Apps are perfect whether you want to make the most of your time or totally kill it. Phone and computer apps have been part of our life for some time now, but below are 5 top apps you may not have heard of that will make your college life easier (or more fun).
SnapChat
SnapChat is the latest craze as far as image sharing goes. More private than an instagram and safer than sharing pictures through MMS, Snapchat gave us something we never knew we were missing. With Snapchat you can send pictures and 160 character limit messages to your friends. The only catch? There is a time limit. You can only view the picture while your finger is holding on the screen and the picture will disappear after a maximum of 10 seconds. So get your selfies and weird pointless camera shots ready to share. Warning: This app is addicting!
Secret Tip: Photos can be captured for later by simply taking a screenschot. So think twice before sending anything too crazy.
Just Wink
Just Wink is a fun greeting card app. Don’t worry this isn’t your crazy aunt’s email birthday cards. Just wink incorporates contemporary design that is perfect for any daily pick me up. The American Greeting Cards app has tons of designs and subjects to choose from. Some of our favorites include breakups, “my bad,” and bromance. So start sending some cheer now through texts or email.
Favorite Feature: Cards can be customized by adding photos or by finger-signing your name via touchscreen.
Dunno
Dunno is used for when you simply dunno. It’s a great productivity app built around a search concept. Imagine your friend drops a reference that is over your head; you simply enter the reference, word, or phrase into Dunno. It performs a few searches and notifies you when you its complete. Search results are similar to anything you may find in any other search engine like Google. Dunno is unique because it saves the searches in a queue so you don’t miss a beat in the conversation. Review your searches and learn what you may have missed throughout the day.
Highlight: You can mark relevant notes and share them with others.
Evernote
Evernote is an organization and web clip app. You can sync it to your PC and your phone. There is even a Google Chrome Browser extension which makes browsing the web easy. You clip what you want and are interested in to save for later. You can share these clips with friends who can access them from any device. The app truly optimizes organization. The best feature of this app is a search from image. Great for taking images of class notes. Take an image of an instructor’s notes in class and research them later then share the results with your classmates.
Usage: Although this app works great on smartphones, you’ll enjoy it best from an iPad or Tablet.
Highlight
Highlight is a social app that is getting a lot of buzz from tech junkies. It has been featured by Anderson Cooper, CNN, NY times, and the wall street journal. Highlight accesses your Facebook and Linked In accounts to help you stay connected or meet new friends. Highlight alerts you when people who share your interests are nearby. This is a great app for traveling or getting adjusted to a new city. You can see if a lot of people who like the same sports team you do are all at the same bar, or if a local concert has a lot of people that have the same interest in music as you. Highlight takes the guessing out of social hot spots.
Caution: This app may stream detailed information about you and your location, so read the privacy policy and know what information you’re giving out.
The best part? They are all FREE! So go to your app store now and get started.
What app are you currently obsessing over? Let us know in the comments.
Finally, get rewarded for buying your textbooks and other college merchandise….
eCampus.com is so proud to announce our eCampus.com eWards loyalty program! eWards is the ultimate loyalty program for buyers of college textbooks and merchandise. Just like everything on eCampus.com, earning and redeeming eWards for exclusive rewards and VIP benefits is easy, simple and fun.
There are two ways to enroll, after a purchase, or via the customer’s eCampus.com account. In fact, just signing up earns members 50 points. Once enrolled, members receive a 5% off deal that they can easily share via Facebook, Twitter, or email. If a friend completes a purchase through the shared link, referral points will be awarded to the original customer.
The eCampus.com eWards program lets students use the power of their social network to save money on future textbook purchases. Members can come back to eCampus.com throughout the semester and continue to earn points by simply sharing deals and products to their social network. This way, members collect points throughout the semester that can be used toward next semester’s textbook purchases.
In addition to social media and email, members also earn eWards points when buying, renting and selling books and other merchandise – and they can trade in their eWards points to earn rewards and discounts toward shipping and future purchases.
After each purchase, members will be awarded badges that they can share with their friends and contacts throughout social media. Badges represent college progression from freshman year to graduate school and beyond.
One profitable feature for members is the ability to earn eWards when renting books—two points per dollar. Given that 79% of responders in a recent eCampus.com survey said that they rented their textbooks, earning points from renting could easily become the most popular and lucrative consumer feature.
