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Intel acquires Kno to boost its digital education library
Intel has long been cozy with the e-textbook developers at Kno, going so far as to license their hardware and preload their software on its own tablets. The chip giant clearly wants to take that relationship further, however, as it just acquired Kno outright. While Intel isn't providing the terms of the deal, it's not shy about revealing the motivations -- it's determined to grow its educational content library, which now includes over 225,000 titles thanks to the Kno deal. Not everyone is happy with the new alliance, though. TechCrunch has discovered that Kno founder Osman Rashid turned down a chance to join Intel after disagreeing with the bigger corporation's focus on international rollouts over concentrating on North America. While that's a significant loss, we doubt that Intel is complaining much. The buyout still gives it a rich educational content ecosystem that could help fend off rivals like Amazon, which recently bought TenMarks to bolster its own schoolroom cred.
Kno launches 'Kno Me' interactive textbook metrics, lets you study your studying
It was almost a year ago that we first heard about Kno's smart textbook metrics system "Kno Me." Now the software is set to actually launch, and find its way into students' (and parents') hands. As a refresher, the system provides analytics on your (or your children's) study patterns, letting you see how long you have studied for, amount of time interacting with the subject matter, percentage of pages that have been annotated and more. Kno Me is available for all of the firm's interactive textbooks and launches tomorrow on the iPad, Windows 8 and browser platforms, with Android and Windows 7 coming by the end of the month. Kno Me is free, and will be pushed out via the existing app.
Smart textbook maker Kno introduces Kno Me, adding stats to studying
Kno turns old-fashioned educational textbooks into interactive learning experiences. Adding links, multimedia and features like flashcards and quizzes, Kno already offers a powerful experience for students. Of course there are tools for adding notes, comments and such, but each student also has their own account, so those annotations and highlights are available across devices through Kno Cloud. Kno Me, launching today, adds a slew of metrics to help students see how much they are studying and can compare those stats to other students. That might sound a little crazy, but it's really quite useful for students to see how much time they've spent reading, using flashcards and more. Of course all of this looks great on the iPad. After a few minutes of playing with a Kno textbook (they partner with publishers to bring quality, approved content in) I was suitably impressed that this wasn't a CD-ROM fallacy of advancing education. Instead of a ton of flashy elements, Kno adds just enough to the experience to make the information intriguing and useful to students. Kno Me is a great addition to a strong contender in the interactive textbook business. Full press release below. Show full PR text KNO, A LEADER IN EDUCATION SOFTWARE, ASKS STUDENTS "ARE YOU STUDYING TOO MUCH?!?" Introducing Kno Me, a Visual Dashboard for Students to Review Their Own Study Engagement and Even Share with Classmates Consumer Electronics Show 2013, Las Vegas, NV - January 9, 2013 – Today, Kno, Inc., www.kno.com, a leader in education software, launched Kno Me, a personal study dashboard that helps students measure their engagement with each Kno eTextbook they use. Students can check-in frequently to see near real time stats on their study behavior, interaction levels, time management and personal progress. And with Kno Me social sharing, students can opt-in to share their results with peers and even follow the engagement levels of other classmates (perhaps the best student in the class). "The question we want to help students answer is 'How much am I really studying?' If you're a student, you don't know the answer until you get your grade, and if it's bad, it's too late," said Osman Rashid, CEO and Co-Founder of Kno. "Now, with Kno Me, you see near real time progress and get smart feedback on your own study habits, and you can compare results with your classmates. Kno Me is like a personal learning GPS that helps you locate where you are in your studies and see where you need to go." The study insights available from Kno Me are based on Kno's proprietary analytics platform, including the average time a student spends interacting with the textbook and time within specific chapters, the percentage of pages in the chapter the student annotates, and the percentage of glossary terms the student has mastered. Kno Me is available on all Kno interactive textbooks for iPad, Windows 8, and web browsers and will soon be available for Android and Windows 7. Kno is committed to making learning more engaging and efficient. Independent research shows that making content interactive promotes engaged learning and helps students retain information. And when students use features like highlighting, journaling, and flash cards, students no longer need to spend time preparing study materials-they can simply study. Kno offers interactive textbooks for K-12 and higher education students. At Kno.com, students can find over 200,000 digital titles from 65 leading textbook publishers. Kno's digital textbooks provide over 70 interactive features that are designed to increase learning efficiencies and engagement, saving students up to 90 minutes a week in study time per book. About Kno Kno, Inc. is an education software company on a mission to make learning engaging, effective, and social for students. Osman Rashid, the co-founder of Chegg, and Babur Habib, a consumer electronics veteran, founded Kno, Inc. in May 2009. The company has received funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Intel Capital, Goldman Sachs, FLOODGATE and GSV Capital and is based in Santa Clara, California. For more information, go to www.kno.com, or follow Kno at http://facebook.com/GoodtoKno and http://twitter.com/GoodtoKNO
