Tag Archives: vendors

HTML5 Demos from Apple

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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If you’re interested in learning more about what HTML5 can do, you should definitely check out the demos Apple just released. (I shared some demos in my article on HTML5 and elearning but these are… let’s say… better curated than most collections.)

Now, Apple did choose to put up a browser sniffer directing you to download Safari if you don’t happen to be using Safari when you visit. I personally think Safari’s worth using for the anti-aliasing alone, but if you just want a casual glance, go to the developer section instead… The demos are easier to get to and most of them work just fine on Firefox.

And authoring tool vendors, please visit the developer section for the code. I would love for someone to make it easy for me to make really pretty HTML stuff. Just sayin’.

3 AM Update: I have no idea why I’m up this late, but I went back to the demos and the site has changed; now there are browser sniffers on each demo in the developer section, in addition to the one blocking the main section. And in all cases, they don’t just warn you that the demos won’t work… they prevent you from seeing the demos unless you’re using Safari. Way to show that HTML5 is a web standard, Apple.

Beth and the Mermaid

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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A quick look at some new images that have come onto the elearning scene recently*:

"The perfect elearning host" according CS. I concur.

Cheers: Cartoon Solutions has released Beth, a smart-looking, non-Barbie™-proportioned character that’s great for learning agents. I have to admit, though I’ve used their art in the past, sometimes I’ve changed the body proportions to be more realistic. The marketing behind Beth shows that Cartoon Solutions is paying attention to its elearning audience.

She's not bad... she's just drawn that way.

Jeers: Trivantis included a — sorry to say — salaciously drawn mermaid in the Lectora X media library. Can’t say I’ll find much use for this in elearning… even if I needed a mermaid, I wouldn’t opt for Jessica Rabbit’s long-lost oceanic kin. And that’s a pity because elearning is Trivantis’s whole business. That being the case, it’s pretty disappointing to find something this off-the-mark. Hat tip: Marc Shecter.

*Wordpress tells me I started this blog post almost three months ago. I haven’t posted it because I’ve had an issue with Lectora X’s media library on my company’s network… not Trivantis’s fault from what I can tell, but it’s taken some time to get resolved, and I wanted to be able to say that in all fairness, the rest of the media library is at least work-appropriate. It is, and otherwise I’m pretty darn keen on Lectora X’s improvements. :)

The E-Learning List

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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elearninglist I keep seeing a very cool new resource pop up lately: The E-Learning List. It’s a directory of service providers and resources, so for those of you who have services to provide, get your name out there!

(Even if you aren’t full-service, take a look… I don’t freelance for whole elearning development, but I do freelance voice work, so I just signed up in the Voices and Audio Services category. Maybe someone looking on the site will need an American voice at some point.)

And for those of you who buy elearning services, there are some great resources for you,  too… including a guide to buying elearning services and a guide to writing an RFP for elearning. Check it out!