Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Jeff Maston, Instructional Systems Administrator, demonstrated two apps.

MyScript Calculator
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myscript-calculator/id578979413?mt=8
This calculator app uses handwriting recognition rather than traditional calculator buttons.   Basically, it allows you to solve math problem’s by writing on your iPad’s screen.  It seems to work very well, and in some ways is simpler to use than a standard calculator because you don’t need to figure out the right buttons to push.

MyScript Calculator is a free download from the itunes store and is also available for Android tablets.

Lekh Diagram
http://www.avabodh.com/lekh
This app allows you to create diagrams like flow charts or organizational charts on your ipad.  Lekh Diagram allows you to draw your chart with your finger (or stylus) and it uses shape recognition to convert your drawings into nice looking shapes. Tapping on the shapes you created gives you options for copying, deleting, or modifying the shape (rounded corners on a rectangle, or convert an oval into a perfect circle, for example).  Drawing connecting lines and arrows between the shapes is as simple as dragging your finger from one shape to the other.

If these types of charts are something you need to create for the work that you do, Lekh Diagram is worth checking out.  It is available as a free, almost full-feature, download.  The only features you are limited from accessing in the free version are the features that would allow you to export your diagrams (by email, dropbox, or uploading to your photos).  You can turn on the export features for $2.99.

Mark DuBois, Web Systems Professor, demonstrated two apps. 

Presentation Link
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/presentation-link-app-for/id441472908?mt=8
A powerful tool to show interactive presentations on your iPad: Import existing presentations as a pdf or images, integrate videos and set hyperlinks for a truly touch-enabled, mobile presentation experience. The app is $4.99.

Picture Link
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/picture-link/id385702117?mt=8
Picture Link is a super simple presentation app that enables you to hold interactive slideshows with images and videos on your iPad. The basic idea is that you can link different pictures with transparent hyperlink buttons. This makes it very easy to navigate between slides in real time, as sometimes the right picture at the right time says more than a thousand words.

Mark also mentioned the Foolproof and Sleipnir apps for ipad. 
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013 Meeting

The Tablet User's Group reviewed Google apps available for tablets. Google offers many mobile apps for the ios platform. You can review all the apps available at this url: http://www.google.com/mobile/ios/
You will find plenty of apps for Google's own native mobile platform, Android at http://www.google.com/mobile/android/
If you have a Windows 8 device, the best word of advice right now for using Google apps on it, is... "good luck."  You can search for how to get Google apps on Windows 8 devices but the results are pretty poor.

Here is a great how-to on syncing your ipad and google apps account: http://www.ise.ncsu.edu/documentation/sync-ipad-and-google-apps.php 

Google Drive

Google Drive for iOS and Android is one of the most useful tools. Google Drive is file storage in the cloud. It lets you keep all your files organized in one place and it can be accessed and synced from any iOS, Android device or your computer. Any file type can be uploaded and the standard account offers 5 GB of storage. With the drive tool on a tablet you can, view your files on drive, pin them for offline viewing and create new documents or spreadsheets.

Chrome

The browser to have on your tablet. Did you know that you don't just have to use Safari on the iPad? You can download the Chrome browser from the app store and drag the icon right down to the dock (bottom of the ipad where those icons always stay).  

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Wednesday, March 6, 2013 Meeting

News & Trends Apps (Keeping Current)

reddit

The topic of the user group was using apps to keep up with current news and trends, especially in technology. Three apps were reviewed.

Jeff Maston gave a presentation on reddit. http://www.reddit.com/ is a website where users enter current topics, news, trends, etc.... into "subreddits" (individual web pages within the site) that are theme based. Each entry is voted up or down in importance by users. The top voted entries are filtered to the main reddit page.  You can learn more about reddit at http://www.reddit.com/about/. In order to vote on reddit you will need to setup a free account. The free account also allows you to save and organize the "subreddits" you are interested in seeing. The disadvantage of a site like reddit is that there is a ton of information flowing through the site at any time and there can be a lot of entries that are not of any value and some that are flat out inappropriate. The advantage of the reddit is that all this information and source-crowded information allows mostly only really important news and resources to be voted to the top of the web pages. Using an account and selecting topics that interest you will provide you with great current information and resources on those topics. An example of a subreddit is this one on tablets: http://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/ This is a great place to ask questions, get recommendations and read up on the latest tablets. You will also find subreddits for each major tablet platform, like Apple iPad and Android and even specific subreddits for tablets like the Nexus7 or KindleFire. These are great places to learn tips and techniques for using your specific tablet, find out about bugs or problems with updates and learn about new apps.

There are reddit mobile apps for all of the major tablets available. The standard reddit app in Google Play and the Apple iOS store works well. The iOS version was demonstrated in our meeting. There are also alternative apps that can be used to manage reddit. The Alien Blue app for iOS was demonstrated at the meeting. This app is currently available for the ipad and iphone and provides a more streamlined user interface than the standard reddit app (free) and some additional features for organizing your reddit account. The Alien Blue for ipad app is $3.99 but worth it if you find yourself spending a lot of time on reddit.

All Things D

Brandy Thatcher presented the AllThingsD app to the user's group. AllThingsD.com is a website devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the Internet and media. But it is different from other sites in this space. It is a fusion of different media styles, different topics, different formats and different sources.
This website provides really current information and resources on anything related to the digital world. There are mobile apps available for both Android and Apple and more information on them can be found here: http://allthingsd.com/mobile/. The Apple mobile was demonstrated in our meeting. The app's magazine like interface provides easy reading. Visiting this app once or twice a week and browsing through the stories is an enjoyable way to keep current on the world of technology. 

