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By Bonnie Eisenman on September 12th, 2011 As a college student, my iPod goes with me everywhere. Here are some apps sure to help any college student with their busy life. From textbook apps to alarm clocks, iPhones and iPads can change the way students live and study. iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads abound on college campuses, and for good reason. iOS devices are great anyway, but for college students, there are myriad ways in which an iOS device can make life easier. When it comes to studying textbooks, taking notes in lecture, or even waking up to start the day—chances are there’s an app for that. There are far too many useful apps to count, but here I’d like to list just a few apps sure to help college students manage their busy lives. Textbooks Paper textbooks may still be king, but e-readers are increasingly creating a presence in college classrooms. Digital versions are not only cheaper, but more portable, making e-textbooks an attractive option for many students. For iOS, there are a couple of dedicated textbook readers, as well as more traditional e-reader apps. On the iPad, Kno and Inkling are both dedicated textbook apps. They have slight differences (Kno allows textbook rentals, for example, while Inkling allows single-chapter purchases) but both offer rich digital textbook experiences, with embedded quizzes and integrated video and images in certain textbooks. Meanwhile, the Kindle and other ebook apps also offer some textbooks. FREE! iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad Released: 2010-08-20 :: Category: Education FREE! iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad Released: 2011-06-02 :: Category: Education FREE! Released: 2009-03-04 :: Category: Books Files! By files, I mean having access to and editing documents, PowerPoints, photos, and whatever else. On today’s college campus, the average student has a lot of different files to juggle, be they assignments or lecture slides, and being able to handle them on the go is important. Dropbox is my personal favorite for sheer ease-of-use: drop a file into your Dropbox folder on your computer, and then have access to it from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Or upload photos and videos from your iPhone and watch them appear on your computer. When it comes to always having access to files, regardless of which device one’s using, Dropbox is king. (Don’t forget to mark files for offline viewing from within the app.) I’ve also used Read More

By Leanna Lofte, Saturday, Jul 2, 2011 | Every week a few of us from team TiPb will bring you our current favorite, most fun and useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch related, they’re fair game. To see what we picked, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break! If you’re anything like me, you receive a lot of important information in .pdf format. It’s become a pretty universal standard – everyone can read .pdf documents, regardless of platform, and the readers are almost always free. Newsletters, calendars, and even textbooks come in .pdf format, and with my iPhone, I always have them at my fingertips. But what happens when I need to send a .pdf to someone else? That’s when PDF Reader Pro comes in especially handy. I can snap a photo of whatever document I need to share from inside PDF Reader Pro, and it turns it into a .pdf that I can then email right from inside the app. This has been especially handy for my auto registration, license, and insurance information! PDF Reader Pro also makes it a snap to load documents to your iPhone (or iPad). You can transfer files from your computer using WiFi, download directly from a website, or download from a variety of webdav servers including Dropbox and GoogleDocs. Unlike some other .pdf apps I’ve tried, PDF Reader Pro doesn’t choke on large documents. For example, I have my entire French 1 textbook loaded, and it’s quite manageable even on the small screen of the iPhone. It would be a bargain at twice the price! One pick to rule them all. One pick to find them. One pick to bring them all. And on TiPb, bind them. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was as real and well executed as George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels were fake and ill-conceived. In the lush environs of New Zealand, with the brilliant practical and digital effects work of Weta, Toklein’s Middle Earth was brought magnificent, mesmerizing life. And while Steve Jobs may call Blu-ray a “bag of hurt”, the truth is their high-capacity physical media is still the best looking bag of hurt available to movie aficionados today. As a bonus, the package also contains a “digital copy”. Read More