Kno textbooks arrive on Android with the Galaxy Note 10.1, take on a social side
Kno's post-hardware textbook platform has called the iPad its only tablet home for more than a year; it's about to spread its wings. Starting with a bundled presence on the Galaxy Note 10.1, Kno is an option for K-12 and college students who'd rather go the Android route. While all the 3D, note-taking and navigation features remain the same, there's an obvious selling point in supporting the S Pen (and hopefully other pens) to more directly put thoughts to virtual paper -- or, let's admit it, doodle in the margins. All of us, Android and otherwise, get a new Social Sharing component that lets us crib each other's notes before the big exam. We're still waiting on Kno for other Android devices as well as the already-promised Windows 7 support, but it's hard not to appreciate at least a little more variety in our digital learning.
Kno starts offering K-12 textbooks on tablets, scores industry-first deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (update: not as exclusive)
Kno's tablet textbooks have only ever been available to the college crowd; the younger among us have typically had to get a comprehensive digital education from either the tablet maker's own solution, like Apple's iBooks 2, or less-than-integrated options. A new deal for K-12 books is giving the students, if not necessarily the teachers, a fresh alternative. Parents can now rent books for home studying at prices under $10 per title. They're not state-specific books, but their Common Core roots will keep learners on the same (virtual) page as classmates while adding Kno's usual 3D, links, notes and videos. Just to sweeten the pot further, Kno says its current catalog centers around a pact with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt -- a publisher that hasn't offered K-12 books on any tablet platform until now, according to Kno. The initial focus is on iPad, web and Windows 7 readers, although Android-loving parents looking for that at-home edge will have to wait until sometime "soon" to leap in. Update: Although we were told otherwise at first, it's not true that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has never offered K-12 books on a tablet before: we've since learned that the publisher posted Social Studies textbooks for the iPad in May. The Kno deal is still significant as a rare cross-platform offering. %Gallery-161862%
Intel adds rugged Studybook tablet to its student-friendly Classmate lineup
File this under: "Wait, that didn't happen already?" Intel just announced the Studybook, that tablet you see up there, and believe it or not it's only the first slate to join the company's lineup of Classmate products for schools. That's sort of wild, given the popularity of tablets and also the fact that there are so many kid-proof models floating around. And yet, the closest Intel had come until now was with the Convertible Classmate PC, a device that was more of a netbook with a touchscreen. Like the rest of Intel's Classmate series, the Studybook is meant to find a home in schools here in the US and around the globe, including developing markets. And by most measures, this reference design is exactly the kind of product you would have expected Intel to cook up for such an audience. Starting with raw specs, you're looking at a 7-inch (1024 x 600), Atom-powered tablet that can be configured to run either Android or Windows 7, depending on the school district's needs. As you'd expect, it's been designed to take a beating from careless kids: the plastic, 525-gram (1.2-pound tablet) can withstand 70-centimeter (2.3-foot) drops and has a rubber band reinforcing the bezel to keep sand and other elements out. You'll also find rubber gasketing around the ports, which include USB 2.0, HDMI, a headphone jack and microSD / SIM slots. Though it comes standard with 1GB of RAM, the amount of built-in storage will vary from school to school: four to 32 gigs, or a 128GB SSD. Just as important as the specs is the software package, which includes Kno's e-reader app, as well as the LabCam suite, which lets you do things like attach a special lens (sold separately) to use that rear-facing 2-megapixel camera as a microscope. As for price, Intel is quick to emphasize it doesn't set the cost (that would be OEMs), but it believes manufacturers who use this design can sell the finished product for $200 or less. No word, then, on when this might show up in a classroom near you, but for now we've got hands-on photos below and a pair of walk-through videos just past the break.
