But maybe the problem is that there aren’t enough qualified engineers, because there aren’t enough people studying computer science in the United States, because not enough schools teach it.

That’s the premise of Hadi Partovi’s nonprofit Code.org, for which he has enlisted the support of people like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Drew Houston and Miami Heat player Chris Bosh, who studied computer science before getting paid to play basketball for a living.

Partovi was previously a long-term Microsoft exec as well as a VP at TellMe and a founder of music startup iLike. He has made savvy early investments in companies like Facebook, Dropbox and Opower.

So what exactly will Partovi do to improve the state of computer science education? That’s actually unclear. “We can’t solve this unless people realize it is a problem,” Partovi said last week.

The first step is a star-studded short film with endorsements from a range of role models about the value of computer programming. “There’s nothing I’ve worked on that’s been more easy to convince people of,” Partovi said.

Here’s a five-minute version:

After first getting the word out and posting resources for teachers, Partovi said, his next steps will be getting more deeply involved in computer science education.

And here is Partovi’s slate of stats to try to help people realize the extent of the problem he’s trying to solve:

• 41 out of 50 states don’t recognize computer science as counting toward math or science graduation credit. It’s just an elective.
• 9 out of 10 schools don’t even teach computer programming (more if you count middle school or elementary), and that number is declining.
• Only 2 percent of students graduate with computer science degrees.
• There are 1.4 million computing jobs in the U.S. over the next decade, and schools are on track for only 400,000 graduates. The difference is 1 million jobs, or $500 billion.

Sixteen tables line the sides of the showcase at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Grinning merchants man each one, enticing customers with their wares. For these startups, it’s their chance to make that major sale and perhaps win the support of a venture capitalist.

One vendor happily completes a transaction with the flourish of a fuzzy, flower pen. Another group advertises their deluxe options — laptop stickers that range from “I <3 Justin Bieber” to “One Directioner.”

If this sounds a bit junior high to you, you’d be right: All the companies have been started and run by seventh grade girls.

Welcome to Entrepreneurial Night for the Girls Middle School, a progressive intermediate school in Palo Alto, Calif. Founded by tech entrepreneur Kathleen Bennett in 1998, the school’s goal is to foster girls’ curiosity in typically male-centric areas — namely, entrepreneurship and science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.

“Middle school is the time when [girls] stop identifying as liking those subjects or being good at those subjects,” said Dan Glass, GMS’ director of communications.

Parents agree. “Boys tend to hog the mic in classrooms, especially on those types of topics and especially in Silicon Valley where their fathers are all engineers,” said Brad Williams, a GMS parent whose daughter, Caroline, currently attends the 6th grade. “The idea was that girls in a girls-only environment have an unobstructed path to choosing science, technology, engineering, math if they’re interested without it being selected away from them by a bunch of boys who are more assertive.”

GMS curriculum is Silicon Valley to the core. Students follow a six-day course rotation that cycles through a regular five-day week to make room for unconventional requirements, including computer science and entrepreneurial studies.

The mandatory entrepreneurial program is one of the school’s centerpieces, with 150 companies started since the program’s inception. Recruitment starts in sixth grade and is focused on building teamwork, as the girls are thrown together on various camping trips and other bonding activities. They work together at open tables.

After observing the students’ work habits throughout the year, they are then grouped together to begin writing their business proposals and learning the importance of teamwork.

Like actual entrepreneurs, the girls learn basic accounting, write up a business plan and go through a prototyping process with focus groups, with their goods targeted at other middle school girls.

And, if groups pitch similar business plans, they must diversify. For example, Snuggle Up creates custom pillows and blankets, while Pillow Pockets makes animal pillows with, as the name suggests, a pocket in the back to hold small items.

Though they receive plenty of support and mentorship along the way, students are ultimately required to run the business on their own, with no outsourcing to parents allowed unless they’re willing to be hired at the standard $2 per hour rate. Each girl receives a designated title as the vice president of communications, finance, marketing or manufacturing.

Each startup is expected to develop a product and sell enough to pay back the school’s initial loan — usually between $100 and $200 — as well as donate some profits to charity. Leftover materials are liquidated at the end of the year.

“You walk into a seventh grade classroom and you’d see one group of girls with scissors and sewing machines,” Glass said. “And one group of girls is working on printing on water bottles.”

