Will Acer be the post-PC era's first casualty?

UPDATE: - Acer have refuted the claim below in this official response.  ARN also dismisses the original article, and we've been contacted directly by an Acer BDM with a similar objection  We've received some assurance that Acer will still support education customers (see comments section, below), although to what level and whether it includes all customers in all regions remains unclear (if unsure, you should contact your local Acer person).

According to Channel News, Acer Australia has taken a serious hit from the recent decline in PC sales, and are reacting by scaling back their Australian operations, sacking staff, stopping manufacturing and ending field-service operations after seeing an almost 40% loss in sales.

This puts things in an interesting context for us as a school.  Have we just dodged a bullet?  The Acer w510 was one of a shortlist of devices in contention for our 1:1 computing program.  It only missed out by a narrow margin, but now that I hear quotes like these, some of which were sourced from Acer employees, I think I should be happy the Acer just missed out:

"Acer Australia will cease production of PC's for schools"

"The intent is to wind down all field service operations and move to a return to base warranty model across the board"

This reminds me of another recent disaster that befell a number of Australian schools when Optima went out of business.  While not that same level of disaster, this still doesn't look good for those relying on onsite service contracts.

Of course, Acer will still be able to service their equipment, albeit in a return-to-base manner, but it would seem they now intend to operate more like a Samsung, ASUS or Apple in future.  Leaving the Enterprise hardware supply to the big boys (Lenovo, Dell and HP).  Enterprise wont miss them, but I'm sure some schools and small businesses will.

Did Google just disrupt IT in the Classroom?

I think they did, and for $35 no less!

The recent announcement of the Google Chromecast creates some interesting possibilities for streaming content to TV's and projectors in classrooms.  Sure, I know what a lot of people are thinking - AppleTV can already do this.  But the difference here is that this is genuinely cross-platform, and not content dependent.  Unlike the AppleTV, you don't have to worry about whether the app you want to stream supports it.  Because it's relying on the Chrome browser to initiate the stream you're effectively locked in to web content, which is actually a good thing as far as I can see.  We know The Cloud is the future of education, so this helps accelerate that switch by encouraging teachers to think in a "cloud-first" way.  Let's also not forget that you can use this from any Windows, Mac, Android, Chrome OS or iOS device, so schools with multi-platform or BYOD environments should love it.

We know The Cloud is the future of education

The way the Chromecast works is limited, in that I assume you can't just broadcast everything that's happening on your screen like you can with something like MiraCast, but it bears the tradeoff that the Chromecast device is largely autonomous in the process, so once the stream is started the end-user stands less chance of interfering with it accidentally and they can continue using their device as normal.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/Tp9VA71eBew]

It's early days yet, so it's unclear if the little gadget works exactly as it appears, but at this point, who cares?  For $35 you can bet we'll be trying it out, and even if you only get half the expected functionality, at that price it's still great value!

... now all they need to do is release it outside the US!:

We Have Liftoff!

We're done!  I know there's still work to be done supporting the initiative, but our 1:1 program has been officially launched - and Houston, we don't have a problem.  The computers were distributed to students and parents at a series of presentations given last week and early this week.

The turnout was great, and the reaction of both parents and students was similarly great.  Our little Windows 8 based Envy x2's impressed both them and us.  They have an appealing aesthetic and a sturdy quality about them, both of which parents like to see.

Our presentation to parents was a mix of playing hardball with the "care and use" message whilst trying to convey some excitement about the program.  We used a bit of video in our presentation.  My favourite was this ad for Windows 8 (see below), which uses a young boy, very close to the age of our students to show that Windows 8 is easy to use (which it is, given the right device):

[youtube=http://youtu.be/ckEGxTeEOtE]

Our presentation content was reasonably good, and our delivery improved with each one.  We learned a few things about what's important to parents, so next time around we should be able to refine and improve the process, and the program itself.

Windows 8 Apps for Education

With our new Windows 8 tablet program about to debut, I thought I'd post some resources.  The app environment for Windows 8 (through the Windows Store) has got off to a good start with a lot of new software available in the store.  There are about 100,000 apps available at the time of writing, according to metrostorescanner.com. So here are a few lists of apps relevant to education:

• Microsoft Australia, Education Blog, Windows 8 Education Apps


• Microsoft Australia again, with another list of Education Apps


• Babbel's Language Learning Apps


• Another short list from Microsoft, this time from MSDN


• A list of apps produced by the people at "teachnology"


• A list from app indexing site, Applooker


• The full list of (currently) 14,000 education apps on Metroscanner

That'll do for now.  There are more apps being added every day, I'll update with more lists as I find them.

Just sayin'

Okay, I don't want to start a fight!

But I am going to draw an Apple / Microsoft comparison here so if you're the sort of person who's head is likely to explode as a result, taking this post down the same road as these guys, then look away now!

