Hasta La Gadget!

Are you ready for this? Can you stomach the truth? If things continue spiraling madly out of control as they are right now, there’s at least a modicum of a chance that your children or grandchildren will greet a lifelike robot when sashaying in for the first day of kindergarten. Horrifying, we know. A new research effort published in this month’s Science outlines new ways in which humanoids could actually be used to instruct our little ones. At the core of the project is imitation; humans, especially young ones, learn a multitude of mannerisms and such by simply watching others. Thus, it stands to reason that robots are “well-suited to imitate us, learn from us, socialize with us and eventually teach us.” Already, these social bots are being used on an experimental basis to teach various skills to preschool children, “including the names of colors, new vocabulary words and simple songs.” Just think — in 2071, those harmless lessons will morph into studies of subterfuge, insurrection and rapacity.

[Via Digg]

Filed under: Robots, Science

The plot thickens: robot teachers to brainwash your children’s children originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LeapFrog’s Text and Learn QWERTY BlackBerry-styled educational toy for the little ones left such an impression on us that we went back to check out its latest offerings. Two things caught our eye — up first, the Scribble and Write, which is a Text and Learn-style device applied to writing skills. Designed for children about the age of three, it teaches basic letter-writing skills, making use of a roughly 3-inch LCD and attached “pen” to trace over the letters. This one is actually available now, and runs $21.99. The second item we checked out is called the Chat & Count — and it looks incredibly similar to a candybar style mobile phone. The one we checked out was actually a prototype, and not the final product, but it’s aimed at children starting at 18 months old, and teaches basic phone skills (believe us, the kids need those), numbers and counting. It’s also got plenty of ringtones and custom noises built in, which start out super cute but would likely be… grating over time. The Chat & Count will be hitting shelves sometime around December of this year, and will run you $14.99. Both of these products join Leapfrog‘s Learning Path offerings (which also includes products like the Tag Junior we’ve previously seen).

Gallery: LeapFrog hands-on

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

LeapFrog Scribble & Write, Chat & Count hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We won’t deny it — a stroke of envy took us by storm when Dell introduced its durable, colorful new line of Latitude netbooks for the education market. Not only were we stuck with aged textbooks and school machines that were chained to a desk, but we never even had the chance to read up on the latest tech news while glossing over a summary of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Reminiscing aside, Laptop Mag has evidently found the 2100 to be a solid rig for the segment for which it is intended, though its bulk may turn some GED-toting consumers off. ‘Course, the thin layer of armor is perfect for those who tend to bump and bang their machines around, and with internals much the same as in the Inspiron Mini, well — you can pretty much imagine the performance. Hit up the read link for the full writeup and a bevy of hands-on shots; just keep Junior far, far away unless you’re fine with nagging and pleading.

Filed under: Laptops

Dell’s Latitude 2100 reviewed: smart, but a bit heavy for afterschool use originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 May 2009 10:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell is betting small computers will be perfect for tiny hands as it launches a new “rugged” netbook targeted at students.

Called the Latitude 2100, the netbook comes with an anti-microbial keyboard (perfect for germy little hands), a 10.1-inch touchscreen, a case with a rubber-like feel and a choice of five colors.

“Compared to plastic or magnesium alloy, the rubberized casing makes the device easy to grip and non-slip,” says David Lord, senior manager at Dell. “It shows our intent of using the netbook form factor in a way that benefits the education market.”

Based on a Intel Atom N270 processor, the Latitude 2100 netbook offers a choice of Windows or Ubuntu Linux OS, up to 1 GB memory,  up to 16 GB solid state drive or 250 GB hard drive, Bluetooth,  wireless LAN and a touchpad input. The netbook weighs 2.91 lbs. It also offers features such as a network activity light located at the back of the display so teachers can monitor the device’s connectivity status.

“That way teachers know if students are checking Facebook instead of working on a document,” says Lord.

There also some quirky touches such as a slot on the netbook’s hinge for the school log or owner’s name.

The Latitude 2100’s rubber-like coating is interesting and is in step with the industry-wide trend towards using innovative materials such as leather, fabric and bamboo in laptops. The device’s touchscreen also allows for innovative use of educational software, says  David Ruth, product manager for Dell.