Whether or not GMS actually inspires the next generation of female entrepreneurs remains to be seen. The school is only 15 years old, which means its oldest alumni haven’t even exited their 20s yet. But, according to Glass, a number have gone the entrepreneurial route, including one who started a jewelry-making business.

GMS holds an Entrepreneurial Night as a culmination of the girls’ achievements. By the time the event rolls around in late January, most, if not all, startups have more than repaid the school’s initial loan. Here, they have a chance to make their grand pitch in front of a panel of real-life venture capitalists, along with an audience of more than a hundred people.

“They learn that communication is most essential when you have to present to investors and present to your parents,” humanities teacher Amoy Walker said, with the girls learning self-presentation skills including inflection, body language and eye contact.

For parents who feared their daughters would lose their voices to outspoken boys, it was clear at Entrepreneurial Night that those voices were definitely present, loud and strong.

Of course, there were still nerves. As the young entrepreneurs filed into Hahn Auditorium, some closed their eyes and did breathing exercises. GMS parent and entrepreneurial coach Roberta Friedman cheered on her charges.

“You’ll be fine! You guys know what you’re doing!,” she reassured them.

The presentations covered the basics of the product, the girls’ journey from conception to execution, competition and a proposal to the VCs for a $100 loan with the promise of full repayment, plus three percent of their total profit. Some girls spoke clearly and confidently, while others were visibly nervous and stumbled. However, overall, the girls exuded professionalism with a healthy dose of endearing, preadolescent charm.

One Pillow Pockets VP assessed her products’ main competition — Pillow Pets.

“They’re a pillow and a pet,” she declared. “But we’re a pillow, a pet and a pocket!”

Another startup, CTRL + ALT + DEL explained the story behind its name. The girls recycle old keyboard keys and remote control buttons to make jewelry and key chains.

“Somebody asked for a CTRL + ALT + DEL pin to wear during meetings but we had no idea what that meant because we all have Macs,” the girl stated matter-of-factly. However, they liked the name so much, they adopted it.

In the end, each VC invests in two startups — with everyone receiving funding. So not exactly the ending for every Silicon Valley startup, but it’s certainly a nice beginning.

With three out of four of the best-selling digital toys of the last year, LeapFrog is expected by Wall Street to announce solid fourth-quarter returns today, buoyed by robust holiday sales. Analysts are looking for the Emeryville, Calif., educational toy company to earn 49 cents a share on revenue of $223 million in the period.

Strong Q4 earnings are typical, since LeapFrog usually has strong seasonal sales. This year, its LeapPad 2 sold out on Amazon, Target, Toys “R” Us and Walmart at the full $99 price.

The performance is a small beacon of light in the overall flagging state of the toy sector, which is quickly shifting to digital products, such as the tablets that LeapFrog makes.

With an increasingly tech-savvy generation of children to satisfy, LeapFrog is in a comfortable position to focus on considerable expansion in 2013, particularly internationally. It recently inked deals with Viacom International Media Networks to expand its Nickelodeon content to overseas markets in the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

LeapFrog will have to invest in substantial R&D in 2013, and it faces more competition, as other kid-centric tablets have flooded the market recently.

LeapFrog will announce its fourth-quarter results at 2 pm PT.

The ThinkPad X131e, which has already been sold to schools as a Windows-based laptop, is now running the Google Chrome OS, and supports Google Apps designed for education.

Lenovo’s announcement is light on specifics. I’m willing to bet some K-12 kids know their processors in this day and age, but for now, Lenovo is simply stating that the 11.6-inch Chromebook has an “Intel processor,” along with an anti-glare LED screen, USB and HDMI ports. It weighs “under four pounds.”

The $429 ThinkPad X131e isn’t being sold directly to consumers, but will be sold at volume pricing to K-12 education institutions. It will be available Feb. 26.

Since the launch of Chromebooks, Google has extolled the benefits of the lightweight, low-cost laptops in classrooms. For Lenovo, which has a long-standing relationship with the Microsoft Windows OS, it’s an interesting move. It’s not a giant leap into the Chromebook market, by any means, but Lenovo is certainly dipping its toe into new territory with the Chromebook OS for the X131e shell.

John Jay Science and Engineering Academy started making students carry “smart ID” badges implanted with microchips this fall to ensure they are counted as present, since some state funding is tied to student attendance.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Last night, San Francisco got a high-dose injection of East Coast media experts.

