Stephen's Untold Stories

I wonder what kind of music the soldiers listen to while they’re lining up the target.

A new application has been launched for the iPod touch to help gun users line up a clean shot at their target.

The BulletFlight app, which costs £6.99 to download from the iTunes store, has been developed by Runaway App to turn the iPod touch into a ballistics computer which the company says can provide “quick solutions in the field”.

Users can mount their iPod touch to their rifle, and then use the iPod’s touch-screen to tap in details about the wind conditions, ammunition type, distance to the intended target and even the wind speed.

he application features built-in profiles for three weapons – the M110 semi-automatic precision rifle, the KAC PDW, and the 14.5in SR16 rifle – although users can add more weapons into the app.

Link to article

Now we’re getting somewhere. Not only students, but TEACHERS get one.

A Chapel Hill middle school could become the first in the country to give an iPod to every teacher and student, an experiment that would challenge teachers and administrators to ensure the hand-held devices are used as learning tools, not toys.

It’s still not clear how the iPod Touches would be used at Culbreth Middle School. And school officials know that students may use the iPod Touches more to download the new Jonas Brothers single than to tap the riches of human knowledge. But Principal Susan Wells says that to dismiss the technology as a distraction or a gimmick ignores today’s tech-driven world.

“It’s a world we better figure out, because we can’t ask our students to come into a classroom, put those things aside and sit in a row and think we’re interesting,” she said.

“We’re just not that interesting.”

If the project wins funding, Culbreth’s teachers, administrators and students during the next year will develop courses for which iPod Touches are central to the curriculum. Other schools could follow Culbreth’s model.

Early ideas include letting students get arts credit by taking online guitar lessons in which they can watch a video of a guitar instructor on their iPod and practice at home. Physical education teachers might give take-home fitness assignments for students to track their stats — calorie intake, number of sit-ups they can do in a minute, etc. — and create a podcast demonstrating certain exercises.

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Another one you must bookmark.

If you’re thinking that all your iPod can do is play music, think again. With a little ingenuity and guidance, you can turn your iPod into just about anything, whether it’s a remote control or a notepad. Read on to find more than 75 tutorials that will walk you through projects that will transform your iPod.

Link to site

It’s called MoFuse, and it’s free!

Here is what my site looks like on a PDA or standard mobile phone.

http://stephenrahn.mofuse.mobi

And here is what it looks like if you have an iPhone!

http://stephenrahn.mofuse.mobi/iphone

I certainly hope so. I’m getting one!

The 3G iPhone will be announced June 9, the likely date of Apple CEO Steve Jobs‘ keynote at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference, analysts said in research notes on Thursday.

The 3G iPhone will be the “first of an impressive wave of new products” from Apple, wrote Citi analysts Richard Gardner and Yeechang Lee. They also expect an updated Mac laptop and iPod lines. The Apple conference is scheduled for June 9-13 in San Francisco.

Those predictions are consistent with a February prediction Gardner made that 3G iPhones will be announced by midyear. The 3G iPhone release will help Apple meet its target of shipping 10 million iPhones in 2008, Gardner wrote at the time.

Apple is confident it will sell 10 million iPhones this year, officials said during a conference call on Wednesday to discuss the company’s second-quarter earnings.

When asked about the possible release of a 3G iPhone, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer declined comment. Apple has new products in the pipeline that the company is excited about, Oppenheimer said.

Link to article

Great stuff from Apple.

iPod in the Classroom Resources

My contract with Spring is up in May, and I have pretty much decided that I’m going to get an iPhone. I am very excited about the possibility of the 3G version with GPS capability. I’ve been playing around with an iPod Touch, and it is an amazing device. The new iPhone should be even better.

A June introduction of the 3G iPhone could tie in with Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference to be held in San Francisco from June 9 to 13, especially if that event also sees the arrival of the finished version of the iPhone SDK, which is currently in beta.

What’s going to be packed into the new iPhone? GPS seems likely, as well as a dual-camera arrangement to allow 3G video calls as well as taking photos with the screen as a viewfinder. The industrial design of the handset is likely to change, as Apple and handset buyers are both particularly style-conscious.

Link to article

Thanks to Tony Vincent for posting this.

Go to iQuizMaker.com to download free software for making your very own true/false and multiple choice quizzes. You can include explanations with your true/false questions. You can set several options, including how many questions a user can answer incorrectly and the graphics theme of the quiz. iQuiz Maker includes an iPod simulator so you can take the quiz on your desktop before syncing to an iPod. Currently the software is Mac only with the Windows version due in May.

iQuizMaker.com has additional quizzes you can download for iQuiz, including Human Anatomy and Cats & Dogs. You can download the Quiz Installer for making the process of getting these on your iPod easier. [To manually install a quiz pack, put the quiz pack folder in the iQuiz folder, which is in the iPod Games folder in your iTunes folder.] Apple has more detailed information for installing and creating quizzes.

Here is the rest!

Thanks to Tony Vincent for alerting me to this. A very interesting study with some results that will surprise some. (not me, however!) Here are the key findings:

• The first study, underwritten by the National Science Foundation, focused on science curriculum for seventh grade students. In two years of the study, the handheld computer group performed 2 percent and 13 percent better than the non-handheld group.
• The second study focused on basic math facts for third grade students. The handheld computer group performed 7 percent better than the non-handheld group and the subset of low-achieving students performed 11 percent better.