Digital Student IDs Are Here

It was just a matter of time before colleges and universities started offering students the choice of digital identification cards. Apple is taking a big step to move the process forward, rolling out a digital student ID initiative to begin in the fall at Duke University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Oklahoma, and at Johns Hopkins University, Santa Clara University, and Temple University by the end of the calendar year.

The ID cards will use the same near-field communications chip used for Apple Pay and will be available on newer iPhones and the Apple Watch. Phil Hill, an edtech consultant and blogger, views digital student IDs as a way for schools to better serve their students and for Apple to sell more watches.

“The bigger play here for Apple is about the watch, with the iPhone thrown in as a backwards compatibility and ensuring a usable program for students who have far more iPhones than watches,” Hill told EdSurge.

Some worry the initiative might be seen as discriminatory since students who don’t have an Apple device won’t be able to participate. Colleges and universities will also need to create guidelines for tracking the information the IDs will collect on students.

“This fits into [the] overall trend of ‘Trojan Horse’ technology that is designed for one purpose, but has data collection as part of its platform,” said Avi Chelsa, founder and CEO of empow cybersecurity. “Universities are becoming more and more data-driven, using data to track behaviors and derive insights in the same way that hotels, airports, and other institutions are.”

Apple Has Big Plans for New AI Chip

While Siri gave Apple an early lead in voice-recognition technology, the competition answered with artificial intelligence (AI) devices, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home. Reports now suggest that Apple is working on a new AI-enabled processor of its own.

“Two of the areas that Apple is betting its future on require AI,” said Gene Munster, former Apple analyst and co-founder of the venture-capital firm Loup Ventures. “At the core of augmented reality and self-driving cars is artificial intelligence.”

The new chip will be a dedicated module designed to control AI functions while providing battery performance, according to a Bloomberg report. Currently, Apple products use their main processor and graphics chips to handle AI processes.

The new AI chip is reportedly designed to handle functions such as facial recognition in the photos application, some speech recognition, and the iPhone’s predictive keyboard. Developers will also have access to the chip to develop apps that can handle AI-related tasks.

Apple has been designing in-house processors since it created the A4 chip in 2010 for the iPhone and iPad. It has also released dedicated processors for the Apple Watch, the wireless component for its AirPods, and the fingerprint scanner for its MacBook Pro.

The new AI chip has been tested in prototypes of the iPhone, but there’s no word that it will be included in the next generation of the device. Apple will introduce the iOS 11 operating system for iPhones and iPads at its annual developers conference later this month, as well as discuss its updates to laptops, which include faster processing chips.

Apple Joins Partnership on AI

Apple has joined the Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society as a founding member, taking its place alongside Amazon, Facebook, Google/DeepMind, IBM, and Microsoft. The nonprofit organization, established last fall, is working to advance public understanding of artificial intelligence (AI), develop best practices to deal with the challenges and opportunities presented by the technology, and conduct and openly publish research on it.

Education is one of the major sectors that will feel the impact of advances in artificial intelligence, according to a report released by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy last October. “An AI-enabled world demands a data-literate citizenry that is able to read, use, interpret, and communicate about data, and participate in policy debates about matters affected by AI,” it said.

A New Look for the Apple Store

The College Store of 2015 Report, a study funded by the NACS Foundation and released in 2010, used the Apple Store as an example for college stores to emulate. Now, the Apple Store is reinventing itself.

“This is one of the new store designs we’re starting to roll out in America,” Angela Ahrendts, senior vice president for retail and online stores, said at the opening of a new concept store in Indianapolis, IN. “We have been intentionally reinvesting in the fleet in America because we had about half of our stores that were opened before the iPhone launched in ’07. We needed to make them larger and more customer-friendly.”

Apple wants its new store to be more like a town square with designated areas for phones and accessories, watches, computers, and repairs. In fact, the Genius Bar in the Indy store has been replaced by the Genius Grove, a section behind a large video screen that allows customers to get service on their devices without being out on the shopping floor.

The new concept also calls for staffers who are expert in the fields of photography, music, and gaming to provide customers with more information on using their new purchases. Taking a page straight out the college store playbook, Apple set aside space, called Today at Apple, to host artist events and other creative opportunities.

