Month: May 2017

App of Week: Google Scholar

 

EduTech: Using Google Scholar to make academic researching familiar& quick.

 

By Chance Miller of 9to5 Mac

 

In this week’s installment of EduTech, we’re going to take a look at one of the best tools for finding high-quality research and data. This day and age, it’s easy to be overwhelmed with the amount of information there is on the Internet and it can be difficult to sort through it all, deciphering the quality research from the sub par.

That’s where Google Scholar comes in…

Google Scholar is one of the best, and my personal favorite, databases for conducting research. Whether it’s for a presentation, research paper, or a 9to5Mac piece, Google Scholar offers the best way to find high-quality and reliable research on pretty much any topic.

The service works just like any other database, but I personally find it considerably more easy to use purely because of how familiar most of us are with Google’s search tools. To use Google Scholar, simply head to scholar.google.com. Once there, you’ll be presented with a search box that you’re sure to recognize if you’ve ever used Google before. The difference, however, is that Google Scholar only searches scholarly literature, rather than anything under the sun.

Google says its Scholar platform is meant to help users find relevant work from sources including: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.

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How to: send voice messages from Apple Watch

 

 

By Zac Hall of 9to5Mac

Apple Watch lets you easily message other people using dictation for voice-to-text input, but sometimes it’s just easier to send a voice recording to quickly express yourself over iMessage. Here’s how to send voice messages from Apple Watch.
Prior to watchOS 3, the default behavior in the Apple Watch’s Messages app when using voice input was to ask you if you wanted to send a text transcript or a voice recording.

Apple changed the default with watchOS 3, likely with the goal of making the interaction faster (and more people probably used voice-to-text), but you can easily change it back to restore the option or always send as a voice recording.
Start by launching the Watch app on the iPhone. From the My Watch tab (the first tab), swipe down to the Messages section.

Tap to reveal options for Messages on Apple Watch including a section called Dictated Messages. Tap this option to change the default ‘Transcript’ option to ‘Audio’ or ‘Transcript or Audio’ depending on your preference.

 

Here’s how Apple describes the default option on watchOS 3:

“By default, when you’re done dictating a message, Apple Watch sends a written transcript of what you said. You can change this setting to send an audio clip instead, or to choose which option you want every time you dictate a message.”

 

Personally, I prefer the option to send either the transcript or audio. I sometimes dictate a message using voice-to-text on my Apple Watch, but I also enjoy using my Apple Watch as a sort of walkie-talkie to send quick voice recordings to friends and family.

(Also, my dictation voice is much more formal than my voice recording voice.)

If you never send voice-to-text dictated messages, however, you can use this section to only send voice messages every time and save yourself the step of selecting the audio option every time.

 

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App of the Week: Google’s Trips

 

 

 

Google’s Trips app is becoming an even better travel companion

 

by Jacob Kastrenakes of The Verge


Google introduced an app called Trips last year to help people organize their travel plans and figure out what to do once they arrive at their destination. And today, the app is getting a few new features that’ll make it even more useful.

First up, Trips will now automatically pull in train and bus tickets that have been sent to your Gmail address. The app already collates all of your flight, hotel, and car reservations, so today’s update makes its overview of your travel plans far more comprehensive.

It sounds small, but that addition really sells me on using this app: I have a trip planned a couple months from now, and the app automatically pulled in my flights, Airbnb reservation, and three train tickets I have booked. (Though the app did incorrectly identify the Airbnb reservation as part of a separate trip, during the same dates to the same location.) All the information can be saved for offline viewing, which is great if you’re heading somewhere with limited cell service.

Google has also added the option to manual add reservations, which’ll be useful for anything it still doesn’t pick up.

The final new addition today is the ability to share trips with others. I’m not actually seeing this right now on the Android version of Trips, so it may not be live yet, but it makes a ton of sense and seems like a really handy way of sharing info with everyone you’re traveling with.

Breakdown of the App:

Google Trips makes exploring the world easier by organizing your essential info in one place and making it available even offline. Get activity suggestions based on what’s nearby, customizeable day plans, and your travel reservations from Gmail.

AUTOMATIC TRIP ORGANIZATION
Your travel reservations are automatically gathered from Gmail and organized into individual trips. Each trip contains day plans, things to do, food and drink suggestions, and more.

BUNDLED RESERVATIONS
See your flight, hotel, rental car, and restaurant bookings in one place without having to search for them individually.

DAY PLANS
For several hundred of the world’s top places, find popular day plans organized on a map that you can customize based on your interests and available time.

NEARBY ATTRACTIONS
Find out when you’re near popular attractions (and whether they’re open) as well as reviews and ratings from other travelers.

THINGS TO DO
Every trip contains ideas for things to do automatically organized into useful categories like Top Spots and Indoors or Outdoors. For many of the world’s top places, you’ll get curated local suggestions and travel tips.

OFFLINE ACCESS
No Internet? No problem. Google Trips is available offline, so you’ll always have access to your info.

Available for free on Android and iOS.

What’s your favorite Travel App? Let us know in the comments below!!

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How to: Fix the 5 Most Common Apple TV Problems

 

 

Previously posted by CNET

The Apple TV is a very capable streamer that has only gotten better over time with the addition of things like the Siri remote, applications and a TV guide. Still, the Apple TV is not impervious to problems. Here are five common problems with the Apple TV and how to fix them.

Just like with your smart phone, things can go awry with apps on Apple TV, they can sometimes lag or freeze up all together. If anything like this happens, the best thing to do is to force close the application. To do this, on the Siri remote Double press the Home or TV button, slide left or right on the touchpad to select that app and then swipe up to force close it.


Sometimes it’s more than just one app that’s acting funky or the Apple TV can act glitchy in general, just not right. If this is the case, then you just need to restart the Apple TV, you can do this by going into Settings > System > Restart or on the Apple TV remote You can hold Menu and the TV or Home button until the light on the front of the Apple TV begins blinking. When this happens release those buttons and the Apple TV will restart.

If the Siri remote just randomly stops working or doesn’t work at all one day it may need to be charged. You can charge it using a lightning cable in the port along the bottom edge of the remote. And you can also actually also check its charge level under remotes and devices in the Settings. You may need to use an iPhone or an iPad in the remote app to get there. If that doesn’t work, you may need to reset the remote and repair it with your Apple TV To do this, hold the remote near the Apple TV and hold the Volume Up and Menu button for a few seconds, and it should repair.

Every so often, audio on the Apple TV will cut out. Obviously this depends heavily on what your own sound system set up is, but if it happens to you, try restarting the TV and any audio hardware connected to the Apple TV such as a sound bar. That should fix the problem but if not try restarting the Apple TV. If that doesn’t work, go to settings, audio and video, and make sure you’ve selected the right speakers under audio output. And then in Audio Mode, make sure it’s set to Auto.

If you’ve installed a lot of applications and games on your Apple TV, storage space might get tight over time. The obvious solution is to remove some of those apps and games. If you do this from he home screen, it’s gonna take quite a few steps for every single application you want to remove. Highlight the application on the home screen that you want to remove. And long-press on the track pad until it starts to wiggle. Then, press the “play/pause” button. Select “delete” and then select “delete” again to confirm. If you’re trying to remove several applications at once, a faster option is to go to “settings”, “general”, and “manage storage’. There you’ll find applications sorted by file size in descending order Think the trash can to the right of any application to remove it and then click delete to confirm.

What are your favorite Apple TV hacks? Let us know in the comments below.

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