"Tablets are not for everyone. Most people are perfectly capable of making it through the day checking email, reading, and watching videos on their smartphone until they can make it home to their laptop. That being said, tablets were sent from on high for student life. They're cheaper and easier to transport than laptops, yet they're more substantial and full-featured than smartphones."
A growing chorus of voices argue that the internet is making us dumber. Web-connected laptops, smartphones and videogame consoles have all been cast as distracting brain mushers. But there's reason to believe some of the newest devices might not erode our minds. In fact, some scientists think they could even make us smarter.
Could the cleaner and more modern interfaces that we see on iPads, iPhones and Android smartphones better suit the way our minds were meant to work?
"
iPad now 97% of tablet traffic, eclipses iPhone, iOS remains mobile leader
By Daniel Eran Dilger
Published: 04:27 PM EST (01:27 PM PST)
A new market research report notes that mobile devices now amount to almost 7 percent of all US web traffic, with Apple's iOS representing a 58.5 percent slice of all mobile traffic and the iPad now accounting for more traffic than iPhones.
The growth of mobile devices has claimed a 6.8 percent chunk of US web traffic from conventional PCs, according to a new report by comScore.
Of that segment, about two thirds of the traffic is from mobile phones and a remaining third is being generated by tablet users. The group notes that Apple's iPad now accounts for 97.2 percent of all tablet-originating web traffic, driving home the reality that competitors have not yet released a significant tablet competitor.
Among iOS users, iPad now accounts for 46.8 percent of all traffic generated, making it now a more prolific tool than the iPhone for mobile web use, which represents 42.6 percent of iOS traffic.
An increasingly important market segment
The firm also outlined why the growth of tablet traffic is significant, noting that almost half of tablet owners have completed purchases using their tablet.
"Tablet owners exhibited significant use of their devices throughout the entire online shopping process," comScore reported, "from doing the initial planning, conducting product and store research, making price comparisons, to finally transacting. In the past month, more than half of tablet owners looked up product or price information for a specific store (56 percent) and read customer ratings and reviews while on a tablet (54 percent)."
The group added, "the incremental reach through mobile and connected devices should not be underestimated," pointing out that, "in August 2011, the additional mobile and connected device audience for Pandora accounted for more than half of their total cross-platform audience."
Who rules the mobile wor
"Chad Criswell, author of the MusicEdMagic blog, as well as the contributing author/tech editor for several music education magazines, including Teaching Music, has written an excellent column on apps for Music Education which appears in the October 2012 edition of the magazine. It is going to be a great starting point-with 23 listed apps-for music educators getting into the iPad for the first time."
"RapidReading is a smartphone application for iOS devices. This free app is sized at nearly 10 MB and is compatible with iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad devices running version 4.0 or later of iOS. The app basically provides you with reading exercises that you will need to spend 10 minutes on every day. Using the app you can double, or even quadruple your reading speed. The reading drills all provide step by step instructions to properly guide and help you."
"Lets face it, math is not the most intriguing or intuitive subject. For this reason, many students find learning math a real drag! As a math tutor in NYC that deals with children of all ages, I am constantly looking for fun, new ways to teach my students. Since many of them have access to an iPhone or iPad (or both), I recommend that they use their devices as an educational tool. Believe it or not, your smartphone or tablet can be a great learning resource."