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Apps

Good news for the super organisers

Friday, April 15th, 2016

Imagine one platform where you can make notes, drawings, lists and post links, neatly organised in workbooks and share this with friends, family or colleagues. Sounds rather nifty, doesn’t it?

onenote Microsoft OneNote is software for “free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration”. (Wikipedia)

It provides a digital, shareable notebook where users can perform various actions, even post screen clippings and audio and video recordings. The software saves large amounts of information in pages, organised into sections within notebooks and has the appearance of a ring-binder in which you can save anything you write or material from other applications or websites.

This information is also searchable, can be stored in the cloud in Onedrive and is, therefore, accessible on other devices.

But what’s the difference between OneNote and a word processing programme like Word? With OneNote you can write or post anywhere on the document space by just clicking. Also, you don’t have to remember to regularly save files. OneNote saves as you work.

OneNote is available as a part of Microsoft Office and Windows 10. It is also available as a free, standalone application for Windows OS X, Windows RT, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android. A web-based version of OneNote is provided as part of OneDrive or Office Online and enables users to edit notes via a web browser.

The good news for university staff is that you don’t have to buy or install the software. It’s most likely already on your work PC. Click on the Windows button in the far left corner of your screen and type “OneNote” into the search bar.

If you would also like to use OneNote on your phone, you can download it on Google Play. You will then be able to access your notebooks from anywhere if you sync them to OneDrive.

Want to learn how to use OneNote? Here’s a handy OneNote tutorial on Youtube.

[SOURCES: http://www.pcworld.com, http://www.wikipedia.org/]

Tags: OneNote
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Meet your digital cheerleader

Friday, April 15th, 2016

goals

It’s easy to find excuses not to exercise, complete a course or clean up the garage. We all procrastinate and busy schedules cause us to neglect tasks we need, and also want, to do.

Calendar Goals was developed by Google to be our cheerleader and personal assistant.

The software uses machine learning to help you allocate time on your Google Calendar to complete your chosen goals, whether it’s an exercise regime or merely spending more time reading. Goals pinpoints gaps in your schedule fit your needs.

To use Calendar Goals, you need to be a Gmail user and use the Calendar app. After adding “Goal”, Google will ask you a few questions to establish what you want to do and which times of day would suit your best.

It has options, like Exercise, Build a Skill and Me Time, available, but you can also add your own. After entering your information, you can leave it to Google to schedule a few time slots and remind you to keep to them.

If it happens that something else is scheduled during Google’s suggested times, it will allocate another time and keep trying until it suits you. Of course, if you are a serial procrastinator, you will find a way around this, but the software will try its best to make it difficult for you to do so.

How to use Google Calendar Goals on Android and iOS

The new feature is available from this week for users on Android and iPhone, but not yet for the web-based Gmail calendar.

Google Calendar | Google Play Store via Google Blog

[SOURCES: http://gadgets.ndtv.com, http://techcrunch.com, http://www.idigitaltimes.com]

Tags: Google
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A companion for peace of mind

Thursday, March 31st, 2016

companion2 We can’t do much about the crime and violence in our country, but we can utilise technology to try and improve our safety.

One example of this is an app created by five University of Michigan students who were concerned about safety on their campus – something we can identify with after recent incidents on our own campus.

The Companion app tracks your route as you head home and allows you to add a virtual companion, one of your contact, whether it’s a friend, family member or boyfriend/girlfriend. The concept is that this will make you feel a bit safer and less anxious while walking alone.

The apps allows the other person to monitor your route by GPS and also provides the means to raise an alarm if something should happen. Apart from tracking you via GPS, it also occasionally asks you whether you are ok. If you don’t reply, it will then notify your contact. The same action is executed when a trip is taking longer than the expected time, you start running or your earphones are pulled from the device. You then have 15 seconds to respond before an alert is send.

Companion also has two alert buttons. One reading “I Feel Nervous”, which will contact your companion and “Call the Police”, which will alert emergency services. One of the biggest advantages of the app is it’s ability to show exactly where a user is, so he/she can easily be located by GPS coordinates.

Users of Companion type in the address of the destination on the app and click “Start a Trip”. You are then prompted to “Add Companions” from your contacts. The contact receives a text to download the app, but can also just click a link to track the route on a live map.

Once you are home safe, the app will send a message to your companion.

Companion can be downloaded for free on iOS and Android.

[SOURCES: http://gadgets.ndtv.com, http://www.theguardian.com, http://fortune.com]

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Periscope: News as it happens

Friday, February 5th, 2016

Twitter has the reputation for being the fastest unofficial real-time news update service. But what if reading about what’s happening in the world is not enough? What if you want to witness events as they happen?

Periscope is a live video streaming app for iOS and Android developed by Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein.

periscope

“… we became fascinated by the idea of discovering the world through someone else’s eyes. What if you could see through the eyes of a protester in Ukraine? Or watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon in Cappadocia? It may sound crazy, but we wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation. While there are many ways to discover events and places, we realized there is no better way to experience a place right now than through live video. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around.”

Periscope gives ordinary people another platform to become citizen journalists. Now everyone can broadcast news and you don’t have to depend on television stations for your world-wide news update. Of course Periscope isn’t used only for news events. As with other social media platforms, the range of topics is wide and sometimes border on the ridiculous.

Scopers (Periscope’s nickname for their users) can broadcast anything they want – whether it’s a trip to the beach or making dinner. Their scope is broadcasted in real-time and remains available for 24 hours. However, you can save streams to view later – an advantage Periscope holds over their competitor, Meerkat. Viewers can comment in real-time and messages scroll on the broadcasted video, visible to other viewers. If you enjoy the broadcast, you can throw hearts at it. (yes really) Read more on The Verge.

Beykpour and Bernstein started their company in February 2014. Just over a year later, in January 2015, before it was officially launched, Twitter bought the app. On 12 January Twitter integrated Periscope into its timeline, enabling you to watch and broadcast videos via your own Twitter timeline.

In another ground-breaking move Periscope is now compatible with the GoPro hero 4. Once a GoPro is connected to your phone, Periscope automatically activates and GoPro footage is streamed directly to Periscope.

You can either download the Periscope app from the Google Play store or browse to their TV channel, PeriscopeTV. Watch Kayvon Beykpour explain Periscope to talk-show host Stephen Colbert below or read Socialmediaweek’s beginners guide.

[SOURCES: www.wikipedia.org, www.theverge.com]

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Life in 3D

Friday, November 20th, 2015

“No, really?!” would be a valid first reaction to Google’s latest innovation. Made from cardboard, it looks a lot like the toys you played with in primary school.

Google Cardboard doesn’t bring anything revolutionary to the table. It’s a virtual reality headset which enables you to watch 3D images and videos with your smart phone.

What makes it different is its simplicity and accessibility.

The headset consists of corrugated cardboard, Velcro and a pair of cheap plastic lenses – the most essential part as they transform flat images on your phone into 3D ones.

Although Cardboard was developed by Google, there is no official manufacturer or vendor for the device. A list of the parts and instructions is available on the Google website. With a few basics you can assemble your own VR viewer. Add your cell phone, download the Google Cardboard app and you’re good to go 3D.

The app splits the smartphone image into two and applies “barrel distortion to each image to counter pincushion distortion from the lenses. The result is a stereoscopic (“3D”) image with a wide field of view.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cardboard)

More info is available on https://developers.google.com/cardboard/