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Inside this Issue: n Fordham IT Introduces My.Mobile n What’s New with iOS 8? n 3D Printing n Getting the most out of Gmail
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iOS Apps for School Making Music on your Computer Wearable Technology Appetizing Apps
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Fordham IT Introduces My.Mobile By: Student Media Assistant Timothy Kelly If you have ever tried to access your my.fordham portal on your mobile device, then you know that it can sometimes be a pain to use the log in page and scroll through your student tabs. As a response to these difficulties, Fordham IT has ushered out a new interface for the portal that is compatible with all mobile devices. To access the new interface, log in to your my.fordham account. In the top right corner, you will see a My.Mobile icon. By clicking on the icon, you will be brought to the new interface. If you like the new look, you can set the interface as your
default on all of your devices, including desktops and mobile phones. To do this, click on the ‘Views’ link that is located underneath your name in the upper right hand corner. Then, click on ‘Mobile Preferred’ to set the new interface as your default. To undo the My.Mobile interface, click ‘Disable Mobile’ instead. Go ahead and choose the option that works best for you. If you access your my.fordham account on your mobile devices, then My.Mobile might be the right choice for you!
What’s New with iOS 8? By: RTC Amirah Brown Apple’s newest update, iOS8 is full of new features and hidden surprises. Along with the new permanent apps, there are little tweaks that make the iPhone so much more user friendly. In Messages, there are quick views to see photos and videos along with a ‘details area’ that shows every photo and video that was ever sent. An easy swipe feature allows you to hold down on the camera and take a quick photo. There is even a voice memo that you can send via iMessage. iMessaging has never been easier as the phone can guess the next word that you may type. Other features include time lapse videos and new keyboard settings. A popular feature is the ability to leave group chats. With iOS8, you can put yourself on ‘do not disturb’ or stop receiving messages all together. The photo app has also added a few folders --------------------------------------------------------------------
to its section. There is now a recently added folder so that people can see what they have taken a picture of in the most recent days. There is even a recently deleted folder so that you can monitor what you delete in case you did it by accident. This folder is like a trash folder. You can either recover the photos by a certain date or permanently delete them all together. Although there is no dramatic change in the view of the phone, there are tons of new features in this update that separates iOS8 from the previous operating systems.
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Getting the Most Out of Gmail By: RTC Evan Cramb You probably use Gmail every day to manage your Fordham email account, but are you spending more time reading, responding to, and organizing your emails than necessary? Gmail is filled with shortcuts, tools, and hidden tricks that can make checking your email even faster and easier. By using custom searches, you can find and review emails sent on a certain date, by a certain person, or with specific content without the hassle of scrolling through your entire inbox. Filters also automatically organize your emails based on content. To create a filter, click the down arrow in your search bar and enter your search criteria. You can perform various tasks, called actions, on these groups of emails. You can set incoming messages to be automatically labeled and removed from your inbox so that they are hidden until you want to read them. If you want to do this, select Skip the Inbox (Archive it) and Apply the label: when you create your filter. Keyboard shortcuts let you navigate Gmail much faster than clicking around the application. First you should check that keyboard settings are enabled: Go to Settings, and under the General tab, turn keyboard shortcuts to "on." Now in the main application, certain keyboard buttons or combinations will simplify certain tasks. Some useful keyboard shortcuts are listed below: • j to go to older messages • k to go to newer messages • e to archive • shift + # to trash • / to type in the search bar • a to reply all • r to reply individually
Advancements in 3D Printing By: RTC Kyle Tomenga Thanks to recent advancements by NASA’s tech gurus, the possibility of 3D printing a car is one step closer than we might think. At the end of the summer, researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory managed to create a 3D printing process that switches materials during printing; therefore creating a composite object. One of the biggest obstacles the 3D printing world faced was creating objects composed of multiple alloys. For example, an older 3D printer could not produce a full car; only parts of the same material could be printed at the same time. One would have to go through each material and then print the system related to it. But now, NASA is one step closer to being able to produce a car in a few hours with the pressing of a few buttons. The implications of this are huge: potentially, houses could be printed in one swoop, composite objects such as headphones could be produced, even something as simple as making a PB&J sandwich could be possible due to this advancement. NASA scientists have chosen to withhold the specifics of this process, for now, in order to finalize the details of the process and maintain an advantage in the budding 3D printing market.
