Apple and Google have played a key role in education over the years. With the news earlier this week that Apple will not pre-install the YouTube app on their latest iOS upgrade, coupled with the news that they will have their own map app, you have to wonder how secure their relationship is. It seems that Apple wasn’t too pleased about Google’s purchase of the Android operating system, which now runs on half of the world’s smartphones. If these are indeed the first steps in severing that relationship, what does this mean to districts that support both Apple iOS devices and Google? My district would fall into this category and I have to say both companies have something in common with end-users: their ease of use. Could this break-up actually make usability worse in the future? If I email a link from my Apple map app to my gmail account, what will open when I click on it? If I post something on YouTube, how will I view it on my iPhone? (for the record Apple says it will support in-browser YouTube) I don’t have the answer yet, but let me Google it on my iPad and get back to you. - Carl Hooker, SchoolCIO advisor
