Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

Very interesting and thanks for posting the link!

It's great to hear that your students are taking an interest in the topics in this forum perhaps they might like to join themselves and let us know what they think of mobility and how it might help with learning.

My thoughts...

The Apple strategy really does seem to fly in the face of wisdom and perhaps the success of the iPod which has a closed architecture has influenced their decision to lock developers out of the iPhone device. As mentioned elsewhere in this thread the thing that has traditionally made a smart phone smart is the ability for owners to add applications relevant to their circumstances or requirements. Phones are multi-media computers as well as communication devices these days so, like many, I'm still confused about Apple's apparent lack of desire for 3rd parties to build what could be the killer app's that distinguish the iPhone from it's competitors. It could be that Apple either believe that they can do this themselves or that they want to be a gatekeeper for iPhone applications and take a slice of the box office thus matching their iTunes strategy.

Phones based on open-source Linux, as per your link, is one route but it does depend on adoption by handset manufacturers who ultimately determine what's in your hand. Nokia have adopted Linux for their Internet Tablets whereas for their phones they use Symbian as do other manufacturers such as Sony-Ericsson, other smart phone manufacturers such as HTC or Asus (the companies behind most PDA's and phones such as the XDA and MDA) use Windows Mobile, Palm use Palm OS or Windows Mobile. All these operating systems foster and encourage developers to make new applications on the basis that the more applications available for their platform the more handsets they will sell.

rant over!

From a review in the Chicago Sun-Times:

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