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Costs and Considerations - Investing in a Life Alert Device for Peace of Mind

Determining the right life alert device for seniors or disabled individuals who live alone, have mobility issues, or have chronic medical conditions to ensure safety, independence and peace of mind.




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Summer Harvest - Zucchini Instead of Rice

Inexpensive and very healthy zucchini as a food alternative for dinner - sliced and cubed zucchini as a rice substitute.




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Tiffany Preston

One of the strangest things you’ll find in this industry is what we call ‘account reps’. These are folks who are hired by companies to promote their websites. They’ll come at you via email or ICQ or through your blogs, they dont care. sometimes they’re evil However every so often you’ll [...]




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Worcestershire Sauce

That's right, you can make your own Worcestershire sauce at home!






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Latest Digital Camera Technology

Explore latest digital camera technology for better results.




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Best Cheap Computer Deals - Subscribe to RSS Feeds for Cheap Computer Deals!

Subscribe to our best cheap computer deals RSS feeds and get them delivered to you daily and weekly!




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Best Computer Guide

Selecting the best computer system that is of high quality and at a cheap price.




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Your Best Computer - Building vs. Buying a Cheap Computer

The Best Computer - The advantages and disadvantages of building your own cheap computer vs. purchasing a pre-built system.




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Best Online Cheap Computer Retailers' Guide

Visit the best Online Cheap Computer Retailers here and Save!




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Generating Online Interest in Your Property

The internet is all the rage when it comes to real estate. According to the National Association of Realtors, when a buyer starts thinking of buying, the first place they turn is the internet. Just 10 years ago - it was getting in the car and driving around.

With gasoline prices approaching $3 a gallon, more and more people will search online first before they do any driving.

So - if you are an agent or a seller, how do you get your property noticed online?

Let's talk about being an agent first. If you are with a national franchise and/or your company is affiliated with the local board of Realtors, there is a good chance that your listings will get streamed to Realtor.com. Relator.com is the #1 property search engine in the world and just keeps getting bigger and better. The site is ranked by Alexa.com as the #8 site - in the WORLD. That's pretty big. Real estate agents already have this site in their favor.

As a home seller, you do not have such an advantage. You can either buy into one of the FSBO (For Sale By Owner) products out there that will put your home on the internet for you, or you can put up your own site and sales page for your home. Of course, if someone is searching for a home in your area, and your site doesn't come up on the first page or two of the major search engines, no one will ever see it.

With people shopping more online and doing less driving around, it puts todays home sellers (those selling without an agent) at a pretty big disadvantage. If they would list their home with an agent whose company has a popular internet presence, their home would sell a lot faster because of the increased exposure.

Our company site is such a site. If you go to Google and search on "Birmingham Alabama Homes for Sale", you will see that the Access Realty site comes in at #3 or #4 on the first page. That's a huge advantage for anyone who wants to sell a home in Birmingham.

One other way to sell a home is to generate a large roster of interested buyers. This can be accomplished online by setting up what are called mini-sites designed to capture llists of people who are currently in the market for a home. This works great for real estate agents but may not work so well with a seller of just one home. You can get more information on these mini-sites and how to accomplish this HERE. As I said before, this type of buyer generation works extremely well these days because almost everyone shops online before getting in the car and driving around looking for homes.




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Real Estate Class

I am in Post license class demonstrating how to post to your weblog directly from email.




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Alabama Real Estate in Recovery

(Birmingham, AL) The Alabama real estate market is already recovering from recent lows. Evidence is everywhere.

Inventories of property on the market hit an all time high at the end of november 2007 into the first of December 2007. Since then, the inventory of property for sale has been shrinking. This is always the first sign. As property inventories decrease, the demand for property rises. This causes price support and shores up values.

Mortgage applications, or new people applying for a home loan, increased 12% just last week. This is yet another sign that more buyers are entering the market to buy a home. If you combine this with the fact that inventories are shrinking, it doesn't take a genius to see that values will stop declining soon and prices will again start to rise.




