Apple expands student membership to 25 new countries including China, India, Russia

Apple has expanded Apple Music student membership program to 25 new countries including Canada, China, India, and Russia. Those who sign up for the membership will be able to avail the company’s music streaming service for about half the standard monthly subscription rate. 

Apple announced Apple Music student membership in May this year, though at the time it was available to students in only seven countries — Australia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 

The student membership program is now also available in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, Colombia, Finland, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

Apple, as always, has partnered with UNiDAYS, a service that focuses on offering big savings to students. Among other things, UNiDays helps companies validate student enrolment and verify if a user is still a student at a university. Some other partners of UNiDays include Spotify, New Look, MissGuided, and Urban Outfitters.

Though student membership program makes Apple Music affordable to students everywhere, things are a little too enticing in India, where an eligible student will be able to avail the service for a monthly charge of about Rs 60 (88 cents). Apple Music was launched in India for Rs 120 ($1.75) a month for an individual user and Rs 180 ($2.62) for a family plan.

The move could help the company drive a lot of new customers to its music streaming service. As of September, Apple Music had 17 million paid subscribers. Apple Music rival, Spotify had 40 million paid subscribers as of September. Spotify also offers discounts to students. 

Apple Music’s new student membership option discounts the service by 50%

Amid news that Apple Music is getting a makeover come this summer, Apple today launched a new plan to boost subscribers to its streaming music service and competitor to Spotify, SoundCloud, Tidal and others. It’s introducing an Apple Music student plan which will discount the service by 50 percent for those who are enrolled in an eligible college or university.

That means in the U.S., where an individual membership to Apple Music costs $9.99 per month, the student membership will be $4.99 per month instead.

The option isn’t just arriving in the U.S., though. Students in other countries, including the U.K., Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, will also be able to take advantage of the new membership option.

However, because Apple Music is priced slightly differently in other markets, the cost of the student membership will vary. But in all markets, it will be 50 percent off the standard subscription price.

The cost reduction will be available for up to four years following sign-up, and those years don’t have to be continuous. In other words, a student who takes breaks in between semesters can still sign up for a student membership when they return to school. In addition, those who are enrolled in Master’s programs are also able to sign up for a student membership, as it’s aimed at anyone attending college or university, regardless of degree.

The membership tier will be made available starting today to both new and existing subscribers who will be able to either sign up or change their membership from the web or the Apple Music mobile application for iOS and Android.

The company is also working with a leading student verification technology provider, UNiDAYS, to ensure that those who are signing up as students are actually enrolled at a supported school.

Apple Music, of course, has been plagued with complaints about its cluttered and unintuitive user interface (which is reportedly being addressed by a redesign) and it has struggled with issues and glitches where it has had caused songs to disappear from users’ hard drives, thanks again to its confusing and complex nature.

However, that hasn’t impacted its ability to grow – the service is nine months old now and isexpanding its subscriber base at a faster rate than Spotify. The company recently reported that it now has 13 million subscribers, up from 11 million in February this year.

Competitive pricing has contributed to this growth. While its individual plan is a par-for-the-course $9.99 per month, the Family Plan is $14.99 per month. This has made it the most affordable option on the market for multiple users, as it permits up to 6 people to stream. (For the same price, Spotify only allows 2 users to share an account, for comparison’s sake.)

The addition of yet another low-cost membership option will also likely have a similar impact on subscriber growth, as there are a number of budget-conscious students who may now choose to join Apple’s service.

Apple is no stranger to the power of the student discount, it should also be noted. The company already offers discounts on its hardware to those with a valid student ID. However, it not yet offered a similar discount on a software service.

The student membership is rolling out now in the available markets.

Microgravity contest takes students and experiments on the vomit comet

FOX’s “Xploration Outer Space” show is teaming up with Arlington, Va.-based ZERO-G Corporation, which operates weightless flights from U.S. airports. The reason they’re collaborating: to create the ultimate consolation prize for college students who were just too young to apply to NASA’s latest astronaut class.

The show, a part of FOX’s “Xploration Station” series, which focuses on STEM education for youth, is hosting a science experiment contest called “Student Astronaut” with a pretty cool prize. Contestants who demonstrate interest in space exploration and submit the most interesting basic science experiment to be performed in microgravity will win a ride and get to perform their experiment on a Boeing 727 aircraft while weightless.

