaviors persisted even after the light stimulation stopped. The other team used optogenetics to alleviate repetitive, compulsive grooming in a strain of mutant mice born with the behavior defect.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/515731/researchers-using-light-to-activate-neurons-make-mice-obsessive-or-not/

by PERSEPHONE NICHOLAS, AFR

Rowan Kunz is the founder of myEd Online, a provider of interactive digital courses delivered to learners via a gamified, e-learning platform, and Art of Smart Education, an award-winning provider of academic coaching and mentoring for high school students. “Everyone has unique potential and capacity; education helps unlock that. It’s so important for Australia that all our young people have access to educational resources that can help them realise that potential.” Kunz says technology is a great enabler and allows educational content to be delivered in a highly motivating way. But he believes the drive to equip schools with more computers can be somewhat misguided: “The federal government is trying to find ways to make learning more engaging by putting laptops and iPads in schools. But although technology in many ways has the potential to be a great equaliser, especially for educational outcomes, it’s just a tool and can be used well or poorly. Learning needs to be fun and personalised to give students the best chance of success.”

http://www.afr.com/p/engaging_kids_through_interactive_MAPQGcR93XS6GukJYKGInJ

by the Associated Press

The Senate has tentatively approved legislation allowing teen-agers to take more courses through South Carolina’s virtual education program. The 44-0 vote Tuesday allows for the measure to become law this year. The bill requires another vote in the Senate. The House passed it in April. The bill removes state law’s limits of three online credit hours per year and 12 toward a high school diploma. Students would still be barred from earning a diploma through the free program that’s available to all seventh- through 12-graders, depending on availability.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/education/article/Bill-could-allow-teens-to-take-more-online-classes-4576455.php

By Michael B. Horn, Education Next

The California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) has stood out as one group trying to fill the data gap about what’s happening in California’s schools—and it’s done its work in a nuanced way that gives a reasonably meaningful picture, not just high-level aggregate numbers. The results from its latest survey of California districts and charters, released May 20, shows that although 46 percent of respondents report having students participate in online or blended learning, just 19 percent of elementary districts and charters engage in online learning whereas a whopping 73 percent of unified and high school districts and charters do. Furthermore, of those districts or charters that say they have students learning online, 78 percent indicated that high-school students participate in online learning; 49 percent said middle-school students do; and 28 percent said elementary-school students are engaged in online learning. Not only that, but how schools are blending online learning differs starkly between elementary schools and secondary schools as well.

http://educationnext.org/data-support-disruption-theory-as-online-blended-learning-grow/

by Phil Hill, e-Literate

The MOOC providers set out to revolutionize higher education, but as Daphne Koller indicated the usage of standalone MOOC courses to date is not sufficient, despite the huge numbers of enrolled students. The data points to the need for targeting degree-seeking students in a more aggressive manner than the current “it’s open for all” approach while also finding more immediate methods for allowing MOOC students to earn academic credit. To allow for academic credit for MOOCs, the actual course designs and assessment have satisfy accrediting bodies, and the credits have to be accepted by degree-granting institutions. To have a real impact on helping students get their degrees, there seems to be two choices: Option 1) Replace colleges and universities as providers of for-credit courses or even degree programs.  Option 2) Work with colleges and universities to embed MOOC courses or courseware into for-credit courses or degree programs. The biggest news in the MOOC world in 2013 is the development of Option 2), which is the only viable way in the short term for MOOCs to directly impact degree-seeking higher education students.

http://mfeldstein.com/moocs-beyond-professional-development-courseras-big-announcement-in-context/

by Ki Mae Heussner, GigaOM

Education startup Instructure has raised $30 million in a Series D round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and including Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures, EPIC Ventures and OpenView Partners. Instructure, an education startup set on knocking learning management system (LMS) Blackboard off its throne, has raised $30 million in a Series D financing round meant to help the company move closer to an eventual public offering. The startup, which has previously raised about $20 million in venture financing, said the round included existing investors EPIC Ventures, OpenView Partners and TomorrowVentures, but was led by Bessemer Venture Partners – a firm chosen for its cachet, as well as its IPO expertise. “That’s where we’re headed,” said CEO Josh Coates. “We are here to be a permanent, standalone company

http://gigaom.com/2013/06/05/with-30m-led-by-bessemer-education-startup-instructure-eyes-ipo/

By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

As online education companies track students’ behavior and experiment with different delivery methods, assumptions about effectiveness are being challenged. Several education startups that launched in 2012 attracted millions of students with relatively simple courses. Analyzing which parts of them worked could help them maintain popularity after the initial rush of interest. In 2012, education startups attracted millions of students—and a surge of interest from universities and the media—by offering massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Now some core features of these wildly popular courses are being dissected, enabling the course providers to do some learning of their own. As these companies analyze user data and experiment with different features, they are exploring how to customize students’ learning experiences, and they are amassing a stock of pedagogical tricks to help more students finish their courses.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/515396/as-data-floods-in-massive-open-online-courses-evolve/