In an event space once belonging to the San Francisco Chronicle, New York University’s Clay Shirky, Columbia University’s Emily Bell and City University of New York’s C.W. Anderson sat down for an onstage interview with AllThingsD editor Kara Swisher (who is herself a transplant from the New York area).

The group convened at Intersection for the Arts to discuss “Post-Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present,” a new report published by the Columbia Journalism School, which also hosted the event for its centennial. You can find the full report at this link; it is also embedded at the bottom of this story.

After the event, I caught up with Anderson and Bell for a few postgame questions about the changing state of the media:

Many of the people in attendance tonight were in some way connected to the media. Why should people outside those circles pick up this report?

C.W. Anderson: To understand the hypercharged individual. If you want to understand how technology is empowering individuals to have all sorts of new responsibilities, but also significantly more ability and authority, you should read this report. There is far more pressure on you, and far more responsibility, because you’re now acting in public in a new way.

And for those who are in the media, what can they do? Is there some action individual journalists can take now?

Anderson: Individual journalists should familiarize themselves with how a database works, how an Excel spreadsheet works.

Most seem to know nothing about that.

Anderson: Yeah, my initial answer would be, “Oh you should learn to code.” But let’s not even go there yet.

Why not?

Anderson: Because, as you said, most journalists don’t even know how an Excel spreadsheet works.

So it’s a step-by-step thing?

Anderson: One thing at a time. Every journalist should learn some basic coding skills — not necessarily becoming coders themselves, but understanding the people who do in their organization, understanding what they can ask from them. But, hey, baby steps. Do Excel first.

Emily Bell: It’s really about understanding that the world of information is changing very quickly. We’ve always aligned journalism with things like marketing and PR, because it’s about telling stories and how you present something. But what about journalism as finding and distributing information? Learn math.

What about news editors? What should they do?

Bell: There was a phase of everything being converged — the offline and online newsroom. I wonder now whether a lot of that was a big waste of time. [Laughs] That’s why I think so many journalists now leave and do their own thing. They want to be freed of whatever that process is, just to experiment with new stuff. It sounds wishy-washy to say “enable your staff,” but that’s a hard thing to do.

And what about that distinction between journalists and non-journalists? Do we need better media literacy?

Bell: The public and journalism are indistinguishable. Journalism as a profession and a trade can’t take all of this on. Some of this has to be about how society is changing. Often, people produce really good journalism, but if they’re not journalists, they don’t do it all the time.

And that’s not a problem.

Bell: No. But we need people doing it all the time.

Read the entire report, “Post-Industrial Journalism,” here:

Uh-oh. Even though the economy is still ping-ponging its way toward recovery, we’re already hearing the ominous “B” word: Could we already be seeing signs of an investment bubble in what has historically been a tough market, namely education?

“Digital learning may be getting too popular among some entrepreneurs and investors,” warned longtime writer Frank Catalano in GeekWire. “K-12 and other education segments are now being chased by a mob of investment capitalists,” he added. Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist with Union Square Ventures, agrees that a crowd is gathering. “I certainly believe that lots of entrepreneurs and investors think there’s a lot of money to be made in the intersection of education and technology,” Wilson said, speaking at the EdStartup 101 MOOC recently (watch it here).

But does that spell b-u-b-b-l-e?

You’ve got to love the question — and love the fact that people are vaulting eagerly into the debate, adjectives blazing. Why? Because the fact that we’re already having this kind of debate may indeed save education from getting trampled by those infected with gold-rush fever — and leave enough room for real innovation.

I’ve spent decades covering the emergence of just about every technology-driven industry — from personal computers to steel mini-mills, nanotech to biotechnology and now education. Through my work at EdSurge, I’ve seen “mission-driven” innovators, and those seeking the next gold rush.

Telling them apart is crucial, though tricky. (And watch out: they can morph.) From a distance, those drawn to mission-driven sectors and gold rushes look similar. The players are young, and work with feverish intensity. They declare success, early and loudly. And they live for the promise of what they will do, overlooking the problems snapping at their ankles.

But, broadly speaking, one creates innovations; the other stirs — or worse, drains — the pot. So who has the upper hand now?

Numbers are a big signal — and ed tech is look troubling. At the height of the dot-com boom in 1999, 106 education technology (K-16, as well as corporate and test prep) companies were funded, according to investment firm GSV Advisors. Last year, we surpassed that peak, funding 127 ed tech companies — including 48 in the K-12 sector.

