Archive for August, 2010
Love free Web 2.0 sites? Then pay for them.
- Image by PinkMoose via Flickr
Several months ago, the guys over at PollEverywhere wrote a blog post asking “Should we even offer a free product for teachers?” At the heart of the conversation, the issue was that while they wanted to keep free accounts for teachers, people using the service does cost them money. “Considering that we pay the mobile phone companies several cents for each text message, a disturbing proportion of free users (overwhelmingly educators) cost us over $50/user/year in texting fees, and that’s before we spend any time on customer support.” That may not seem like much, but when you start adding up the numbers, it’s a matter of dollars and cents. If it’s free for you, someone is paying for it. And considering the size of many of these Web 2.0 companies, often that ‘someone’ is the founder and/or developer.
The reason I bring this up is that I’m a big fan of free sites. One of my most popular presentations focuses strictly on free tools for educators. I know far too many teachers that make a point to only use free sites. Some do it as a point of pride, others do it due to financial considerations. The trouble is though, if a site isn’t making any money… it likely won’t be around for very long. That’s not good for anyone.
People often ask me whether they can rely on a Web 2.0 site being around for a while. Generally, I respond by telling them to look for a business model. Do they have premium features that people can subscribe to? Advertising on the site? Enterprise level solutions that business can purchase? If there’s a clear indicator for how the site is making money, then they’re probably going to be around. If there isn’t, that’s a red flag to me. Some sites like Wordle I wouldn’t stress about as much. They’re simple enough that I have a hunch that they are just paying for hosting/bandwidth at this point, which can most likely be covered by ads. However, the trade off there is that there isn’t any active development going on there. When was the last time you saw Wordle release a new feature?
Which brings me back to my point. There are some sites that I promote through my presentations and professional work. I do so because I see potential for them and believe educators can get good use out of them. I don’t get a kickback from any of these sites (besides my host, Bluehost) other than a few sites have given me a free premium account. That said, there are several sites that I use on a regular basis that I do pay for. I bought a pro version of Flickr several years ago because I thought they were one of the best sites I’d ever seen for photo sharing and I wanted to see them succeed. I have even given pro subscriptions to friends and colleagues as gifts. I’m a huge fan of Tripit.com and recently upgrade to a pro account. I’ll be honest, I don’t think the features you get for upgrading are even worth the cost, but I wanted to support the company. I love the service they provide and hope that they can stick around. That’s worth a $50 donation from me even though I’m not a fan of their premium features.
There are many sites that have created educational portals/pricing to support the things teachers are doing in the classroom. PollEverywhere is a great example of this because they literally restructured their entire free scheme around the classroom. Prezi created educator specific pro-accounts as well and have publicly stated how committed they are to supporting teachers. Other sites like Glogster and Voicethread have devoted enormous resources to making their sites better suited to teachers’ needs.
But these sites can only keep doing that if there’s money coming in. It’s a bitter pill, but that’s reality. If you love free tools, then you need to do your part to keeping them free. Consider it paying it forward. Don’t do it for every site, and don’t do it for a site you’ve never tried before. But if you’ve been using the free version of the site and think it’s something you feel is worth continuing to make use of, then consider paying for the premium version. Even if you don’t need the premium features, do it so that you can hold your head up high and know you’ve done your part to make sure that site is going to be around for the long haul. And don’t forget, as a paying customer, you usually have a more direct line to the developer’s ear. Let them know what features you think the site needs, or how it could be better suited to what you do in the classroom. That same email has a lot more weight when it comes from a subscriber rather than a free user.
I know some of you are going to say that you spend enough on the classroom already, and that the school should pick up the bill. Fine, then fight that fight. But if you can’t push that through, I hope that you consider doing something personally. It’s the only way these tools we love so much are going to be around for the long haul.
In my next post here, I’ll be sharing a new offer from PollEverywhere. I didn’t write this post to push you over to them, but they do happen to be one of the sites I’m a huge fan of. They’ve been kind enough to give me a premium account to use during presentations. However, I’m putting my own money where my mouth is and buying into the promotion as well. Why? Because I believe in what they’re doing, I believe in their commitment to education, and I want them to stick around. If they aren’t your site of choice, that’s fine. Pick another. But spend a few minutes thinking about what tools are perpetually on your ‘goto’ list and how you can help make sure they don’t go away.
Because if we don’t support the sites we can’t live without… well, you better be prepared to live without them.
What have you found worth paying for? Are you willing to pay out of your own pocket to support a site you love?
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Top 10 reasons to Jailbreak… legally!