Flipboard

Brandy Thatcher demonstrated the Flipboard app. Flipboard's slogan is "Your Social News Magazine" and that is essentially what it is. The app has a magazine like interface that allows you to flip through the headlines of sources you have indicated and click on them to read the articles. The best feature of Flipboard is the ability to customize it to only the sources you want to see. This is a great way to see lots of sources you would like to keep up with. You can add any public facebook page, Twitter stream, web page, blog, etc... to your Flipboard sources. You can add your own Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linked In, Instagram accounts (and more) to see anything shared with you in the Flipboard format. The search interface is easy to use and you can easily add sources like USA Today, BBC, National Geographic, etc... You can also add the standard Flipboard feeds of stories they have aggregated. The streamlined interface and aggregation of stories from all these sources helps you stay up to date without getting stressed.

An added bonus app:




Create an account with http://www.readability.com/ and use it to store and organize articles that you want to read later. It's a very easy to read text based format for collecting and archiving articles you want to read later. It works with Flipboard and many other apps. You can set readability up on many, many devices including tablets, phones, ereaders and even your computer. By logging into your readability account on each device all of the articles you saved will be synched and you can access them from any device. Brandy demonstrated in Flipboard how you can select and article and select the read it later link then by choosing the readability app the article is saved to the app.
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013 Meeting


Audio Recording Apps

Brandy Thatcher demonstrated the three apps that are great for creating audio recordings with a tablet.

SOUND CLOUD

http://www.soundcloud.fm

Advertised as the world’s leading social sound platform, Sound Cloud offers a website and mobile app for finding, sharing and creating audio and music. You can listen to a variety of music, podcasts, comedy and news available in their library. You can follow other Sound Cloud accounts, so you will see their new audio and updates. One of the strengths of Sound Cloud is the ability to easily record an audio file on a tablet using the mobile app. The app is available in the iOS/Apple store, Android/Google Play store, and in the Windows 8 store.

Creating Recordings with Sound CloudYou can create a free account on the Sound Cloud website or through the mobile app. One of the best advantages of using Sound Cloud is that you can easily publish your recording to the Sound Cloud website from your tablet. With your recording stored in the online, you can get embed code for the recording to place in Blackboard or another website. You do have to access the website from a computer to get the embed code for the recording. You have a choice of making each recording private or public. If the recordings are public you have the option to share them on Facebook or Twitter from your mobile app. If the recording is private you can share it through email with the mobile app. You can download m4a files of your recording from the website, also. There is a limit with the free account that allows you 120 minutes of recorded audio hosted in your Sound Cloud account. You can have up to 100 downloads per recording. You can visit http://soundcloud.com/101/education to learn more about using Sound Cloud in education.

AUDIOBOO

http://audioboo.fm/

Audioboo's mission is to be the one platform you use when you want to record audio, share it or save it for the future. Audioboo works on ios, Android and Nokia devices or via the web, and soon Blackberry and Windows 8. You can access your recordings (called "boos") through the website and through the mobile app. You will want to make sure you download the Audioboo for the iphone, this version can be downloaded on the ipad. The version for the iphone is capable of recording and the ipad version currently is not. The Android version will say "beta 2" in it's name. It is a new release of the app.
ios: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/audioboo/id305204540?mt=8
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Audioboo&hl=en

Recording an audio recording is very straight-forward. One limitation is that the recordings can only be 3 minutes long. You can add a title, picture and description for the audio recording. You can save and upload the audio file directly to the Audiboo website. You do have the ability to share your "boos" on Facebook and Twitter. You can click "more" on any recording for additional options to share. You can copy a "url," send it through email and open it in safari. You can also copy embed code for each recording to place it in Blackboard. The website gives you a feature similar to Pinterest where you can create boards (or collections) of your "boos" and organize them. then you could share a board - you can embed the whole board of multiple audio files - might have some use in education setting. There is no ability to download the recordings and there is no ability to make the recordings private.
There is a lot of support information available on the web for using Audioboos in education. Audioboo has a blog that often runs articles on using Audioboo in education. A few resources on Audioboo in education:

WAVEPAD

http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/pocket.html

This sound editing software is a professional quality audio editor for the iPhone and iPad. It lets you create and edit music, voice and other audio recordings. When editing audio files you can cut, copy and paste parts of recordings and, if required, add effects like echo, amplification and reverb. (from the website) The software is available on the Windows and Mac for free. The mobile app called Pocket Wavepad is only available for ios:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-wavepad-hd/id418674227?mt=8

This software and app is more complex than the other two audio apps above and it does not provide a website to upload audio too. These would be the main limitations of the app. The app has the benefit of providing a full audio editor within the app. Recording is very simple, the interface for recording is very similar to a cassette player. You will choose an audio file format to save the file in. The file can be emailed or ftp'd. Click the gear icon and choose an mp3 as your format and the default sample rates are likely fine. They can be changed to your specific preferences, though. After you create the recording you can click through to see the waveform and do editing. You can apply effects and filters, cut audio and much more. It does take quite a while to get used to the editor and learn it, but once you do, you can do some very advanced editing right on your ipad. You can import/export audio in the mobile app to your itunes/icloud account. Once you email the audio file to yourself and download the attached mp3 file. I would recommend uploading this audio file to www.divshare.com. This website is a streaming host and setting up a free account gives 5 gig of storage and it provides a simple embed code that can be embedded into your Blackboard site. Ta Da! A lecture capture solution that doesn't cost $60,000+.
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