You know that
MacNN likes to go the extra mile and stress-test, even pummel every application that gets a Hands On review. It's not enough to tell us a list of features, we want to see that those features do what they say they will. It's partly diligence, partly that we've been fooled by Windows software before. Apple today updated its iTunes U educational service and iOS to
version 3.0, and made some notable changes -- and this obviously requires that we join a university that uses the software so that we can fully partake of the semester-long new features.
Or, instead, we could do what we've been intending to do with iTunes U since the start: marvel at the extraordinary, just eye-poppingly
extraordinary depth and breadth of material that is available here for everyone, for free.
Okay, you have to have a an iPhone or an iPad to use the iOS app, so free is a relative term -- but you're not going to be taking out a student loan for this stuff. If you truly intend to study, then you have to bring your own discipline here, but what you can learn is just astounding.
One example. We're writers, we're into this writing lark, we've heard of a fella named William Shakespeare. Digging through iTunes U 3.0 to examine how you can now submit your homework back to your tutors, we never got as far as finding anywhere that does this, because instead we got distracted by Shakespeare. Oxford University has published the text of Shakey's plays via iTunes U.
Oxford University. This isn't that same dime-store Gutenberg-sourced ebook you bought on Kindle, this is the original text in as close to its original form as humanly possible.
Let's go away from Shakespeare and England's Oxford, to Stanford University and quantum mechanics. Now there's an easy topic -- seriously, what part of quantum mechanics don't you understand? -- but still Stanford ekes it out to about 20 hours of lectures.
Don't get us wrong, the new features sound great. If you're a student, you can now complete coursework in some courses or other, and submit your assignments directly to your professors without ever having to see them. Those instructors can keep a note of grades, you can both annotate PDFs, you can all chat online. It is definitely excellent, and while we haven't a feel for how many universities use iTunes U, it's a lot and it should be more. It should be all of them.
For us as individuals, sometimes a long time from our student days, iTunes U is like Wikipedia with facts. It's like Google searching with a purpose and an I Feel Very Lucky button. Start in on iTunes U, and you'll head off down rabbit holes, you'll subscribe to far too many lectures and documentaries. You'll end up a bit confused at how iTunes U fits in with Apple's other apps -- when we went in iTunes U after having got the version 3.0 update, we found that iTunes U itself was a featured entry in iTunes U and when you clicked on it, you went back to the App Store and an Open button. Our first lesson in quantum mechanics, perhaps.
Equally, we got
The Tragedie of King Lear (look at that original spelling from the First Folios, the earliest copies of the plays known to exist), and we got it from iTunes U, but we're reading it in iBooks.
If we had to keep track of this stuff, plus where our grades are, and who's online to ask questions of, we might find iTunes U less compelling. However, we don't. We can dive in and soak up everything we want. Everything.
Consequently, this may be the very first Hands On review where we are having to delay real-world stress-testing until our grant applications are processed, yet we're also going to recommend and enthuse and evangelize about this software. A lot of people know about iTunes U, but there should be more; it should be all of us.
iTunes U 3.0 requires iOS 8.3 or later, and is
free in the App Store.
Who is iTunes U 3.0 for:
Everyone. What do we mean by everyone?
Everyone!
Who is iTunes U 3.0 not for:
No one. Unless you're on Android, in which case you can wait for Samsung U -- it's bound to be here soon, and with much better features, a longer battery life, and anyway they did it before Apple, everyone knows that.
-- William Gallagher (
@WGallagher)
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