Dive Summary:

• In a press release, Amazon announced the release of its free Whispercast technology, which gives users centralized content sharing, wireless configuration assistance and settings management including restrictions on non-educational uses and password protection.
• For as low as $69 per student, schools can bring the Kindle into the classroom,
• Similarly, schools would only have to pay $160 per student to purchase the Kindle Fire, for which Whispercast is designed, compared to the minimum $500 cost of Apple's iPad classroom technology implementation.

From the article:

"... Amazon had already addressed the affordability and immediacy problems in a way that Apple has yet to. But today's announcement of its Whispercast technology seems to solve problems Apple hadn't even thought of.

Whispercast is a free service that serves as an umbrella for many, many Kindle management features, but most of all it provides the kind of centralized control over devices that are a luxury for businesses and a necessity for schools. Content distribution, social media and purchase blockades, password protection, document sharing; there couldn't be a more teacher-friendly checklist. ..."