Today the whole world faces and recognises the enormous force of information streaming via TV/cable, Internet, MP3, IPOD, radio, books, magazines, newspapers, smart cell phones, and handheld devices. People live in society of access to everything via the access to web pages and information searches such as google.
So how do we combat Information Overload? The answer is we change the way the message is delivered! How do we change the message delivery system? By Chunking - that is grouping larger bodies of information into smaller, meaningful segments which has certain advantages.
This article describes flash cards in terms of transferring content to pocket-sized cards as well as access to cards by mobile phone along with making own personal mobile flash card system.
Flash cards for learning
By definition Flash Cards are fast reading, pocket sized deck of cards that enable individuals, public and private enterprises to quickly tap into the best minds on business, professional development, communications, sales and marketing and host of other important content topics in work, occupation, organisation and or business. Flash Cards change the way the message and medium is traditionally delivered to one using innovative technological mobility tools in the communication age. It provides persons or enterprises to have ready access to information or serve as a learning tool for capacity building to raise their level of competence to perform tasks.
By chunking these flash cards can provide a learning platform for content dissemination that meets the needs of institutions – individual and companies alike.
Flash card application for bringing solution to learning
Flash Cards assist knowledge workers and learners to grasp main concepts without exhausting them with extraneous details.
Key ideas and important insights are extracted from CONTENT (published books, information material etc) and placed onto pocket-sized cards with benefits of saving learning time and helping learner grasp main concepts without exhausting them with extraneous details. Flash Card application enhances the skills and capabilities of organisations to access knowledge and information easily.
Best selling books (professional, business, wealth, sales, and personal development) with approval of authors and publishers are transferred onto physical reading cards and accessed them by mobile phone/PDA platform or by computer desktop/laptop delivery with user testing capabilities.
Flash cards make it practical that content needs to be learned, retained and delivered with real time access.
Flash card specifications
Flash cards fast reading pocket sized cards are presented with font colors and on the backside of each card there are motivations and quotations, and inspiring messages.
It's packed with the actual methods, strategies and techniques needed at the workplace or study environment. It allows the users to easily pull out a different card each day to read as daily business building subject matter.
The innovative applications for Flash cards:
1. Pocket size cards printed and delivered with the capability of mobile access using PDA, desktop, laptop and mobile smart phones
2. Twenty tools for individual and/or in groups for training situation exercises within the programme
3. Library of titles (250) available depending on number 25, 100, or 250 titles.
Access to professional books enables one to quickly tap into the best minds on business, management, professional development, and communication, sales and marketing and host of other topics important in the workforce or organisation.
Each title deck contains key ideas and important insights extracted from existing book or pre set content. There is a library of over 250 books available in flash card format that can be used by trainers; incorporated into corporate and government training activities, and as an individual training tool. Each plastic card is black, red and yellow colors with face card telling the reader an important component of the book with around 28+ cards per deck.
Experts hired to develop 20 ways and exercises on how to use flash cards. Each exercise has a unique way of learning content from a book, used individually or used in organisation by grounds or instruction.
The key features and benefits of mobile applications for Flash cards
1. Portability - The ability for learners to carry flash cards with/or mobile device within a learning environment or to different learning environments with ease.
"Over 50% of all employees spend up to half of their time outside the office." Statistics from Empowering Technologies Incorporated cited by Keegan (2003)
2. Social Interactivity - Sharing and collaboration between learners.
"The role of trainer changes from transferring knowledge to individual learners to a facilitator helping learners work together in the construction of their own knowledge." (Harasim, 1990)
3. Context Sensitivity - The ability of learners to gather and respond to real or simulated data unique to the current location, environment, and time using flash card content.
"Engages learners in the learning process and provides for immediate reflection of the effect of their actions on the system as a whole." (Harasim, 1992)
4. Connectivity - Learners are always connected to a shared mobile network for the purposes of data submission, data retrieval, and communication.
Author books are now available on mobile platform with ready access on smart phones, PDA, desktop/laptop or iPOD and can be saved onto personal hard drive.
Examples of Flash card applications including mobile access
1. Education Learning - access to professional books where each deck of cards contains key ideas and important insights extracted from a best selling book that will enhance training of government and enterprise staff and trainer resources
2. Human Resource Management – mobile delivered books and content can be displayed along with types of study aides such as Checklists, Reference Tools and Self Assessments, Tests and Quizzes, Refresher Tools, In Class Pre Test Preparation, and Best Practices.