Kno adds new smart textbook capabilities: Kno Me, gets to know you (video)
Remember those iPad textbooks from Kno? Well, conveniently in advance of that other education announcement this week, the company has added two new features to the edu-party: Kno Me and Kno Flashcards. The former is an interactive graphical dashboard that details your learning habits, such as time spent in a book, understanding of key terms and test grades -- perfect for nosey moms. Kno Flashcards, on the other hand, puts a new spin on the classic analog memory-jogger. Key points are automagically drawn from the book and compiled into cards, the software then uses metacognition, spaced repetition and episodic memory -- three terms that need flashcards right there -- to help you learn. Both are detailed in the video and PR after the break. Yes, there will be a quiz later.
Tech's biggest misfires of 2011
The past 12 months have been a boon of technological innovation, particularly in the world of mobile devices, where top companies have been waging an arms race for the top of the smartphone and tablet hills. Not everything has been smooth sailing, however -- 2011 has also been dotted by delays, false starts, security breeches and straight up technological turf outs. Check out some of the lowlights from the year that was after the break.
Watch out Farmville, Kno's bringing Textbooks to Facebook
Now this is clever. Adorable education / tech company Kno may not have had the best start in life, what with its large (and largely unsuccessful) dual-screen tablet and the subsequent sell-off of its hardware division. Since those dark days, Kno has reinvented itself as a software company, bringing an educational e-book store to the iPad and now opening up the market by going for the big one: any student with a Facebook account. All you have to do is add the Kno app to your Facebook profile and you get full access to the store, including the option to rent rather than buy the textbooks you need (all of which must be read in-browser). At the moment the service lacks the more interactive features common to the iPad but they're said to be "coming." What's clear is the potential such a move has, now we have to wait and see if studying can actually trump watering your pretend broccoli.
Kno brings textbooks to iPad, millions of children now dread getting Apple tablet for Christmas
You know the old saying, right? If you can't beat them, license your designs to third-party manufacturers and develop an app for your competitor's hardware. Kno's dual-screen tablet had a pretty tough road since its debut last summer. The educational device was plagued by shipping delays and low pre-order numbers, and by February of this year, the company effectively threw in the hardware towel. A few months later, Intel plunked down a bunch of money, so that Kno's dreams might live on in the designs of other manufacturers. The company's software plans are becoming a reality now, as well, with the release of Textbooks, which brings some 70,000 discounted educational titles to the iPad. The free app lets students read and organize texts, affix annotations, and communicate with study partners, offering creative new ways to pass notes in class. Press release after the break.
Intel licensing Kno hardware for partners with manufacturing knohow
A month or so ago, we reported that Kno was looking for a way out of the tablet hardware business and intended to transition itself into a purely software-centric operation. Well, now Bloomberg and All Things D tell us that a deal has been worked out to make that desire a reality. A $30 million investment round led by Intel Capital has reportedly been arranged, whose stipulations include granting Intel a license to the hardware designs and blueprints of the original dual-screen tablet. Chipzilla's share of the new buy-in is estimated at around $20 million, though before you start fantasizing about what the company's financial and R&D muscle could do for the platform, we should note that it apparently doesn't intend to build any tablets of its own. The goal is simply to obtain the knohow and share it with its OEM partners (while inevitably tying that gesture of goodwill to more chip orders). As to Kno itself, it'll try to exploit the new cash in its continued efforts to become an educational software delivery platform benefiting from its many partnerships with academic institutions. Knowledge is power, after all. Update: Not that there was much doubt, but this deal is now completely official. Press release is after the break.
