Mobile Apps News from Nicole Hennig
Mobile Apps News
November 12, 2019
Hi everyone,
Welcome to the 72nd 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 new app for identifying plants and animals
new hardware from Apple and Amazon
my new accessibility training for library staff
several tips, including tips for the new iPadOS
accessibility, voice-computing, thought-provoking articles, interesting stats, and articles about the future
Enjoy!
App News
Featured apps
This New App Will Help You Identify the Plants and Animals You See in Nature (Seek) - iOS or Android
Upload a photo of an insect, bird, plant, reptile, amphibian, or mammal, and Seek will use image recognition to try to match it to one of 30,000 species in its database.
Maps Me Review – The Best Map App
Download maps to be stored on your device for use when you don’t have access to a cell tower or you don’t want to use up data. It uses open source data from OpenStreetMap.
App lists
The 7 Best iPhone and iPad Apps to Learn Sign Language
Learning ASL? Use this list to decide which apps will be helpful.
15 Best Stargazing Apps for iPhones and Androids
Useful list if you like stargazing. You can also gaze at Earth with the NASA app, which shows you photos from the International Space Station. (And if you're interested in astronomy, consider subscribing to The Cosmic Companion newsletter. It's free, and written by my fiancé! Yes, we're getting married in December!)
App updates
What Is “Sign in with Apple” and Should I Use It?
When you sign up for new apps you often see the option to sign in with Facebook, Google, or email. Now you can sign in with Apple as well. Unlike Facebook and Google, Apple shares as little information as possible, collecting just your username and email address. There is also an option to create a disposable email address with Apple, that can forward mail to your Apple ID email if you like. Learn more pros and cons of this in the article.
All the Best iPadOS Features That You Don’t Get in iOS
The new iPadOS has some interesting features. Lean about them here.
New inclusive emojis in iOS 13.2
"RT @KithandKinMag: FINALLY! The new @apple iOS 13.2 update is here. The update now has emojis designed to be more inclusive and diverse. There are nearly 60 new designs in total, which feature gender-neutral characters, interracial couples, and disability-focused additions."
New Hardware
Apple Watch Series 5: The MacStories Overview
The new Apple Watch has an “always-on display,” a compass, international emergency calling, and more.
iPhone 11 and 11 Pro: The MacStories Overview
Learn details about the new iPhones. The new camera features are especially interesting.
Apple Introduces Larger Screen 7th Generation iPad with Smart Connector
The new iPad has a larger screen, is lighter and thinner, has a better front-facing camera, and more.
Echo Buds vs. AirPods
Talk to Alexa anytime, with these earbuds. (If you must :) They use noise-reduction technology from Bose. You can also make them work with Google Assistant or Siri (if you have an iPhone).
The top 8 Echo products Amazon announced today
Amazon is putting Alexa everywhere. Learn about all the new gadgets, including Echo Frames (eyeglasses) and Echo Loop (a ring), all with Alexa built-in.
Eternal City, Modern Photography: The iPhone 11 Pro in Rome
According to the author, “Not only is the device’s camera the best and smartest Apple has ever shipped, but it also affords the most photographic freedom, allowing non-professional photographers like me to produce amazing shots with minimal effort.” Night mode looks amazing (see comparison shots).
Apple Reveals $250 Noise-Canceling AirPods Pro
The new AirPods have noise cancellation.
Just for Fun
The Emoji Mashup Bot Is Creating Fun, Weird, and Useful New Emoji. Meet the 18-Year-Old Developer Behind It
“Emoji Mashup Bot, is a Twitter account run by 18-year-old developer Louan Bengmah that creates a randomized mashup of two different emoji every hour.”
The Redefining Women Icon Collection
“Noun Project launches a new collection of 60+ icons representing women in design, technology and leadership positions, available for free as Public Domain.“
RT @LarryGlickman:
This may be a question of interest only to history nerds but [no pun intended] what is the proper citation format for butt-dials? Should they be footnoted like phone calls but with an additional notation to let the reader know the call was accidental?
My Offerings
Here’s what one reader said about my book, Power Searching the Internet.
This was a fast, practical read that packed a major punch
"It’s immediately useful for something I’ve always thought of as asymmetrical searching – not databases, but search engines and social media, managing Internet tools that react to you and your activity. Our patrons really need this info. Alas, it’s already going out of date – it gives some advice about Google+ (RIP) that is a shadow of things to come. Half of this stuff could be out in a year as Google and Facebook and the rest constantly morph into new, not necessarily better iterations. Meanwhile, though, tools like GScholar have stayed pretty stable.
This is also good foundational knowledge – if you know how it works now, a little change (or, in Twitter’s case, another goddamn overhaul) won’t completely throw you. Well worth $35!"
—Anna Gooding-Call, Freelance writer and public librarian
Get the book
Keeping Up with Emerging Technologies
The book serves as an invaluable guide not only to resources and methods for staying current and performing the duties, but also as a tool to place the role of Emerging Technologies Librarian into the broader context of librarianship.
– Michael C. McGuire, Colby College, College & Research Libraries (full review)
Get the book
Accessibility Training for Library Staff
I recently created two interactive online tutorials (self-study) for the staff of King County Library System (KCLS) about accessibility.