3. Communications and Training – using mobile media audio, and video with superimposing instructors on top of power point slides, documents or graphics, real live training can be reproduced and integrated into Flash cards.
4. Making own mobile flash cards
StudyCell, a company dedicated to making educational software for cell phones operates mobile flash card system which offers pre-made mobile flash card decks for studying a variety of subjects (languages, math, history, etc.), in addition to its patent pending system for creating individualised flash cards on the StudyCell Web site for download to students' cell phones. Once created, these individualised "make your own" flash cards can be shared with other students and teachers.
Flash cards can serve as a advertising or marketing tool that can be used as quick reference, reminder and reinforcement learning and operating tool or buy them for the office, co-workers – trainers and educators, and they also can be used in trade shows/exhibitions or provide clients as an important product tool as a custom message that the institution wants to deliver.
http://www.digitallearning.in/articles/article-details.asp?articleid=962&typ=Regular%20Features
Thursday, May 31, 2007
The iPod's receptionist
Well the iPod is popular and every company wants to hook up with the pod, so you have options ranging from the itrip to a DJ console which synchronises with the iPod. But as they say in advertising "wait there's more". Meet the Mavizen MobiBlu. What's so special about it you ask? It looks like a regular iPod radio remote you say. Well I agree it is all that, but it's a lot more too.
In fact, the MobiBlu is what I would call the receptionist of the iPod. It takes calls from your bluetooth 2.0 enabled cellphone and forwards it through bluetooth to your iPod, so you can listen to music and switch to a meaningless conversation with just the touch of a button. Alright, here's the skinny on the MobiBlu. The package sports a clip-on remote control, a 24 inch cord that attaches to the iPod's (4G and above) and a USB adaptor for firmware updates.
All you have to do is connect the MyBlu to your iPod, pair the two by pressing the play pause and bluetooth buttons, turn on the bluetooth option on your cellphone, enter the pass code 0000 and voila...want voice dialling and you've got it. Want a Last Number Redial Option and you've got that too. Want Pamela Anderson's cellphone number, well we don't have that yet but some other features of the myblu do merit a stare, for instance a callback option through the pod for up to 9 received calls and ofcourse instant switching from the jarring music on your iPod to the more haemmoraged variety available on FM stations.
Before we scare you with the details, let's quickly round up the good points shall we. First up, the call quality on this thing is clear. The radio doesn't disappoint with its tuneful performance either, the redial option and the voice dial option work for me, since I don't have to take my mobile out again and again.
The setup is simple and requires you to have the IQ of roughly an anthropoid to operate it. And speaking of plus sizes, this piece has got some big problems on its hand. It is not battery powered, it does suck battery from the iPod though. It's FM functions are fool-proof. It doesn't display the name of the stations. It's perfect if you Pod But the price of Rs 4,490 makes it flawed.
So, what's the verdict? Well, high marks for innovativeness and usability but not for price, especially when it's available in the US for USD 90 (Rs 3,690).
http://news.moneycontrol.com/mccode/news/article/news_article.php?autono=279638
In fact, the MobiBlu is what I would call the receptionist of the iPod. It takes calls from your bluetooth 2.0 enabled cellphone and forwards it through bluetooth to your iPod, so you can listen to music and switch to a meaningless conversation with just the touch of a button. Alright, here's the skinny on the MobiBlu. The package sports a clip-on remote control, a 24 inch cord that attaches to the iPod's (4G and above) and a USB adaptor for firmware updates.
All you have to do is connect the MyBlu to your iPod, pair the two by pressing the play pause and bluetooth buttons, turn on the bluetooth option on your cellphone, enter the pass code 0000 and voila...want voice dialling and you've got it. Want a Last Number Redial Option and you've got that too. Want Pamela Anderson's cellphone number, well we don't have that yet but some other features of the myblu do merit a stare, for instance a callback option through the pod for up to 9 received calls and ofcourse instant switching from the jarring music on your iPod to the more haemmoraged variety available on FM stations.
Before we scare you with the details, let's quickly round up the good points shall we. First up, the call quality on this thing is clear. The radio doesn't disappoint with its tuneful performance either, the redial option and the voice dial option work for me, since I don't have to take my mobile out again and again.
The setup is simple and requires you to have the IQ of roughly an anthropoid to operate it. And speaking of plus sizes, this piece has got some big problems on its hand. It is not battery powered, it does suck battery from the iPod though. It's FM functions are fool-proof. It doesn't display the name of the stations. It's perfect if you Pod But the price of Rs 4,490 makes it flawed.
