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Apple Offers Customized MacBooks to School Districts

discomandavis said:
ive been thinking that for apple to work its way to the top of the market is to really make an effort to get its computers in schools. even if it means giving them out dirt cheap. because thats how it all starts. kids use them at school all the time. then they get used to it. whenthose kids buy there first computer they buy mac cuz its what they used in school. there really is no better advertisment then getting these computers out there and getting the students to use them
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:confused::confused::confused:

I don't follow the logic.

:confused::confused::confused:

Kid uses a mac at school and likes it. Kid grows up and decides to buy a mac for him/herself.

:confused::confused::confused:

So you're saying that using a mac at school somehow influences the kid's future purchasing decision?

:confused::confused::confused:

I just don't follow.

Sorry.
 
Very misleading article

This "large contractS" title is very misleading. The Louisiana article states it's for only 50 students (NOT Large), and just saying Kansas City implies Missouri, which is not where this occurred. While this first district will use Apple Computers, the article Macrumors linked to wasn't specific enough to know whether the $5 million will ALL go to Apple or if each district has the choice of Windows PCs. Remember their statement:"The exact model used will depend on individual schools and systems".

The rest could all be for Windows PCs as far as we know. The article isn't specific enough.

In addition:

While I'm happy that the poorer Kansas City, Kansas district will provide students with a great opportunity, it's certainly different than if Kansas City, MO schools adopted the same thing because the potential numbers are so different.



Poor reporting.
 
wtf? remote hdd destroyers, gps tracking... all for little school kiddies?

I'm sure this would probably cost more, than just replacing the macbook for if the one off gets stolen...

I was expecting the specs to be bumped down to make it cheaper and targeted for educational use.
 
What do you use for Policy control and end point security when running a windows server with Mac clients?
How can you stop booting off USB on a Mac to stop kids from running a windows or linux OS off a USB key?
I am plagued with this and more all day long and would really like to know how you would stop this and more on a mac?
 
Sweet...now the poor kids can visit porn sites, chat away and waste tons of hours on Facebook and Myspace just like their rich classmates.
 
guzhogi said:
While it's a good idea to get kids hooked on Macs when they're young, I wonder how well that'll work. ~90% of today's computers are Windows so some might think "Why get a Mac? The whole world uses Windows."
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Well, kids shouldn't learn to use the computers that the world uses now, but the computers the world uses when they come out of school. :)

But seriously, kids should use computers to learn other things. Like biology, history, music and so on. So they should use the computers that make that easiest.
 
So they have "Kansas inside" stickers, eh? Maybe those (not the MacBooks) will become collectors items, if people figure out how to get them off.
 
Beating the Sticker:
Place another sticker over it! :D or some kind of skin

Beating the GPS:
Tinfoil!

Beat the Exploding Drive:
See Above
Take out the Hard Drive?
 
:apple: has been around education for decades. Maine had an program a few years back about giving every student in middle school a laptop. The chose :apple:. When the G4 processors came out, didn't Virginia Tech buy 1,000 of them to make a supercomputer out of them and then did it again with the Intel Cores came out. :apple: will always be around education and this is good. Compared to other plans, this is small, but it is a start. Now if EVERY school system did this in the US....:eek: :)

If it helps students learn.... good job :apple:!

As for the GPS...It will probably be something that is attached to the MacBooks rather than something :apple: does.
 
discomandavis said:
ive been thinking that for apple to work its way to the top of the market is to really make an effort to get its computers in schools. even if it means giving them out dirt cheap. because thats how it all starts. kids use them at school all the time. then they get used to it. whenthose kids buy there first computer they buy mac cuz its what they used in school. there really is no better advertisment then getting these computers out there and getting the students to use them
Click to expand...
I think that's partly true. Though, back when I was in school, it was pretty much all Mac. However, most of my friends bought Windows computers so they could play games. Now, they still buy Windows systems because that's what they're mainly used to, plus they still like to play games.
 
queshy said:
Wow, that's pretty high tech!!!!...
Click to expand...

Is it?

GPS and remote formatting of HDD has been available in smartphones for years.

I think it's great that Apple have put a GPS chipset into the MacBook as it suggests this *could* find it's way to other Apple products in the future.... but I won't hold my breath. As for the hard HDD erase, I guess that's just a software command the next time the MaBook conects to the 'net??
 
Carl Spackler said:
I was very fortunate to be in grade school in the early, early 80's, when Apple ruled the roost in schools. For the longest time, I had no idea any other computers existed.

Go little turtle drawing program...whatever you were called!
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Yeah, my first experience (yay early '80s!) was LOGO on Apple II's, too. Later moved on to Oregon Trail (very topically appropriate, as I grew up in, and still live in, Oregon,) and Where in the <xxx> is Carmen Sandiego?

