When Quest to Learn opens it doors on New York’s East 23rd Street next month, students will not sit down to study math and biology from the usual textbooks. Instead, lessons at the public school will include knowledge-based video games, such as Little Big Planet and Civilization, and conceptual learning exercises: in one game, for example, students play the role of detectives, collecting information in order to solve a problem. “This is design-based pedagogy,” says Katie Salen, who conceived the program and is helping to create its immersive environments. “From day one, kids should imagine themselves as designers of their own learning.”

KDE has announced the “immediate availability” of KDE Software Compilation 4.4, dubbed “Caikaku”. According to KDE, version 4.4 fixes 7,293 bus and adds 1,433 new features. Probably the biggest new feature is the Plasma Workspace, designed especially for netbook users.

The Plasma Workspace, an alternative to the Plasma Desktop, is “specifically designed for ergonomic use on netbooks and smaller notebooks.” It allows better use of the smaller space available on netbooks, and will be more suitable for touchscreen input. The Plasma Netbook shell has a full-screen application launcher, search interface, and a Newspaper for widgets to display content from the web and small utilities.

There’s also a Social Desktop feature which updates the Community widget. Says KDE: “The new Social News widget shows a livestream of what is going on in the social network of the user and the new Knowledge Base widget allows users to search for answers and questions from different providers including openDesktop.org's own knowledge base.”

A goodly list of other improvements will be found at KDE's web site, along with links for downloading the new version.

Image Credit: KDE

Listen up iPhone owners - if financial calculators are your thing, then RLM has you covered. The software maker was in attendance at the Macworld Expo showing off seven of its business and scientific calculators, each one tweaked to take advantage of the iPhone platform.

Take the 17BII+ Financial Calculator, for example. This app is every bit like the real thing, only a little easier to use thanks to an equation editor and other iPhone-only additions. And of course it supports both portrait and landscape viewing.

"We want to improve it and make it more usable for a larger bunch of people," says Lira Matte, formerly a businessman in the energy field who took up Mac programming as a hobby in 2004. "This hobby has become a way of living."

RLM has no plans of slowing down, either. The company said it's working on porting three more business and scientific calculators to the iPhone in the next three months.

Image Credit: CNet

Microsoft’s made it official--it’s taking another crack at the smartphone market with the “next generation” Windows Phone platform: Windows Phone 7. Microsoft says Windows Phone 7 will bring together “the content people care about”, including applications and Internet. And, for the first time, bring Xbox LIVE games and Zune music and video to a mobile phone.

Windows Phone 7 is designed as a “holistic” system that “informs every aspect of the phone.” The Start screen contains “dynamically updated “live tiles”” which show users real-time content. Rather than an icon linking to an application, for example, it can be linked to a person, making all information on that person available through that icon.

Windows Phone 7 provides further integration through “hubs”. According to Microsoft: “Hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks.” Windows Phone 7 includes six hubs: People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace, and Office.

Microsoft says it has partnered with mobile operations, including AT&T, Spring Sprint, and Verizon Wireless, and manufacturers such as Dell, HTC, LG, and Sony Ericsson. The first Windows Phone 7 devices are expected to be on the market by “holiday 2010”. More information can be found at Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 site.

Image Credit: Microsoft