- Image by williamli via Flickr
Anybody who follows me on Twitter knows that I’ve jailbroken my iDevices. I’m not some kind of crazy renegade or anti-establishment… there are just some basic features that I want to have that Apple doesn’t offer. I know why they don’t offer them. And I respect that. But at the same time, I want to be able to make those decisions for myself and have leaped at the opportunity to stretch the capabilities of the devices just a little bit farther.
That being said, I do understand that most educators feel that they can’t jailbreak. It’s illegal, right? Well… not really. It was never against the law. Apple tried to say it was against the terms of service, but who are they to say what you can do with something you BOUGHT? When I buy a pair of running shoes, Nike has no right to tell me I can’t play soccer in them. In my opinion, nor does Apple have the right to tell me what I can and can’t do with the device. Funny thing is… Federal regulators agree. Last week, the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office basically said that jailbreaking doesn’t violate any laws and is kosher in their book. Big news? You betcha!
Apple can, and does, maintain that they can’t warranty Jailbroken devices, but it’s sort of an empty threat. A simple restore will remove any and all traces of a jailbreak, putting it right back to a virgin state. Quite simply, jailbreaking allows developers access to the full file system available on the iPhone, not just the fenced in sandbox that Apple normally gives access to. This allows people to develop apps that many of us have always wanted on our phones, but couldn’t get through the App store. Some of them are simple, like Whiteboarding abilities (so you can mark up an app before taking a screenshot). Others are more complex, like skinning, multi-tasking, and screensharing with a computer.
Whatever your reasons are, there’s never been a better time to do it. Last night, the jailbreaking fairies released the easiest way to jailbreak your iDevice in quite a long time. All you need to do is visit Jailbreakme.com from your iDevice and move the slider over, and it’ll jailbreak your phone and install Cydia. For those who don’t know, Cydia is like the AppStore, but for apps that Apple won’t accept.
Just to be ultraclear, jailbreaking does not open you up to viruses. It does not break your phone. Neither Apple nor AT&T will know you did it. And if you don’t like it…. just restore. But there are several compelling things that Jailbreaking allows you to do, and I thought I’d share my Top 10 with you. And while only a few of them are compelling reasons to jailbreak, when you add them altogether you get a pretty convincing case.
10) SBSettings (All devices) - This isn’t actually an App, but basically like a shortcut bar/task manager. Slide across the status bar along the top of your screen and you’ll see a pop up menu that gives you quick access to a configurable set of toggles. This allows you to easily turn on and off things like Bluetooth, WiFi, and other handy info, like your IP address, remaining storage and so on. Nothing super fancy, but it saves quite a few clicks. More info here and here
9) Full Force (iPad) - If you have an iPad, you hate iPhone apps. Yes, it’s nice that you can run them, but when you embiggen them they look obnoxious. Fonts are doubled in size, screen is distorted. It just looks awful. Full Force attempts to tell the app to use all available real estate… but with a normal font size. It doesn’t work for every app, but for the ones it does it makes a MAJOR difference. it actually makes them usable without being annoying. The best example of this is Tweetie. There’s still no iPad version of the official Twitter app, but Full Force makes the iPhone version more than just tolerable, but passable! List of apps compatible with Full Force
8 ) GV Mobile (iPhone) – If you use Google Voice on the iPhone, you MAY have bought this back in the day. For a very brief period it was in the App store. And then Apple pulled it. No good reason, they just decided they didn’t like Google Voice. So Sean picked up his app and re-released it via Cydia. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best App based version of Google Voice out there. It still requires an internet connection, but does a really good job of letting you manage Google Voice, including making calls from your GVoice number.
7) Winterboard (All) - It’s hard to give a simple summary of all that Winterboard does. At it’s most basic level, it let’s you skin your device. Backgrounds and homescreens, like iOS4, but oh so much more too. Themes can come with icons for the basic iDevice apps as well as other apps that you may have installed. Battery charging screens, calculator skins, lock screens, unlock sliders, task bar designs… There are even themes that radically change the way you interact with your iphone entirely. You want to stretch it, there’s some really amazing themes you can install. And all that is possible through Winterboard. I won’t get into it anymore, but if you’ve EVER wanted to customize anything visual related to the iPhone, there’s likely a Winterboard solution. More on Winterboard, and a theme gallery.