Kno looking to sell off ambitious tablet hardware business, focus on software instead
Competition usually giveth, but sometimes it taketh away too. All Things D is reporting today that Kno, the company that aimed to deliver a most bodacious dual-screen tablet to students, is investigating the possibility of selling off its hardware venture and focusing exclusively on its software offering. Internal sources claim the "quicker-than-expected" move into tablets by big electronics makers has made the environment tougher for Kno, which is now said to be negotiating with a pair of companies about offloading its slate-selling business. Apparently, just a few hundred pre-orders of the Kno were fulfilled before the company stopped shipping them recently, which could be an indication that a deal may be close. We can only guess what a purchaser would want to do with the Kno tablet designs, but as for the company itself, it'll look to the iPad and Android-based tablets for its new market of opportunity -- no point in wasting all those textbook distribution partnerships.
Kno says some tablets will ship within 60 days, doesn't explain pre-order delay
We were somewhat taken aback when Kno confirmed its textbook tablet had been delayed without a word on when production would resume, but the company now says pre-orders will experience up to two months' delay before they ship out, and not all of them will. eBookNewser and CrunchGear report that shipments could be delayed until as late as April 14th, and that the first shipment will be restricted "to a limited number of students and teachers." Kno still hasn't provided a reason for the delay, but we think that the newly closed-off website says a lot. "You now need an invitation to get a Kno," it reads, "There aren't enough to go around."
Kno shipments delayed, no word on why or for how long
What is it with tablets and ship date shenanigans? After getting some tips from Kno pre-orderers (who should've started receiving this monstrosity last year) that their shipments had been delayed, we pinged Kno and got some ultra-vague confirmation of that fact: Things at Kno are going well. However, as you noted below, there has been a shipment delay. As soon as Kno has new information, we will share that with customers and can certainly give you a heads up if that is helpful. There's no mention of any of this on Kno's website, and typically with this sort of a delay there's at least some sort of reasoning -- "the boxes we got are the wrong size," or "our Lego testing robot broke down," or something smooth like that. Of course, we're sure there's some sort of explanation forthcoming. This is no cause to believe Kno is in serious danger of not shipping its tablet, or that it's trying to pull a fast one, but Kno has unfortunately happened upon a disturbing trend in the tablet space that we'd love to be well rid of by now. [Thanks, Chris]
Lego bot built to test Kno's tablet textbook, human overlords watch gleefully (video)
Just because the first few tablet textbooks have shipped doesn't mean that members of Kno's development team are resting on their laurels. Product testing on the Kno tablet continues -- and it looks like Lego is doing the heavy lifting. They've put our favorite plastic building blocks to work by constructing a Kno stress tester out of Lego Technic parts. The robot checks both the Kno's ambient light sensor and the ability of its touchscreen to accurately track the system's pen swipes and flicks. Though not as intricate as a Lego replica of a 2000+ year old mechanical computer, the robot -- with its hypnotic pendulum-like motion -- is still a sight to behold. Check the video after the break.
