oCam is an impressive little app that can capture and record onscreen images, video and audio. It supports various video codecs and audio recording, it is very easy to use and it has a stack of options to choose from. Getting to grips with oCam is a straightforward affair, with hardly any learning curve. The user interface is split into two part...
There’s some big news out there today in educational software, although to outsiders it might seem like just another business day. While it’s true that Apple buys smaller tech companies from time to time–so much that their standard company answer to journalists is “we buy tech companies all the time, it doesn’t mean anything”–the recently announced Cupertino acquisition of San Francisco-based startup LearnSprout is actually much bigger news than many people realize.
LearnSprout, a three-year-old company which has already reached K-12 school districts in 42 states with its trackable, outcome-based software–is just great enough that it might be the key to Apple’s further penetration into the edtech industry. For those who haven’t had to sit in a public school for a while, here’s the breakdown: iPads are awesome learning tools, but they’re also pretty much a Wild West of available apps and platforms. The lack of consistency is actually beneficial, as teachers are able to root around through the App Store and find the tools they need for their specific students. Unfortunately, it also means a disconnectedness in which one teacher uses this platform, another teacher requires this app, and so on.
There’s also an inherent reluctance on the part of administrators to unleash these too-powerful tablets in their teachers’ classrooms. There’s no government control over what content the teachers use when they allow tablets, and if there’s anything state and local governments love about their school districts, it’s absolute control over the content and curricula.
With Apple seemingly venturing into the educational software sphere, it could mean a serious run-for-the-money when it comes to beating out the ever-popular Chromebook, which lets system administrators and politicians control what software is installed. As TechCrunch has reported,US school systems buy around one million Chromebooks every quarter, and they now account for half of all devices used in American classrooms. It’s a shame, given that tablets (regardless of manufacturer) are typically better suited to most public school environments in terms of battery life, portability, instant power up, and durability. Hopefully Apple’s acquisition can bring the more functional tool back into one of its most ideally designed roles.
The post Can iPad Beat The Chromebook In Classrooms? appeared first on TechBeat.
Google Docs and other cloud based documents do seem perfect but never really excelled at the comments facility, especially on mobile. With the recent update, the company fixed that by implementing a completely new mobile commenting system. So how do you use that to make your experience more sublime and collaborative?
#. On Web
Head over to your document or create a new one on Google docs, visually there are no changes but move your cursor to the line at which you want to add a comment and do a right click.The drop down menu now includes a “Comment” feature, click on that and add your remarks. Google has also provided a shortcut to quickly access the feature with “Ctrl + Alt + M”.
You can also add a comment by hovering at the edge of your document page that will reveal a bubble. Clicking on bubble will reveal the same comment box that you were greeted with earlier. The insert tab on the top menu also consists these options in case right clicking isn’t available on your machine.
#. On Mobile
The process is fairly similar for mobile app. Hit the “+” icon on top and add your comment. You can also click the comment you or someone else made before and reply to it.
To view a comment on desktop that’s already there, just hover over it, the text will highlighted by light orange color, letting you know there is a comment. Same goes for mobile, although there you will have to tap instead of hovering.
Now there are a couple more things you should be aware of, first is the “Resolve” option that is used to mark that remark or suggestion solved. The option is available in the comment box on Desktop and the comment screen that slides in from the button on mobile. Google also provides you the ability to edit, reply or delete the comment if necessary.
You can also tag people in your comments/replies using the “@” sign followed by the person’s name.
#. On Web
The same mechanism works for Google Sheets, just move to your entry and right click to reveal the options. From there you can add your points/comments.
#. On Mobile
On your smartphone, you can insert a remark by either hitting that “+” icon on top or hold the cell that will reveal options including cut, copy, paste and at the end there will be three dots, tap on those and make the comment by hitting the comment tab.
Other facilities like resolving, deleting work the same as they did on Google Docs.
Last and finally, understanding comments on Google Slides. Everything is similar to what we saw above except you will be adding comments on different objects of a slide, for instance there could be a comment on a particular text box, image etc.
Other features like resolving, replying work similarly.
That’s all you needed to excel at Google’s new mobile commenting feature. If you have any doubts, shoot them in the comment section below.
The post Creating Comments in Google Docs, Slides and Sheets on Web and Mobile appeared first on Google Tricks Blog.
VDownloader is an app that allows you to download and save video from any major website to your PC. The user interface is clean and crisp with a standard set-up. The content you download can be stored in numerous video formats. VDownloader supports conversion to most popular formats for devices such as iPod, iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry and ...
Surf Anonymously Free is a useful app that replaces your Internet connection's standard IP address with an anonymous one, which changes regularly, thereby hiding your identity from threats such as hackers and identity thieves. Surf Anonymous Free has a simple user interface that is small enough to keep open on your desktop. The app displays nati...
F-Secure's KEY password generator will create a strong, unique password for you. There is no need to memorize lots of different passwords as KEY will do that for you. You can now store all your important credentials in one secure password manager. All you need to do is just set your Master Password, and that is the only password you'll ever need to...
Universal Media Server (UMS) is a DLNA-compliant UPnP Media Server that is cross-platform and supports all major operating systems, including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It can stream or transcode numerous different media formats with little or no configuration. Key features include: Easy to configure. Written in Java for use on Windows, Li...