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4 Best Podcasting Microphone 2019

To make your search easier, we are going to break down some of the best podcasting microphones you can find right now.

complete article




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How Spotify Investors Will Know If Its Podcast Strategy Is Working

Meanwhile, the biggest advantage management holds up for growing podcasts is improved engagement on the platform. But since Spotify doesn't disclose average time spent per user on its platform, investors may be left guessing how the company is doing. So, what is the best indication of whether or not the podcast investments are paying off?

complete article




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Best Podcasts of 2019

This year brought seismic changes to the podscape—splashy, big-money acquisitions by companies like Spotify, uneven, big-money débuts by players like Luminary—and, above ground, a healthy crop of reliably good, bountiful content. New daily-news shows arose beside the stalwarts; impeachment podcasts sprang up. History podcasts brought perspective, music podcasts brought joy, and one of my favorite podcast genres—the locally produced NPR-style narrative investigative series—continued to flourish.

Best Podcasts of 2019




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The best podcasting microphones in the world – start podcasting today

One of the more curious growth areas in media has been the rise - largely under the radar - of podcasting. The simple act of voices telling stories, conducting interviews or teaching weird and wonderful things has made it one of the most important communication mediums of the 21st Century. Around 73 million Americans identify as regular podcast listeners, and that number is only forecast to rise. With that in mind, we want to help you get started making your own with our pick of the best podcasting microphones around.

The popularity of podcasting can be largely attributed to communities that form around popular podcasts. So it makes sense that more and more people are looking to podcasting as a way of telling their story.

The good news is that there is a relatively low barrier to entry.

Best Podcasting Microphones




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Investigative podcasts are exploding. Here are six great ones to get you started.

Last month, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced that there will now be a Pulitzer for audio reporting, further proving that podcasting has become an unignorable cultural force. In the announcement, Pulitzer Administrator Dana Canedy explained that the renaissance of audio journalism in recent years has given rise to an extraordinary array of non-fiction storytelling.

Investigative podcasts are exploding. Here are six great ones to get you started.




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The best podcasting gear for beginners

Starting a podcast is easy. Making one that actually sounds good is another story entirely. We can not help much with the bigger problems facing would-be podcasters -- finding a good topic and getting people to listen -- but we can point you to the best gear to get started. With a few smart purchases, you too can sound like a podcast pro.

complete article




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Hear me out: Podcasting is a medium worth investing in

Podcasts are growing; we are all going to make millions, get on it, quick! This seems to be the general consensus at the minute.

Now, I can understand the excitement, I’m excited too. A passionate, engaged audience, an intimate environment, niche targeting opportunities; it’s hard not to be interested. So, it’s absolutely no surprise that 75% of brands expect to spend big in the podcast realm this year.

How you do it is the important thing. Fundamentally, you have two options - either to advertise in the space or make your own branded podcast.

complete article




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Four Questions to Ask Yourself Before Shopping for Podcasting Equipment

The decision to implement a private podcast is a critical first step to improving your business communication, but there are a number of other important decisions you have to make before the show becomes a reality. In this article, we’ll focus on one unavoidable decision: what type of equipment should you buy?

The answer, perhaps unsatisfyingly, is that it depends. However, here are the questions you should be asking yourself as you begin the search for podcasting gear.

complete article




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10 Best Travel Podcasts

From a walk along Watling Street to exploring space or the music of west Africa, these podcasts will take you out of your living room and into another world

10 Best Travel Podcasts




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Podcast Technology Company to Relocate HQ to Reston Station

Megaphone, a podcasting hosting and advertising technology provider, has signed a lease at Comstock’s Reston Station.

The company will take up roughly 10,000 square feet in the first office building at the mixed-use development, the tower designed by architect Helmut Jahn at 1900 Reston Metro Plaza.

With 165,000 square feet of leased space, Google is the anchor tenant of the building. Other tenants include Rolls-Royce North America (18,000 square feet) and infrastructure management firm Solar Winds (16,349 square feet) and digital identify firm Certipath (7,500 square feet).




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Spotify approaches 300 million monthly active users as podcast investment pays off

Spotify on Wednesday said its monthly active user count reached 299 million in the most recent quarter ending June 30. That is an increase of 29 percent year-over-year and brings the streaming giant just shy of that 300 million MAU milestone.