iPhone App $0.99 Our Review By Phillip Levin on June 28th, 2011 Rating: :: VROOM A tilt-based racer with eye candy. Developer: Price: $1.00 Version Reviewed: 1.0 Device Reviewed On: iPhone Graphics / Sound Rating: Game Controls Rating: Gameplay Rating: Replay Value Rating: Overall Rating: When players first start up VS. Racing, the game asks if they want to try and learn the game’s new, special take on tilt control or stick with the “usual.” This is important because it turns out these controls are responsible for much of what makes VS. Racing a fun little racer. VS. Racing is an overhead racer in which players tilt their iOS device to steer your vehicle around twists and turns. There are 34 different races to complete, spread out across 5 different cups. Many iPhone games use tilt controls, so in this sense there’s nothing all that original about VS. Racing. But the control scheme here does work quite well and it really is what makes the game what it is. The use of tilt controls in this title is actually a little different than what we typically see in racing games, however. Since the game is overhead and gamers tilt their device to control their vehicle, it gives the effect that they’re rolling their vehicle around the track instead of steering it. Think Super Monkey Ball, without the challenge of having to fall off a track. In fact, during the game’s tutorial, players actually practice the control scheme by rolling a ball around the track. Indeed, this rolling/tilting control scheme gives the game a fairly unique feel. There are other control options to note, both of which actually work well too. Gamers can either steer left to right by tapping a designated area on the screen or they can use a virtual analog stick that is rendered in the corner of the screen. However, neither of these control schemes work quite as well as the tilt setup does. This is a respectable little iOS racer, but it does fall short in at least one regard. All together, there are just six different courses, which are recycled throughout the game’s 34 different races. It would have been nice to see a larger number of courses. Also, while VS. Racing is actually a very solid-looking iPhone game, utilizing retina display visuals, crisp textures and detailed visuals overall, there could be more variety to the Read More

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Jun 6, 2011 | Georgia and Rene kickoff ZENandTECH episode two by talking… sleep — what it is, why it’s important, and what it does to your body and your stress levels if you don’t get enough of it. We’ve got some app and gadget suggestions to help you sleep better, and some exercises to bring it all together. Read on for the topics, our big Nexus One give away, exercises, our tech (and zen!) picks of the week, and more! Congrats @carpathia16, you’re getting a Nexus One! This episode of ZENandTECH is brought to you by the CrackBerry.com Stoe, your #1 stop shop for BlackBerry users… and abusers. Check out the awesome new accessories for Torch and PlayBook. You spent a lot of money on your device, protect it, keep it charged, and keep yourself happy! Thanks everyone, you’re the best community on the web and we love having you with us! While Georgia is a therapist, she’s not YOUR therapist. Everything said or implied on this show is for informational and entertainment purposes only. And shouldn’t be taken in any way as a replacement for proper, professional care. Read More

More people are shunning the traditional alarm clock by their bedside in favor of their mobile phone, especially when combined with a cool recharging dock to ensure your phone doesn’t run out of battery at the wrong time! While iOS has its own built-in alarm feature, the App Store is full of alarm apps, many of which offer interesting additional features or try to make the act of waking up far less irritating than it has to be! We’ve gathered ten such apps here, so take a look through and click their title to go straight to the App Store in order to download them. WakeApp will wake you up during your light sleep phase, so you feel more relaxed and ready for the day.  The app also monitors your sleep patterns and body movements, then provides data on how long it took you to fall asleep and other statistics.  Your iPod can be used as an alarm too.  $0.99/£0.59. This could be everything you’ve ever wanted from an alarm, or your worst nightmare!  To make the ringing alarm stop, you must complete a series of maths-based puzzles and the theory is, you’ll be properly awake once you’ve done them.  $0.99/£0.59. A location aware alarm clock that is useful if you love to grab a nap on public transport, as when the GPS recognizes you’re nearing your stop, it’ll sound the alarm.  The app runs in the background and uses Google Maps, plus it can be used as a reminder not to forget your keys when you leave the house!  $0.99/£0.59. One of the very best alternative iPhone alarm clocks, and worthy of inclusion on any list.  It does away with superfluous features and simply has a clock, alarm, the weather and a flashlight, however each feature looks fantastic and has all the right functions including snooze, varying alarm sounds, iPod compatibility and a gentle wake-up mode.  $0.99/£0.59. Using both sounds and light, this app will gradually wake you up to help you feel rested and fresh.  Most features are user configurable including the length of the alarm’s gradual increase, plus there are several different sounds to use.  We like this because one of the sounds is a cat purring!  $0.99/£0.59. Slightly controversial, but if it works you won’t complain!  A sleep pattern analyzer, you need to place your iPhone under the top sheet of your bed and it’ll wake you Read More

