Call us cynical old rascals if you will, but we can’t help suspecting that there’s been a few palms greased along the way to make this happen.
The University of Missouri journalism students are now being ‘required’ to purchase an iPhone or an iTouch for their next college term.
It’s not quite as clear cut as it first sounds because this ‘requirement’ isn’t enforced, although it’s designed to help students with financial aid loans calculate their aid estimates.
We can sort of see the logic here, apart from the rather strange fact that only Apple products are listed, when even the most hardcore, Jobs-lovin’ iFan will readily admit there’s ample alternative products well up to the task of simple note-taking at lectures.
In fact, usability tests and user feedback usually puts phones with proper hardware QWERTY keyboards way ahead of onscreen virtual ones like the iPhone, which tend to suffer from more typing errors. Bashing a hard, unresponsive screen for more than a few minutes has never been our idea of fun either.
US College Requires Students To Buy iPhone Or iTouchSo what’s going on here? It sure smells like someone’s on a juicy kick-back (or maybe there’s a Supreme Fanboy at the helm) because as good as the iPhone is, its note taking abilities are no better – and in some cases considerably worse – than many other gadgets, almost all of which cost considerably less.
Crucially, when tech tips website Lifehacker asked their readers what was the best note-taking tools, the clear leader by miles was good old fashioned pen and paper which you can budget in for about £10 a term.
I think, if you will keep writing !!!