Kno single and dual-screen tablets hands-on (video)
You know about Kno right? Yep, it's that giant dual-screen tablet up there that's meant for students, and while we had seen an early version of it and its single-screen brother about six months ago, we figured we'd take a closer look at the shipping versions here at CES. Our first impression of the thing is that it's one awesome tablet for taking notes. Both the dual-screen and single-screen versions come with a magnetic stylus, which not only latches onto the side of the screen but provides an incredibly smooth inking experience. As you will see in the video below, you can write over text in a textbook and even create a Post-it note. The palm rejection is also top notch, and considering your entire wrist has to rest on the display to take notes at the top of the screen, it's pretty clutch. The rest of the hardware is equally as first rate -- the metal make obviously makes 'em both quite heavy (the single tablet is 2.6 pounds and the dual-screen one 5.6 pounds), but they feel very rigid and we really dig the etched edges, which were designed specifically to mimic pages in a textbook. The bright 1440 x 900-resolution IPS displays provide very wide viewing angles. So, how's the Linux-based software interface? Unlike the version we saw a while back, it was pretty responsive and intuitive. You've got the My Apps section, which contains links to web applications, and the My Library section, which is where you'll be able to purchase books and open them. The browser supports multiple tabs and the on-screen keyboard is obviously quite wide. At this point there's no way to convert handwriting to text, so you've got to use the keyboard within web apps. We've got to say, Kno has made a solid piece of hardware with an equally impressive textbook reading and note-taking experience, but we're still not convinced that anyone out there wants to carry around one, nevertheless two 14-inch touchscreens. (Kno claims that students actually carry more weight around than that between textbooks, laptops, etc.) But hey, the only way we know how to find that out is to get one of these, throw it in the backpack, and try using it in real life. Until that happens, hit the break for a hands-on video. %Gallery-113291%
Kno tablets start shipping this week: quick, make desk space!
Did you happen to pre-order a single- or dual-screen 14.1-inch Kno tablet textbook? Alright, we're assuming that schools and wealthy students were the only ones that actually did, but regardless, the monster-sized tablets are starting to ship out this week. According to the press release after the break, both the single- and dual-display versions are being boxed up and will be sent out to those early pre-orderers over the next couple of weeks. However, if you were hoping that this would mark the launch of the general availability of the enlarged tablets, that's just not the case yet -- you still have to receive an "invitation" and complete a "request for purchase" form on its website. That means even we'll be waiting longer to get one of these our hands, but if you're one of the lucky ones to receive one of these bad boys this week, let us what you think of it in the comments!
Kno knows its way around the FCC, both single and dual screen
Wouldn't you Kno it -- sorry, we couldn't resist -- the Kno has found its way into the confines of FCC's labyrinthine headquarters. But not just one version, no sir / ma'am, the FCC tested both the single screen and dual screen versions together, it seems. External photos of the pair (or is it triplet?) can be found within the same entry, and while the user manual is also included, there's nothing to glean from it. Feel free to enjoy the iconic photography all the same! %Gallery-110274%
Switched On: Getting from Kno to yes, part 2
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The last Switched On introduced the opportunity of the Kno tablet, which is in transition from having a large hardware footprint to having a large customer footprint. Without question, the Kno hardware is an outlier, but could be simply a first salvo in a battle for digital textbooks that will take years to play out. Look at the ironic development of e-readers. Today's LCD-based Nook Color would not exist if Sony and Amazon had not opened (and soothed) consumers' eyes with e-paper-based readers that were themselves an answer to an early generation of LCD-based products like the Rocket e-Book. The outlier shows the potential.
Switched On: Getting from Kno to yes, part 1
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Oh, e-readers are e-readers. And tablets are tablets. And surely the twain shall meet. Indeed, they already have, with the iPad hosting not only its own integrated bookstore, but client software from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and others. Barnes & Noble, in turn, describes its new Nook Color as a "readers' tablet." But these devices and their affiliated digital bookstores are all chasing the same avid readers of bestsellers. These readers read mostly for leisure or self-directed enrichment as they can fit it in to their schedules. But those who sell e-readers and tablets would really like to tap into a market of people who have to read versus want to read -- not just the low-stakes novellas of Amazon singles, but hefty, cumbersome, expensive, perpetually obsolete tomes that are assigned to 19 million full-time college students annually. The National Association of College Stores estimates that the average full-time college student spends nearly $700 per year on course materials. For the 2008-2009 school year, the average new textbook price was $64. And the mean gross margin on course materials for a college bookstore is 27 percent. That is a prize worth pursuing. But can a device dedicated to the way students study survive amidst an onslaught of tablets from every corner of the PC, consumer electronics and cell phone industries? Kno thinks the answer is yes.