What we would have loved is an overall slimmer profile for the machine. The Latitude netbook has a slightly chunky look and that can be distracting. The device’s generously proportioned keyboard (at 95 percent of a full sized keyboard) makes us overlook some of that.  The keyboard is comfortable enough to take the for users that want to take the device for uses beyond just basic web surfing.

Overall, though the Latitude 2100 is targeted at younger students, it is an attractive netbook for adult users and businesses. The laptop compares very favorably to the Dell Mini netbook series in price and features and being part of the Latitude brand allows it to take advantage of Dell’s services such as data protection and asset tracking that are not available for the Mini.

The Latitude 2100 will start at $369 for a version running Linux.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Amazon will have to do much more than enlarge its Kindle to increase the e-reader’s appeal to college students.

Announced Wednesday, the Kindle DX features a 9.7-inch screen geared toward displaying textbooks for college students. However, many students polled by Wired.com on Twitter listed various reasons for why the DX would fail to replace their mountains of textbooks. Their complaints ranged from the reader’s $500 price tag to the DX being inconvenient for study habits.

“I’d need five Kindles just to hold a single thought while writing essays,” said Marius Johannessen, who is studying for his master’s in information systems at University of Agder. “Books work just fine.”

Amazon is investing high hopes in its Kindle e-book reader, with dreams of spearheading a paperless revolution. It’s unclear just how close Amazon is to actualizing this dream, as the company has declined to release official sales numbers of the reader, which debuted late 2007. However, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, said in February that the Kindle makes up 10 percent of the e-book market, and Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney estimated 500,000 Kindles were sold over 2008. So that would suggest 5 million e-readers were sold over 2008 — still a small market relative to the tech industry.

With the DX, Amazon is aiming to expand its e-book presence by targeting two major print industries — newspapers and textbooks. The textbook industry, worth $9.8 billion, is going to be tough to crack, because there are so many ways thrifty students obtain their books: University stores often offer used books, book-trading programs and sometimes even textbook rentals. Other than specification details and the product’s price, Amazon did not disclose sales strategies for e-textbooks.

Tech strategist Michael Gartenberg said a viable e-textbook business model would be the DX’s main challenge in appealing to students.

“You can’t introduce technology like this, which has got a lot of breakthrough things associated with it, and expect it to be business as usual,” Gartenberg said. “The reason the iPod worked was not only did it introduce new technology, but it introduced a new business model for the technology as well.”

Indiana University business student Chandler Berty told Wired.com he would consider a Kindle DX if e-books cost less than used physical textbooks. He added, however, that college students already carry laptops, which are superior to the Kindle, rendering the reader unnecessary.

“Two devices = fail,” Berty said.

Students pointed out plenty of other issues about the DX to Wired.com. For instance, students often loan textbooks to one another, and currently that’s not practical with a Kindle, as you’d have to loan your entire reader and library. Also, the beauty of paper textbooks is the ability to highlight sentences, underline keywords and keep all of them open at once. While the Kindle does have highlight and notes tools, the reader is sluggish with performance, and the keyboard is unnatural and clunky to type on.

However, it’s too soon to say how Amazon’s DX will fare on campuses, as the students polled by Wired.com had mixed opinions. Overall, 19 students replied to our query via Twitter, five of whom said they would definitely purchase a DX, seven who said no and seven who said maybe.

“Law students are waiting for Kindle books!” said Twitter user “SoCaliana.”  “We have so many books to carry around. I couldn’t find my texts on CD or anything!”

We can expect Amazon to cook up some interesting sales models after it completes DX pilot programs with Arizona State, Case Western Reserve, Princeton, the University of Virginia and Pace university. Meanwhile, let’s get the brainstorming started.  What would you suggest for e-textbook sales strategies, readers? Here’s an idea: Selling e-textbooks by individual chapters as opposed to complete books, since most classes don’t read textbooks in entirety anyway. That would certainly cut costs.

See Also:

• Amazon’s Kindle 2 Pits Authors Versus the Blind
• iPhone Beats Kindle in E-Reader Popularity Contest
• Large-Screen Kindle Won’t Mean Squat if Apple Tablet Arrives …
• Hands-On: Kindle DX Is a Pricey Pleasure — Despite Many Flaws …
• Dead Media Beat: No Amazon? No Kindle Library
• Kindle … Or Is It Just Kindling?

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com