Microsoft have started producing some ads that compare Windows 8 tablets to the iPad.  Some of the ads are a little tongue-in-cheek, and some are bizarre (unless there's a cultural thing I don't get).  But this simple one actually cuts through to a couple of truths that speak to why we and our teachers couldn't bring ourselves to adopt the iPad as a platform.  There's more to it than just these few features (it's quite a complex issue actually).  But these are some of the things people struggle with initially when considering an iPad anywhere where they might need to do work, and these are some of the stumbling blocks our iPad trial kept on hitting.  So, here it is, make of it what you will:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/zgu9uo2UpPg]

... Oh, and there's a third side to this comparison, which is Android tablets.  That's another similarly complicated thing altogether.  All I'll say on that is, always remember it's at least a three-horse race! ;)

1:1 Program Device

http://youtu.be/BXb4m7ZeiTw

It's a little late but I can reveal that the device selected for our 1:1 program for this year is the HP Envy x2 (as shown above).  The device was clearly the most robust and solidly built of the three on our shortlist.  We're quite confident that it'll be the best way to get started with Windows 8, and Tablet devices.  The combination of sturdy and attractive design with long battery life and a few other bonus features meant the Envy was a great all-round performer with no considerable flaws.

As I mentioned, the unit sports some bonus features that helped convince us of it's worth.  The inclusion of an NFC chip opens up some interesting possibilities with tap-to-share and other things such as smart posters.  The use of Beats Audio in the device appeared to be a gimmick at first, but it certainly helped it punch out sound that was much more clear and audible than it's competitors.  The keyboard dock sports a full-size HDMI port, which is a welcome addition as well, micro ports are okay, but the heavy cable attached by such a small connector seems like it could break easily (and it's easier and cheaper to source a full-size cable).

So, we push on with our program, and thank HP and Anittel for supplying us with this cute little machine.

Battery tests and a battery of tests.

So, we're about done with testing all of our three candidate devices (see previous post), and it's been an interesting time to say the least.

Our testing consists of several parts.  There are several layers of technical evaluation these machines go through such as hardware performance, battery life and suitability for our imaging systems (Symantec Ghost currently, but increasingly this will be Microsoft SCCM).  Then there are the more subjective tests such as staff reaction and feedback and our own take on durability and functionality (such as connectivity options and other hardware features).  I can honestly say that I don't know of a school who puts their candidate machines through such a series of tests.  I also don't know how those schools manage to make informed decisions without it.

So, the results of our tests are below but before we move on to them, a quick word about the problems we've encountered with these devices so far.  Particularly the HP.
None of the three devices is without fault.  The biggest problems with the Samsung are the poor design of the mechanism that holds the tablet into the keyboard and it's video drivers.  Sometimes the Tablet comes loose from the keyboard when it's being transported and the video drivers seem to have real trouble playing back video with effects and transitions in Movie Maker.  The Acer had issues connecting to our wireless network and staying connected, and it's tablet flaps about in the keyboard dock like the sail of a Tall Ship.  The HP doesn't have any noticeable design or software faults (except for maybe being too top-heavy, but they all suffer from that), it's problems come from HP being HP.  After a lot of painful to and fro with our reseller HP have finally confirmed that they will be able to repair the device for the 3 years we'll be using it.  We asked all resellers to provide pricing on parts for out-of-warranty repairs, and only HP failed to do this.  They've now come through with this information but it was incredibly difficult to get a response out of them.  At one point the reseller was preparing to withdraw their quote because even they'd lost faith in HP.  The reason for this is probably because HP no longer have a representative in our state, instead they've split the role between three states.

Finally, I also should note that all three machines are very difficult from an SOE (image) deployment and maintenance standpoint.  They all use a 32-bit pure UEFI BIOS, which is inherently difficult to work with to boot off the network or manage the HDD partitions, but it's also quite new, meaning there's not a lot of good information out there on dealing with it.

Anyway, enough with the waffle.  Our test results for the three machines are below:

[caption id="attachment_297" align="aligncenter" width="604"] Not a lot of difference here, HP using slightly faster chips for their eMMC (not to be confused with a genuine SSD) drive. Nowhere near as fast as a 'proper' solid-state drive.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_295" align="aligncenter" width="604"] The light weight of the Acer seems to come at a cost of build-quality, and the surprise here is the Samsung, being the most 'plastic' of the lot but still the heaviest. The HP falls in the middle despite being the most solidly built.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_296" align="aligncenter" width="604"] This is definitely the strength of the Acer, it's near 20 hour battery is the best we've ever seen. It carries the problem of taking an eternity to fully charge though. We tend to find the 'real-world' battery life falls between the times in the two tests we've run here. The Samsung is the only one with a single battery, which let it down a little.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_294" align="aligncenter" width="604"] This test is quite subjective. The scores represent an interpretation of our reactions and those of other staff, and show the Acer's main failing being it's general appearance of cheapness vs the HP's more pleasing aesthetic. In my opinion, the only thing keeping the Samsung from falling further down the list was brand-recognition.[/caption]

The tests probably show the HP as the leader overall, not failing any test and excelling in the user-reaction portion of the tests.  I should point out that more tests were done on video-encoding speed, CPU benchmarking, software-imaging compatibility and wifi reception.  These results were either uninteresting or in the case of CPU and video-encoding, almost identical results.  We've not shown them here to keep the length of the article short(er).