Mobile Apps News from Nicole Hennig
Mobile Apps News
August 23, 2019
Hi everyone,
Welcome to the 71st issue of Mobile Apps News! I hope you'll enjoy this newsletter and spread the word to your friends and colleagues. Please get in touch if you have any suggestions for topics you'd like to hear about.
This issue includes news of:
a useful list of apps for editing PDF files
a useful list of apps for students with visual impairments
an update to Instagram for reporting "false information"
several tips, including how to rearrange photo albums on your iPhone
accessibility, voice-computing, thought-provoking articles, and articles about the future
Enjoy!
App News
Featured apps
What3words: The app that can save your life (Android & iOS)
“What3words points to a very specific location. Its developers divided the world into 57 trillion squares, each measuring 10ft by 10ft and each having a unique, randomly assigned three-word address.” You can even find your 3 word address in the middle of the wilderness with no connection.
Create and Collect Ideas: DaVinci Notes (iOS)
This app contains a searchable journal, mind maps, sketching, notes, and a tasks board. Good for capturing your creative ideas. $3.99
Google Gallery Go is a lightweight, offline Android photo manager (Android)
Google is making a few lightweight apps like this one for use in places where people don’t have a fast connection or data is too expensive.
Sidecar in iPadOS 13 and macOS Catalina: Working Seamlessly Between an iPad and Mac
If you like to use your iPad as a second display for your Mac, read this.
App lists
How to Edit PDF Files On your iPhone or iPad with PDF Editor Apps of 2019
Useful list of PDF editing apps.
40 Academic Apps: a list of apps for academic students with visual impairments.
“They have all been used by students who are blind or visually impaired, mostly Fifth Grade and up through college and university.“
Top 25 Slack Alternatives for Team Communication and Collaboration
Useful list of 25 team communication apps.
App updates
Switch between Multiple Accounts in Twitter’s Redesign
News of updates to Twitter's web interface.
Instagram will let users report ‘false information’
Now you can report posts that contain "false information." These may be sent to one of Instagram's fact-checkers and the post could eventually be hidden from Instagram's Explore page and hashtag pages.
You can now use Google Assistant to bug your housemates to do their chores
"Assignable reminders" lets you push specific tasks to the people you live with.
Apple Brings App Store Editorials to the Web
If you’ve ever wanted to share one of those stories inside the app store app with others who may not be on their phone, now you can. Just share the web version link. Example: App of the Day: Digital Concert Hall.
Just for Fun
The Colorful World of Lake: Support artists around the world while you de-stress.
One of my favorite coloring apps.
This public LEGO building expo at the Tate Modern in London. Everyone is free to take part and build using only white pieces. It’s like an improvised micro city. (Tweet by @TheGallowBoob).
Nikola Tesla in 1926: Wireless will eliminate distance and allow individuals to communicate instantly, as perfectly as though we were face to face. The whole earth will be converted into a huge brain. The instrument? A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket. (Tweet by @garrytan).
My Offerings
Online Privacy and Security
Create Your Action Plan
It seems like every day you hear of a new data breach. Is security dead?
If you read today’s headlines about security breaches, you might be thinking of going back to fax machines and snail mail. Or you might be assuming that privacy is dead and we may as well get used to it (and you have nothing to hide, right?)
There is no such thing as perfect security, but you can learn to greatly decrease your chances of something bad happening.
While there is no such thing as foolproof security and privacy, there is a middle ground that you can find by understanding and using particular techniques.
Get this self-study version of my course for $10 off ($79.99 instead of $89.99). Work through at your own pace (with ongoing access in the future), and end up with your own action plan for increasing your privacy and security.
Increasing Diversity of Podcasts
If you want to go beyond the famous podcasts that everyone knows about, get these books! Podcasts aren’t mainly by white, male, technology geeks anymore, but by many independent hosts and producers from diverse backgrounds.
Best Podcasts for Diverse Audiences
Podcasts are exploding in popularity these days! There are so many that it can be hard to find the best ones.
To help you with that I’ve creating a series of short ebooks:
Best Podcasts: Children & Teens
Best Podcasts: Feminism & LGBTQ
Best Podcasts: People with Disabilities
Best Podcasts: Racial Diversity
Best Podcasts: The Digital Divide
Best Podcasts: Technology & Society
Best Podcasts: Discovery Tools
$2.99 each, or get the complete bundle edition for $14.99 ($9.99 on Amazon).
