XplanaZine

First, here’s our take on news that matters for Friday, October 21. Today, we take a look at interesting news of the present and future.

• The Japanese auto show often holds interesting glimpses into the future of what’s on the horizon. If this year’s show is any indication, it looks like we’ll be driving 1-seater cars and really cool dog-catcher-mobiles.
• Of course, Google is having such a good time in the present that they really don’t care about what happens tomorrow. With revenues up 96%, Google blew away analysts predictions again and is guaranteed to remain the technology darling for at least another quarter. Who cares about getting sued by publishers? In another year they’ll just buy them all off.
• Microsoft, on the other hand, has more than Google to worry about. Even its venerable Office suite is coming under increasing fire from competition. This week’s celebration ofOpenOffice 2.0 is giving many users good reasons to switch. On the other hand, we’re not really feeling sorry for Bill gates are we?
• Adobe is taking a page right out of Microsoft’s original book, however. Just as Microsoft bet on software over hardware in the early 80’s, Adobe is doing the same thing with the mobile industry. In addition to purchasing Macromedia to get its Flash software, Adobe is now gearing up to make Flash the killer app for all phones. This week it is buying Mobile Innovation, a phone design company responsible for many of the most popular handsets on the market.
• And, from the “let’s stretch for a conclusion” file, let’s point to this article asking if children are less violent because of gaming? The FBI has released its 2004 data for crime in the United States, and violent crimes are down. Now, everybody who has been under attack for causing an increase in violence can suddenly claim that they are actually helping lower the crime rate. Government employees are exempt, of course.
• By the way, it’s not just the addiction and the loss of valuable family time — handheld e-mailing can lead to actual physical distress! Repetitive motion injuries, which have long afflicted desktop and laptop computer users, are invading the mobile handheld world. There’s even an informal name for the malady — “BlackBerry Thumb” — a catch-all phrase that describes a repetitive stress injury of the thumb as a result of overusing small gadget keypads.
• Finally, pretty soon, men may be recruited and treated like minorities by colleges across America. A just-out study shows that women make up 57% of college enrollees and the gap is widening. Come on, brother! Quit playing tot he stereotype.

Now, here’s a recap of our favorite posts from the edublogging community from the past 48 hours.

• From Anne Davis : Post on the validity of the Wikipedia process for delivering valuable and usable information.
• From George Siemens : Post on Connectivism and Web 2.0.
• From Will Richardson : Post on push vs. pull education.
• From Ben Vershbow: Post on lawsuits against Google Print and what the service represents for the future.