Apparently the medics are now getting iPhones...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11427317
Now, I am not going to be complain about the fact that the medics are getting privileges to assist with their studies, they work hard and will be doing a job I could never do.
No. I have a different complaint. And it isn't even really that based on my opinion that I think iPhones are an excellent example of a polished turd.
No. it is that the iPhone is a consumer item. It was designed as a consumer item, Jobs describes it as a consumer item and it is the reason that it is lacking in many core features that most smart phones have as standard, such as business features like proper email synchronisation or multitasking.
This means that I question its suitability as a teaching aid. The article talks of always-available medical text-books, but the size of the iPhone's screen makes long-form reading uncomfortable at best and damaging to eyesight at worst.
The article talks of it being a note-taking device, but without haptic feedback or the ability to use a stylus and hand-writing the notes, there are going to be transcription errors a plenty and a slowdown in productivity due to the time needed to write the notes.
Yes it can assist communication, but surely the existing beepers and mobiles do this just as well or better.
It strikes me that someone is attempting to use a technology that it is ultimately unsuited for just because it is in vogue (well... once you have accounted for the lead time between something becoming popular and academics realising that it exists).
For the technology aims given, issuing either a tablet PC or an electronic book (eg the kindle, but there are better and cheaper out there) would be far more suitable. Even the iPad would be better than the iPhone, but again, there are cheaper and better tablets out there that do not have the artificial limitations of all new products created by Apple.