Taking a closer look, we see that Spotify finished the second quarter with 138 million premium (paying) subscribers, up 27 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. The company said its Family Plan continues to be a big driver of performance and further plugged the expansion of its new Premium Duo subscription offering for couples.




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The Value Of Being A Podcast Guest, And How To Be One

Media publicity has traditionally been a challenge for small businesses. However, the emergence of podcasts has made it easier now more than ever. Being featured on a podcast has numerous benefits, including an increase in credibility when being featured by a third party, the opportunity for listeners (potential clients) to create a personal connection with the business and show preparations force the business to clarify its pitch and value proposition. Finally, it can even catch the ear of an investor.




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Spotify Is Testing a New Podcasting Tool to Share Quotes in Other Apps

Spotify has leaned heavily into its foray into podcasts and rolling out features and announcements at a pretty swift clip. Last week, the company announced it is introducing video podcasts to the mix with support for multitasking, meaning you can continue to listen to a video podcast uninterrupted while doing other things on your device. And earlier this week, Spotify announced support for simultaneous podcast and listening streaming for Premium users and up to five friends—a hot tool right now in the streaming service world as well, as many of us are distanced from friends and family.




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Best Microphone for Streaming and Podcasting 2020

A solid, standalone microphone will offer a wider frequency response range than a basic headset mic, letting it pick up all the nuance in your voice for a richer sound. With different pickup patterns they can also make it easier to cut down on the background noise that might be coming from your gaming PC or gaming keyboard. Some microphones can even let you switch between different pickup patterns, so you can focus on just your voice with a cardioid pattern one day while you might try to record you and a guest with a bi-directional pattern the next day.

With all that in mind, we will help guide you through a variety of quality microphones that can fit in a range of production environments. So, whether you just want to stream games on weekends or plan on making a half-dozen podcast series, you'll be able to find a microphone suited to the task.




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iHeartMedia to Acquire Voxnest, Its Latest Bet on Podcasting

iHeartMedia announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Voxnest, the leading consolidated marketplace for podcasts and the best-in-class provider of podcast analytics, enterprise publishing tools, programmatic integration and targeted ad serving. With this acquisition, iHeartMedia, through Voxnest, will now be able to provide podcast advertisers with additional targetable inventory at scale by allowing the effective and efficient monetization across an entire range of podcast inventory on this one-of-kind programmatic platform.




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Are Music Streaming Companies a Big Hit With Investors?

Music streaming companies have seen stellar growth in user numbers. We ask Morningstar equity analyst Neil Macker if the trend can continue.

Some of the key findings are, as you said, the music industry has rebounded because of simply the streaming industry itself. Music streaming has exploded over the last few years, and because of that, record labels have moved from a declining business in terms of revenue to a growth business over the last five years.




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Why Podcasting Might Be One Of The Best ROI Marketing Channels In 2021

Podcasting Will Boost Your Network Like You Never Thought Possible

As you grow your audience, you’ll find that podcasting can become an incredible resource for expanding your network. I have had the opportunity to invite guests onto my own show, as well as appear as a guest speaker on several business-oriented podcasts.

These have given me the opportunity to meet and interact with several incredible entrepreneurs working in a wide range of business categories.

Having a podcast gives me a valid reason to reach out to other entrepreneurs who I admire. These are people I might not have been able to meet otherwise, and they have given me valuable insights that I have been able to apply to my own business endeavors.




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Mark Cuban predicts podcasts and livestreams are only going to become more popular.

Cuban shared his unique insights about the current and future state of  not just podcasting, but the entire media industry. We discussed both legacy media companies and independent creators.

Here are the main takeaways and my thoughts from our conversation:

1. Streaming is the future, and legacy companies need to get on  board in order to survive
2. These days, audio is just as competitive as video because the  barrier to entry is lower and there's no pressure to look nice
3. As new technology emerges, media will continue to evolve — and creators must keep up




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75 Coolest iPhone Apps for Lifelong Learners