So, what's the verdict? Well, high marks for innovativeness and usability but not for price, especially when it's available in the US for USD 90 (Rs 3,690).
http://news.moneycontrol.com/mccode/news/article/news_article.php?autono=279638
The Ultimate Guide to Video iPod by Ian Richardson
Well, let’s see. There are so many options squeezed into one slim, 2.5” LCD screen media center that it’s going to take a lot of time going over each one of them. So let’s do take it one at a time, shall we? This guide is going to take over all the options you’ve got and how to convert absolutely anything and everything – DVDs, TiVo video, messy AVIs, muxed MPEGs and more to iPod compatible video – all within OS X. And along the way, we’ll teach you a couple of iPod tips and tricks, too!
Handling Those Nasty Scratches
When you take your iPod out of the box, your first order of business should be to protect your investment. You don’t want any of those nasty scratches from appearing on your precious media box, do you? It’s a complete eye soar and one you can completely avoid.
The good thing about this new iPod is that its design is slightly different from that of the nano, which according to most users scratch easily. The new iPod has better chassis and doubled-layered, probably to protect the LCD monitor. But if you want to make sure that your iPod doesn’t show any scratches, most users recommend plastic cases, such as The Invisible Shield. If not, you can always get the white model, instead of the black one.
What Videos Can You Play?
Let us briefly go over the kinds of videos that your new iPod can support. According to Apple’s website, the video specifications of the new iPod are the following:
• H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec, Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.
• MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480, 30 frames per sec, Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.
For the newbies, this might all sound a little too confusing. What’s with all the numbers? Don’t worry because chances are you only need to remember a few of those for you to get the most out of your new iPod.
First, let’s start with H.264 video. The highest video bitrate with the H.264 codec is 768 kilobits per second. The biggest picture size for your H.264 movie is 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels high, which is incidentally the exact dimension of your iPod’s screen. Your iPod can play H.364 video at framerates up to 30 frames per second. Every one of the applications that we’ll be using encodes with the Baseline Profile. Your audio needs to be encoded as AAC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 KHz, and it can be in either stereo or mono. As long as you follow all the guidelines, your movie can even be a QuickTime movie or an MPEG-4 movie file.
The other option you have is the MPEG-4 video, which supports a much higher bitrate than H.264 video – 2500 kilobits per second. Using higher bitrates will also create larger files, which means that you’ll have less space for additional songs and movies, but more segments of your favorite movie. The biggest picture size for your MPEG-4 video is 480 pixels wide by 480 pixels high – three times as many pixels than your iPod’s screen in capable of displaying. Your iPod will shrink the picture proportionally so that everything fits on the screen. Again, the iPod can play videos up to 30 frames per second and your audio and file format options are the same as H.264 video.
So Which One is Better – H.264 or MPEG-4?
Well, that’s a tough question really as each format has their ups and downs. Arguably, H.264 is preferable considering how it offers high quality and a file size that is much smaller compared to MPEG-4. When it comes to picture quality, however, both formats are comparable, especially when encoded at the higher supported video settings.
As for speed of encoding, most people agree that H.264 video takes longer than standard MPEG-4. Take for example a two-hour movie. When you convert that to iPod using H.264 codec, the process could take considerably longer (especially with QuickTime Pro’s pokey Export: Movie to iPod video option).
Where to Download Videos for Your iPod
If you’re tired ripping movies from your DVD collection or you’ve used up all your movie files in your computer, then it’s probably time for you to look for other sources of iPod compatible videos. Below are some good sites that offer iPod video files that are both free and legal!
• ChannelFrederator.com – If you like to watch short animations while taking a breather, this is the place to look in.
• PodGuide.tv – It’s not called “PodGuide” for nothing.
• Channel 101 and Channel 102 – Brilliant downloadable shows are up on offer.
• The iTunes Music Store’s podcast section – One of the best things about the new iPod is that Apple has bundled it with their updates on iTunes. Now, you can download loads of free videos from the store for your daily dose of iPod-casting.
• Apple iTunes – Sometimes you just have to go to the source of the source to find what you’re looking for.
• Archive.org – This site is great for old videos and movies.
Watch iPod Videos on Your TV
Say what?! Yep, it’s true. And for some users who prefer widescreen as opposed to pocket-TV, this is the best thing about the new iPod. Now, outputting your iPod videos to any TV is easy. Just use a special video cable (and it doesn’t even be the one sold by Apple), output it through your iPod’s headphone jack, and voila! You’re a couch potato, baby!