“A lot of people who have our products may not come into the store,” Ahrendts said. “Now, they see the avenues in the store, the changes monthly that are happening, and there’s always something new to discover. The plan is to increase traffic dramatically.”

Apple Teaching Coding with an App

Teaching students how to write computer code is almost as common at the three R’s. Coding camps have become big business and the Florida Senate approved a bill that would declare computer coding a requirement for graduation.

Now, Apple has is making a splash with its Everyone Can Code curriculum, a free coding app it introduced during the launch of the iPhone 7 in early September. The program, aimed at middle-school students, uses Swift Playgrounds software that allows students to write code to guide characters through a graphical world, solve puzzles, and master challenges using the Swift programming language.

“When you learn to code with Swift Playgrounds, you are learning the same language used by professional developers,” Brian Croll, Apple vice president of product marketing, said in an article for The New York Times. “It’s easy to take the next step and learn to write a real app.”

The Apple coding app requires an iPad tablet to operate but is free to download. The app is so simple anyone could use it to teach themselves to code at home, according to Croll.

Tablet Sales Are Falling Flat

On the sixth anniversary of the Apple iPad’s debut, it appears that the tablet revolution predicted has fallen well short of expectations. In 2011, there were estimates that annual tablet shipments would be more than 300 million units by 2015.

Apple has sold more than 300 million iPads, but it’s taken six years to reach that mark. In fact, market research from International Data Corp. (IDC) shows that Apple only sold 50 million of the estimated 207 million units it shipped in 2015.

Bigger smartphones have proven to be a competitor with tablets. More than one billion of the devices were sold last year, many with large enough screens to make the purchase of a tablet unnecessary. In addition, consumers have shown they aren’t as willing to upgrade their tablet devices as often as their smartphones.

“I fit that demographic exactly: I bought an iPad Air in late 2013 that I still use daily and don’t anticipate an upgrade this year,” Arik Hesseldahl wrote in an article for re/code. “I will, however, probably upgrade my iPhone. I bought my last Mac in 2011.”

The other challenge for tablet computers is the popularity of detachables—tablets that are essentially a laptop with a removable touchscreen. One out of every five tables sold in Europe in the fourth quarter of 2015 was a detachable device.

“Detachables are proving so popular that IDC reckons by 2020 they’ll account for about one-fifth of the entire market for what it calls ‘client computing devices,’ which includes both tablets and PCs,” Hesseldahl said. “It may not amount to the radical revolution that the overly eager analysts of 2011 had called for, but it will do.”

Apple Climbs Aboard VR Bandwagon

Apple hasn’t yet been a player in the expanding world of virtual reality, but that could be about to change with the addition of Doug Bowman to its staff.

Bowman’s last job was as a computer science professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, and director of its Center for Human-Computer Interaction. He’s also the main author of 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice, considered one of the most important textbooks on 3-D interface technology. He recently received a $100,000 research grant from Microsoft to analyze the uses of the Microsoft Hololens VR headset.

With virtual reality about to become a $5 billion industry, according to Newsweek, it’s hard to ignore. Besides, investors are nervous about Apple and the slowing pace of iPhone sales.

“But with Bowman coming on board recently, according to the Financial Times, Apple may just be saying it’s ready to make virtual reality an actual reality in its product lines,” said tech writer Rex Crum in an article for SiliconBeat.

Apple Working on LiFi Technology

Improvements in technology seem to travel at light speed. Soon, that could be literally true.

A report in Computerworld suggests Apple is considering supporting LiFI transmission, a superfast wireless transmission technology that uses light to send data. The technology is not seen as a replacement for the popular wireless networking technology known as WiFi, but as a companion technology designed for home networks.

LiFi is similar to optical cable transmission, except scientists haven’t figured out how to create accurate light transmissions without using cable, at least not yet. Researchers predict that LiFI speeds could eventually reach 110 gigabytes per second faster than WiFi.