In today’s technology age, man’s best friend has a QWERTY key pad instead of four legs. For the academic, an iPhone can be a foe just as easily, with its various interesting but distracting capabilities. In order to use the iPhone to its fullest potential, learners should use it for work as well as play, and thanks to these application creators, that task is not only possible, it is fun as well. From reading worldwide news to creating budgets, from learning foreign languages to appreciating the arts, these applications contain everything you need to feed your superior intellect.
News
Know the market like the back of your hand…or the face of your phone! Keep up with today’s business news here:
  1. Reuters: Get the official Reuters mobile site on your iPhone or iPodTouch. Get news, sports, entertainment, business information and tons more.
  2. WashingtonPost Mobile: Read breaking news as soon as it’s released with WashingtonPost Mobile.
  3. Marketing Forecast: Marketing Forecast provides a continuous stream of forward-looking marketing and consumer insights from Ad-ology Research and other top research firms.
  4. iActu: iActu allows user to access the world information in only one touch. Discover more than 500 newspapers and pass from New York Times to Japan Times.
  5. One News Page: One News Page is a leading global news portal offering live news with more than 20,000 news headlines being added each day.
  6. NPR: This application gives you the option to hear audio podcasts like the NPR Hourly News and your local NPR Radio station news. Additionally you can browse all news stories by category including local news, most SMSed stories, story of the day, song of the day, politics, business, and science.
  7. CBS News Mobile: Read breaking news, and developing stories from CBS News.
  8. AP Mobile News: The Mobile News Network, powered by the Associated Press, helps you keep up-to-date with what’s happening anywhere, from your hometown to your favorite locale.
  9. ESPN iPhone: Get the most comprehensive sports coverage on your iPhone from ESPN Mobile Web for free, including breaking news and analysis, up to the minute scores, and more.
  10. NYTimes Mobile: The NYTimes application allows you to enjoy the professional journalism of The New York Times on your iPhone, wherever you are.
Travel
Don’t let anything go unnoticed when you leave town. To stay in-the-know, all you need is your phone and these applications.
  1. Speeek!: Contains over 1,500 useful phrases while traveling overseas. By simply talking into your iPhone in English, Speeek! will find the phrase and speak it in Chinese.
  2. Events Finder: Provides events from multiple event sources, such as Upcoming, Eventbrite, and TicketStumbler, all in one application.
  3. iSayHello: Speak German, English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish or Polish. Choose your language course and off you go with the language travel guide. This easy-to-use talking travel dictionary with superb audio output is more of a vocabulary trainer and dictionary than a translation program.
  4. New York on Tap: New York on Tap was designed to help people find great bars in New York City. It’ll also help you locate the nearest subway and help you figure out where to go next.
  5. Payless Car Rental: Rent a Car using your iPhone. Travelers can view, modify, or cancel their reservation using the iPhone. "Call to Book" button connects the customer directly to Payless Car Rental’s call center.
  6. Bell Hop: Find photos, information, rates and more on this fast, easy-to-use lodging mobile search.
  7. London Travel Guide: Packed full of cool features our London Travel Guides are everything you that would expect from an electronic tour guide, only it’s free.
  8. Good Food: GoodFood by Goodrec is the best way to find great places to eat! See what other users love and hate.
  9. TripIt: Use your iPhone to access your TripIt itineraries whether you’re online, offline or in airplane mode. TripIt is the best way to organize and share your travel plans. Forward your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com, and TripIt automatically creates a master itinerary for your trip, with detailed information about flights, hotels, rental cars and much more. It also includes maps, driving directions and local weather.
  10. SushiGuru: Take SushiGuru with you to sound like a pro when you order sushi. SushiGuru provides you with a searchable database of over 200 entries of Japanese and English names of sushi and sushi rolls.
Arts