6) Veency (All) - Ever want to display your iDevice on your computer screen? I did just the other day. I wanted to show a group in Boston my favorite apps and ways to use the iPad… but I was in Chicago. So I loaded up Veency on the iPad and connected it to a simple VNC server I installed on my desktop. Put in the IP address, clicked connect and Voila! My iPad was displayed on my computer. From there, I used Procaster to broadcast my desktop screen with the iPad on it to the people in Boston. Everything you do on the iPad will be displayed on your computer. As an added bonus, you can even control your iPad via your keyboard and mouse. Works surprisingly well, although it does have some lag if you do it in full color. Dropping it down to 256 colors improve refresh speed dramatically. More on Veency.
5) Backgrounder (All) - This is becoming less relevant, but still important. Basically this gives your iDevice the ability to multi-task. And not that simulated multitasking that iOS4 has, but TRUE multitasking. Set it up and you can allow an app to keep running even after you leave it and switch to another. I use this a ton when I’m grading. Open up an assignment, leave it in the background, open up a few web pages including the Moodle Page and bounce back and forth between them without losing my place anywhere. VERY handy. Now, you can get yourself into a bit of trouble with this one. Put too many apps in the background and you’ll drain your battery more quickly and make your device anemic. So just keep an eye on what you have open and close what you don’t need. I haven’t had a problems with it, as you can have it put a symbol on the App icon on the homescreen, letting you know backgrounding is enabled for it. How to use Backgrounder on the iPad
4) Activator (All) - This is more of a helper app than anything else. It provides you with a large list of potential actions, and let’s you assign apps to them. For example, you can set it so that when you triple click the power button, the camera app comes up. Or if you hold in the home screen for a few seconds, it opens up Mail. You could also set it so that if you rock the volume buttons up and down, it’ll open up the phone app. Nothing fancy, but saves taps. And that’s a good thing. More on activator
3) iWhiteboard (All) – I mentioned this one earlier. When you activate it (see #4), it let’s you draw on the screen. You can change colors, marker sizes and grab screenshots as well. And when you’re done, one more click and it’s gone. Couldn’t be simpler. But very useful. Mark up your screen, circle the settings you want to point out to people, or how to use an app… and then grab a quick screenshot. I don’t use it often, but it has come in handy on several occasions. Such as having Jeff Utecht sign my PDF copy of his book, Reach! Tips on using iWhiteboard
2) TV-Out (All) - As it stands right now, only certain Apps have permission from Apple to use the video out capabilities. On the iPhone/iTouch there’s a cable with component/composite out, and on the iPad there’s a VGA connector. However, only a few apps have permission to use it! What if you want to display your home screen on a monitor or projector? Well, TV-Out will let you do it, as well as every other app you have. Turn it on (via SBSettings if you want!) and everything you do will be sent out through the projector cable. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best solution out there without going the Document Camera route. Setting up TVOut2 on the iPad
1) MyWi (iPhone) - This is the number one reason to jailbreak on iPhone. It’s 9.99 for the iOS3 version and 19.99 for the iOS4 version… and worth every penny. It allows you to turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot. It takes your 3G connection, bridges it over to WiFi and creates a hotspot that you can use to connect from your laptop or iPad or any other device. You have full control over whether it’s an open hotspot or secure, as well as how many can connect. It also works via USB if you don’t want to broadcast things out. It works incredibly well and it has saved my hide on many an occasion. Even if you just have it as a backup… I’ve used it at conferences, hotels, airports, coffee shops, anywhere that I’ve needed a quick internet connection for my iPad or laptop. Fantastic app and most definitely the #1 reason to jailbreak an iPhone. MyWi and the iPhone 4
That’s it! The 10 best reasons to jailbreak an iDevice.
Except while writing this I thought of one more.
Bonus Reason: My3G (iPhone) - I used to use 3G unrestrictor but am trying out this one right now as a replacement. They both do the same thing though, which is free your phone from 3G restrictions. Ever try to download an App and have the device tell you “You can’t download this until you’re connected via WiFi”? Or want to play a game, but then realize it requires WiFi? Well, these apps just trick your phone into thinking that’s connected via WiFi! Couldn’t be simpler. Of course, what you do with it is your business, but do keep in mind… Trying to download Google Earth via 3G will take a while. Doing a live video broadcast over 3G may be a little choppy. But shouldn’t it be your right to decide that you want a choppy broadcast? The most exciting use of it though…. is 3G Facetime. Imagine being able to do a Facetime chat anyplace that you have 3G! Well, My3G supports that right now. I haven’t had a chance to try it out, but based on twitter reports, it seems to be working fine. Once again, just scale your expectations appropriately. MyWi + Facetime = WOW
And NOW that’s it. Hope that helped. I’m not saying that you should jailbreak your iDevice. But if any of those things seemed worthwhile to you, it’s good to know you have options!
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