Apps

If you are reading this you may be thinking that you and your family already use Facebook so what does it mean to “master” it? Well for one thing, would you like to opt out of advertisements or remind yourself how someone got on your friends list? Perhaps it would also be good to set up a legacy contact just in case something happens to you, in case of emergency? To find out how to do all of these things and more, check out Kim Komando’s page on the USA Today site entitled These 7 tips will help you master Facebook.

As kids and their cell phones are about to head into summer vacation mode, you may want to look at ways to help the whole family stop the burn when it comes to cell phone data. One of the best ways to do that is to figure out how much data your favorite apps use and adjust usage accordingly. It is the best way to help you avoid costly overages or painfully slow speeds, depending on your carrier. Not sure where to start? Take a look at this article from USA Today that breaks down the data usage of several popular app data hogs including Netflix, YouTube and Google Play, and gives tips on how to keep your data in check.

As kids and their cell phones are about to head into summer vacation mode, you may want to look at ways to help the whole family stop the burn when it comes to cell phone data. One of the best ways to do that is to figure out how much data your favorite apps use and adjust usage accordingly. It is the best way to help you avoid costly overages or painfully slow speeds, depending on your carrier. Not sure where to start? Take a look at this article from USA Today that breaks down the data usage of several popular app data hogs including Netflix, YouTube and Google Play, and gives tips on how to keep your data in check.

As summer vacation approaches, you might suspect that your kids are going to be spending more time on YouTube, so what should you know about making that time more constructive? USA Today has recently published a quick parent’s guide to watching YouTube with your kids, with tips such as using the YouTube Kids app which has features such as a timer and entering an age level so it only shows appropriate videos.

As summer vacation approaches, you might suspect that your kids are going to be spending more time on YouTube, so what should you know about making that time more constructive? USA Today has recently published a quick parent’s guide to watching YouTube with your kids, with tips such as using the YouTube Kids app which has features such as a timer and entering an age level so it only shows appropriate videos.

"Picting" – the usage of image-based materials - is the new literacy for today's students, assert professors Cathie Norris and Elliot Soloway in a recent blog post. In the post they examine how social media's reliance on images and the amount of time youths spend on social media is changing literacy and that it is something that parents, teachers and even employers need to pay attention to. Students spend much more of their time outside of school using and communicating with pictures than text. Popular social media applications for youth, such as SnapChat and Instagram, are primarily photo-based, so this begs the question: will pictures really come to be worth a thousand words?

"Picting" – the usage of image-based materials - is the new literacy for today's students, assert professors Cathie Norris and Elliot Soloway in a recent blog post. In the post they examine how social media's reliance on images and the amount of time youths spend on social media is changing literacy and that it is something that parents, teachers and even employers need to pay attention to. Students spend much more of their time outside of school using and communicating with pictures than text. Popular social media applications for youth, such as SnapChat and Instagram, are primarily photo-based, so this begs the question: will pictures really come to be worth a thousand words?

Numerous surveys show that Snapchat is one of the most used messaging apps by teens, but many parents have never used the app. In case you are not aware, Snapchat is an application for mobile devices, where photo and video messages disappear after they are viewed by the recipient. To help parents get up to speed on the app, USA Today has created a primer, or a Snapchat 101 for parents. The primer covers what the app is, what it does and why it is so popular. It also covers why many parents are concerned about this app (the disappearing content has been known to foster sexting and cyberbullying) and suggests ways to protect teens who use the app. If you find the article useful, you might also want to check out USA Today’s intro for parents to Musical.ly, an ultra addictive lip syncing app.

Numerous surveys show that Snapchat is one of the most used messaging apps by teens, but many parents have never used the app. In case you are not aware, Snapchat is an application for mobile devices, where photo and video messages disappear after they are viewed by the recipient. To help parents get up to speed on the app, USA Today has created a primer, or a Snapchat 101 for parents. The primer covers what the app is, what it does and why it is so popular. It also covers why many parents are concerned about this app (the disappearing content has been known to foster sexting and cyberbullying) and suggests ways to protect teens who use the app. If you find the article useful, you might also want to check out USA Today’s intro for parents to Musical.ly, an ultra addictive lip syncing app.

A NY Times article about Uber and its founder has revealed that the Uber app marks iPhones with persistent digital ID tags that remain even after users delete the app and wipe the phone. Although Uber claims the information collected has not been used for anything, there is still the question of whether or not apps can continue collecting information about you after it is deleted from the phone. The answer , according to an article on USA Today is neither yes nor no. The app downloads a “tag”, leaving behind a unique ID on an iPhone so the developer can recall the apps that were on it and the last Wi-Fi network the phone was logged onto. These marks are used to help a company prove that the phone belonged to an individual, says Joseph Jerome, privacy & data policy counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology. Apple plans to take up the issue in developer conferences in May and June and will work on setting new security policies.