The following apps range from learning about famous paintings by the masters to creating art through a variety of media.
  1. Art. Learn all about great artists and their works with this factbook app that also lets you quiz yourself to see how much you are learning.
  2. Art Gallery Premium. With over 7,500 works of art in their database, you can bring up your favorite famous work of art on your iPhone or browse to learn about artists you might not know.
  3. Art Envi Deluxe. Like having a giant museum in your phone, this app contains works by famous artists as well as specialized categories such as Japanese art.
  4. Kaleido. While not high on boosting knowledge, any art lover will appreciate taking photos and creating kaleidoscope effects with them.
  5. Photo Lab Daily. This free version allow you to take a photo with your iPhone and once a day you can use the Photo Lab tools to enhance your photos. There is a version available for a fee if you want to do more than one a day.
  6. MyPaint Free. Finger paint on a blank canvas or use one of your photos from your photo roll to find your artistic talent with this app.
  7. Pencil Pusher. This app allows you to draw as if with a pencil. Write, erase, choose from a variety of backgrounds, choose colors, and more.
  8. Bonsai. Learn the traditional art of bonsai care with this app that provides you the opportunity to adjust water, trim the tree, and monitor its overall health.
Medicine
Whether you are a medical professional or just want to expand your personal knowledge, these apps are sure to provide plenty of knowledge.
  1. Taber’s Medical Dictionary. Touting 30% more medical terms than other medical dictionaries, this one offers definitions, photos, Patient Care Statements, and more.
  2. Registered Nurse. Any nurse studying for the NCLEX exam will love this app that provides a practice exam that tests you in over 20 different subjects.
  3. Normal Lab Values. Medical professionals or anyone interested in learning more about laboratory results will appreciate having normal values readily available.
  4. Medical Drugs. This app provides detailed information on hundreds of pharmaceutical medications.
  5. Diagnosaurus DDx. With over 1,000 diagnoses, anyone can perform differential diagnosis quickly and easily with this app.
  6. MedCards. This app replaces the laminated cards physicians carry around and also allows anyone interested in learning to have instant reference to such things as EKG values, Mental Status Exam guide, Snellen chart, and more.
  7. MedAbbreviations. Get over 13,000 medical abbreviations with definitions, explanations, a search feature, and more.
  8. Skyscape Medical Resources. Find all kinds of medical information such as drug information, evidence-based clinical information, medical calculator, and a med-alert based on a specialty of your choosing.
  9. Human Atlas. Geared for medical professionals, patients, and consumers, get a 3D explanation along with over 150 common medical treatments and conditions.
  10. Medical Exam. Whether you are studying for your medical exam or just want to have a profound knowledge of medicine, this app helps you learn from 14 different categories.
Fun
Don’t take life so seriously! Have a little fun with your phone here:
  1. Where to Golf: Gives golfers all the information about a golf course and how to get there. Whether on business, on vacation or in your home town, you’re only a touch away from finding the course you’re looking for.
  2. Tetris: Take Tetris for a spin on your iPhone and iPod Touch to experience new twists and enhanced graphics. Drag, Flick and Poke your way through 15 challenging levels.
  3. Sudoku: This application has more than 10,000 puzzles. So enjoy one of America’s favorite games, but try to get some work done, too.
  4. Crossword: This is a very thorough Crossword application with various levels of difficulty.
  5. Word Warp: Make words out of the six jumbled letters provided at each game’s start.
  6. Cube Runner: Think eSnakei for current generation telephones. Boatloads of fun, just don’t run your boat into the cubes.
  7. Topple: Topple is a quick, tower building game that is theoretically simple yet surprisingly addictive.
  8. Trism: A little bit like Bejeweled meets Tetris, Trism stands alone as a distinctive, fun and brain-taxing challenge.
  9. Wurdle: a Boggle-like word game available in the iTunes app store. The game is jammed-packed with features, challenging, and most of all, it’s fun.