“A LiFi network can be programmed to achieve specific tasks, such as guiding a Yamaha home robot to its bed before turning off the light. The network can also track and localize moving objects/persons indoors, outdoors, and from indoors to outdoors,” according to the LiFi Centre.

AppleInsider already reported that the company began mentioning LiFi capability with the iOS 9.1 operating system’s library cache file. LiFi technology is beginning to reach markets, but the Computerworld report predicted that any deployment by Apple is still 24-48 months away.

Apple Updates Its Education Platform

The Google Chromebook has become the tech tool of choice for many K-12 schools, but Apple isn’t going to let the business just walk away without a fight. The computer company is revamping its iOS education platform that allows student sharing of a single device.

“Apple is clearly gunning for Chromebooks,” Eric Zeman wrote in a post for InformationWeek. “The iPad maker would prefer to see students using its tablet instead of Google’s inexpensive laptops.”

Using the new Apple platform, students will be able to log into any school-issued iPad with their Apple ID and find their individual apps, books, and documents on the device. The Shared iPad feature uses a photo login system so students find their assigned iPads. There’s also a PIN system to make it easier for younger children to log on.

The new iOS 9.3 upgrade lets teachers launch and close apps remotely. The Screen View feature allows teachers to view what’s on a student’s iPad at any time and provides locks to keep students on task, according to a report in MacRumors.

“Apple’s strategy means to make tablets more flexible in the classroom, both for teachers and their students,” Igor Bonifacic wrote in a tech blog for MobileSyrup. “With iPad sales stalling over the last two years, this could be a way to spur sales, especially of older, less expensive models.”

Fitbit, Apple Top Wearables Market

Wearable technology continues to grow as a product category, according to a new report from International Data Corp. (IDC). Worldwide shipments increased 197.6%, to 21 million units, in the third quarter of 2015 compared to the same quarter of 2014.

Fitbit is the undisputed leader, with a 22% share of the market. Apple is second with a 18.6% share, thanks to sales of the Apple Watch, according to IDC. Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi finished third ahead of GPS-maker Garmin.

Samsung’s share of the market slipped to sixth behind Chinese vendor XTC, because of a late start in shipping its Gear S2. The “others” category of manufacturers represented a 34.6% share of the worldwide wearables market.

“It’s still anyone’s game at this point,” Ramon Llamas, research manager for wearables and mobile phones at IDC, said in a report for InformationWeek. “The fact that two Chinese vendors can play catch-up rather quickly is perhaps indicative of other companies doing the same. Until that happens, expect the popular brands to have a spot—Fitbit and Apple most ostensibly.”

Support for Apple in Antitrust Fight

Apple hasn’t had much success convincing federal judges that there was no antitrust violation when it came up with the agency pricing model for e-books with five major publishers. While the publishers decided to settle instead of taking on the government, Apple fought and has lost at practically every turn.

With the case now before the U.S. Supreme Court, the American Booksellers Association, Barnes & Noble, Authors United, and the Authors Guild have chimed in on Apple’s behalf, asking the court to review the case in a friend-of-the-court brief. The document contends that instead of stifling competition, Apple’s entry into the market increased competition.

The brief lays much of the blame on Amazon for the anticompetitive atmosphere that existed before Apple got into the game. It also points to the 2014 dispute between Amazon and Hachette over e-book pricing as an example of punitive measures taken by Amazon against a publisher, according to a report in Shelf Awareness.

“We authors feel strongly that diversity, competition, and the free flow of ideas are key to a healthy marketplace of books,” Douglas Preston, founder of Authors United, wrote in the friend-of-the-court brief. “The numbers unequivocally show that Apple’s entry into the e-book market increased competition and gave authors and publishers greater choice in how content was delivered to the reading public.”

Apple Watch Looks Like a Hit

Apple could have another big seller on its hands. The computer giant hasn’t revealed sales figures for its Apple Watch, but the marketing research firm Canalys reported that Apple shipped more of the devices in the last 15 months than all other vendors combined.

Canalys found that Apple shipped nearly seven million Apple Watches since its debut in late April. The firm also suggested that supply problems at the launch kept shipment numbers down.

