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Why American students fail in science

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Editorial, Google, Microsoft, Science,

american student science scores

There is going to be a lot of debate over the fact that American students are again falling behind in their education. According to National Assessment of Educational Progress, American children are nothing less than pathetic when it comes to understanding science.

This whole mess will be blamed on all sorts of things, probably all valid. But who, besides me, is going to blame the computer? Has anyone noticed that ever since the computer was brought into the classroom, student test scores have been falling? Does anyone find this coincidence weird? After all, the computer is, in itself, a teaching machine, of sorts.

Over the years, I've seen a lot of quasi-teaching software and educational software companies come and go, but can you name one large or middle-sized software company that specializes in educational software for children in grade school now? Just try to name one.

The biggest software company in the world, Microsoft, used to have some educational software sold under its discontinued Home brand, but I have no idea what became of it. The company, along with the Gates Foundation, promotes the idea of computers in the classroom, but it seems more of a ploy to make kids comfortable using Windows than anything else.

For science education, the greatest thing a computer can do is to show scientific principals in a way no blackboard or discussion could ever do, with graphical representation and full motion animation. You'd think that with all the computers that have been installed in school that American kids would be wizards by now. But no.

Click to continue reading Why American students fail in science

Google releases opt-out extension for Chrome

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Google, Software,

Google has released a new browser extension for their Chrome browser called Keep My Opt-Outs, which is a simple way to opt out of Google-based advertising tracking, along with ad tracking from other major advertising companies. The company points out that this is in part an answer to governments and groups asking for "no track" options online. It's worth noting that this is an extension that needs to be downloaded, so this won't change much for advertisers. Everything this extension does could be done manually before, and people who go out to get it may well have been blocking tracking cookies in the past. Still, this is a good step which will hopefully lead to similar tools on other browser platforms.

Google shows off Android 3.0

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: CES, CES 2011, Google, Software, Videos,

We've been hearing about Android 3.0 Honeycomb for a while now, the build of Android that would be designed with tablets in mind. Now, Google shows off it's latest version during CES, and it does appear that the UI has been redesigned in some major ways--it now fits especially well on the larger screen. Google posted a video showcasing some of the new design, which looks very different from what we've grown used to in the Android world.

100 most searched terms on BitTorrent

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Internet, Movies, Software,

Verizon, RIM, ATT looking to protect your smartphone from malicious attacks

Posted by John Kilhefner Categories: Smartphones, Corporate News, Software,

protect smartphone

Many people take the security of their smartphones for granted. As the amount of private data communicated through smartphones increases, so does the threat of attacks from viruses and hackers. Choosing to act now rather than wait for a security fiasco, phone companies such as AT&T, are hiring security researchers to focus on strengthening the security of mobile phones from attacks. Since security has previously not been a major concern on mobile devices it will take some time (years) for these security measures to fully implement.

"Everyone is realizing that this is an uncontrolled environment," said Edward G. Amoroso, chief security officer of AT&T Inc. "We don't want to have the same problems that we had with PCs."

Click to continue reading Verizon, RIM, ATT looking to protect your smartphone from malicious attacks

iTunes 10.1.1 released, squashes bugs

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Music, Software,

itunes 10.1.1

If you're an iTunes user, it's time to upgrade once more, as Apple just released iTunes 10.1.1 into the wild. The update seems mostly aimed at fixing a few bugs, so don't expect anything fancy to show up, okay?

Gmail founder predicts Chrome OS is doomed

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Google, Software,

Last night Paul Buchheit, the former Google employee who created Gmail, tweeted his rather bold prediction that Chome OS was doomed:

"Prediction: ChromeOS will be killed next year (or "merged" with Android)"

He then added on the FriendFeed thread that Chrome OS has "no purpose that isn't better served by Android" and asking "is this too obvious to even state?" As Google started to ship CR-48 preview devices, with tech blogs reviewing them endlessly, people found themselves in front of a new type of system, one that provides much less than Android, or any other OS has provided before. Google is hoping that the web is all that many people need, and targeting Chrome OS at them. But as people started to plug in devices and finding that they don't work, being unable to do simple things like save photos from their digital cameras locally, or write a document without having to be online, it seems that the company still has a long way to go to convince people that Chrome OS is a good idea, for any market.

Add true retweet functionality to Tweetie for Mac with ReTweetie

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Internet, Software,

retweetie

We know a ton of Mac users who use Tweetie for Mac as their desktop client of choice. However, since Twitter acquired Tweetie, they've kind of put the desktop client on the back burner. It still works and all, but newer features like lists and retweet are sorely missed. However, thanks to developer Nick Paulson, there's now a free SIMBL plugin that forces Tweetie to use Twitter's native retweeting functionality. We highly recommend it for all Tweetie users out there.

Google Chrome now has over 8,500 extensions

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Google, Internet, Software,

Last week, Google put up a blog post with some statistics on their Chrome browser. Of note, the browser now has over 8,500 extensions and 1,500 themes, which have been installed over 70 million times. They also describe some of the latest updates the browser has had such as the sync feature, better HTML5 support and new APIs for developers. Google also promises that they will not be slowing down the amount of new features. On the roadmap they say new APIs will be added for things like the omnibox and pinned tabs, as well as download management and network interception. With the release of the Chrome Web Store this week, Google is clearly positioning themselves as one of the top players in the browser market.

Android Market gets a facelift

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Smartphones, Google, Software,

One common source of complaints from Android users is how the Market app can be somewhat tricky to use. I've always found the user experience to be not that great compared with the Apple App Store, for example. Thankfully, Android developers have been hard at work, and have launched a new version of the Market app. They are adding a new 'carousel' in the home screen which will make discoverability of apps easier. They are also adding some categories for Widgets and Live Wallpapers, and promising to add more in the weeks ahead for popular apps and games. The way information is shown about each app is also changed, with everything being shown on a single page. Finally, the refund window will drop from 24h to 15 minutes, since apparently people typically uninstall applications they don't like only minutes after installing them. The update will be rolled out over the next two weeks to devices running Android 1.6 or above.

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