  10. 400 Free iPhone Games: The perfect cure for boredom. This go-to site has 400 free games, from logic cames to old-school arcade games.
Reference
Keep these reference tools close so that you’re prepared to discuss constellations, the periodic table, or world facts.
  1. USA Factbook Free: This reference packet is great for anyone in a civics, history or political science course that covers the U.S. Access key documents, lists of the flags, state capitals and other stats.
  2. Stars: Anatomy students can use this tool as a resource when studying constellations.
  3. The Chemical Tough: Lite Edition: View the periodic table when you download this free app.
  4. Formulas Free: This app brings you free calculus formulas.
  5. iQuotations: Look up quotes to use in papers or just as general inspiration.
  6. Math Ref Free: Get free reference packs for geometry, algebra, trig, derivatives and more.
  7. AllTheCountries: Get facts about literacy rate, economy, population, area and more for every country.
  8. Your Rights: Use this app for political science courses or just as backup when you get into trouble at school.
  9. iTranslator: Study abroad students and panicked foreign language students can use this tool to connect to Google Translator, Babel Fish or Free Translation.
  10. Quickpedia Lite: This app makes it easier and faster to use Wikipedia.
Foreign Languages
Whether you are planning to travel or just love learning languages, these apps will help you learn to speak whatever language your heart desires.
  1. Jourist Visual PhraseBook English. Use this visual aid with 20 different languages to help you show the person what you mean. It also include the written phrase in both English and your target language.
  2. iTranslate Ultimate. Translate words between English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian, then have the words repeated back to you in the target language with this app.
  3. Translator with Voice. Get translations in 34 different languages with voice support on most of them.
  4. DragonDian. Use this dictionary to draw Chinese characters to quickly and easily find an English translation.
  5. WordPower Lite – Italian. This free app gives you one Italian word a day to practice and master by listening to audio, recording and playing back your own voice, and using flashcards.
  6. iSpeak Spanish. Translate between Spanish and English with this app that also allows you to hear words spoken in high quality English and Spanish voices.
  7. Gengo Flashcards – French. This app uses visual cues and the voices of native French speakers with flashcards to help you learn French. Take a picture of any object, then add the French and English words to it, and you have created your own flashcard to add to the stack.
  8. Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook. Whether traveling or learning Japanese, use this app to get over 600 written and spoken Japanese phrases.
  9. Byki German. Learn German in no time with this app that includes native speakers, quizzes, and a phrasebook.
  10. WordPower – Thai. Listen to 2000 Thai words for proper pronunciation and see the words and phrases in three versions–original Thai, Romanized, and English.
Search
Let your iPhone guide you in general searches, job hunts and more.
  1. Inquisitor: This super fast search tool also makes suggestions for your searches.
  2. Last.fm: Search music, artists and more with Last.fm for the iPhone.
  3. Repairpal: This app will help you find auto repair shop and support.
  4. Job Search: Indeed.com’s search application lets you find jobs by location and job description.
  5. SearchMe: SearchMe is a new way to search the web on your phone. Unlike all other search engines that return a bunch of links, SearchMe lets you see a "coverflow" of pages that match your search results.
  6. U.S. Historical Documents: U.S. Historical Documents contains over 100 of the most influential documents in U.S. history and they will be stored directly on your iPhone/iTouch. Quickly and easily find any text from any document with the fastest and most powerful search engine available on the iPhone.
  7. 3GPS OS 3.0: 3GPS OS 3.0 tells you how fast, high and where you are. Whether you’re climbing a hill, touring or running a marathon, with 3GPS OS 3.0 your iPhone shows your current altitude, speed and course.
Guest Blog Contributor By-line:
This post is from Amber Johnson, who also writes for OnlineDegreePrograms.org, an accredited online college resource. Link to original article: http://onlinedegreeprograms.org/blog/2009/75-coolest-iphone-apps-for-lifelong-learners/