If you’re more interested in watching videos on your TV, you may want to go with the MPEG-4 format since it can support the bigger 480 x 480 picture size. When you encode widescreen movies and output them to a TV, the pixel limit is usually 230,400 pixels. So when these larger images are displayed on your TV, you’ll get to see all those extra pixels.
Okay So You Can Watch Videos on TV, Big Deal…What About My Other Videos?
When you download video files from the web or file sharing networks, some of these files may not be marked as iPod compatible. Does that mean you can’t play them on your iPod? Well, the good news is that it’s easy enough to find out.
Tip #1 – Open iTunes
The easiest and less time-consuming way to determine whether a video is iPod-supported or not is to simply open iTunes with your iPod connected. Afterwards, drop the video file directly into your iPod’s library. If the video is copied into your iPod, it means it’s compatible. If it’s not, then your iPod won’t be able to play it.
To copy the video to your iPod, just select Manually manage songs and playlists in the iPod tab of your iTunes preferences.
Tip #2 – Add Video to the iTunes Library
The other way of finding out if your video files are iPod compatible is to add your video to your iTunes library. Just right lick the video and select Convert Selection to iPod. You will receive an alert from iTunes on your screen, telling you if your video is already compatible. If it’s not, your movie will be converted to a compatible H.264 video for you.
We should probably mention that you don’t really need to add videos to your iTunes Library in order to add them to your iPod. Just drag and drop videos from the Finder straight onto your iPod in iTunes. Again, make sure you’ve enabled the manually manage option.
You can also add songs and videos to your iPod’s library from any computer that has iTunes. Just make sure that you’ve enabled the manually manage option in iTunes. If your iPod was originally formatted on a PC, you can add files from both PCs and Macs. However, if you have a Mac-formatted iPod, you’ll only be able to add files from other Macs.
Tip #3 – Open the file in QuickTime
Alternatively, you can also find out if your video is iPod compatible if you open the file in QuickTime. Next, Select Window: Show Movie Info. In most cases, your video should be iPod-ready if the format is H.264 or MPEG-4, the audio is ACC, and the size of your video is 320 x 240 (or smaller) for H.264 or 480 x 480 (or smaller) for MPEG-4. Also, look at the data rate and make sure it’s not over 900 kbits/sec for H.264 or 2600 kbits/sec for MPEG-4.
In most cases, the bitrate reported by QuickTime would include the video stream and the audio stream (normally 128 kbits/sec) so don’t wonder if the video is shown to have a higher bitrate.
I have a lot more information available at me website, be sure to click by and have a look.
Thanks for reading and I hope you find this information useful.
http://articles.sakshay.in/Article/14629.html
Handling Those Nasty Scratches
When you take your iPod out of the box, your first order of business should be to protect your investment. You don’t want any of those nasty scratches from appearing on your precious media box, do you? It’s a complete eye soar and one you can completely avoid.
The good thing about this new iPod is that its design is slightly different from that of the nano, which according to most users scratch easily. The new iPod has better chassis and doubled-layered, probably to protect the LCD monitor. But if you want to make sure that your iPod doesn’t show any scratches, most users recommend plastic cases, such as The Invisible Shield. If not, you can always get the white model, instead of the black one.
What Videos Can You Play?
Let us briefly go over the kinds of videos that your new iPod can support. According to Apple’s website, the video specifications of the new iPod are the following:
• H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec, Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.
• MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480, 30 frames per sec, Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.
For the newbies, this might all sound a little too confusing. What’s with all the numbers? Don’t worry because chances are you only need to remember a few of those for you to get the most out of your new iPod.
First, let’s start with H.264 video. The highest video bitrate with the H.264 codec is 768 kilobits per second. The biggest picture size for your H.264 movie is 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels high, which is incidentally the exact dimension of your iPod’s screen. Your iPod can play H.364 video at framerates up to 30 frames per second. Every one of the applications that we’ll be using encodes with the Baseline Profile. Your audio needs to be encoded as AAC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 KHz, and it can be in either stereo or mono. As long as you follow all the guidelines, your movie can even be a QuickTime movie or an MPEG-4 movie file.
The other option you have is the MPEG-4 video, which supports a much higher bitrate than H.264 video – 2500 kilobits per second. Using higher bitrates will also create larger files, which means that you’ll have less space for additional songs and movies, but more segments of your favorite movie. The biggest picture size for your MPEG-4 video is 480 pixels wide by 480 pixels high – three times as many pixels than your iPod’s screen in capable of displaying. Your iPod will shrink the picture proportionally so that everything fits on the screen. Again, the iPod can play videos up to 30 frames per second and your audio and file format options are the same as H.264 video.