Moved to Macs in high school. (Woo-hoo! Dual floppy SEs!)

My son's former elementary school has Macs, but this middle school uses a mish-mash of Macs and PCs. Most classrooms have 1-2 beige G3 all-in-one's and/or early iMacs; the 'computer lab' is all generic PC, although they run Linux.
 
In Canada all through elementry school we used nothing but macs, started on some crappy apple thing then got mac classics. In highschool we switched to PC's. But there was always still one mac lab in the school.
 
better ideia

they would be better with a flying mac that when stolen could return to the owner (with help of the gps).
it wouldn't need wings, it would use a jet engine engine in the back, using the space that they are reserving for the C4 or plutonium or wharever.
last, but not least, the sticker! it would change color and text from green "i'm happy with my owner" to blinking red "hey, this dude grabed me!"... and then *puff its gone
 
mpw said:
Is it?

GPS and remote formatting of HDD has been available in smartphones for years.
Click to expand...

OSX copies Windows Mobile again.... ;)



mpw said:
As for the hard HDD erase, I guess that's just a software command the next time the MaBook conects to the 'net??
Click to expand...

Most of the smartphone disk erase programs work on the opposite protocol - if it can't connect to the authentication server within some interval it destroys the disk.

I turned my Windows Mobile smartphone (with the corporate security package) off on Thanksgiving weekend when I traveled way out of area.

Turned it on Monday - and it had bricked. Five days without contacting the mothership - self-destruct.

No big deal - re-connected and re-synched and back to normal.
 
I vote with the people that say GPS isn't GPS. It would be stupid to try and put GPS into a laptop as a theft prevention device. It's hard enough to get the antenna to co-exist with the noisy hardware, it would be a snap to disable, and you'd need to pull an IP address from somewhere to send the position back to the tracker, so you may as well send back the IP address instead.

boss1 said:
i dont see why anyone would rate this as negative. I would imagine that theft of expensive technology from schools is one of the major barriers from purchasing technologies. If this lessens the risk for schools and results in more technologies being implemented than thats most important for our educational system.
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I'd guess this is more about protecting the kids than protecting the computers... The laptops can be insured.
winterspan said:
Seriously, it *REALLY* depends on where you go to school. Rich areas have nice public / private schools but elsewhere it's hit or miss. There are MANY areas of very poor education quality... It's almost like America is really 10 different countries, as it totally depends on what state you live in.
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You must have come from one of the states with better education than mine-- our underpaid teachers taught us that there were 50 states...
 
Tongue-in-cheek

But would the students in Kansas City be allowed to have Darwin installed on their MacBook? ;)
 
discomandavis said:
ive been thinking that for apple to work its way to the top of the market is to really make an effort to get its computers in schools. even if it means giving them out dirt cheap. because thats how it all starts. kids use them at school all the time. then they get used to it. whenthose kids buy there first computer they buy mac cuz its what they used in school. there really is no better advertisment then getting these computers out there and getting the students to use them
Click to expand...

I must admit, this is how I got into Macs...if it wasn't for my school, I probably be on a PC right now ;).
 
discomandavis said:
ive been thinking that for apple to work its way to the top of the market is to really make an effort to get its computers in schools. even if it means giving them out dirt cheap. because thats how it all starts. kids use them at school all the time. then they get used to it. whenthose kids buy there first computer they buy mac cuz its what they used in school. there really is no better advertisment then getting these computers out there and getting the students to use them
Click to expand...

Nope, they buy the computer that runs all the cool latest games and supports the latest graphics cards that all the other dudes in school have.
 
deathshrub said:
Wow, stickers. Cutting edge.

Originally Posted by Macrumors
If all else fails, district officials said, they could also use a remote device to destroy the hard drive.

This is a joke, right?
Click to expand...

They could use a gun for remote desctruction :)
 
I've seen one!

I actually saw one of these last night!

I work for an education service center in KCK. One of our students is dual-enrolled at one of the high schools. Yesterday was their deployment day and as soon as she picked hers up she brought it by so we could install some software on it.

It was running Leopard. It did have two fairly large stickers. It was pretty locked down (couldn't install anything and couldn't connect to certain websites or to proxy servers). Overall, though, I was pretty impressed! They'd even had a training session to show the student and her parent some basic information like the dock and how to change the energy savings for better battery life.

From what I understand each student in the KC district will get a MacBook (about 5000 total). This is excellent, because if KCK gets it it won't be long before other area schools want them, too. The $6.4 million leases the MacBooks from Apple and parents have to pony up $25 for insurance.

If anyone wants to read more, here's the KC Star article about it:
http://www.kansascity.com/business/technology/story/349949.html
 
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