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Practical Magic: The Best Business Apps for iPad

With the introduction of tablets like the iPad, working outside of the office has become streamlined. No longer are employees and entrepreneurs chained to their desks and laptops.

Here are some tablet applications that allow workers to share, create and record information easily and quickly, putting productivity and ingenuity at their fingertips.
CloudOn

If you need access to documents, CloudOn is a must for your iPad. The app gives you access to Microsoft Office and also syncs with your Dropbox account to make sharing easy. (Dropbox is a free file synchronization application for mobile professionals who use myriad devices on which files live.)  CloudOn boasts a file viewer that can open any image, and you can also send your documents directly via e-mail as an alternative to sharing through Dropbox.

This application is a huge hit with college students, and for good reason. Described as “an extension of your brain,” Evernote allows users to take notes using text, photos, video and audio – great for taking notes during meetings or conferences.

One of the coolest things about Evernote is that it uses optical character recognition (OCR)to make the text in your photos searchable. This means you can take a photo of a slideshow or presentation and automatically search it later based on the subject matter.
There is also the capability to sync Evernote with your desktop, which is a great safeguard in the face of damage or loss of a mobile device.

Users can use this to process a diagram, flow chart, Website wireframe or graphic design. OmniGraffle has a library of stencils, but you can also draw your own shapes. Once completed, you can share the graphic as a PDF and can save it to your photo library.

The app comes with a hefty price tag of $50, and is probably more appropriate for project managers or other employees who work in project development or training.
Fuze Professional

Multi-party HD video meetings are possible with this iPad app. You can include documents, images and presentations in the meeting by adding the files to the Fuze library. There are also some great features that allow you to zoom and pan to highlight visual data while you are running a presentation.


In addition to the multi-party video option, participants have the option to IM (instant message) during the presentation or communicate via voice chat. Participants may also edit presentation documents on the fly to highlight certain points.

Guest Blog Contributor By-line:
A freelance writer and blogger hailing from the great state of Texas, Melissa Miller specializes in writing about the education field. If you're considering pursuing an associate degree online, Melissa's many posts on the subject can help light the way. Email her at melissamiller831@gmail.comwith any feedback.




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The 10 Biggest Breakthroughs in the Science in Learning

When it comes to human organs, none is quite so mysterious as the brain. For centuries, humans have had numerous misconceptions and misunderstandings about how the organ works, grows, and shapes our ability to learn and develop. While we still have a long way to go before we truly unravel all the mysteries the brain has to offer, scientists have been making some major breakthroughs that have gone a long way in explaining both how the brain functions and how we use it to organize, recall, and acquire new information. Here, we list just a few of the biggest and most impactful of these breakthroughs that have contributed to our understanding of the science of learning.

  1. More information doesn’t mean more learning.


    The brain is equipped to tackle a pretty hefty load of information and sensory input, but there is a point at which the brain becomes overwhelmed, an effect scientists call cognitive overload. While our brains do appreciate new and novel information, as we’ll discuss later, when there is too much of it we become overwhelmed as our minds simply can’t divide our attention between all the different elements vying for it. This term has become a major talking point in criticisms of multi-tasking and in the modern information-saturated online sphere, but the discovery of this cognitive phenomenon also has major implications for education. In order to reduce mental noise, teachers have had to take new approaches to presenting material, using techniques like chunking, focusing on past experiences, and eliminating non-essential elements to help students remember a large body of information.
  2. The brain is a highly dynamic organ.


    Until the past few decades, people believed that the connections between the neurons in your brain were fixed by the time you were a teenager, and perhaps even earlier. One of the biggest breakthroughs in understanding the science of learning happened when scientists began to realize that this just wasn’t the case. In fact, the brain’s wiring can change at any age and it can grow new neurons and adapt to new situations, though the rate at which this happens does slow with age. This phenomenon is called neuroplasticity, and it has had major ramifications in our understanding of how the brain works and how we can use that understanding to improve learning outcomes.
  3. Emotion influences the ability to learn.


    The ability to learn, retain, and use information isn’t just based on our raw IQs. Over the past few decades it has become increasingly clear that how we feel and our overall emotional state can have a major impact on how well we can learn new things. Educational situations where students feel stressed, shamed, or just uncomfortable can actually make it more difficult for them to learn, increasing negative emotions and sparking a vicious cycle that may leave some children reluctant to attend class. Research is revealing why, as the emotional part of the brain, the limbic system has the ability to open up or shut off access to learning and memory. When under stress or anxiety, the brain blocks access to higher processing and stops forming new connections, making it difficult or impossible to learn. It may seem like common sense that classrooms should be welcoming, non-stressful environments, but different students have different triggers for negative emotional states, making it key for educators to watch for signs that indicate this in students.
  4. Mistakes are an essential part of learning.


    Failure is a dirty word in most aspects of modern American society, but when it comes to the science of learning, research shows that they’re essential. A recent study found that students performed better in school and felt more confident when they were told that failure was a normal part of learning, bolstering a growing body of research that suggests much of the same. Much like it takes multiple tries to get the hang of riding a bike or completing an acrobatic feat, it can also take multiple tries to master an academic task. Neuroscience research suggests that the best way to learn something new isn’t to focus on mistakes but instead to concentrate on how to do a task correctly. Focusing on the error only reinforces the existing incorrect neural pathway, and will increase the chance that the mistake will be made again. A new pathway has to be built, which means abandoning the old one and letting go of that mistake. This idea has formed the basis for a growing debate about education in American schools, which many believe doesn’t allow children to embrace creativity and problem solving as they are too focused on memorization and test scores.
  5. The brain needs novelty.


