Post XXIV. Scanner Pro.

Scanner Pro is an iOS app that turns your iPhone or iPad into a portable scanner. This app is extremely helpful when, for example, there are two simultaneously studying students in one family (I am in that kind of situation now). Imagine, you and another family member need to read the same textbook on the same day. There are two options: You can wait your turn or scan the required chapter and read it on any device. I personally like the second option more because it allows both of you to be on the same page and discuss the material you read.

Scanner Pro digitize papers into PDFs, and the result of scanning is quite more clear and beautiful comparing to traditional scanners. You can customize the scanned documents any way you like, form files and folders, and change the place of the scanned pages. Scanner Pro is integrated with cloud storage services like GoogleDrive and Dropbox. Moreover, the app enables you to constantly back up all the files you scan.

The developer of Scanner Pro, Readdle, celebrates its 8^th birthday now, so you have a unique opportunity to download the app for $2.99 (its usual price is $6.99).

Watch the video below to see Scanner Pro in action.

Post XXIII. Spark

Spark is an iOS email application that aims to make emailing as convenient and quick as possible. The idea behind this app is to transform your overwhelmed inbox into a smart tool by including a set of powerful features into it.

Spark is incredibly customizable. You can choose the order of menu items, the swipe gestures’ functions, the work of the Archive section and many more.

My favorite feature Spark offers is Quick Reply. There are three options: “like”, “thanks”, and “smile”. They are very useful when you get a lot of email. If you are involved in an informal email conversation, it is so convenient to have an opportunity to reply with a simple tap rather than having to type “thank you so much” on every email. From this perspective, Spark gets closer to instant messengers, letting the user options to act informally.

Among the features Spark has are a language search and a calendar widget. In addition, the app can be integrated with cloud storage services (e.g., Dropbox), Evernote, and Pocket.

Eventually, Spark can be downloaded for free. With all this in mind, I believe it is worth trying this new way of managing your email.

Watch a short Spark promo below.

Post XX. Lynda.com

I decided to do a brief review of Lynda.com in case if there are people in our class who are not familiar with this wonderful learning tool yet.

Lynda.com offers a collection of learning materials related to different topics, from Instructional Design to Photography. Usually, you get access to a set of video-lectures that are often accompanied by exercises to assist you in processing the new information. The quality of lectures is very high; they represent short videos, no more than 10 minutes long. What is important for me as an international student, the lecturers speak clearly and slowly (in a normal way), which helps me follow them with no additional effort involved.

There is a wide range of learning activities available on Lynda.com, and, what is more, this web portal is absolutely free for FSU students. This is great news because the regular monthly price is $20 minimum, depending on the chosen plan. In the Secure Apps folder on my.fsu.edu, there is a direct link to the Lynda.com website that enables you to get your free access. 

Lynda.com also has an iPad application for those people who prefer being mobile.

Watch a short video about Lynda.com below. What courses would you like take (or are taking) on this eLearning portal?

Post XVIII. Haiku Deck

When working on my SlideShare presentation for the Knowledge Sharing and Tracking project, I noticed that the SlideShare website outsources the in-built presentation-construction service to another company, Haiku Deck. I became interested in that company, especially after finding out they offer an iPad application for creating and sharing presentations.

I recommend Haiku Deck for iPad to everyone who constantly need to develop presentations and prefer being mobile at the same time. This is a great tool for both study and business purposes. It provides the user with lots of slide templates and a big set of Creative Commons pictures to choose from, which makes the process of the slides development significantly faster. The application also includes a collection of fonts and alternatives for slides’ layout.

What I like most about Haiku Deck for iPad is that the app has intuitive editing options, so every content piece can be relocated or redesigned in seconds. The company presents the software as a tool for quick idea sharing, and my perception of it is the same.

Watch the demo video below and download Haiku Deck for iPad for free to test its functionality. 

Are you familiar with other mobile applications for presentation creation?

Post XIV. FSU IS Application

Have you known that the ISLT family at FSU has its own mobile application?
The FSU IS APP was developed by Taehyeong Lim, a doctorate student and great guy J
You can download the application from the App Store for free. It is nicely designed, works smoothly, and, what is more, helps tracking ISLT news. The app also contains information about our faculty and staff. A catalog of program courses, providing a brief description for each course, can be found there as well.