We all cherish sleep and thanks to it’s necessity, we spend a lot of time doing it. Mobile phones have made it really simple to replace our regular alarm clock but they really haven’t pushed the boundaries of how they can help us until now. Sleep Cycle is an app that makes plenty of large claims about what it is able to accomplish. The app states it is able to track your sleeping habits and wake you up at the ideal time so you feel refreshed. Curious, I had to try it out. I’ve been using it for about a week now and I have a few insights. The app uses your phone’s accelerometer to track movement as you sleep. It then graphs that movement for you and if you have set an alarm, it will determine an ideal time to quietly wake you. While I can say that the graphs were extremely interesting (you’ll notice I haven’t been getting much sleep thanks to a bad cold and cough), I never did find that the app woke me up feeling refreshed. Overall, It makes for some interesting insights into your sleeping habits but I still feel that it is more of a gimmick when it comes to making sure you get the ideal amount of sleep. That you’re going to have to do on your own. Visit Appolicious for more iPhone app reviews and articles. Read More

Remember Sleep Cycle for iPhone? You know, the iPhone app that helps you keep track and monitor your sleeping patterns? I’ve been using it for quite awhile now, and I’ve got to say, the app is still slick. However, in an effort to make the app slicker than ever, an update has been released, and it’s packed-full of goodness. Here’s a quick list of key features in the update: The list of features and enhancements goes on for a little while yet. I can honestly say this is a ‘must have’ update for anyone already running Sleep Cycle on their iPhone. After a month or so of using the darn thing, I’ve been able to come to the following conclusions: Of course, the update is free for anyone already running the app (hit up the ‘updates’ tab in the App Store to find the latest version), but if you’d like to grab your copy, hit up the iTunes link below. Sleep Cycle ($0.99) [iTunes link] James was born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada. Almost 15 years ago he started out in the 'real world' as a web and graphic designer. Through the years he has finely tuned his skills in SEO, internet marketing, conversion strategy, and project management. To date, he runs his own successful consulting business where he advises companies all over the globe. A co-founder of www.crackberry.com, and sole proprietor of www.mactropolis.com, James in recent years has become very active in the tech blogosphere. Online community building and strategy is fast becoming one of his passions. Watch for James' no frills attitude, unique perspective and to-the-point comments here on IntoMobile! Read More

Recently, a colleague of mine tipped me off to a new sleeping aid for iOS. Well, not an aid exactly, but an app that measures your sleeping patterns, and analyzes the data to determine the best window of time for you to wake up. Called ‘Sleep Cycle‘, so far I’m having nothing but success, and good dreams. The way it works is actually quite simple. After you pop open the app and set the alarm time, you plug your iPhone in and set it display DOWN on the bed next to your pillow. What the app does from this position is use the built-in accelerometer to monitor your movement while you sleep. By monitoring your movement, it determines which ‘sleep phase’ you’re in… and in doing this, it picks the best time to wake you up, within a 30 minute window of the alarm time you initially set. So, you may be awoken up to 30 minutes BEFORE your set alarm time, but if you are, chances are you’ll feel rested and ready for the day. While it’s still early days in my testing of this app, so far each time the alarm has gone off I feel stunningly awake and rested-up. This is a huge change for me. Getting out of bed is usually quite an ordeal for me, and I’ll linger beneath the sheets for 10 or 20 minutes, half-awake, like a zombie while I gain consciousness. Now, I’m not sure if this is all in my head, or just dumb luck, but so far I’m digging the app. By analyzing my sleep patterns, it appears to be picking the best time to wake me up… I’ve never felt better getting out of bed in the morning. I encourage you to give it a try for yourself. Sleep Cycle is available for only $0.99 in the app store. In my books, it’s a buck well spent. Sleep Cycle ($0.99) [iTunes link] James was born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada. Almost 15 years ago he started out in the 'real world' as a web and graphic designer. Through the years he has finely tuned his skills in SEO, internet marketing, conversion strategy, and project management. To date, he runs his own successful consulting business where he advises companies all over the globe. A co-founder of www.crackberry.com, and sole proprietor of www.mactropolis.com, James in recent years has become very active in Read More