This year’s tally will surely be higher. EdSurge has already reported close to 100 ed tech financings this year. (Since we include both small angel rounds and larger secondary rounds, we might be capturing more deals than GSV, but I’d wager that their numbers will show more activity, too.)

There’s no question that the spurt of ed tech companies in 1999 was a bubble, shiny and fragile (and puffed up by the overall dot-com bubble machine). A year earlier, a mere 11 ed tech companies were funded, reports GSV Partners. And within a decade, a whopping 75 percent of those 1999 ed tech companies had had a Humpty Dumpty-like fall.

Look closer, however, and you will see that, even a decade later, the market those companies was chasing was — all things considered — pretty darn small: Simba Information reports that in 2009, U.S. K-12 schools spent about $8.1 billion on instructional materials. About half of that money went to three big companies — Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt, Pearson, and McGraw-Hill — leaving the market for “digital courseware” (again in 2009) to amount to a bit more than $500 million. That has made for slim pickings for the more than 100 K-12 ed tech venture companies started between 2001 and 2009 (not to mention any older hangers-on).

And that’s where the differences between now and 1999 begin.

For starters, the market for ed tech companies is genuinely growing. States are exploring moving to 1:1 computer:student ratios (Idaho just followed Maine’s lead). Other states are changing their rules to let districts buy digital materials with traditional textbook funds. The State Educational Technology Directors Association recently recommended that states and districts commit to shifting from print to digital instruction materials with the goal of “completing the transition” within five years. Then there’s the Common Core — the new education standards that most states will be implementing. These will require new materials, curriculum and, yes, tools, to support teachers.

Equally important, many of the people running ed tech companies are — at least for now — classic mission-driven people. For instance, not every Teach For America volunteer continues to teach in the classroom after their two years. But their desire to improve education and children’s lives is still strong. Many are starting education technology companies (including the likes of Grockit, Clever, Kickboard and many others). Even one of EdSurge’s co-founders was a TFA-er.

People in mission-inspired industries pursue a goal that is bigger than they are — and, if you pull them aside at the end of a long day, they will probably confess that they don’t know if what they are building will succeed. They are “innovators,” in the way that business school professor Clayton Christensen described: Taking ideas from other fields or industries and applying them, with a twist, in a new environment. They trust their instincts and look for evidence and, at the end of the day, believe deeply in the promise of their mission.

Mission-driven innovators pour their efforts into building, testing and rebuilding their products. They’re cheap when it comes to marketing; they believe their best salesforce consists of happy customers.

Gold-rush companies, by contrast, are copycats, or if you want to put it more politely, “fast followers.” Someone else has demonstrated that there’s a market or demand for an idea — possibly too broadly conceived, as in 1999, when anything “digital” seemed promising. But the gold diggers are primarily seeking customers. Their marketing dollars often outweigh — and sometimes by a large share — their development costs. Sales, not innovation, is king.

Do mission-driven innovators “know” what they’re doing will work? Nope. It’s a work in progress — and they know it. The minute they do demonstrate compelling effectiveness, though, the gates threaten to swing open to the gold-rush-style imitators.

And therein lies the challenge — and perhaps the saving grace — of education.

Unlike just about every other industry on the planet, we’re not entirely sure what constitutes “success” in education. Do we want kids to score better on tests? Memorize facts? Pass algebra? Go to college? Get jobs? Have happy and fulfilling lives? Follow their passions and learn independently? The answer is, “Yes, and …”

What do we know works in schools? We know “great teachers” make a difference. We know that children’s basic needs must be met in order for them to be “ready to learn.” We’re increasingly convinced that students’ “mind-set” matters: They have to believe that they can learn, and have the grit and determination to persevere through inevitable setbacks.

We also know that there are not enough dollars in school budgets to deliver those things for all students. And every other industry on the planet, when confronted with the need to do more with less, has turned to technology for leverage.

Ed tech innovators are waist deep trying to figure out how to build tools that will provide leverage to teachers. What makes it tough is that the target (“success”) keeps shifting — and except in very rare instances, the technology on its own isn’t enough. We need teachers. How well they wield technology makes all the difference.

The more closely entrepreneurs work with teachers, the more likely they are to build products — and processes — that genuinely support learning. There will surely be a lot of start-ups — a “hypercompetitive” lot, as Fred Wilson suggests. But as long as we remember that it takes both the tool and the teacher to create success, the mission-driven innovators will outnumber the market-driven copycats. And innovation will outshine the bubbles.

