Here comes the App Store
iTunes 7.7 is out, and the major add is the AppStore, which will let you download applications for your iPhone or iPod Touch.
The official launch should be sometime today, but if you’re in the iTunes music store and search for Twitterific, for example, you can get into the AppStore itself. You can browse, buy and download, but until Apple releases the iPhone/iPod Touch 2.0 software update, you’re kind of stuck.
I grabbed a few apps I know that I’ll use right away - Twitterific, AIM, NetNewsWire, Facebook and EverNote.
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What the new iPhone means to higher ed web folks
Unless you are living under a rock, you know that Apple announced its new iPhone 3G yesterday. I’ve had an iPhone for six months and love it, and I’m looking forward to the faster speeds and new features like real GPS service.
I’ve also been thinking about how this will impact us as higher education technology and web professionals.
Après moi le déluge
With the price of iPhone now dropping to $199 for the 8GB model, I would be prepared for a large number of students arriving on campus this fall with iPhones. They will expect wifi access as well as websites optimized for browsing on iPhone. There are authentication issues and other wireless security options we’ll have to review.
Now’s the time to also create an iPhone icon for your school.
Automatic Geotagging of Photos
The new iPhone will allow users to automatically, via the internal GPS, to record the exact location a photograph was taken. While this is a neat, potentially useful feature, we’re going to have to be extra-vigilant in keeping an eye on what photos are attributed to our schools or taken on our campuses. Not that we can take them down, but as GI Joe says, knowing is half the battle.
Strain in server resources
If you’ve got an email setup using Exchange, you probably won’t see a huge bump but if a large number of new iPhone users are POP’ing their email every few minutes, we may see an increased load on email servers. If you outsource your email to Gmail, for example, you won’t see this.
Power Users
Many public spaces at our college, such as the library and one of our dining halls, offer power and network connections at many tables and booths. I’ve used the power a ton of times, but it would be really cool if we started to offer other connection options at these stations. The iPhone specific example is a powered USB port, so that we can keep our phones powered on and charging while we study, do research, eat, etc. Are anyone’s schools doing this?
What am I missing?
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The iPhone SDK and Higher Education Developers
Last week, Apple announced it’s iPhone SDK and developer program. Developers can start building their apps now, but the iPhone software 2.0 update won’t go to users until June, so there’s plenty of time to get your app working.
I’ve been thinking the last few days about how developers in higher education might use the iPhone and what kind of apps we could build. As the iPhone market share increases, more and more students will have them on campus and expect them to work with campus resources, like wireless and portal services.
I initially thought about Facebook application style apps that recycle existing content, but since the iPhone has a full featured web browser, it’d be a waste of time and $99 to have you app vetted by Apple and included in the AppStore.
I assume the major campus ERP solutions like Datatel and Banner will develop apps that will allow users to tap right into school’s back-end systems. If Datatel, for example, develops an application to allow access to campus services, there will be issues for schools, such as will each school need to further customize the app to meet their needs? Will it need to be branded by the school? Will there be a run on server and bandwidth resources if everyone starts connecting with their phones instead of web-based platforms like WebAdvisor or Banner?
I also thought about housing providers like CBORD and their potential offerings. I would imagine it would be convenient for RA’s and other housing officials to do their end of year inspections and carry an iPhone with them. They could punch in the room number, see all relevant information about the room including past damage, current occupants, service requests during the year, etc. They would mark new damage that was done, and could use the iPhone’s camera to take a picture of damage for proof (you know, to avoid the ‘yes you broke this, no i didn’t’ type fights that I’m sure arise every year). All that could be uploaded by wifi to a central server and repair bills could be run for students.
What other sorts of applications would make sense? What would be needed to be developed in the SDK and as a stand-alone app that can’t already be solved by a web-based version of any application? Will the $99 fee to get into the program dissuade schools to join and develop?
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