I.T. Girl - October 2015
by Heather Moon
Popular Apps:
Venmo
Want to send your friend who lives out of state money for drinks on her birthday, but you forgot to mail that card in time? This great app allows you to send payments quickly and securely. There are no forms to fill out and no fees for payment; this app is a great alternative to PayPal.
Focus @ Will
Distractions are everywhere, but this app is sure to keep you on track. This neuroscience based music subscription service increases your attention span when working, studying, writing and reading. You can personalize lyric-free songs by tempo and intensity, depending on your mood or level of needed concentration. This app has a free 30 day trial period, but is $49.99 for a year after the trial is up.
Dropbox
This app keeps all of your important files, videos, photos, and documents stored in one place. The files are safely backed up and you can retrieve them from almost any device. One great feature with using Drop box is that you can easily send large files, like photos, to anyone—even if the person doesn’t have a drop box account.
Tech Tips
• Google Alerts is one of Google’s hidden gems. It’s a great tool to keep track of trends, interesting topics, or anything new that appears on the web. Best of all, you personalize it to what you are interested in. Go here to get started: google.com/alerts.
• A fast way to search for synonyms in Google is by inserting a tilde (~) in front of your search term, example: ~beautiful. Go check it out for yourself!
• This may be obvious, but when parking at an airport or mall use your smart phone to take a picture of your parking space number to help you remember where you parked.
Cool Tech Product:
Nest Learning Thermostat
The Nest Learning Thermostat is not just your typical thermostat. It connects through an app on your phone that lets you remotely control your home’s temperature. Nest software claims to learn from you as you use it, which basically means it remembers your input and will eventually start making changes for you. This is especially unique because the thermostat uses contextual clues to make decisions that you may not even be aware of. If you occasionally crank the thermostat up a few degrees because it’s colder outside—and the thermostat uses your ZIP code to decipher whether it’s sunny or cloudy, hot or cold, etc.—Nest will eventually make those adjustments. The 3rd generation Nest Thermostat is $249, and if you go to their website (store.nest.com) you can easily find out if it’s compatible with your home.