Mobile Apps News #79
Using mobile technologies for good.
I hope you’ll enjoy this newsletter and spread the word to your friends and colleagues.
This issue includes news of:
apps related to climate change
Apple’s latest iPhone updates, plus their HomePod Mini
Amazon’s new voice-computing devices
technology news related to the pandemic
good sources for BlackLivesMatter education
tips, accessibility, voice-computing, thought-provoking articles, and articles about the future
️ ❤️ Enjoy! (And if you like this issue, please “heart” it - thanks!)
Featured Apps
Olafur Eliasson's AR Earth Speakr app lets children voice concerns about the climate (iOS & Android)
”Artist Olafur Eliasson has developed an augmented reality app that allows children to digitally transplant their faces onto their environment to help give them a voice in discussions about the climate crisis.” Learn more: About Earth Speakr.
How To Be Carbon-Free, With A New App And A Neutrality Certificate - Klima Carbon Calculator
Klima plans to hit the App Store later this year. For other apps that track your carbon footprint that are available now, see LiveGreen Daily Carbon Tracker and Carbon Down.
Ecosia web search engine (iOS, Android, Windows, Mac)
Ecosia is a search engine (based on Bing) that uses its revenue to plant trees. See How does Ecosia make money? for info on their ad revenue. Ecosia supports over 20 tree-planting projects in 15 different countries. See their About page for more info.
Peewee (iOS)
Pewee allows anyone to record and read stories wherever you are. You can then send them to family far way where they can play back the recording at anytime.
Camo Lets You Use Your iPhone or iPad Camera as a Webcam on Mac (MacOS, iOS, and later for Windows)
Get much better picture quality for your online meetings than most webcams or built-in laptop cameras. Works with Zoom and similar apps.
Zoom calls can be too formal. These alternatives encourage casual chatting (multiple platforms)
Apps for more spontaneous conversations with coworkers.
App Updates
1Password Introduces New ‘Virtual Cards’ for Safer Online Payments, Coming Soon as Safari Extension
1Password has a new partnership with Privacy.com, allowing users to make safer payments online by creating virtual cards that are unique to each of your online accounts.
iOS 14: 9 hidden iPhone features we discovered after installing
These features are worth trying out.
Note-taking app Bear updated with better inter-note linking and more
You can now link to a specific header within another note from any note. Bear is my favorite note-taking app. I moved to it from Evernote about a year ago.
Apple One: What you need to know about Apple’s services bundle
Announced at the September event, Apple One is now available (as of October 30). Bundle pricing options for Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, Apple News, Apple TV+, and iCloud.
Updates from the October Apple Event
Here’s everything Apple announced at its iPhone 12 event
New iPhones
iPhone 12 Introduced With Flat-Edge Design, 5G, A14 Chip, New Colors, MagSafe, and More
iPhone 12 Mini Introduced With 5.4-Inch Display, Starts at $699
HomePod Mini
My Offerings
My book, Keeping Up with Emerging Technologies: Best Practices for Information Professionals was published in 2017, and is still relevant. It focuses on methods and practices rather than specific technologies.
Here’s what some reviewers said:
“Because books on technology can quickly become outdated, I elevated this to the top of my reading pile when it arrived. I needn’t have worried; this book about technology has ideas and tips that will be relevant for quite some time.”
– minnemom - full review on Amazon
“Staying on top of new technology is difficult, even for the most tech-savvy professionals. Hennig simplifies for the harried librarian the process of finding information on emerging technology, touching on sources in several formats, along with sharing methods and processes for staying abreast in the field… Overall, a handy guide to keeping up with emerging technologies for those of us with little time to devote to the endeavor.”
– Deidre Winterhalter - full review on Booklist
Just for Fun
GIF IT UP - Europeana
Europeana’s annual GIF-making competition is over, but you can still make awesome GIFs using openly licensed content from their collections. See examples on GIPHY.
iOS 14.2 Beta 2 Adds New Emoji Characters like Ninja, Pinata, Bubble Tea, Polar Bear and More
Smiling Face with Tear, Magic Wand, Accordion, and more fun emojis coming.
Tips
iPhone Life How to Add Widgets to Your Home Screen in iOS 14
How to Improve Voice Memo Audio: Enhance Recording on the iPhone
Accessibility
How to Enable & Use Sound Recognition on the iPhone (iOS 14)
For people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or frequent users of noise-canceling headphones, the Sound Recognition feature in iOS 14 can alert you to a bunch of recognizable sounds.
5 Apps for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing
Ava is an app that translates spoken English into readable text. Convo is a video-calling app that deaf people use to relay their calls through sign-language interpreters. Three other apps are also discussed.
Beyond Compliance: Making accessibility a priority in online teaching even during a pandemic
Advice on why and how to make online teaching accessible.
