Syber News

The word free gathers attention, as does the iPhone. Combine the two words and add "course" and you've got a major attraction, and that's demonstration by the iTunes University course iPhone Application Programming CS193P, a Stanford University programming class on developing for the iPhone which has been downloaded 1 million times in just seven weeks of being offered on iTunes U, Apple's free library of educational lectures and lessons.

Live lectures are given at Stanford univerwity, with Apple engineers teaching the course to students in an auditorium at Stanford's Quad. Videos of the lectures, and even slides, are uploaded to iTunes U two days after every class.

Jason Ediger, Apple's director of iTunes U and Mobile Learning said:

"This is the fastest any course on iTunes U has reached one million downloads. iTunes U has proven to be a very effective and popular way to share this course with anyone interested in creating iPhone apps."

Hmm. The first sentence was good, but the second was mostly about patting oneself on one's back, no?

Still, it figures that this course would be hot, as anything about the iPhone is white-hot. After all, Troy Brant, the Stanford teaching assistant for iPhone Application Programming noted the following in the Stanford press release announcing the download mark:

Completion of the course, first taught in the fall quarter, carries a certain cachet. Brant said he's received "a ton of requests" from on-campus managers and outside companies seeking to connect with class members. Some students have become instant consultants.