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Maine Extends Laptop Deal With Apple

by , 2:25 PM EDT, June 29th, 2006

The state of Maine on Thursday said that it has signed a new US$41 million, four-year contract with Apple, who will provide iBooks to 36,000 seventh- and eighth-grade students, as well as their teachers. According to the Associated Press, the deal will cover all of Maine's 241 junior high schools and will include wireless network upgrades, warranties, and professional development.

State technology coordinator Gary Lanoie told reporter David Sharp: "The first four years have been really good. If we didn't find a way to continue the project at our middle schools, our teachers would be very upset with me. They might lynch me. It's that ingrained."

The iBooks that were part of the state's original four-year contract with Apple will be kept within the school system. Mr. Sharp said that a fundraising effort led by former Gov. Angus King will enable them to be upgraded.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Mikuro Posts: 457 Joined: 15 Jun 2002
Thu Jun 29, 2006 2:53 pm Subject: Cool

I haven't heard a lot about how things have been going in Maine. It's good to hear that people appreciate the Macs enough to sign up for more. I hope other states will take a hint!


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Close Name:cruss Posts: 2 Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Thu Jun 29, 2006 4:49 pm Subject: macbooks

I wonder what the implications of the new macbooks having built in isight cameras will be in a classroom environment.


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Close Name:brett_x Posts: 322 Joined: 24 Jan 2006
Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:31 am Subject:

Quote
cruss wrote:
I wonder what the implications of the new macbooks having built in isight cameras will be in a classroom environment.


Well, for one... it seems that they will be using iBooks... for real. Here is the official page:
http://www.maine.gov/mlti/2006details.htm

This doesn't make much sense to me, but maybe Apple is going to keep the old stock for this program. 4 more years of G4 processing? Ouch. But keep in mind, they are only doing limited things with these. And they are just retiring the G3 machines they started this program with 4 years ago.

I used to work for an Apple service provider here in Maine. You should have seen how beat up these machines get. There's even a mention on that link above about "slot loading CD-Rom= No more duct tape".

Here's another thought: If they had Intel processors, wouldn't you have to put a firmware password on there so they couldn't boot to a windows partition on an external drive?


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Close Name:Guest
Tue Jun 19, 2007 12:03 pm Subject:

teacher get pissed when you bring out the isight in class. (at least mine do).


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