Science experiments in microgravity are incredibly fascinating, with even basic experiments yielding beautiful and cool results, like the spherical blue flames that researchers have been producing for years to great effect.

Unfortunately, as cool as that looks, the competition’s rules have decided to err on the side of caution. To ensure contestants’ safety, experiments cannot involve glass, power tools or weapons, and any liquids in use must be both approved for flight and completely contained. To add to that, the experiment also cannot involve drones of any kind, preventing college freshmen from settling petty physics questions that often ask about objects thrown into the interior of moving vehicles.

Applicants must also be enrolled in a learning institution and can apply on the competition’sFacebook page with a video that, in addition to a description of their experiment, must explain why they should be chosen for the flight. Applicants need also share their thoughts on space exploration’s importance.

“The student who wins will gain experience in communicating scientific ideas to the public in an entertaining and educational way,” said Emily Calandrelli, the show’s producer and host. Calandrelli is also a space writer at TechCrunch.

Sending student science experiments into microgravity isn’t new, but this is one of the first times students will get the chance to go weightless along with their test setups. YouTube’s Space Lab competition sent experiments designed by pre-college students into orbit to the International Space Station in 2011 and 2012.

One interesting constraint for these newest contestants will be the short burst of microgravity that flight in the ZERO-G 727 provides, as opposed to the continuous weightlessness that, say, orbital flight can achieve.

The aircraft flies in a series of 15 continuous parabolas, with each parabola yielding about 30 seconds of microgravity as the aircraft is around the apex. The parabolas start at 24,000 feet, with the aircraft pitching up 45 degrees to the horizon until the apex at 32,000 feet. During the ascent, passengers will feel 1.8 times the force of gravity, hence the competition’s requirement that applicants be in good physical shape.

In fact, a ride on the company’s aircraft, which includes parabolas that simulate Martian and Lunar gravity, typically costs $4,950 retail before tax.

Applications for the Student Astronaut Contest close on Sunday, May 15, and winners will be announced the following week.

Virtualizing the University Computer Lab

We are beginning to hear announcements fairlyfrequently about the states, school districts, and universities that are moving to the cloud for their email and productivity tools. As schools and universities adopt cloud technologies, what will become of the school computer lab.

Computer labs have been important locations on campus for students to work, study, and access computing resources. But almost all students now come to college owning their own personal computers. A recent CNN story said that 95% of college students interviewed this spring owned at least one computer (83% owned a laptop, 24% a desktop, 15% both). That’s up from 23% of students who owned laptops in 2003.

Budget Pressures

So as universities battle budget issues (as well as space issues), the rooms full of rows of PCs may seem a good target for elimination. An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education last fall said that 11% of universities were phasing out or planning to phase out the computer lab.

The cost savings of eliminating the computer lab can be substantial. When North Carolina State University announced its move to a virtualized computer lab, Eric Sills, the assistant vice provost touted the $500,000 saved by closing down half its labs and by not purchasing a round of new computers. Sills did admit however that the university was likely to buy more servers which would negate some of that savings with its move to virtualized computer labs.

Students and Mobile Technologies

So while cost savings might partly motivate the move to virtualize the university computer lab, doing so also fits well with the students’ learning and computing needs. Virtualized computer labs grant a 24-7 access to technology. They can be run on Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, and in some cases, programs can be accessed via mobile devices as well. And for a bonus: no one fusses if you bring food and drink to the virtualized computer lab. You can more easily collaborate when you aren’t sitting in a room with rows and rows of PCs. And it doesn’t get overcrowded during Finals Week.

Other Considerations

Virtualizing the computer lab raises questions for schools about software licensing however. Engineering students at Colorado State, for example, can access most of the software they need for their coursework, but are minded that when they are in the Virtual Lab that they have access to the open source OpenOffice in lieu of another proprietary software. But universities are moving to offer even specialized computing resources for engineering and statistics, for example in the cloud.

Even with the push to virtualize some aspects of universities’ computing resources, many schools are opting to keep some computer labs open. Community colleges and some urban universities report much lower percentages of students who own computers, and many students still need help from IT staff.