University Tries "One iPhone Per Student" 281
alphadogg writes to tell us that one freshman class has a little more than usual to be excited about. When students at Abilene Christian University showed up for their first days of class they were greeted with the choice of either a new iPhone 3g or an iPod Touch plus a package of custom web apps to use on them. "The hardware is part of the Texas university's pilot mobile learning project, which has been gestating for over a year. About 650 first-year students chose the iPhone, and about 300 the iPod Touch, which is a very similar device but without the 3G radio (both devices incorporate an 802.11g Wi-Fi adapter). ACU pays for the hardware, student (or their parents) select and pay for their monthly AT&T service plan."
Coming... (Score:5, Funny)
...to ebay in 3...2...
Why not give them WoW accounts too? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why not give them WoW accounts too? (Score:5, Funny)
And beer, don't forget the beer.
They're only allowed to drink Pepsi too, right? (Score:2, Funny)
Blatant corporate sponsorship. No wonder these kids think that Apple invented the Internet and the GUI.
Coming up next: Student suspended for listening to MP3's. Administration cannot decide whether it was because it was a Samsung phone or because the music was not sold by iTunes and subject to their DRM.
thank goodness! (Score:4, Funny)
The title made me worry that we were only allowed to have a single iPhone per person. And I thought it was just some more unnecessary University restrictions.
Re:Coming... (Score:4, Funny)
I don't think those examples warrant the word "extremely". Perhaps you meant to say "moderately" or "slightly" or "not".
Re:Why not give them WoW accounts too? (Score:3, Funny)
Even betterer! I'm currently building an MMO for the iPhone!
Re:What is wrong? (Score:1, Funny)
Were any alternatives considered? (Score:2, Funny)
Like Nokia or Android or Eee PC stuff?
"Board of Regents owns Apple Stock!"
"C'mon baby, President of the University needs a new yacht!"
Similar devices.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What about those monthly fees? (Score:2, Funny)
please, read the article and then we can have a semi-intelligent discussion on the actual issues
Good luck with that! I don't think people even read the summary anymore, much less the article. Hell I didn't even read the title. However, based off of your comments it's obvious the article is about some kind of new, flying bus. I for one welcome our new flying bus overlords!
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Because it's really a safety device. (Score:3, Funny)
It's not a phone, it's a platform for the latest killer app... ...GunmanTracker.
When any iPhone detects gunfire, it reports its position to a central server, which then creates a Google Maps mashup that shows the location of the gunman on all other students' iPhones.
If the iPhone is being carried BY the gunman, the phone is supposed to shock them like a taser would. Unfortunately in testing all the power that could be mustered from the battery would just tickle at best, and there apparently wasn't any way to replace the battery with something more powerful.
Even if they could replace the battery, it turned out that GunTracker was trivially defeated by the DontTaseMeBro app, although that was quickly pulled from the app store.