So Which One is Better – H.264 or MPEG-4?
Well, that’s a tough question really as each format has their ups and downs. Arguably, H.264 is preferable considering how it offers high quality and a file size that is much smaller compared to MPEG-4. When it comes to picture quality, however, both formats are comparable, especially when encoded at the higher supported video settings.
As for speed of encoding, most people agree that H.264 video takes longer than standard MPEG-4. Take for example a two-hour movie. When you convert that to iPod using H.264 codec, the process could take considerably longer (especially with QuickTime Pro’s pokey Export: Movie to iPod video option).
Where to Download Videos for Your iPod
If you’re tired ripping movies from your DVD collection or you’ve used up all your movie files in your computer, then it’s probably time for you to look for other sources of iPod compatible videos. Below are some good sites that offer iPod video files that are both free and legal!
• ChannelFrederator.com – If you like to watch short animations while taking a breather, this is the place to look in.
• PodGuide.tv – It’s not called “PodGuide” for nothing.
• Channel 101 and Channel 102 – Brilliant downloadable shows are up on offer.
• The iTunes Music Store’s podcast section – One of the best things about the new iPod is that Apple has bundled it with their updates on iTunes. Now, you can download loads of free videos from the store for your daily dose of iPod-casting.
• Apple iTunes – Sometimes you just have to go to the source of the source to find what you’re looking for.
• Archive.org – This site is great for old videos and movies.
Watch iPod Videos on Your TV
Say what?! Yep, it’s true. And for some users who prefer widescreen as opposed to pocket-TV, this is the best thing about the new iPod. Now, outputting your iPod videos to any TV is easy. Just use a special video cable (and it doesn’t even be the one sold by Apple), output it through your iPod’s headphone jack, and voila! You’re a couch potato, baby!
If you’re more interested in watching videos on your TV, you may want to go with the MPEG-4 format since it can support the bigger 480 x 480 picture size. When you encode widescreen movies and output them to a TV, the pixel limit is usually 230,400 pixels. So when these larger images are displayed on your TV, you’ll get to see all those extra pixels.
Okay So You Can Watch Videos on TV, Big Deal…What About My Other Videos?
When you download video files from the web or file sharing networks, some of these files may not be marked as iPod compatible. Does that mean you can’t play them on your iPod? Well, the good news is that it’s easy enough to find out.
Tip #1 – Open iTunes
The easiest and less time-consuming way to determine whether a video is iPod-supported or not is to simply open iTunes with your iPod connected. Afterwards, drop the video file directly into your iPod’s library. If the video is copied into your iPod, it means it’s compatible. If it’s not, then your iPod won’t be able to play it.
To copy the video to your iPod, just select Manually manage songs and playlists in the iPod tab of your iTunes preferences.
Tip #2 – Add Video to the iTunes Library
The other way of finding out if your video files are iPod compatible is to add your video to your iTunes library. Just right lick the video and select Convert Selection to iPod. You will receive an alert from iTunes on your screen, telling you if your video is already compatible. If it’s not, your movie will be converted to a compatible H.264 video for you.
We should probably mention that you don’t really need to add videos to your iTunes Library in order to add them to your iPod. Just drag and drop videos from the Finder straight onto your iPod in iTunes. Again, make sure you’ve enabled the manually manage option.
You can also add songs and videos to your iPod’s library from any computer that has iTunes. Just make sure that you’ve enabled the manually manage option in iTunes. If your iPod was originally formatted on a PC, you can add files from both PCs and Macs. However, if you have a Mac-formatted iPod, you’ll only be able to add files from other Macs.
Tip #3 – Open the file in QuickTime
Alternatively, you can also find out if your video is iPod compatible if you open the file in QuickTime. Next, Select Window: Show Movie Info. In most cases, your video should be iPod-ready if the format is H.264 or MPEG-4, the audio is ACC, and the size of your video is 320 x 240 (or smaller) for H.264 or 480 x 480 (or smaller) for MPEG-4. Also, look at the data rate and make sure it’s not over 900 kbits/sec for H.264 or 2600 kbits/sec for MPEG-4.
In most cases, the bitrate reported by QuickTime would include the video stream and the audio stream (normally 128 kbits/sec) so don’t wonder if the video is shown to have a higher bitrate.
I have a lot more information available at me website, be sure to click by and have a look.
Thanks for reading and I hope you find this information useful.
http://articles.sakshay.in/Article/14629.html
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