Last night, I fell into a deep sleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. I drifted in and out of dreams until around 5 a.m., before slipping back into a heavy slumber around sunrise and woke up two hours later. In total, I slept around four and a half hours — less than my average of five hours for the last couple of days. I happen to know all this because of a new iPhone application I’ve been using that measures sleep activity throughout the night. The app, SleepCycle, uses the phone’s internal accelerometer to track body movement and analyze sleep patterns. You put the phone near your pillow and activate the app. The software is designed to work as if it were a bio-alarm clock. You pick the time you’d like to be woken, say, 7 a.m. The app then monitors for the gentle muscle activity around that time that typically signals a milder sleep, rather than a heavy one, and aims for that moment to sound its alarm to rouse you. As a bonus, the app delivers a summary of the data from the night before — an hour-by-hour breakdown of when you were dreaming and when you were deeply asleep. Of course, this isn’t my first foray into self-tracking. Like the millions of other people who collect data about their personal habits, I use productivity tools and mobile check-in applications to keep tabs on my habits across the Web during the day and movements around the city in the evenings. But using SleepCycle is the first time I’ve logged personal data for a reason other than satisfying my own curiosity. I started using the app after a family doctor asked me about my sleeping and eating patterns, and told me to try and find the cause of a mysterious bout of fatigue I couldn’t shake. After confirming her suspicions that I probably don’t get enough rest most nights, I adjusted my nighttime schedule. Now I have to admit that I’ve gotten hooked on tracking myself. I may not go so far as to engineer a custom iPhone tracking app, but I’m starting to use Daytum for more all-purpose life-tracking, anything from how many miles I walked to how much television I watched, and Lose it! as a way to keep an eye on calorie and fat intake. My fellow self-tracking and personal data nerds, weigh Read More

General health practitioners recommend that adults get at least seven hours of sleep each night for optimal functioning of mind, body and spirit. Countless studies have proven the direct links between sleep quality and its effects on healthy immune functions, memory, learning, metabolism and much more. A good night’s sleep starts with a bedtime routine that prepares your body for a restful night ahead. Some drift off peacefully with the help of simple melodies, while others prefer a calming voice to guide them The following apps provide options for people of all sleep styles. Forget counting those sheep and upgrade to sleep 2.0 with these 10 app picks. This app is a guided meditation with self-help expert Andrew Johnson (who just happens to sound a wee bit like Sean Connery). The aim is to gently ease you into a more relaxed state, eventually falling into a deep sleep. With soothing instructions for breathing and relaxation techniques, this app works like a charm and can become a valued part of anyone’s nighttime routine. aSleep 3 provides a medley of sleep-related services like an alarm clock, timer, nature sounds, chromotherapy, weather and even a snore detector. Although there are some oddities in the sound options (didgeridoo, anyone?), this app provides a mix of features that can complement a good night’s sleep. Cost:  $0.99 Claiming to be your “personal sleep assistant,” pzizz is an app that aims to cure insomnia and keep users in a deep state of sleep throughout the night. The steep price can be partly attributed to the range of scientific techniques built-in, such as binaural beats and neurolinguistic programming, that creates more than one billion soundtrack combinations. With so many available, your mind won’t get bored by the monotony of a repetitive track every night. Modes of play include Energizer, Meditation and Sleep, and they are fully customizable to desired length. If you are wary of the high price, there is a lite version currently on sale for $0.99. Cost: $9.99 Long Deep Breathing is a simple, no frills app that promotes the practice of deep breathing for better health. Using what’s essentially a breath gauge, you simply follow the visual cues for inhaling and exhaling. You can adjust the length of each breath and eventually increase the duration. According to the app, the average person breathes about 12-16 times each minute. By practicing and working that number down, you Read More