KONSORTIUM

WIKIPEDIA FOUNDER: SOPA BAD FOR INTERNET

 

Apple iBooks 2 for iPad Reinvents Textbooks

Today’s students have grown up completely immersed in technology. Be it iPods, iPads or computers, this is the way they’re most comfortable learning and interacting with the world. So why stick with heavy, static paper textbooks? Apple has the answer in iBooks 2 for iPad, a new application that features a truly dynamic, engaging and interactive kind of textbook.

Also of note: Apple is is giving authors the ability to set their own prices as long as they remain $14.99 or under. Bye-bye to $200+ textbooks? (Yes, there’s still the cost of an iPad to consider).

NEW YORK—January 19, 2012—Apple® today announced iBooks® 2 for iPad®, featuring iBooks textbooks, an entirely new kind of textbook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. iBooks textbooks offer iPad users gorgeous, fullscreen textbooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more. iBooks textbooks can be kept up to date, don’t weigh down a backpack and never have to be returned. Leading education services companies including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson will deliver educational titles on the iBookstore℠ with most priced at $14.99 or less, and with the new iBooks Author, a free authoring tool available today, anyone with a Mac® can create stunning iBooks textbooks.

“Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet. With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the world,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Now with iBooks 2 for iPad, students have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn, using the device they already love.”

The new iBooks 2 app is available today as a free download from the App Store™. With support for great new features including gorgeous, fullscreen books, interactive 3D objects, diagrams, videos and photos, the iBooks 2 app will let students learn about the solar system or the physics of a skyscraper with amazing new interactive textbooks that come to life with just a tap or swipe of the finger. With its fast, fluid navigation, easy highlighting and note-taking, searching and definitions, plus lesson reviews and study cards, the new iBooks 2 app lets students study and learn in more efficient and effective ways than ever before.

iBooks Author is also available today as a free download from the Mac App Store and lets anyone with a Mac create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books and more, and publish them to Apple’s iBookstore. Authors and publishers of any size can start creating with Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. iBooks Author lets you add your own text and images by simply dragging and dropping, and with the Multi-Touch™ widgets you can easily add interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote® presentations and 3D objects.

Apple today also announced an all-new iTunes® U app giving educators and students everything they need on their iPad, iPhone® and iPod touch® to teach and take entire courses. With the new iTunes U app, students using iPads have access to the world’s largest catalog of free educational content, along with over 20,000 education apps at their fingertips and hundreds of thousands of books in the iBookstore that can be used in their school curriculum, such as novels for English or Social Studies.* The iTunes U app is available today as a free download from the App Store.

 

Mini iPad Coming

 

Falcon HTV-2

 

The ultimate goal of the Falcon program is to create a vehicle that can fly anywhere in the world in less than an hour. DARPA has already produced and flown the HTV-2 -- an unmanned, rocket-launched aircraft that travels at Mach 20 -- about 13,000 miles per hour (artist's impression).

Celluon Magic Cube – World’s only virtual projection keyboard and multi-touch mouse

 

A List Of Startups Goldman Sachs Thinks Will Most Likely IPO

ALEXIATSOTSIS

Very very quietly (there is almost no Google footprint), investment bank and securities firm Goldman Sachs held its “Private Internet Company Conference” this week in Las Vegas. During the two-day conference, which lasted from November 29-30th, a gaggle of companies presented their business models to an elite audience composed of bankers, investors and peers.

Attendees listened to talks given by A16Z‘s Marc Andreessen and Square’s Keith Rabois (who gave the keynote on Tuesday night). SV Angel’sRon Conway was also there, being himself. All in all the experience was very, very fun I heard. Makes sense.

So why hold a conference for early stage companies if you’re an IPO underwriter? Well, the event basically functions as an extremely foresighted form of lead generation. According to multiple people I spoke to, these are the 30 or so startups Goldman has designated as potential IPO candidates. And it wants to make a relationship as early on as possible, in case some of them actually do and need Goldman’s services in the process.

So who are these white-hot startups then? Well here you go! (I might be missing one or two, so if you’re on this list or know of someone who should be on this list, please email me and I will put you/them on if your story checks out.)

In alphabetical order:

• Airbnb
• Beachmint
• Beauchamp
• Birchbox
• Bluekai
• Badoo
• BOKU
• Box.net
• BranchOut
• Cloudflare
• Coupons.com
• DropBox
• Eventbrite
• Gogobot
• Hipmunk
• Instagram
• Jawbone
• Klout
• Narrative Science
• Ness computing
• Pinterest
• One Kings Lane
• Peixe Urbano
• Polyvore
• Quantcast
• Quora
• Rent The Runway
• Rue la la
• Rovio
• Shopkick
• Specific Media
• Survey Monkey
• Square
• TrialPay
• Trunk Club
• Tumblr
• Uber
• Warby Parker
• WePay
• Xoom
• ZocDoc
• Zoosk

 

The Evolution of the Smartphone

The world's fastest remote control car for big kids

 

Weighing all of 10.3 lbs’s was one of the hardest truths we have put ourselves up against, as anything of this size and capability to travel at 0-62 mph/ph within 5 seconds, usually weighs much more. Well, it’s done and done well as the gadgetry used is some of the most advanced in this sphere. Armed with Traxxas 2.4 GHz wireless remote control, and ready-to-go radio system, one can sit at a distance and watch the car zoom by, without having to physically control it, instead do it through your iPhone or iPad which has a built-in application meant specifically for the car. The high-definition detailed graphics and rapid user-interface will help you cover exotic terrains with all car controls on display on your handset or tablet PC screen.

Online Ad Revenues in US

Online ad revenues in the U.S. have hit the $7.88 billion mark for the third quarter of 2011, finds the latest Internet Advertising Revenue Report from the IAB and PwC U.S. It is a 22% increase over the same time period in 2010, making it the eight consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. The numbers also represent a 2.7% increase over the record-setting second quarter of 2011.

Star Wars Lego USB

Star Wars Lego USB