“After experiencing significant supply-chain constraints early on, Apple managed to overcome its production struggles with the Apple Watch and is building momentum going into the fourth quarter,” an analyst at Canalys said. “Shipments are steadily increasing as it has greatly expanded the watch’s channel footprint internationally.”

Canalys reported that Pebble shipped 200,000 units during the third quarter. During the same time period, Apple shipped more than 300,000 units and was the only smartwatch maker to do so.

Should Apple Buy a University?

Rumor has it that the next big thing from Apple could be an electric car. Economist Alex Tabarrok would rather see the computer giant sink its cash into a university.

To Tabarrok, an Apple University could serve as the proving ground for educational technologies. He envisions an institution of higher education that could become a leader in online technologies, artificial-intelligence tutors, and virtual-reality experimentation.

In addition, Apple’s worldwide reputation would help attract the best students, which would create a greater demand for Apple educational products. The firm has already started the process with iTunes U and training courses in business and design, according to Tabarrok.

“More than a century ago, Stanford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller used their industrial-age fortunes to build some of our best universities,” Tabarrok wrote in Marginal Revolution. “Isn’t it time for another great university built for the information age?”

Apple Loses Patent Suit to UW

Apple’s losing streak in court continued as a jury in U.S. District Court found the company infringed on a 1998 patent held by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, when it used certain processors in the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and some iPads. InformationWeek reported that Apple has been ordered to pay $234 million in damages.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which filed the suit, was asking for $400 million. The foundation filed a second lawsuit in September, claiming Apple’s new A9 and A9X processors used in the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus and the iPad Pro also infringe on its patents.

Apple claimed the patent was invalid, but the jury in the Madison District Court disagreed. The research foundation also said it had offered the license to Apple for a fee.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the plaintiff made an aggressive push for willfulness enhancements,” Florian Mueller, an expert in patent-infringement lawsuits, told Forbes. “But in the past, damages awards of this proportion have typically been reduced on appeal.”

The university filed the patent for technology that enhanced the efficiency of computer processors in 1998. When the research foundation, which handles licensing of technology invented by university researchers, sued Intel for infringing on the same patent, it ended up with a $110 million lump-sum settlement.

Apple Loses Fight Over Antitrust Monitor

Apple continued its losing streak against the federal government when an appeals court rejected the company’s bid to have Michael Bromwich disqualified as the compliance monitor in its antitrust case.

While the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York noted concerns about some of the allegations against Bromwich, it ruled that District Judge Denise Cote had the right to appoint him to the job. Cote selected Bromwich after deciding that Apple conspired with five major publishers to fix the prices of e-books in 2013.

Apple is appealing the entire decision, but went after Bromwich for being too aggressive in demanding interviews with executives and for charging fees of $1,100 per hour. Bromwich countered that Apple refused to provide him access and adopted an adversarial tone when dealing with him.

“The company largely sat on its hands, allowing issues with the monitor to fester and the relationship to deteriorate,” Judge Jesse Furman wrote about Apple. 

Apple Watch Hits the Ground Running

Reviews of the new Apple Watch have been mixed, but that isn’t stopping people from placing orders. The device became available for preorder on April 10 and it took only hours for the ship dates to be pushed back from April 24 to July because of heavy demand at the online Apple Store.

The financial services firm Cowen & Co. estimated that worldwide preorders for the watch reached one million units during the first weekend of sales, according to a report in CNET. Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray agreed with the one-million preorder mark for Marketwatch and KeyBanc Capital Markets lowered its earning estimates for traditional watchmakers Fossil and Movado because of the Apple numbers.

“After trying on the Apple Watch, visiting stores, and based on our fieldwork, we are now more convinced that the Apple Watch will be disruptive to the fashion-watch market,” KeyBanc analysts told investors. “At a minimum, the widespread buzz may cause something of a standstill in the watch market.”

A majority of the buyers ordered the least expensive version of the Apple Watch, according to a report in InformationWeek. Slice Intelligence estimated there were more than 950,000 orders for the device in the United States alone, and that the average buyer spent about $500 for each device. 

