Amazon Announces the Kindle Fire for $199

Wow! Amazon announced today that they will be shipping on November 15th the Kindle Fire with a 7 inch color multi-touch screen for $199 dollars. With all the speculation it looks like they delivered on their promise of a highly functional reader complete with access to the web, ebooks, apps, music, and streaming video. At $199 dollars  they will carve out a niche for those consumers who were waiting on the sideline to jump into purchasing a tablet of their own. The Kindle Fire will be powered by a dual core processor and host a multi-touch screen (7" multi-touch display with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and anti-reflective treatment, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors) and come standard with Wi-Fi and a USB 2.0 Micro-B connector along with a the built-in Amazon Silk browser for fast web surfacing. The Kindle Fire is reported to be able to run for 8 hours on a full charge and can be charged with the wall AC Adapter or via a USB connection to a computer. The Kindle Fire will ship with has a native email client that can support Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL etc. Of course you will have access to the entire Amazon collection of music, videos, apps, and music which you can purchase for their store. This looks like the Amazon Kindle Fire will hit that sweet spot for a powerful but easy to use device that can serve as portable  tool when we are away from our desks. For now the Kindle Fire only support Wi-Fi,  but I would imagine if it is a success in the marketplace that we will see a 3G version as well. From the likes of it, it doesn't look like the Kindle Fire supports Bluetooth- but I will have to delve into that a little more. Amazon has put on their boxing gloves and looks to be in for the long haul as they position the Kindle Fire as an  alternative to Apple's iPad. At a price point of $199 dollars the Kindle Fire is sure to be a winner for consumers. The Kindle Fire can be pre-ordered now from Amazon for a mid November delivery.

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Magic Whiteboard Now Available from AssistiveTek!

It is easy to capture our students' imagination and attention when we use visuals in our teaching. Of all the things we can do in the classroom non-linguistic representation of ideas has been demonstrated to be linked to achievement and retention of information. In this day and age of computers and technology it is quite liberating to touch a marker to whiteboard. Now imagine if any wall or blackboard or desk could be turned into a writing surface with a simple and easy to use product. Well your quest has been answered, you see, Magic Whiteboard was just recently launched in the United States and AssistiveTek, LLC is one of the premier resellers of the product. 

Magic Whiteboard is a supercharged whiteboard on a roll that can be put up anywhere in seconds, and sticks with static. The magic lies in the statically charged polypropylene film that clings to almost any flat surface.  This film can be written on with standard dry erase markers and erased just like a standard whiteboard. Magic Whiteboard is portable and reusable making your investment cost effective. This easy to use solution requires no special set up or installation-simply peel a sheet off the roll, adhere to a wall and start writing. You can use standard dry erase markers to draw with and erasing is simple and easy.

If you are looking for a cost effective tool to engage your students in their learning then take a look at Magic Whiteboard- you will be happy you did. Magic Whiteboard is $56.99 for a roll of 25 perforated sheets which gives you over 65 feet of whiteboard writing surface. Order your Magic Whiteboard today and get started with this exciting new product. 


Click this link to watch a video about the product.

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Amazon To Make Big Kindle Announcement this Wednesday

Jeff Bezos will take the stage this coming Wednesday at 10:00 am in NYC and will unveil the latest Kindle offering. From following the bloggers, it looks like we will see a 7 inch back-lit touch screen color Kindle that will be running a customized version of the Android operating system. The color Kindle will be positioned as a ebook reader very much like the Nook Color has for the past couple of years. However, the color Kindle will offer you rich media through the Amazon Store where you can download and play songs, movies and of course download your books. The color Kindle will support WiFi at this time and will come with a Browser giving you access to the web and the full range of Amazon Store services. What is really exciting is the price point that everyone n the web has been has been speculating about. Some have shared that they believe the new Kindle Color Reader will be priced below $250 dollars which will certainly get everyone excited about the potential for this tablet/ereading device. Having access to a color eReader like the Kindle Color with good performance and access to the web could certainly shake up the tablet market. So I know I will stay tuned to the announcement this Wednesday to find out all of the details. We certainly live in exciting times! So check back here next week for the Kindle Color update.

