Innovative Technology in Schools celebrated by Apple

Apple has just launched a new article series which highlights very deserving teachers and students who use innovative technology at school.

First up, we have Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts (APA) in California, who host an annual student-created show called “Playlist” as part of the Music, Media and Entertainment Technology (MMET) program at the Academy. MMET is the brainchild of Apple Distinguished Educator alum Jamie Knight and Apple Distinguished Educator Michael Simmons, along with Huntington Beach APA.

To help in the creation of the show, students use Apple computers and iPads and software such as Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro X, and learn how to do so as part of their curriculum. Students also have access to a recording studio and a Yamaha CL5 digital mixer for controlling sound levels in the theatre.

Jamie Knight says:

“We don’t just focus on the technology, it’s that performing arts experience that gives them leadership skills, confidence, team work, all of those soft skills that businesses want. You have to perform to get that, and then when you marry that with the technology and you give the kids the ability to have a real recording studio to work with, they’re going to be the next Steven Spielberg, or the next Paul McCartney.”

You can read all about it, and keep up with how Apple technology is being used in other Schools across the country, here, in Apple’s Newsroom. 

Best Apple Laptop for school? 2018 Version

So you have some extra cash burning a hole in your pocket, eh? Fancy some new Apple gear? It’s an investment in your future, you know, your grades would suffer if you didn’t  buy something shiny and new, right?

If that’s the case, or if you just really want a new laptop, Here are you options:

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch, 128GB, 256GB –

The cheapest: even without any discounts you can get the MacBook Air from $999. If you pay a little more, you can get twice the storage space with a 256GB SSD.

On the flip side, the display is the only Apple laptop that is not Retina, and is also the least powerful model.

BUT it does have the longest battery life, at 12 hours (two hours longer than other models). It is also the only model that has older hardware such as an SD card for photographers and familiar USB sockets.

If you’re a student or working in education then Apple is selling the Air from $849.

Apple 12 inch MacBook 256GB

The lightest of the lot, and super slim, even though  the screen is only an inch smaller than the 13″ MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

Retina display! Yay! Can increase storage to 512GB with a 256GB SSD. Double Yay! Has a force-touch trackpad. Yay?

Fast, but likely not heavy packing enough for video editing or gaming.

Starting at $1299 for regular folk, if you’re in education or a college student, you can get this baby for… $1249.

2018 MacBook Pro 

This big mama is at the pricier end of the Apple tree, and both heavier and thicker than either the MacBook or the MacBook Air. It has a beautiful retina display and is the fasted, most recently updated, and most powerful Apple laptop you can get right now.

If this sounds like your cup of expensive tea, you also have a couple of secondary options to decide on.

Firstly, you can get either the 13-inch or the 15-inch. Then, you have to decide if you want the base model  Then, you have to decide if you want the base model or if you want the Touch bar and touch ID.

The Touch Bar shows features and options of your software super clearly, and the Touch ID brings the iPhone-style way of unlocking and of paying in online stores.

Adding Touch ID and Touch Bar adds $500 to the price but that also means a better screen: it’s the same Retina display but with True Tone which adjust display color and brightness to fit your surroundings. Fancy.

Something additional to consider, is that only the Touch Bar models of the MacBook Pro are capable of being expanded to have 32GB RAM and 4TB of SSD.

You can get the Macbook Pro for-

13-Inch – From $1299 ( or $1249 with education pricing)

13-Inch with Touch Bar and Touch ID – from $1799 (or $1699 with education pricing)

15-Inch with Touch Bar and Touch ID – From $2399 (or $2249 with education pricing)

Similar to last year, if you are a (verified) college student, a parent purchasing on behalf of higher-education students, or faculty/staff at either a higher-education or K-12 institution, you can get a free or discounted pair of Beats headphones with the purchase of an eligible Mac or iPad Pro, and 20% off AppleCare.

This offer will be available until Sept. 25.

Happy shopping!

Back to School!

So guys, back to school time, huh? Time for a back to school app review then I guess! Hooray for school and work and stuff! ACTUALLY hooray for iOS apps that make it all easier!

Whether you’re going back to high school, college or have a kid doing one of those, here are the top apps we recommend for helping to educate oneself the besterest!

And, because we understand the life of a student, most of these apps are free! But Priceless! Like that Mastercard ad! Kinda. Also, there’s a couple on the end that we think are worth a little bit extra cashola.

Enjoy kids! Don’t forget that all work and no play makes Homer …something… something

*StudyBlue has over 150 million pieces of student authored content, taken from tens of thousands of colleges and high schools from around the world. Browsing is easy, group collaboration makes those dreaded group projects easier, and if you don’t want to use other people’s quizzes, review sheets and flashcards, you can create your own to perfect your study experience. FREE from the Appstore!

*MyHomework Student Planner App.
This beautifully designed app will sync and track your schedule, classes, assignments, exams and homework. Even better- if your teacher or Professor uses the amazing Teachers.io, you can get a buttload more information such as syllabi, attachments, resources and communication from your professor.
MyHomework is FREE with ads, however if you want the ad-free experience, it’s only $1.99 per year.

*EasyBib.
Here’s some big words for you: Automated bibliography and citation generator. We like the sound of that. You know what we don’t like the sound of? Writing Bibliographies. Ugh, right? Well, sigh no more kids, the EasyBib App is here to save the day!
All you need to do is scan the barcode of the book you’re referencing, or type the name into the app and EasyBib will automatically create MLA, APA and Chicago style citations for you. These can then be emailed to yourself or exported into EasyBib’s online bibliography management service.
FREE from the app store.