Apple Not Worried about iPad Sales

The iPhone 6 produced record sales for Apple during the fiscal quarter that ended Dec. 27. The iPad failed to impress, however, with unit shipments falling by around 4.5 million in 2014 over the total shipped in 2013.

At the same time, Apple still sold more than 21 million iPads in the quarter and first-time-buyer rates remained strong. Apple CEO Tim Cook reported at a recent press event that about 50% of iPad buyers in the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom were first-time customers, adding that rate is more than 70% in China.

Cook also noted that user rates are six times higher for iPads than its nearest competitor. He said iPad usage, measured in web browsing, is more than 70%, while 80% of e-commerce on tablets is being done on iPads.

In addition, no other tablet-maker can claim it shipped more tablets than Apple during the holiday season. The company also sold nearly four times more iPads than Mac desktop computers in the most recent quarter, according to a report in InformationWeek.

Apple tops Christmas Tech Gift List

College students told a Chegg survey they wanted electronic devices for Christmas and most said they preferred an Apple product. The mobile analytics firm Flurry found they most likely got what they wished for.

Flurry looked at activation statistics from Dec. 19-25 and found more people fired up an iPhone, iPad, or a new iPod than all other devices combined. Apple accounted for 51% of the new activations, with Samsung coming in a distant second with about 18% during the six-day stretch.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus probably helped spur the Apple dominance, according to Flurry, which reported a more than 300% increase in new activations of large-screen smartphones during Christmas week over the same period in 2013. The iPhone 6 topped the list of new devices activated and the iPhone 6 Plus was in the top five.

Flurry also found there were 2.5 times as many apps downloaded on Christmas day than in any December day leading up to the holiday. Apple iTunes and App Stores, along with the Google Play Store, were slow to respond during the Christmas-day rush because of the heavy volume.

“If Christmas is a bellwether for the year ahead, we should expect strong performance from iOS devices and a continued shift to the once-derided phablet form factor,” wrote Jarah Euston, vice president, analytics and marketing, at Flurry. “This was the year that time spent on mobile finally eclipsed TV and the data shows that we are spending this time in more apps than ever.”

Students Wanted Apple Gifts for Christmas

Most college students wanted cash or clothing for Christmas, but electronics were not far behind. Chegg, the online textbook rental company, polled more than 800 college students in the middle of December and found that 52% were asking for electronics, including 67% of the male respondents.

Apple topped the list of desired gadgets in most categories. More than half (51%) of the students said they wanted a new iPhone and nearly 40% wanted a Mac laptop. Beats, which was recently acquired by Apple, was the headphone of choice for 46% of the students.

Girls were more enamored with Apple than male respondents. Nearly 60% said they wanted to find an iPhone under the tree and 55% wanted Beats headphones compared to 44% of the males who wanted an iPhone and 33% for Beats. Nearly 30% of all respondents listed a Samsung smartphone and 30% of the male students preferred Bose headphones.

When it comes to tablet computers, 47% of the female students and 41% of the male wanted an iPad while Microsoft products came in second (22% of the females and 24% of the males).

Is Apple Getting into E-Book Subscriptions?

The e-book subscription-service bandwagon is starting to get pretty crowded. Oyster and Scribd keep growing and Amazon recently launched its Kindle Unlimited program, which provides assess to around 600,000 e-titles for $9.95 a month.

Now, Apple may be angling to get into the game, according to Andrew Rhomberg, founder of the start-up Jellybooks, which is focused on sampling and sharing e-books. Rhomberg predicted in a Digital Book World article that Apple’s purchase of the e-book recommendation service BookLamp earlier this year could have the company launching a subscription service before the end of the year.

Subscription services must find ways to keep customers paying the monthly fee, and recommendations put interesting things to listen, watch, or read in front of subscribers. It’s sometimes less about the bestsellers and more about providing subscribers with the titles in which they are most likely interested, which is where the algorithms used by the recommendation services come into play.

“Serving up relevant recommendations (and sometimes that means genre fiction rather than literary fiction) is critical to keeping subscribers engaged,” Rhomberg wrote. “Thus the acquisition of BookLamp by Apple could possibly herald Apple’s entry into e-book subscription services.”