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Free Adobe eSeminars for Captivate 5.5

While Adobe Captivate 5.5 is an easy to use tool- it is great that Adobe will be offering free eSeminars to walk you through the finer points.  To register for one of the seminars just click in the link. Enjoy! Brian

Alternate Reporting and Quiz Result Analyzer in Adobe Captivate 5.5

Thursday, Sept. 22 – 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET

Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh and Vish to learn about the alternate options available for quiz reporting like Acrobat.com and Internal Server. They will also show you how to analyze the results using Adobe Captivate Quiz Results Analyzer.

Let’s Explore the Branching View in Adobe Captivate 5.5

Thursday, Sept. 29 – 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET

Join Vish and Dr. Pooja Jaisingh to learn how to use the Branching panel effectively in Adobe Captivate 5.5.

Deep Dive: Effective Soft Skills Training in Adobe Captivate: Part 3

Wednesday, Oct. 12 – 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET

Join Dr. Allen Partridge for Part 3 of an advanced tutorial on creating soft skills simulations with Adobe Captivate. This session is recommended for intermediate and advanced users and assumes fundamental awareness of Adobe Captivate. Dr. Partridge will demonstrate and break-down the elements commonly used in creating soft skills simulations. This will be a technically oriented session focused on advanced actions and creating the logical decision trees and complementary functions to make advanced branching dependent projects really sing.

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Kindle eBooks from Public Library are Now Available

One of the shortcomings of the Kindle platform is that it does not support the ever popular ePub format which made it next to impossible to borrow ebooks from the public library. But all that has changed and as of today, patrons of the public library can now take out Kindle eBooks which can be delivered over a WiFi connection or via a USB download.

I decided to give it a try and so I  logged into Overdrive and searched for my Public Library which was quickly found. I then logged into the digital library with my Patron Number and clicked in the Kindle books library which allowed me to search for a book. Once I found a book I wanted, I clicked on Add to Cart and when I checked out- I was redirected to the Amazon Kindle page where I could send it to my Kindle. Once I turned on my Kindle the book was automatically delivered over my WiFi connection and I was up and reading in no time. The process was fast and efficient. Having access to the eBooks from my Public Library  library will open up all kinds of possibilities now for reading adventures using my Kindle.

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Mindjet MindManager 2012 Professional for Windows!

San Francisco – September 13, 2011 — Mindjet®, the company that improves how people work together, today announced the release of Mindjet MindManager® 2012 Professional for Windows®, the most powerful version of the world’s leading visual information software. MindManager 2012 is designed for today’s professionals who need to spark ideas and collaborate with their teams for more productive outcomes.

MindManager 2012 is the most significant release in the product’s history including real-time co-editing, enhanced information maps and new desktop interface, plus new brainstorming features that guide users to unleash their team’s creativity. The innovative feature directs teams to:

• Utilize predefined challenge questions to promote different ways of thinking about the subject
• Use inspiration cards to generate hundreds of fresh ideas
• Leverages MindManager’s powerful visual experience to refine concepts and plans

"MindManager 2012 has been designed to meet the needs of today’s professional who are constantly barraged with new opportunities and pressing business challenges,” said Blaine Mathieu, chief products officer, Mindjet. “The new guided brainstorming feature organizes an outpouring of ideas that can be quickly honed into real solutions for real business needs.”

In addition, MindManager 2012 integrates with Mindjet Connect®, Mindjet’s cloud-based service (see separate release) to provide open and full sharing of MindManager maps with anyone, anywhere, on any device.

“Through the Connect cloud-based service, MindManager 2012 customers can freely collaborate on maps with anyone,” said Mathieu. “The combination of MindManager 2012 and Connect is nothing short of the future of the collaboration for teams and businesses.”

MindManager 2012 is available on September 22nd for the upgrade price of $179 USD and $399 USD for new customers at http://www.mindjet.com/mindmanager-pricing.

For more information about MindManager 2012 visit the Mindjet blog athttp://blog.mindjet.com.

About Mindjet:

Two million individuals, small businesses and Fortune 1000® companies using Mindjet understand that working visually and collaboratively brings results. We set the standard in mind mapping and now our focus is to provide collaborative work management solutions that dramatically improve how people can work better together, accomplish goals more successfully and be more productive.

Forty-six of BusinessWeek®’s "World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies" rely on Mindjet to see the big picture – let us show you too

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