Mobile Apps News from Nicole Hennig
Mobile Apps News
January 9, 2020
Hi everyone,
Welcome to the 73rd 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:
best apps of 2019 (according to Sweet Setup)
several tips, including how to snap a photo while recording a video (iPhone)
accessibility, voice-computing, thought-provoking articles, interesting stats, and articles about the future
Enjoy!
App News
Featured apps
Flighty is the Best Live Flight Tracking App for iPhone and iPad
Keep updated about your flight. Free for tracking unlimited flights with no ads. Pro plan at $8.99/mo gives you push notifications and more. You can subscribe to just a single month if you want to use it for a particular trip.
An Extinct Shark Comes to Life in AR: Megalodon (iPhone, iPad)
Fun AR app for learning about the megalodon (now extinct).
App lists
The Best Apps & Hardware of 2019 – The Sweet Setup
CalZones is for scheduling meetings across time zones. Several other “best apps” of 2019 are reviewed here.
App updates
Twitter Backs Down From Plan To Delete Inactive Accounts, Citing Dead Users
Twitter changed their minds about their plan to purge inactive accounts. They were planning to remove any account that had not logged in in the last six months. But there was a backlash from people pointing out that they wanted to view past tweets from people who have died. Twitter is working on a way to memorialize account of those who have died.
Google Photos Adds Direct Messaging Feature for Faster Photo Sharing
It used to be that in Google Photos you had to create an album even if you only wanted to share one photo. Now you can message someone with an individual photo. You can chat back and forth, like a photo, etc.
Just for Fun
Ingredients: Healthy Recipes
iPhone app for vegan recipes.
67 funny things to ask Siri for a good giggle
Try asking Siri, “What is zero divided by zero?”… and other fun questions.
Siri Corrects Weatherman Live on Television
“Siri decided to offer its own take on the weather to BBC meteorologist Tomasz Schafernaker while he was on the air.”
The Simpsons Spoof Voice Assistants and Smart Speakers on Thanksgiving Episode
Marge is a virtual personality built from her DNA and placed in a smart speaker. Fun satire.
My Offerings
If you like podcasts, get my guides for recommendations.
Best Podcasts for Diverse Audiences
(Full ebook includes all titles below).
Or get individual ebook titles:
* Children and Teens
* Feminism and LGBTQ
* Racial Diversity
* People with Disabilities
* The Digital Divide
* Technology and Society
* Discovery Tools
My 2017 book, Keeping Up with Emerging Technologies is still current, because it focuses on methods and practices — not specific technologies.
”A bounty of resources and strategies for advancing user-centered innovation”
— Joyce Kasman Valenza, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Rutgers School of Communication & Information
”An incredibly useful, compact, and well thought-out aid for any librarian or information specialist.”
— Candy Schwartz, Professor, Simmons School of Library and Information Science
Coming soon!
Accessibility Tutorials for Library Staff
Does your library staff feel confident about serving people with all types of disabilities? There are many resources on library service to persons with disabilities, and these can take time to read through and understand. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
There is a solution
I created an informative and enjoyable self-study tutorial that your staff can complete in a reasonable amount of time.
Making Library Services Accessible
A self-study tutorial for library staff with two parts.
1. Making Library Services Accessible (for all staff)
2. Making Library Websites Accessible (for technical staff).
Learn more and sign up to be notified when it's available!
Tips
How to Turn Live Photos into Videos on an iPhone & iPad (New for iOS 13)
RT @tonyvincent: You can snap a photo while recording video on an iPhone. Just press the white circle! (Android also has this feature).
Accessibility
This Outfit Can Help Deaf People Feel Music
“The SoundShirt translates sound waves into vibrations on the skin, opening up the experience of music to the Deaf.”
iPad and iPhone Apps for Low Vision
Useful list of 31 apps for people with low vision.
Autistic Teenager Creates App To Help People On The Spectrum
“Ethan Shallcross, who has a form of autism and lives in the English town of Torquay, developed Aumi to enable people to manage their anxiety, monitor their mental health and reduce burnout."
Voice Computing
Coursera Launches Alexa Skill Connecting School and Students by Voice
“This skill acts as an accessory to the Coursera platform. The skill is free and can be connected to any Coursera account. Once it’s installed and linked, students can ask Alexa questions about ongoing assignments test scores, grades, and other information about their progress in a class.”
New Google Assistant App Helps Parents Read to Kids From Far Away
“A new Google Assistant Action called My Story Time lets parents record stories remotely for their child to play on-demand."
20 Google Assistant Actions and Abilities You Should Try
“Google Assistant has expanded enormously in the last year. Google has been busy adding new languages, accents, and other abilities to its voice assistant while creating new hardware to interact with it and rebranding Google Home as Nest Home.” This list has some fun actions to try.
Thought-Provoking
Federal Court Rules Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional
The city with the best fiber-optic network in America might surprise you
The One-Traffic-Light Town with Some of the Fastest Internet in the U.S. (a different town than the one in the previous link)
Beautiful News (good news in beautiful charts)
Here’s a Kinda Genius, Kinda Evil Way People Are Gaming Spotify Playlists
Android Becomes Basically Unusable If You Turn Off All of Google’s Tracking
The Guy Who Invented Those Annoying Password Rules Now Regrets Wasting Your Time
Twitter thread: Casey Fiesler, PhD, JD, geekD @cfiesler. Next week I’m ending a computing & society class with a lecture on positive impacts of technology, as a reminder that it’s not all AI nightmares and privacy scandals. What are your favorite examples of the good that tech does in the world? 3:02 PM · Nov 29, 2019
Interesting Statistics
Mobile Divides in Emerging Economies — Pew Research
“There are still notable numbers of people in emerging economies who do not own a mobile phone, or who share one with others.” And other interesting stats from Pew Research.
Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information — Pew Research
“Majorities think their personal data is less secure now, that data collection poses more risks than benefits, and believe it is not possible to go through daily life without being tracked.”
The Future
Future technology: 22 ideas about to change our world
Tactile virtual reality, 760mph trains, floating farms, and other interesting ideas.
Starlink is a very big deal
“Starlink’s world-spanning internet will bring high quality internet access to every corner of the globe. For the first time, internet availability will depend not on how close a particular country or city comes to a strategic fiber route, but on whether it can view the sky.”
The Starlink Situation
Good article from Sky and Telescope about the impacts on astronomy of having all those satellites in the sky. It’s not all completely bad news… read this and the article above for a fuller understanding.
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