Bits Blog: The Bible Gets an Upgrade

Obama Promises Internet Upgrade for U.S. Schools

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — President Obama visited an innovative middle school in central North Carolina on Thursday to demonstrate the Internet-based education programs that he is proposing to make available nationwide.

Speaking to an audience of excited teenagers in a steamy gymnasium, Mr. Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission to expand an existing program to provide discounted high-speed Internet service to schools and libraries, even if it meant increasing the fees that for years had been added to consumers’ phone bills. He said the initiative could lead to better technology at 99 percent of schools in five years.

“There’s no reason why we can’t replicate the success you’ve found here,” Mr. Obama said to the students’ cheers. “And for those of you who follow politics in Washington, here’s the best news — none of this requires an act of Congress.” To further applause, he added, “We can and we will get started right away.”

Mr. Obama was joined by his education secretary, Arne Duncan, whose department would work with the F.C.C. to revamp the initiative, known as the Schools and Libraries program or E-rate, to provide local schools with Internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, among the fastest commercially available. With the federal money that Mr. Obama proposes to redirect for this purpose, schools also could pay for wireless networks throughout their buildings and campuses.

The president singled out Mooresville for its program, which not only upgraded technology but also provided a computer to each student and extra training for teachers. School performance has improved in turn.

Mr. Duncan, speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to North Carolina, said that he had learned of the innovations in Mooresville, a town near Charlotte, because the local school superintendent was a friend. Mr. Duncan said the school quit purchasing textbooks several years ago to pay for the technology. Mr. Obama, he added, wants to “shine a spotlight on best practices and try to take them to scale.”

To pay for a similar technology expansion throughout the United States, the administration wants to improve the efficiency of the current program, and for telephone customers to pay up to $5 a year extra, or about 40 cents monthly, on their bills.

The Schools and Libraries program is part of the Universal Service Fund, an $8.7 billion program that distributes money for several purposes. Nearly half the money goes to a program that has long subsidized telephone and Internet service to rural or remote areas. About $2.2 billion goes to Schools and Libraries, a similar amount supports phone service to low-income consumers, and $200 million pays for telephone and Internet service to health care professionals in rural areas.

As an independent agency, the F.C.C. does not answer directly to the president, but he nominates the agency’s chairman. Any changes to the program’s structure would have to go through a rule-making procedure and be approved by a majority of the commission’s members. Currently there are three members; two seats are vacant.

The program assesses the fees on phone companies, but they typically pass the cost to consumers. The tax is roughly 15 percent on the long-distance portion of phone bills, resulting in a monthly assessment of a few dollars on the average combined home and mobile phone plan.

Schools and libraries that qualify for E-rate support receive discounts of 20 to 90 percent on services and equipment, depending on the household income levels of students and whether the school is in an urban or rural area.

Administration officials say that while the E-rate program, established in 1996, provides low-cost Internet connections to community institutions, the speed of those services is rarely different from those that home subscribers can receive, about 20 megabits per second.

That is fast enough for the average home consumer to stream video, but if dozens of classrooms are trying to view video or listen to digital audio files at the same time, a school’s network will operate much more slowly.

Officials say they also expect private companies to expand their offerings of devices and products like electronic textbooks in response to the expanded program.

Jackie Calmes reported from Mooresville, N.C., and Edward Wyatt from Washington.

Gadgetwise Blog: With Upgrade, Headphones Have New Sound, and New Parts

The Master Tracks over-ear headphones from Sol Republic.

Sol Republic, maker of headphones with swappable parts, recently expanded its offerings with the release of its Master Tracks line, which incorporates over-ear headphones for the first time.

Like the company’s on-ear headphones, the Master Tracks components are interchangeable. You can swap out the headband or cables for parts of different colors, allowing you to customize the look, and the Master Tracks are compatible with Sol Republic’s on-ear headphone lines.

Sol Republic updated all the components for Master Tracks. The headband has extra cushion, and volume controls were added to the inline mic, which is in the yoke of the cable. The ear cushions fit comfortably and are articulated for better positioning. But the biggest upgrade was to the speakers in the ear cups, which accentuate the bass.

According to Sol Republic, the X3 Sound Engines in the headphones are intended to recreate the experience of being in a nightclub. The Master Tracks are indeed impressive for the heavy thump of rock and club music, and they deliver midrange vocals clearly. But the pumped-up bass tends to overshadow the subtleties of quieter music. Classical music, like Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune,” for instance, sounds as if it was recorded in a cavernous, empty concert hall.

The headphones come in three premium finishes – gray, blue and white – with additional headband colors in green, purple and red. Accessories include a water-resistant carrying case and a quarter-inch adapter for the 3.5-millimeter jack.

At $200, the Master Tracks headphones are a little expensive, but unlike some competitors, Sol Republic offers a durable product that is designed to last years. You can twist the headband and tug the cable, but you would have a hard time breaking either of them.

Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Planning for a Windows 8 Upgrade

How hard will it be for a Windows 7 computer to upgrade to Windows 8 when the final new system of the new system comes out later this year? Is the test version safe to use?

Windows 7 users should have the easiest time with an upgrade to the new Windows 8 system. Although the final version has not yet been released, Microsoft has stated that Windows 7 users who upgrade their computers can bring along pretty much everything, including installed programs, Windows system settings and personal files to Windows 8. (Not every program may work perfectly after the upgrade, so expect a few updates from software makers after the finished version of Windows 8 lands.)

People with computers running Windows Vista or the decade-old Windows XP system will likely have more work to do when upgrading to Windows 8. As of now, Vista users can transfer system settings and personal files, but XP users can only bring along personal files.

The Windows 8 Release Preview is available on Microsoft’s site for anyone ambitious enough to download it and install it on a compatible computer; installing the test system on a spare, secondary PC is probably the safest option. Keep in mind that this is still a work-in-progress, so some programs, hardware drivers and other bits of software may not behave normally.

The Windows 8 preview cannot be uninstalled once in place. To go back to a previous version of Windows, you must install it again from the original system discs or recovery media. As with any unfinished software program, install it at your own risk.

When Windows 8 does arrive, however, it will be relatively inexpensive compared to earlier Windows releases. Users running Windows XP (or later) will be able to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $40 until January 31, 2013. For those who prefer to upgrade from discs, DVD copies of Windows 8 will cost $70 for a limited time.