As further evidence that Apple has broken the tablet market wide open, schools across the country are racing to get iPads into the hands of students. As The New York Times reports: "A growing number of schools across the nation are embracing the iPad as the latest tool to teach Kafka in multimedia, history through 'Jeopardy'-like games and math with step-by-step animation of complex problems." Yet, despite their offsetting the cost of textbooks and writing materials, critics are asking how schools can afford such new-fangled devices. Some parents and scholars also suggest that schools are rushing to …

Amid a tsunami of tweets, texts, and status updates, popular wisdom holds that technology must be shortening our attention spans and shrinking our brains. On the contrary, Wired writer Clive Thompson argues all this communication, though fragmented, is inspiring an explosion of deep thinking and meditative analysis. "It used to be that only traditional media, like magazines or documentaries or books, delivered the long take," Thompson writes. "But now, some of the most in-depth stuff I read comes from academics or businesspeople penning big blog essays, Dexter fans writing 5,000-word exegeses of the show, and nonprofits like the Pew …

Before the end of the year, Comcast plans to offer in-home streaming of live TV, as well as access to on-demand content via Apple's iPad and Android powered tablets. Indeed, CEO Brian Roberts says he's ready to "reinvent how customers interact with their entertainment on TV, online and on mobile devices," according to the Hollywood Reporter. If all goes according to plan, the cable giant's customers will soon be able to watch live news, TV shows and movies in their homes via tablet computers whenever they want. "Also, its 'play now' function will be available on the …

Once heralded as the future of digital content consumption, RSS has seemingly been overtaken by more social services like Twitter and Facebook. But, is RSS really "dead" as some tech watchers are claiming? Igniting a lively debate this week, UK-based web designer Kroc Camen said exactly that before industry peers convinced him to drop the word "dead" for "being ignored." Analyzing the number of referrals and visits coming from RSS, some are suggesting that services like Facebook and Twitter are taking over the role of content syndication from RSS. Under the …

At the expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Google's Chrome has secured a 10% market share for the first time ever, according to Web metrics company Net Applications. What's more, Google's Web browser more than doubled its share over the past year, beating its own expectations for market penetration. In 2009, Google hoped that Chrome would have 5% of the market by September 2010, and 10% for September 2011. "Unless Chrome stalls, Google's browser should own a 16% share by September," writes PCWorld. Meanwhile, Microsoft's Internet Explorer lost 1.4% points of usage share in December, the largest one-month …

Sources tell Businessweek that Google might build a mobile payment service, which would let users buy physical products with the wave of their phone. The service, which could debut as early as this year, is based on near-field communication technology, which can beam and receive information wirelessly from up to four inches away. "Google joins a slew of companies that want in on the NFC market, which may account for a third of the $1.13 trillion in global mobile-payment transactions projected for 2014," notes Businessweek, citing data from IE Market Research. Late last year, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, …

In light of Goldman Sachs leading a $500 million funding round in Facebook, Web evangelist Don Dodge argues that top tech companies are worth every cent of their astronomical valuations. "The experts thought Microsoft was crazy when they invested $240M in Facebook at a $15B valuation," writes the Microsoft vet who joined Google in late 2009. "Crazy like a fox." Yet, where investors get it wrong is when they start extrapolating the valuation of market leaders down to smaller rivals and clones. "Market valuations are asymmetric," insists Dodge. The reasoning goes if Groupon is worth $6B, then …

Location-based mobile gaming services provider SCVNGR has closed a new $15 million investment round, led by Balderton Capital, along with Google Ventures and Highland Capital Partners. Google Ventures previously invested $4 million in the startup led by 22-year-old Princeton dropout founder Seth Priebatsch. "Similar to check-in games Foursquare and Gowalla, SCVNGR builds on that model by adding tasks and challenges to check-ins," writes the Guardian. "SCVNGR attracted attention by pursuing a more commercially focus [sic] in the first half of 2010, signing up 1,000 paying clients so far." The startup claims to have built half a million …

After less than a year at News Corp., Sean Ryan is heading for Facebook where he'll head up partnerships for the social network's gaming platform. "The move seems sudden, since he just got his latest position," writes BoomTown's Kara Swisher. "But sources said Ryan and execs at the Silicon Valley social networking giant had been talking about a job there before he went to News Corp." Facebook does not presently create its own social games, only hosting those made by third-party publishers like Zynga. As director of gaming partnerships for Facebook, Ryan will report to Ethan Beard, …

Without Groupon or one of its daily deal clones in toe, Google still seems intent on entering the lucrative social buying space. "When you look at our overall suite of services, especially around our advertising, we already have some things that are like [Groupon]," Marissa Mayer, Google VP of consumer products, tells MediaBistro. "We have things like coupons and offer-extension ads that allow merchants to basically make offers to our users," Mayer adds. "And, so we're looking at how can we take that technology and put it to use especially in …