*Mint.
Picture this: you’re in class when suddenly you realize that you are almost 94.6% sure you were supposed to pay, like, 5 bills in the last week and you actually have no idea how much money you have because you’re educating yourself and shouldn’t have to worry about things like rent and when you get paid and debt and lalalala. Well, the Mint.com App has all these things covered, so you can go ahead and not worry you’re pretty little smart head over it. Mint categorizes and organizes your bills, spending, income and debt into lovely little tables so you can keep a track of what money is going where and when chunks of it are incoming and need to be outgoing. Just remember to check it! Free from the App store.

* iSlick
So we all know education is big money right? But you still gotta eat, drink, have household items, maybe catch a baseball game, take your girlfriend out and party right? Welcome to the wonderful world of Slickdeals. Slickdeals.com has a mobile app- iSlick, which will show you the wonders of secret sales, unbelievable deals and the dream that is double (or triple ) couponing. Free with Ads or $1.99 ad-free.

*Gasbuddy. Y’all wanna get the cheapest gas prices out there? Get the Gasbuddy app and you’ll always know where to get the cheapest Gas. Simple as that, and it’s FREE from the App store.

*OnWatch.
Our pick from the range of Campus safety apps- a tool which shouldn’t have to be used but stays in the better safe than sorry category of must-download apps. A safety blanket even if never needed. And we hope that is the case!

OnWatch has 6 ‘watch’ modes that stay on your phone when you think you may be at risk or are feeling a little uncertain. From there it’s only two taps to contact friends, 911, campus police or a combination of those. You can also set an alarm for a future time and when that time arrives, you are asked to enter a passcode- If you don’t- the app will send your pre-selected friends a message and your location.
There is currently a 30 day free trial, after that It is $19.99/year or $2.99 per month. Even if you discontinue with the app for whatever reason, the call 911 and call campus police features remain free forever.

*BenchPrep. This app is essentially a be all, end all tool for study and exam preparation with a huge interactive course library with study features, reports and test preparation materials.
The App includes a massive amount of material for academic subjects from Algebra to Spanish to Biology, Test preparation for those special flowers smart enough to be taking the LSAT GMAT MCAT and a bunch of others, as well as courses on practical subjects such as eMarketing, Accounting, and Word.
An invaluable study tool, as seen by this: Students who learn with Benchmark receive 15% better grades than before they started using the app. 15% better? Not much to lose here, except the fee, which is a $25/month for one course and $99/month for access to all courses.

*Wolfram Alpha Mobile App
The best computation and expert knowledge search engine app out there in our opinion- it’s really impressive. Simply ask the app what you want calculated or a question you want the answer to – from complex mathematics to how old a president was when he entered office. $2 or – try out Wolfram Alpha Pro, which goes beyond text input and includes downloadable results. A monthly subscription is $4.99/ month or $2.99/month for students, and for a very short time ending TODAY; you can get the first three months free with an annual subscription.

*iStudiez Pro is the established and award winning student planner app that will track and summarize in simple and yet extensive detail, your assignments, due dates, schedule for classes, work and extra curricular activities, as well as your grades. It will give you alerts for upcoming exams, classes and assignment due dates and sync with other co-existing apps such as the calendar. Each class has the ability to include your professors contact information with simple tap to connect features to be able to reach them on your mobile. Highly recommended for years, this is one well worth checking out. $2.99 or free for the Lite version.

For those of you looking for some extra tutorials, or for those of you not going back to school but still looking for some education, we also recommend downloading the iTunes University app. It’s awesome.

Also, because we totally understand procrastination, there is SelfControl. Not an App, but something that may just change your life…even though you might end up hating us for introducing you to it!
Available only on Mac OS X 10.5 and above, SelfControl is a way to try and curb your Internet based distractions whilst studying. Simply add any website or access to your mail server to your ‘blacklist’ and an amount of time you would like to be blocked from them, and BAM! No more distractions ( on the internet) until that time is up. Restarting or deleting the application from your computer will not make a difference either! Useful and annoying! And FREE!

Also handy is ratemyprofessors.com, check it out to make your class choices a little more informative. Last but not least, don’t forget that good ‘ol Tinder app… College is all about making friends, right?

So that’s it! If you have any other handy apps or tips for going back to school let us know!

Hope we’ve given you a l’il bit of help!

Good luck Kids!

Images courtesy of Mashable.com, laptopmag.com, beautifulpixels.com, readwrite.com, crunchbase.com, Glamour.com, kicks99.com, zdnet.com and easybib.com

Tablets taking over the world?

Tablets are predicted to overtake notebooks this year in sales, and projected to overtake sales of PC’s and notebooks combined by 2015, making tablets pretty much the king of the computer castle.

This is according to research firm IDC who released the figures in the last week, saying that tablets are expected to grow 59% this year, shipping 229 million units compared to a measly 144.5 million last year.

Although tablets have been around for a long time, their recent popularity is thanks to the Apple iPad, but the current growth is due to the proliferation of cheaper Android tablets and the role of Apple pushing for tablet use in education.

Here is a graph:

Pretty impressive, tablets. Anyone would think you had an evil plot to take over the world…or something.

Of course, these numbers don’t account for the mini computers we call phones, or any super awesome blow your mind technology that will be released between now and then, and it certainly doesn’t render the personal computer sector obsolete. Take that, tablets.

Now, when we start to get tablets that are flexible, have holographic keyboards, floating capabilities ( so you don’t have to carry them, d’uh), and an included wormhole for teleporting, then maybe tablets will be ready to take over the world.

p.s I love you iPad.

Photo courtesy of crowdcare.com