Betsy Corcoran is co-founder of EdSurge, the fastest-growing source of news and reviews on education technology for both educators and entrepreneurs.

If you’re looking for a surprise here, you won’t find it. As predicted, Apple delivered a smaller version of the tablet it first brought out in April 2010.

And, earlier this morning, Tim Cook announced that Apple had sold 100 million of the full-sized ones since then.

So why buy the new one? Apple’s messaging today comes down to two basic ideas:

• The iPad mini is just as good as the regular iPads.
• The iPad mini is much better than the smaller tablets you’ve seen from Amazon and Google.

Is that enough? Earlier in his presentation, Cook argued convincingly that consumers didn’t have much interest in rival tablets, boasting that 91 percent of all Web traffic on tablets comes from iPads. But, as we now know, Apple’s own executives think there’s value in a smaller tablet, even if Steve Jobs publicly disagreed.

Time to see what consumers think.

——————

We know that Apple is showing off a new iPad today. And we know it will be smaller and cheaper than its other models.

But while we obsess over the details that Tim Cook and company unveil at the California Theatre in San Jose this morning, it’s worth keeping the big picture in mind: How will Apple convince consumers to buy a smaller version of the thing they have already bought 84 million times?

There seems to be a pretty good business case for Apple here: Google and Amazon are making increasingly attractive mini tablets. And even if those gadgets don’t appear to be making much of a dent in iPad sales so far, there’s no reason to let them have the minipad market to themselves.

Plus, there’s the fact that Apple executives who aren’t Steve Jobs seem to think a small tablet is a good thing.

But that’s all behind-the-scenes stuff. For the past two years, Apple has been telling consumers that the tablet it makes is perfect for use at home, at work and on the road. So, what does a smaller version of the same thing have to offer?

We’ll get to hear Apple make its case very soon. Tune in below for live coverage. You can also watch the event stream in real time, as long as you have an Apple computer, Apple TV or iOS device.

Greetings! Typing at you live from San Jose. In theory, Apple event should kick off in 10 minutes.

9:53 am: Time to play “name that song.” Currently in rotation: Something that sounds like El DeBarge. Though pretty sure it isn’t.

9:54 am: Also have time to introduce my fellow ATD writers, who are also on hand to contribute live reports. Say hello to John “The Brow” Paczkowski, Bonnie “Boom Boom” Cha, and Adam Tow, who is so cool he doesn’t need a nickname.

(FYI, Adam is the guy who takes all the great photos you’re seeing. He’s also the guy who keeps the site running. Good guy to suck up to.)

9:56 am: Interesting. SoundHound works even with the din in here. So I can tell you we’re now listening to something called “It’s Time” by something called Imagine Dragons. (Sounds like Simple Minds, for you oldsters.)

10:00 am: And we’re on. Here’s Tim Cook. Loud applause.

10:01 am: Cook intro-ing. “Really exciting things to show you.”

Update time, beginning with iPhone.

Superlatives for iPhone 5 opening-weekend sales, which we’ve heard about.

Now a video of people buying phones at Apple stores.

Buying an iPhone 5 was very, very exciting. Even more so if you had a thumping, soaring soundtrack behind you as you made your purchase.

No ugly people bought iPhone 5s opening weekend.

10:04 am: Cook is back onstage.

Now recapping intro of iPod touch, nano. Shoutout to The Verge, which is apparently off the Apple shitlist.

Sold three million new iPod touches, nanos.

iOS 6 now on 200 million devices.

“Phenomenal!”

“Fastest upgrade rate” of any device “we’re aware of.”

More feature recaps.

125 million documents “in the Cloud.” Wonder if that includes music files.

300 billion iMessages in last year. [Applause] 28,000 per second.

160 million Game Center accounts. (I have one. Have never used it.)

70 million photos shared.

App store: Last month, 700,000 iOS apps. Now 275,000 iPad apps. Both numbers “growing,” Cook says.

New milestone: 35 billion apps downloaded.

“This is jaw-dropping.”

$6.5 billion paid out to developers. Someone back that math out, and you can figure out total app sales.

iBooks: 1.5 million titles available.

Cook is uptempo, selling hard this morning. Bezos-like.

New version of iBooks out today. “Really cool new reading option”: Continuous scrolling. A few “ahs” from the crowd.

New sharing feature with Facebook, Twitter.

Now supports Japanese, Chinese text.

“You’re going to love it.”

On to the Mac. Apple outgrew the PC market, 15 percent to 2 percent, in the last year. Been doing that for six years.

Because everyone everywhere says Mac is the best.

10:14 am: Going to continue innovating with Mac. So here’s Phil Schiller to talk about it. [Loud applause]

MacBook: 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display was perhaps the best we’ve made. Engadget, The Verge, Wired all praised us.

But No. 1-selling notebook, and Mac, is 13-inch MacBook Pro. “Just perfect for so many uses.”

So we’re going to “introduce something so much better.”

Here’s the 13-inch MacBook Pro. [Loud applause]

.75-inch thin. Look, it’s 20 percent thinner than the last model. At 3.5 pounds, it’s “almost a pound lighter” than the last one.

“Look how thin it is.”

Bye-bye, optical drive.

Retina display, like all of you said it would have.

2,560 by 1,660 pixels.

“Second-highest-resolution notebook display.” 15-inch Macbook is highest.

Schiller is trying to tell us that you’ll get a better image on your notebook than on your HDTV.

“Surfing the Web could be like a fine print magazine.”

Great for photographers. Lots of Retina-optimized apps.

“But there’s a lot more”: Better speakers, HD camera, etc.

On to the innards: “Everything about the new MacBook Pro has been reengineered from scratch.”

Chips: Intel Ivy Bridge, Intel HD Graphics.

“It is a fantastic computer.”

10:22 am: Meanwhile! Eagle-eyed John Paczkowski points out that on the right side of the stage, there appears to be something draped in black cloth on a black stand. If you squint and hope, you could imagine something like a big monitor under there …

10:23 am: Now an ad.

Starting pricing: MacBook Air, $999; MacBook Pro, $1,199; MacBook Pro w/Retina, $1,699.

“It is the best lineup of portables we have ever offered.”

10:25 am: New: Mac mini. “You knew there’d be something called ‘mini’ in this presentation.” [Applause]

Haven’t heard anyone talk about Mac mini in a very long time. New innards. Better chips, more storage, RAM. Entry-level is $599.

10:27 am: iMac. It’s “the best all-in-one computer in the industry.”

Remember the original iMac from 1998?

Schiller shows off something that looks like those “evolution of man” posters, showing iMacs over the years.

Ooohs and ahs for new super-thin iMac. Followed by loudest applause of morning.

Sustained applause.

Still clapping.

Schiller: “Stunning from every side.”

10:29 am: So there’s that mystery solved. It was a monitor under wraps over there. It just happens to have a computer built into it.

5mm-thin edge. Extends down to “the chin” of the device.

They used something called “friction stir welding” to put the device together.

It brings back the image of the old iMac, which now looks like a sad fatty hanging out with Louis C.K. at the Cinnabon.

10:32 am: Many more specs, explanations of how they made it so thin. For instance: “Plasma deposition process.”

Eight pounds lighter than old tubby iMac.

“There is a serious computer inside this thin design.”

New iMac cannot fly, nor can it turn water into wine.

New “Apple Fusion Drive” is available for both mini and iMac. 128GB flash. 1 terabyte or 3TB HDD. “Fused into a single volume.”

Basic idea: Fusion Drive figures out, on the fly, what stuff should go over to flash drive, which should be relegated to HDD. “You just use it, it works.”

Fusion Drive gets round of applause.

Entry level for new iMac: $1,299. More applause.

Shipping next month.

Next level up: $1,799. Those won’t ship till December.

Uses 50 percent less energy. “Perhaps the boldest new iMac designs we’ve ever created.”

10:38 am: Schiller off, Cook back.

“These products are really cool.”

Next up: iPad.

New stat: Two weeks ago, sold our 100-millionth iPad. Applause.

That’s in 2.5 years, remember. “Unprecedented for a new product in a new category.”

“This has attracted a fair amount of attention.” But no one is using rival tablets, Cook says: iPads account for 91 percent of tablet Web traffic.

Why are iPads killing it? “Turns out there is a simple reason for it. People love their iPads.”

Cook sings praises of existing iPad line.

So …

Wait for it …

Not there yet: Some education talk.

Students, teachers love the iPad. Here’s a testimonial from a school superintendent in Texas.

Refers to iBooks Author, introduced earlier this year. (Haven’t heard much about this since.)

New iPad textbooks so great they make you want to be a kid again. Now in 2,500 classrooms in the U.S.

Not just Big Three publishers, but little ones, too.

New version of iBooks Author. (Note that yesterday McGraw-Hill was offering executive for interview, post-event.)

Easier to update books, etc. Available today.

10:45 am: Time to talk up iPad in the office.

94 percent of Fortune 500 “testing or deploying iPad.”

“Just getting started …”

Still winding up: Newest iPad is awesome. “But we’re not taking our foot off the gas.”

10:47 am: Cook off, Schiller back.

Schiller: Fourth-generation iPad. “Amazing … it is a powerhouse.”

New A6X chip.

2x faster than last chip for CPU, for graphics. New “image signal processor,” etc.

Ten-hour battery life. Upgraded camera. LTE with “greatly expanded coverage.” Working with many new carriers, including Sprint.

New cables, connectors.

Retina display, of course. Comes in “both black and white.”

Starts at $499 for 16GB. $629 with cellular.

“So, what else can we do to help customers find even more uses for iPad …”

10:50 am: And here we go: iPad mini (or whatever they’re calling it). Loudest applause yet.

Yup, “iPad mini.”

“What can you do with iPad mini that you can’t do” with regular iPad? “This” — you can hold it in one hand.

Again, crucial here for Schiller, et al, to explain why you want one of these, not just to talk specs.

Then again, crowd already pumped.

Thin as a pencil, light as a pad of paper.

Screen size: It had to be smaller, but not too small, etc. iPad 2: 9.7-inch diagnoal, iPad mini, 7.9-inch. Both have same pixel count. So all software created for iPad already works on mini.

“Great for reading your email, responding to your email, surfing the Web.”

Great for magazines, books, HD phone calls. Great for all of your iWork apps. “It is so much fun” to play GarageBand on this.

Facebook shout-out.

Games: Real Racing 2.

No one else can say their apps work great on shrunken tablets.

Compares iPad mini side by side with Google’s Nexus 7, without calling it out by name.

Apple’s display is bigger — 7.9-inch to 7-inch. That’s 29.6 square inches, compared to 21.9. 35 percent larger. “That’s a huge difference.”

Shows off Web page for Guggenheim site, argues that, in practicality, it’s 49 percent bigger, once you strip out the Android “noise” around it. Flip it over, and it’s 67 percent.

Two messages so far: iPad mini is like iPad, but smaller. iPad mini is like Google’s Nexus, but better.

Shout-out to TripAdvisor. Did I also hear him name-check Pandora?

iPad mini’s innards better than iPad 2’s.

Better chip, 5MP iSight camera, LTE wireless, faster Wi-Fi.

Ten-hour battery life.

“Every inch an iPad.”

11:00 am: Here’s a video.

Jony Ive, of course.

This sounds like The Jam in the background. Wonder if that’s right.

This isn’t just a shrunken iPad, says Jony Ive. If we just shrunk it, you’d notice “loss.” This is not just a “reduction of the original.”

More spec talk.

(Apple isn’t arguing that there’s anything you can do with this — short of holding it one-handed — that you can’t already do with the devices it is already selling. And that alone may be enough for some people. But I assume that the price will be the real kicker here.)

11:05 am: Schiller back.

Comes with its own line of covers (optional).

Starts at 16GB. $329 for Wi-Fi only.

Still selling iPad 2 at $399.

Preorder starts Friday. W-Fi ships next week. Two weeks later, shipping Wi-Fi + cellular.

And here comes a TV ad.

Not a word. Very smart.

11:09 am: Schiller off, Cook on.

2012 wrap-up. “We told you earlier this year you would see some incredible innovation this year … we think we kept our promise.”

Sparing you recap of things we’re already heard about today. My hunch: No one more thing today. Hope I’m wrong!

“Yes, it has been an incredible year.”

“A truly prolific year of innovation for Apple.”

Shout-outs to Apple employees. “They dedicate a huge part of their lives to making the best products on Earth.”

Applause. Cook beams.

“These are the most talented and innovative people I know, and it is a privilege to work with them”

11:12 am: And that’s a wrap.
Closing music from Jack Black, via his new “Blunderbuss” album, which is excellent. [Correction: That's Jack White, of course. Thanks to reader RichardL for noting.]

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