There’s a whole new wave of gadgets right around the corner that you might not have even known you needed—until now, of course. Meet the ultrabook, a class of super-slim, considerably powerful notebook computers that are cut from the same cloth as Apple’s MacBook Air, Y! Tech reports. “Ultrabook” might not be a word you’ve heard before, but the idea is meant to inspire a category of laptop that is nearly as mobile as a tablet, but that doesn’t sacrifice power for portability — the ultimate pitfall of the netbook. Ultrabooks are on the way, but choosing between them won’t be easy. Assuming you don’t take the Mac route and opt for Apple’s own offering, the members of this tidal wave of featherweight computers running Windows will share most of their features in common by definition. In fact, the term “ultrabook” is a trademarked term, owned by Intel. To qualify as an ultrabook, a notebook computer should hover around the $1,000 mark, be no more than .8″ thick, weigh less than 3.1 lb., and boast a respectable battery life and an efficient solid-state drive (SSD) rather than a traditional mechanical harddrive…
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eTextbooks: Never mind iPad and eReaders, PCs still dominant
There are many benefits to students accessing their textbooks electronically, such as shared highlights and search capabilities. Surprisingly, though, it’s not the iPad and other eReaders that are driving the eTextbook market, but PCs and netbooks, ReadWriteWeb reports. The iPhone and Android are making some inroads in the digital textbook market, however. Isabella Hinds is director of digital content at Follett Higher Education Group, which runs more than 800 college bookstores in the U.S. It also owns a digital textbook program called CafeScribe, used by more than 400 education institutions. Hinds said CafeScribe is mostly used on PCs, Macs, and netbooks. She cited pricing issues for the iPad (students can’t afford them) and the relative lack of functionality in current eReaders. Specifically, she cited color, pagination, and illustration as features that the current crop of eReaders don’t do well enough for the eTextbook market. A study in May by OnCampus Research showed that 74 percent of students still prefer to use a printed textbook when taking a class…
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