    Turns out boredom really can kill you, or at least your will to pay attention and learn. Repetition may have its place in learning, but what the brain really craves is novelty. Researchers have found that novelty causes the dopamine system in the brain to become activated, sending the chemical throughout the brain. While we often regard dopamine as the “feel good” chemical, scientists have shown that it actually plays a much bigger role, encouraging feelings of motivation and prompting the brain to learn about these new and novel stimuli. This breakthrough has led to some major changes in how we think about learning, and has motivated many schools to embrace learning methods that cater to our brains’ need for new and different experiences.
  6. There are no learning styles.


    What kind of learner are you? Chances are good that at some point during your educational career someone labeled you as a particular type of learner, either visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. This idea that there are distinct types of learners who learn best with certain assortment of stimuli has been showing up in education and brain science for decades, but recent studies have shown that this idea really doesn’t hold much water. Students may have preferences for how they learn, but when put to the test, students were found to have equivalent levels of learning regardless of how information is presented. Attention to the individual talents, preferences, and abilities of students, which helps to cater to the emotional and social needs of students and improves their ability to learn, is more important than styles (of which there have been 71 different models over the past few decades).
  7. Brains operate on the “use it or lose it” principle.


    There’s a reason that you forget how to speak a language or work out a trigonometry problem if you don’t use those skills on a regular basis. Information in the brain that isn’t used is often lost, as neural pathways are weakened over time. Research has found that the brain generates more cells than it needs, with those that receive both chemical and electrical stimuli surviving and the rest dying off. The brain has to receive regular stimulation through a given pathway in the brain to sustain those cells, which is why lifelong learning is so important to brain health. These findings also have implications for vacations in K-12 education as well, as students who don’t get intellectual stimulation over the summer are much more likely to forget important skills in reading and math when they return to class.
  8. Learning is social.


    While some select individuals may learn well cloistered in a library with a stack of books, the majority of people need a social environment to maximize their learning. Research has found that from infancy on, people learn better through social cues, much more easily recalling and emulating the actions or words of another human. Aside from social cues, socialization has been shown to have other learning benefits. Peer collaboration offers students access to a diverse array of experiences and requires the use of nearly all the body’s senses, which in turn creates greater activation throughout the brain and enhances long-term memory. Group work, especially when it capitalizes on the strengths of its members, may be more beneficial than many realize, both for teachers and their students.
  9. Learning is best when innate abilities are capitalized on.


    All of us, from the time we are born, possess innate abilities to see and hear patterns, something that psychologists doubted was true for decades but that we now know to be the case. Research suggests that reinforcing those innate capabilities by teaching patterns early on may actually help kids learn more and sharpen their brains. Aside from being able to see and hear patterns, the human mind has a number of innate abilities (the ability to learn a language, for instance) that when capitalized on in the right way, can help make learning any concept, even one that is abstract, much easier. Combining these innate abilities with structured practice, repetition, and training can help make new ideas and concepts “stick” and make more sense.
  10. Learning can change brain structure.


    Brain structure and function are intertwined, and you can’t improve one without taking the other into consideration. Yet, in years past, most ideas about learning ignored ways that the brain’s structure itself could be modified, instead focusing on brain function or the brain’s output. The reality is that brain function can only be changed through changing brain structure, which is actually less complicated than it sounds. For example, brain cells fired up during both perception and action overlap in people, and lessons that engage both allow students to more easily identify with their teachers and to learn concepts more quickly, as their brain cells are getting twice the attention and workout. In fact, any new information, if used enough, can modify the structure of the brain, something educators and neuroscientists are just starting to fully explore. 

Guest Blog Contributor By-line:
Hazel Taylor wrote and published this article on http://www.onlinephdprograms.com/the-10-biggest-breakthroughs-in-the-science-of-learning/.  She invited me to share this very interesting article with my blog readers - Thank you, Hazel!  Hazel can be reached at hazel.taylor6@gmail.com




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