I’ve been very busy with school as the semester starts.  I have three night classes (that’s a lot) and they are all centered on the medical industry, which has been interesting as of yet, but will assuredly be a lot of work.  My day classes are ethics and anthropology; the latter is already proving a great choice.  It’s going to be a very good semester.

Adding to the work is a case competition that I’m assembling for five weeks from now with Medtronic.  This is part of the MILIsa group that I serve on the board for.  Last year we did the same case competition and it was the best event I was involved in and I’m planning on it being even better this year.

These things are keeping me busy, but there are a lot of other cool things going on outside of school.

Apple’s likely tablet release tomorrow is a very big deal.  I’ve written many posts on the alteration and evolution of media and this event is yet another sign of change.  Amazon’s Kindle will now certainly face the largest and best competitor (apologies to Nook, but it is what it is.)  They should be very worried.  Apple revolutionized so called smart phones a few years ago; they just sold 8 million iPhones last quarter and have somewhere around 20% share of that market.  What may be the biggest accomplishment was getting people to pay for songs different media on their phones through iTunes.  As pointed out by this article, that wasn’t a common practice until Apple got consumers on board.

I have to say that Apple really does great things.  There are many people out there who hate on Apple for their prices and a few other things, but no other company on the planet knows design and user experience like them.  They are also completely masterful in the way they go to market with a roll out.  And what’s more, their products set the tone for entire industries.  iPods, iPhones, Macbook Pros, iMacs and now maybe this tablet; they are an incredible company.

The proposed health reform bill is in jeopardy due to the GOP gaining MA last week.  Just last night I had a class detailing how many times national healthcare has been proposed and denied in the states.  It’s a colossal act to accomplish and it will be interesting to see what Obama says in the State of the Union address on Wednesday to spur action.  He’s had a rough time of it lately and garnering public support (which has eroded a great deal in the last few months) is important now.  It’s an interesting time.

There are many other things worth note, but I have to get to work.  Updates to come.