iOS Apps for School By: RTC Neal Sukhia Some of the greatest tools at our disposal for managing our time and resources are right in front of us: our iPhones, iPads and Macbooks. The Apple ecosystem has an enormous assortment of apps that can help make our lives easier, especially for school, enabling us to do a variety of tasks. For scheduling and time management, iStudiez Pro can help you keep track of your courses, assignments, and professors. To help you stay organized, all iStudiez updates are automatically synced to your devices through your iCloud account. For notes, Evernote allows you to take notes and seamlessly share them across all of your devices to ensure organized access to your notes while on the go. Using these notes, you can prepare for tests by making virtual flashcards with Flashcards+. This app allows you to create a vast amount of flashcards on any of your iDevices and test yourself on specified concepts and subjects. For everything your professors post on Blackboard, there is even a Blackboard app for that too. The number of apps at our disposal is constantly increasing. Visit the app store on any of your devices to discover exactly what your smart phone, tablet, or computer can do.
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Making Music on your Computer By: RTC Alexander Keyes Do you like music? Well chances are that some, if not all of it, was made on a computer. Today, computers are used in every stage of music making. In order for a record to be made, at some point it needs to get recorded. Although there are non-digital ways to record, computers have made the recording process much simpler and more cost effective. Using a digital recording setup, an amateur musician could potentially create professional quality recordings at a fraction of the usual cost. The best part about recording using computers is that the options are virtually unlimited. Figuring out what kind of music you want to make is usually a good place to start. For nothing but recording audio files, there are a few great programs. Starting out at the low price of free, there is Audacity. Although it doesn’t have very many options for audio manipulation already built in, it is a great piece of software to use when you are just starting to record. The next step would be to utilize a program like Pro tools, a paid program that professionals use to create records. If you are interested in manipulating MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) data as well, then I would suggest using either Ableton Live or Fruity Loops. Both have a bit of a learning curve but they are cornerstones of electronic music.
Wearable Technology: A better life with more distractions By: RTC Mark Huang With the announcement of Android’s smart watch Moto 360 and Apple’s “iWatch“, wearables are one step closer to becoming a staple of everyday tech life. Both devices feature real-time notification and simple commands; the fact that you don’t need to pull your phone out of your pocket is intriguing. With these devices, you can be even more “connected” with the outside world. You might miss the vibrating phone in your pocket, but you definitely wouldn't miss the vibrating watch on your wrist. If you wish to send a message, just say that to your watch and it will send whatever you say as a text message. To some extent, wearables are fantastic. You will never miss anything important. But do you really? I have a smart watch by Moto 360, and I can say that if anything, it distracts you. Whenever you are in the middle of a class, or an important meeting, your watch vibrates and you wouldn't resist looking at it. It distracts you from your focus, and it is a huge waste of time just to regain your focus. Overuse of cell phones can be a huge distraction, and wearables might just have amplified that. Technology has improved, and we are more connected. However, do we really need that much of a connection?
Appetizing Apps By: RTC Alonzo Solorzano For those of you out there who are feeling courageous and cook your own meals, there are a few apps that you might want to look into. EpiCurious and RecipeGen are two apps that provide easy ways to find recipes that use specific sets of ingredients. Jef Tung, the developer of RecipeGen, describes his app as being “an app that takes the food you have on hand and generates recipes using only those ingredients.” There are countless recipes for you to discover with these handy apps. EpiCurious uses its own in-app recipes while RecipeGen directs you to different websites and their recipes. Each with access to over 100,000 recipes, these apps open a wide variety of options to those cooking in residence halls. So, if you haven’t gone grocery shopping in a while and all you have in your room are left overs, check out these apps to see what creative and delicious meals you can scrape together. Or maybe you just want to shop around for a home-style mac n’ cheese recipe that reminds you of home; EpiCurious and RecipeGen are the perfect apps for you. Regardless of what you are looking for, there is a lot to gain from these convenient, residence hall friendly apps. --------------------------------------------------------------------
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