Select it for your library's ebook collections!
If you select ebooks for your library's collections, know that my ebooks are distributed through services such as OverDrive, Baker & Taylor's Axis360 service, and others. My local public library has this one (Pima County Public Library in Tucson, AZ).
Tips
Accessibility
White Paper Examines Providing Access to Texts in Context of Civil Rights and Copyrights
This paper analyzes how institutions of higher education can meet their mission of providing all students with equitable access to information within the current legal framework.
Making Everyday Life Better for Anyone on the Autism Spectrum (iOS)
“Designed by an 18-year-old developer on the autism spectrum, the new app aims to help reduce anxiety, burnout, and meltdowns.” $2.99
Voice Computing
In Dialogue—With Our Devices: How conversation design can make technology more accessible, and people more empowered.
By Cathy Pearl, one of my favorite voice computing experts. She helps developers make voice computing more usable and accessible to a wide range of people.
Teaching Computers to Answer Complex Questions
Summary of a new research paper about teaching Alexa to handle more complex questions.
Alexa, time for class: How one university put an Echo Dot in every dorm room
St. Louis University put Echo Dots in every dorm room as a way to provide campus information. Yes, they took privacy into account. Read the article for how they did it.
Why Can’t Users Teach Siri about Its Mistakes?
Some good ideas here.
The Bright Side of Humans Eavesdropping on Your Alexa Recordings
Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and other companies have been in the news recently for using private contractors to review your voice messages (to help correct and teach the AI). None of these companies were forthcoming about it. Read this to think about the implications.
Microsoft Confirms Your Cortana and Skype Recordings Aren’t Private Either, Surprising No One
It seems they are all doing it (see previous article).
Thought-Provoking
Senior Entrepreneurship: The New Normal | Public Policy & Aging Report | Oxford Academic
Yes, life is not over when you’re older. Interesting report (from 2014) about people between ages 50 and 100 starting businesses.
Computer Science Could Learn A Lot From Library And Information Science
When computer scientists go to library school, they write articles like this one. They are happy to learn that LIS programs cover ethical questions around new techologies. “The concept of societal harm was brought to the forefront the very first semester, emphasizing the idea of avoiding promising research that could have cause significant harm to vulnerable communities.”
“The $300 textbook is dead,” says the CEO of textbook maker Pearson
“On the latest Recode Decode podcast, John Fallon explains why the education company is pivoting to digital textbooks.”
“Be Water!”: seven tactics that are winning Hong Kong's democracy revolution
Interesting use of Airdrop technology (built into every iPhone) to communicate within a crowd of protesters (and other tactics). Learn about smart uses of technology and non-technology by Hong Kong protestors.
Google may just have solved podcasting’s discovery problem
“Google announced that it’s updating its search function to include playable episodes within the search results around a topic. So if you’re looking for ‘podcasts about grilling’ or ‘knitting podcasts,’ results will surface with relevant episodes.”
Sentien is Building Hearables That Leave Your Ear Open
“Sentien Audio looks like the usual hook-over-the-ear headphones, but the small cylinder at the end comes to rest directly on the cheek in front of the ear and right below the hairline. Once in place, the device is supposed to be so comfortable that the user might forget it is there most of the day.”
Project calls attention to changing role of libraries
“The Library Land Project ranks libraries based on 11 criteria, including parking, Wi-Fi, meeting rooms and restrooms, upkeep, friendliness, noise and comfort levels and whether it’s a good place to work.” Started by two guys who enjoy remote working in libraries. They are beginning with libraries in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and aiming to cover all public libraries in MA eventually.
AI reads books out loud in authors’ voices
“Chinese search engine Sogou is creating artificial-intelligence lookalikes to read popular novels in authors’ voices. “
The Future
Arrival of the Babel Fish (earpods that will do real time language translation)
“In the very near future, maybe in ten years, we’ll have earpods that will do real time language translation. Someone speaks Greek to you, and with the slightest delay, you’ll hear English. You respond in English, they’ll hear Greek.”
China has started a grand experiment in AI education. It could reshape how the world learns. MIT Technology Review
“In recent years, the country has rushed to pursue “intelligent education.” Now its billion-dollar ed-tech companies are planning to export their vision overseas.”
IT Trends of the Future That Are Worth Paying Attention to Today
AI, voice search, pocket education, and more.
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