The second generation iPhone was announced earlier this week, though it won’t be available till July 11. The main new features include 3G, GPS, and much cheaper price! The 3G provides for faster web page downloads over 3G cellular networks, as compared with the EDGE technology used by the original iPhone. Not all locations have 3G wireless but we appear to be covered pretty well in the RTP area (to see this for yourself, go to https://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/ and in the Legend, click on “Show 3G coverage in select areas”). The GPS is “real” GPS, rather than just using triangulation from cell tower signals or wireless networks, which means that it is accurate. The cheaper feature is maybe the most amazing thing. The entry level iPhone second gen cost $199 for the 8 gig model, down from $399.
Apple had already opened up software development on the iPhone with the announcement of a free SDK (software development kit), which has been downloaded about 250,000 times since the announcement in March. In conjunction with this, Apple is launching an App Store for distributing 3rd party applications. The SDK has potential for the education market. Apple will have a special ad hoc distribution available so that a developer can register 100 iPhones. Steve Jobs gave an example of a professor teaching how to develop iPhone apps in class and then having the class distribute their applications over email (which they can do because their devices are registered). It also means that educational institutions potentially have a way to develop applications that meet their administrative or teaching and learning needs and distributing those applications for instructors and students to access.
There is also a potential Blackboard connection here. Blackboard has rolled out a free service called Bb Sync which provides Facebook integration as a Facebook app. The student has the option to install the application, or not, and it provides notifications of new materials posted in Blackboard course sites, and easy links to the materials, delivered straight to Facebook. In the process of creating this service, Blackboard created a central service to handle most of the actual security and functionality, with the Facebook application itself being used mostly as a means to provide the front end interface. As a result, this new infrastructure provides the potential for Blackboard to roll out services on many different devices, including the iPhone. Blackboard, Inc. mentioned the iPhone themselves in an April webinar this year. With the opening up of the iPhone SDK, Blackboard apparently has all the tools it needs to create such an application.
For more information about the new iPhone see: