***************************************************** Edupage is a service of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. *****************************************************
TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2006 Apple Regains Lost Ground on Campus Students Create Fantasy Congress Online Game Hackers Fleece Online Brokerages APPLE REGAINS LOST GROUND ON CAMPUS After losing a considerable amount of market share among college students in the 1990s, Apple has lately seen sales of its computers on campus rise to the number two spot behind Dell. Although Dell still controls more than half of the higher education market, Apple has ridden a wave of support to pass IBM, Gateway, HP, and other makers. Officials from Apple said that sales of portable Macs rose nearly 50 percent during this year's back-to-school season over the same period last year. According to Student Monitor, of the students considering buying a laptop within one year, 40 percent plan to buy Dell, while 21 percent said they will opt for a Mac, which is well ahead of HP and Sony at just 6 percent each. In part, observers said, the popularity of Macs results from the "cool" factor that was spawned by the iPod, which has become extremely popular among college students. Coolness only goes so far, however, after which performance is key. Dianne Lynch, dean of the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College, said that when the school of communications was deciding which laptop to require incoming freshmen to purchase, it settled on the MacBook Pro because, aside from being cool, the machines came equipped with an "outstanding multimedia software package." Inside Higher Ed, 25 October 2006 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/10/25/macs STUDENTS CREATE FANTASY CONGRESS ONLINE GAME Picking up on the concept behind online fantasy sports leagues, a group of college students have created Fantasy Congress. In fantasy sports, players build fictional teams whose performance is calculated based on the results of the real players who compose the teams. In Fantasy Congress, players assemble a team of U.S. lawmakers who try to get legislation passed. Players compete over the Internet against other slates of lawmakers. Andrew Lee, a senior at Claremont McKenna College and one of the game's creators, said he hoped the game would urge people to spend as much time thinking about politics as they do about sports. Doing so, he said, would result in "a better democracy." Indeed, a recent study estimated that productivity losses among U.S. workers who play Fantasy Football during the NFL regular season amount to $1.1 billion per week. Lee, who described himself as "obsessed with politics," said, "It would be better if we had more kids who wanted to be members of Congress." CNET, 25 October 2006 http://news.com.com/2100-1043_3-6129291.html HACKERS FLEECE ONLINE BROKERAGES Identity thieves continue to take a toll on online brokerages, racking up millions of dollars in losses to trading houses. Brokerages typically cover losses resulting from fraud, rather than forcing customers to pay. TD Ameritrade Holding issued a statement indicating that in the previous quarter, losses from fraud totaled $4 million. E*Trade Financial said it lost $18 million in the same period. Officials from the two companies downplayed the news. Joseph Moglia, chief executive of TD Ameritrade, called the $4 million in losses "not material at all," while executives from both firms said they have recently taken steps to limit losses resulting from identity theft. Mitchell Caplan, CEO of E*Trade, said the level of fraud has dropped "to almost zero as a result of the changes we're making." Still, the quarterly losses represent significant gains for online crooks. Gwenn Bezard, analyst with Aite Group, noted that E*Trade has previously implemented measures to bolster its defenses but that hackers still took the company for $18 million in a single quarter. ZDNet, 25 October 2006 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6129391.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. To access resources including articles, books, conference sessions, contracts, effective practices, plans, policies, position descriptions, and blog content, go to http://www.educause.edu/resources ***************************************************** CONFERENCES For information on all EDUCAUSE learning and networking opportunities, see http://www.educause.edu/31 ***************************************************** COPYRIGHT Edupage copyright (c) 2006, EDUCAUSE