Customers also have a chance to earn both cash and eWards when selling books back to eCampus. eWards members will receive one point per dollar when selling books back to eCampus.com or through the Marketplace, where books are sold to other students.
So, what are you waiting for? Join today at www.eCampus.com/ecampus-ewards.asp.
While you’re interning this summer, you also want to keep in touch with all of your friends online. Your Facebook wall is full of curse words, your Twitter feed is all about partying and you have a ton of posted pictures that are seemingly less than professional. Your boss just friend requested you—not to mention potential employers are constantly looking you up online—so it’s time to clean up your online platforms.
One of the easiest things you can do is control your privacy settings. When friending your boss, it’s important to make sure your profile doesn’t have anything too scandalous. Keep your albums private—if necessary, don’t feel like your employer or colleagues can’t see anything you post, unless you just really want to keep your personal life and work life completely separate. If friends post inappropriate comments on your wall, you can either make your entire wall private or make individual posts private. Even easier, you can talk to your friends about what they post; hopefully, they can clean up their act, at least while you’re actively interning.
Besides privacy, you also need to be conscious of what you are posting. Watch how much personal information you put on your profiles. When tweeting, don’t post every single thing you’re doing every hour of the day. Not only could it lead to unexpected stalkers, but it’s annoying for everyone who follows you. This isn’t necessarily unprofessional, but it makes your profiles overall appear too simple and doesn’t necessarily show off your true self—at least as an employee or intern. Instead, try retweeting posts from your company (not every single one, or even every day) and other places that interest you. Post some interesting articles related to your school major or skills. The more variety you have throughout your online profiles, the easier it will be for employers—current and those seeking you out for interviews—to paint a picture of what you can bring to the company and also how they can cater to your interests.
Finally, and most importantly, to keep a professional Facebook or Twitter, don’t post negative comments about your work. Think or yourself as an ambassador for the company. If you’re posting that you hate your boss, you have an annoying colleague, or that you just hate what you’re doing, you shouldn’t expect to be working there much longer. If you feel the need to vent—about work, personal issues or anything like that—keep it off the Internet. It might be funny, it might lead to a lot of comments on your Facebook wall, but it’s not classy or professional. Besides, a good phone call or in person venting session is always fun.
Overall, just be aware of what you and others are posting on your profiles. It’s not hard to remain professional, it just takes active attention to your accounts. Good luck, interns!
- ToonyToon
It’s easy to get lost in our own lives. It seems every hour of every day is booked for the whole year—and beyond. With so many obligations, volunteering becomes just another task at the end of the to-do list. You don’t have to feel guilty. Here’s a guide on easy ways to give back while accomplishing today’s chores.
When you clean out your closet and sweep this winter’s dirt from under your bed, keep an eye out for old, outgrown running shoes. Nike’s Re-Use a Shoe program re-cycles the shoes with the help of Nike Better World. They turn worn out sneakers into playgrounds, basketball courts and even into sports equipment
If you’re on the market for a comfortable, versatile pair of shoes and a way to change a life, you’re in luck. TOMS Shoes is dedicated to giving back. The company matches every purchase, sending shoes to a child in need worldwide. The shoes average around $50 with a wide selection of styles, so you can proudly wear your good deed.
With the motto “Buy a hat. Change a life,” Krochet Kids empowers women in Northern Uganda and Peru by teaching them how to crochet hats, which ultimately creates economic sustainability in small communities. The hats cost around $30 and every hat is signed by the woman who made it, so you can go onto the site and learn how you directly impacted her life. How could this purchase get any better? They sell more than hats.
While you’re waiting for the water to boil or in line at the store, visit FreeRice.com, a non-profit site run by the United Nations World Food Programme. For every question you answer correctly while taking any of their quizzes, they donate 10 grains of rice to help end world hunger. Brush up on your vocabulary, math, geography and other subjects while the rice quickly adds up—and what a great way to get your children actively learning and giving.
-ToonyToon
With the ever growing social network Twitter on the rise, eCampus.com decided to take a look at who holds the most influence. From music to television to sports, these followings are quite impressive. We all know that Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, and Lebron James are well known, but did you realize that combined they have the ability to influence over 36 million people?!
Take a look at the numbers of the biggest influencers on Twitter in music, sports, and television in the infographic below. To see the full graphic please visit the eCampus.com Library of College Infographics.
-Lovejoy
I’m reading Understanding Art
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