One tutorial was for general library staff and the other for technical staff.
I'm considering making this training available to other libraries (as a set of web files you can upload to your own staff website).
I'd like to see how much interest there is. So here's a quick survey to get a sense of your interest.
Yes, I'm possibly interested!
(I'll respond to those who are interested with more details about content and price).
Tips
How to Add Store Rewards Cards (and More) to Your iPhone’s Wallet
How to Teach Siri to Say a Name by Adding Phonetic Spelling to the Contacts App
iOS 13 and iPadOS 13: How to use Markup on your screen captures and photos
iPadOS Tips and Tricks: Gestures, Home Screen Tweaks, Keyboard Options, and More
iOS Shortcuts: The Ultimate Guide for Resources, Examples, Libraries, Triggers, and More
How to Use Your iPhone to See the Chrome Tabs Open on Your Mac
How to Connect to a Wi-Fi Network Directly from the Control Center on an iPhone or iPad
Accessibility
New tool makes web browsing easier for the visually impaired
“In a new study done in collaboration with Microsoft, researchers found a way to merge the best elements of voice assistants with screen readers to create a tool that makes free-form web searches easier.”
”Alexa, what am I holding?”
Helps blind and low vision people identify items. Very cool. Watch the video to see how it works.
Accessibility updates to the Vimeo player
High color contrast, better support for screen readers, and more.
Designing for accessibility is not that hard
Seven of the easiest guidelines to implement.
Voice Computing
Google Is Allowing People To Dial A Phone Number To Talk To Google Assistant
“People across India on Vodafone Idea, a carrier that Google has partnered with for the service, will be able to dial a toll-free number and ask Google Assistant — in English and Hindi — about the weather, sports scores, traffic conditions, and more."
Google is reducing how much audio it saves for human review
Read for details about the privacy updates for Google, Amazon, and Apple’s voice computing systems.
You can now ask Google to ‘move the music’ to a different room
“Hey Google, move the music to the living room.”
How To Make Alexa Speak Spanish and English With Multilingual Mode
In the U.S. you can start speaking to Alexa in Spanish (or English) and she’ll respond in the same language. In Canada it will include French with English, and in India Hindi with English.
Interesting Stats
GSMA-State-of-Mobile-Internet-Connectivity-Report-2019 (PDF)
A report worth reading. “In 2018, almost 300 million people connected to mobile internet for the first time, bringing the total connected population to more than 3.5 billion people globally. For many of these individuals, mobile is the only method of accessing the internet, so growth in mobile internet adoption also drives digital inclusion, especially in low- and middle-income countries."
Thought-Provoking
Library cards unlock access to bikes, benefitting communities
Stories of 7 different libraries that loan out bicycles. (And one library in Vermont loans e-bikes!)
How googly eyes solved one of today’s trickiest UX problems
“A little robot at a library in Helsinki went from reviled to beloved, all because it got a new pair of plastic eyes.”
What Our Tech Ethics Crisis Says About the State of Computer Science Education
“The problem with ‘I’m just an engineer’ isn’t the engineer’s inability to identify all relevant ethical implications — it’s that they don’t think it’s their job to do so. “
Breathe, focus, headset: The women turning to VR in labor
“She never forgot she was in labor, but the VR visuals and the disembodied voice helped her calm down and shift attention away from her pain.”
This Site Turns Wikipedia Pages Into Fake Academic Papers
A new website called M-Journal will automatically turn Wikipedia pages into realistic-looking academic papers. “If a teacher attempts to look up what sources their students are citing, they’ll see what appears to be a poorly-scanned copy of an academic journal article. The most devious part: the fake journal is paywalled and asks would-be subscribers for $300 to read the full version of an article, or $2,000 for an annual pass.”
Digital Knowledge Quiz: Pew Research
“RT @lrainie: New @PewInternet tests Americans digital knowledge and just 2% got all 10 questions correct. The median number of correct answers was 4 in a new survey.”
Take the quiz! I hope you get them all right.
The Rise of “No Code”
Interesting thoughts on how it’s now easier for more people to become “makers.”
Social Media Has Not Destroyed a Generation
“New findings suggest angst over the technology is misplaced.”
The Internet Archive’s massive repository of scanned books will help Wikipedia fight the disinformation wars
Cool: “For years, the Internet Archive has been acquiring books, warehousing them, and scanning them. Now, these books are being ‘woven into Wikipedia’ with a new tool that automatically links every Wikipedia citation to a print source to the exact page and passage from the book itself, which can be read on the Internet Archive. “
“Old age” is made up—and this concept is hurting everyone
“Products designed for older people reinforce a bogus image of them as passive and feeble.”
French High School Students Will Learn About Bitcoin And Crypto
Interesting: “French educators are expected to teach an introductory course that will assist students in understanding the impact Bitcoin has on the French and global economies.”
The Future
The Future of Silk - Scientific American Blog Network
Read this to learn about many unexpected and interesting technology applications with silk.
Themes about the next 50 years of life online | Pew Research Center
Many experts were interviewed. Some were optimistic: Internet pioneers imagine the next 50 years, and some more pessimistic: Leading concerns about the future of digital life.
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