Finally, the app includes a list of the networks related to our program. For example, it allows you to start following interesting Facebook groups, like FSU IS Program or IS Student Association.

Post XII. FocusWriter.

FocusWriter is another writing environment allowing the user to stay focused when working on a text. Its unique feature is the “hiding” interface that the user can make visible by mousing to the top of the screen. Thus, the app is somewhat similar to the Focus View mode offered by the MS Word program. However, FocusWriter is quite more useful because, oppositely to MS Word, it optimizes not only the reading experience, but also the writing one.

In addition to the practical interface, FocusWriter includes a timer and statistics for tracking the writing progress, easy-to-adjust themes, and the auto-saving option. FocusWriter is multiplatform. It also supports various document types and various languages (including Russian – yay!).

FocusWriter would be a great tool for those people who would like to immerse themselves as much as possible in their work. The great news is that it is cheap – only $5 “donation-money” for the whole app. Here, "donation" means that if you prefer not to pay for the app, you can get it for free. 

If interested, watch the short video demonstrating the features of FocusWriter below.

Post X. Ulysses

Ulysses is the text editor for those people who write a lot and, therefore, need the writing app that would enable them to organize the numerous pieces of writing they produce. Ulysses offers smart filters helping the user sort texts; what is more, it is possible to create your own filters basing on your particular preferences. This app can serve as a typewriter, a library, or as a writing coach.

There is a variety of ways your documents can be displayed on the screen, and all of them are beautiful. So, from this perspective, Ulysses is the complete opposite of the Typed app discussed in the previous post. The former is made to be aesthetically pleasing and functional at the same time, while the latter is all about concentration. By the way, talking about functionality, Ulysses allows its users to export texts into the PDF, RTF, HTML, and even ePub formats.

It should be noted that the Ulysses for iPad app represents astonishingly convenient writing environment for this device. I am using the word "astonishingly" here because my previous experience with iPad writing apps was quite disappointing. Unlike other apps, Ulysses for iPad has intuitive navigation and clean interface that are absolute pleasure to use. The only disadvantage of the app is its price ($19.99 and no free trial).

Below, you will find the app preview video for Ulysses for iPad.

Post IX. Typed.

When writing a blog post or an assignment paper, it is not easy to stay concentrated due to the widespread attention-deficit problem that is peculiar to our era. Among the most influential hindrances to on-work concentration, I would name continuously biping smartphones and other devices we all owe. Fortunately, technologies not only interfere with our work and study duties, but also assist in dealing with them. This week, I would like to experiment with my blog’s content and create a serial of posts related to one topic: Technological aides for those who write.

Let us start with Typed, a nicely-done minimalistic application. Its target audience is people who prefer writing apps having only basic functions that do not distract the user from the process of writing. The set of tools Typed offers includes a word count, auto saving, and HTML-generator for web-writers. 

What is absolutely great about this app is that the number of choices is low, which stimulates the user to focus on writing, rather than wasting their time on fonts’ or themes’ selection. For example, Typed has only three themes to choose from (day-time, night-time, and – my favorite – beige); thus, there is no way for procrastinators like me to delay starting a paper while browsing all the theme options the app has.

I also recommend anyone interested in Typed to try using the Zen mode the app offers. In this mode, you can select one of 8 calm and pleasant Buddhist soundtracks to stay insulated from the outside noise. Such a wonderful experience! 

What tools are you using to enhance your writing?

Post II. Explain Everything

Last Fall semester, I needed to develop instruction in the form of a video lecture. There was also a restriction: No “talking heads” used. So, that project made me search for some creative ways of instruction development. As a result, I found a brilliant application called Explain Everything. It represents a whiteboard where you can put anything you would like (e.g., pictures, videos, drawings, text boxes, etc.) and screencast that “putting” process. I used the app on my iPad, but it also runs on Android and Windows. Its current price in the App Store is  $2.99 (not sure it is the same for Google Play).

If you ever need a lecture-capturing tool, Explain Everything is the answer due to being cheap and comfortable in use. You don’t need a stylus to work with this app; everything can be done with your fingers. Among the features that I like most is that the app allows me to access my Dropbox account for importing of any types of files located there and exporting of the videos I completed.

Check out the app’s promo video below to see how it functions.