RT @BigGayShaun: “A gentle reminder to everyone who uses hashtags. If you capitalise them #LikeThisOne people using screen readers will hear the words read individually. Not capitalising means it’s read as a string of gobbledygook and so excludes visually impaired people. You’re welcome.”
Voice Computing
Amazon Echo Dot (2020) Review: Have a Ball
A budget smart speaker with good sound quality.
Here’s everything Amazon announced at its big hardware event
So many new things: All-new Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Dot Clock, WiFi routers: Eero 6 and Eero Pro 6, Ring Car Alarm and Ring Car Cam, Ring Always Home Cam, Echo Show 10, Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick Lite, Luna gaming streaming service.
Apple announces HomePod mini smart speaker
The original HomePad was $350, this mini version is $99. It’s focused on privacy. Available for order starting November 6.
How Speech-Recognition Software Discriminates against Minority Voices
“Until programmers recognize their own internal biases, the software they create will be problematic.”
Thought-Provoking
What 12,000 Employees Have to Say About the Future of Remote Work - BrandKnewMag (with some interesting statistics)
Thanks to libraries, remote tribes are finally getting online - Yahoo Finance
How libraries are writing a new chapter during the pandemic - National Geographic
It Took COVID Closures to Reveal Just How Much Libraries Do Beyond Lending Books - The Observer
The Internet Archive Will Digitize & Preserve Millions of Academic Articles with Its New Database, “Internet Archive Scholar” - Open Culture
The Internet Archive Has a New Tool to Save Research Papers From Vanishing - Vice
Google launches AI secretary that waits on hold for phone users - The Guardian
The Inside Story of How Signal Became the Private Messaging App for an Age of Fear and Distrust - Time
It took a pandemic to make QR codes a global sensation - Quartz
Protesters are using facial recognition technology to ID police - Mic
Black Lives Matter
Slavery in America: A Resource Guide - Library of Congress
Extensive guide, includes lots of primary sources.
Reparations as a Public Health Priority — A Strategy for Ending Black–White Health Disparities - New England Journal of Medicine
Promoting health means addressing the roots of sickness; in the US, this means addressing the historic legacy of slavery. How reparations can help end health divides and build a healthier nation.
Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources - Google doc, created by Anna Stamborski, M. Div Candidate (2022), Nikki Zimmermann, M. Div candidate (2021), and Bailie Gregory, M. Div, M.S. Ed.
Helpfully organized by the stages of white identity development: contact, disintegration, reintegration, pseudo-independence, immersion, and autonomy.
The Best Apps from Black Developers: Self Care, Social Justice & More - iPhone Life
You can support black app developers by downloading and using their apps.
5 Free iPhone Apps to Support People of Color in Your Community - iPhone Life
Support black-owned businesses, and more.
Pandemic
Artificial intelligence model detects asymptomatic Covid-19 infections through cellphone-recorded coughs - MIT News
“In a paper published recently in the IEEE Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology, the team reports on an AI model that distinguishes asymptomatic people from healthy individuals through forced-cough recordings, which people voluntarily submitted through web browsers and devices such as cellphones and laptops.” This looks very promising.
A room, a bar and a classroom: how the coronavirus is spread through the air - El País
Excellent visuals showing airborne spread in different situations.
This wristband vibrates if you break social distancing rules - EdScoop
“Students and professors at the University of Florida have developed three new wearable devices to help monitor, detect and mitigate COVID-19, including a wristband that vibrates if someone gets too close.”
What activists who fought the AIDS crisis can teach us about organizing during a pandemic - Waging Nonviolence
Learning from recent history. “The biggest lesson that I learned from ACT UP is that a small group of people — extremely focused on analysis and practical solutions to the problem — can change the world.”
The Rise of Telehealth: After the Pandemic, There’s No Going Back - iPhone Life
Interesting statistics on the rise of telehealth and some good points about its advantages.
The Future
New Brain-Computer Interface Transforms Thoughts to Images - Psychology Today
“Researchers at the University of Helsinki used AI to create a system that uses signals from the brain to generate novel images of what the user is thinking and published the results earlier this month in Scientific Reports.”
The Quantum Internet Will Blow Your Mind. Here’s What It Will Look Like - Discover
“The next generation of the Internet will rely on revolutionary new tech — allowing for unhackable networks and information that travels faster than the speed of light.”
The Dangers of Cynical Sci-Fi Disaster Stories - Slate
Cory Doctorow writes about how he’s changing his stories since sci-fi influences people so much. “… today, it’s easy to think that technology has no role to play in our liberation, to cede the destiny of the digital world to the forces of oppression. New stories will help us understand the importance of seizing the means of computation and using it to build movements that break up monopolies, fight oligarchy, and demand pluralistic, shared power for a pluralistic, shared world.”