Top Download Apps recommended by lifehacker

Snaptastic Is a Beautiful Image Editor for Android

MiHome Brings the Gorgeous MIUI Interface to Android, No Rooting or ROMs Required

Unsocialize Lets You Open Social Reader Links Without Installing Facebook Crapware

Dunno Is an Automated, Cross-Platform Research Assistant

Carat Tells You Which Apps Suck Up Your Battery Power

Doo Automatically Organizes Your Documents, Syncs Them to the Cloud and Across Multiple Computers

TenIconSwitcher Adds Extra Icons to the iPad Multitasking Tray

misHaps Unobtrusively Puts Your Contact Info on Your Misplaced Phone's Lock Screen

Scalado Album Is a Fast, Gorgeous Album Replacement for Android

EmergencyLink Is a Free Emergency Response Service for You and Your Loved Ones

New Photo Editing Application

Aviary a new fun way to edit pics.

" Photo Editor by Aviary (Free) by Aviary is a fast and intuitive way to edit your photos on-the-go from your iPhone. It’s basically the mobile version of the Image Editorfrom the Aviary Tools suite for your web browser. "

What Android devices Work

with App Inventor!

Image courtesy from SEOP

Shaileen Pokress at media MIT has compiled a list of Android devices that will work with app inventor.  You can check this out before your next purchase, or help out and post your findings.  Anyone can edit the file, so please be  careful with it.    App Devices Listing.

App Inventor: Here are some recent links to help people get started with App Inventor. Resources:  http://appinventoredu.mit.edu/resources
Tutorials:

http://beta.appinventor.mit.edu/learn/tutorials/index.html

http://appinventoredu.mit.edu/resources/app-inventor-video-tutorials-beginners

also you can subscribe to the "Programming with App Inventor" forum: 

http://beta.appinventor.mit.edu/forum/

QR Code Potential

The American Libraries Magazine has a new article about QR codes in the: library by By Tim Blevins http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/03202012/qr-codes-extend-library-programming

this article highlights how paper with printed QR codes can open a whole new world of information when combined with a smart phone.  A QR code can link you to a site with additional information, or a video.  

Along with mention of the Delivr site, which helps you track QR code scans.

Is pinning illegal?

Should we be concerned about copyright?  Remember Napster?  Copying music is illegal and not only did the company get prosecuted, but also some of the young people who had download music.  So is Pinterest the new Napster?  According to  Photographer Kirsten Kowalski, writing on her website, she tells us that she has removed all content from her Pinterest account.

Kristen points out that "Federal copyright laws give the author of any copyrighted work (which includes photographs and copyright attaches automatically as soon as the work is created) the sole and exclusive right to publish and reproduce such work."

What what about "Fair Use"?  According to Cornell's Law Information site a copyrighted work can be reproduced if you are using it as part of a critique, commentary, news reporting, scholarly work, or for teaching.  So as long as you are not using someone's images / photographs for commercial purposes or using a substantial amount of the work.


Ellen Brundige writes on HubPages  that "Thousands of Pinterest members are breaking copyright and causing headaches for artists, photographers, and bloggers. Many image owners don't mind at all, and are happy for the publicity! But for many photographers and artists, the problems caused by these copyright violations outweigh the benefits."

Is it time to revisit copyright law? In 1998 the copyright extension act (CTEA) of 1998, revisited copyright law, which resulted in an additional 20 years.  Materials that have a copyright prior to 1978 are protected for a total of 95 years from their inception.

So if anything copyright protections may get even more stringent, and even though Pinterest is beautiful and appeals to anyone who is even a tiny bit visual, we must all pin carefully and with a grain of caution.  I think humans express and absorb information visually and Pinterest allows us a visual platform to share and  collaborate visual information like very few other social platforms.  It would be quite sad to see it have to go.

Your Love, Life and Goals in three minutes

One important piece of advice we hear again and again, is that when you’re looking for work, network, network, network!  And one of the tools for networking is to have different versions of your elevator speech ready for all occasions.

So here are some quick pointers:

Make a list of 10 things you feel are important that you want to convey about yourself.  Laura Katen mentions things like what you have achieve, goals, work and service accomplished for places you have worked and volunteered in.

Strike through anything that seems repetitious and craft what's left to sound not only informative but interesting as well.  As your list shapes up, make sure it addresses "Who I Am,”

• “What I Do,” 
• “How I Do It,” 
• “Why I Do It,” and 
• “Who I Do It For

Once you have about two sentences (for a short elevator ride) of talking points, make sure your most important items are first, in case the ride gets interrupted.  And add an interesting fact to hook your listener at the beginning of your brief talk so that they want to hear more.

Both Ms. Katen and the Peace corps orientation handbook also suggest that practicing your speech is crucial.

The Peace corps orientation handbook also suggest the following when meeting a new person (probably not in an elevator, unless your being introduced):

• Shake hands firmly.
• Make eye contact.
• Use the person’s name.
• Respect personal space.
• Be confident, friendly, and enthusiastic.Goals
• Ask thoughtful questions.  If you know something about a professor’s research, ask about it!
• Follow up with people after the event / meet

References

Katen, L. (2011, October 13). Perfect pitch: How to nail your elevator speech. The Daily Muse, Retrieved from http://www.thedailymuse.com/job-search/perfect-pitch/

Peace corps fellows orientation handbook . (2010). Paper presented at University of Arizona – graduate college peace corps fellows/ usa. doi: 8/17/2010 url: http://goo.gl/pIhsi

New Info-blogs areas

Library Careers

Information Literacy

Mobile and the Future

These are three areas of interest, and they are related, since the future of libraries and technology has a close bearing on our future librarian careers and the ability of  patrons to learn information literacy.

Is AI going Away?

AI (App Inventor) is not going away, but is's future is not as of yet crystal clear.  The product will be transitioned to a non-profit and will become open sourced.  For details on the saga check out the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

A Good Tutorial for working with App Inventor from Sajdutt

http://www.appinventorblocks.com/home a great site that explains the set up and several applications using good and easy to follow visuals.

App Inventor and the Java Bridge

There seems to be software that relates Java to the code in App Inventor to help developers in App Inventor make the connection and be able to cross over to the more detailed and customizable environment of Android Development.

JAVA bridge resource links:

About the Bridge

To get started with the Bridge, download the sample project from the
App-Inventor-for-Android project at code.google.com<http://code.google.com/p/app-inventor-for-android/source/browse/trunk/>.

You can download the project source code with svn (subversion):  Connect to a directory where you typically keep Java projects and issue the command:

svn co
http://app-inventor-for-android.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/samples/Brid...

This should create a BridgeToJava folder on your computer, with all the files required to build the app.
[still trying to figure out how to do this...]

More links that may help with the svn mystery...

How to use Subversion with Eclipse.
and
SVN Howto

Next steps: Android development Platform

After taking a few preliminary steps using App Inventor (which is a lot of fun), I next wanted to try the Android Development Platform.

I found an Android for Dummies that had a step by step recipe type instructions. But Eclipse and the Android STK had changed so it was difficult to understand the instructions.

I next tried Hello Android by Ed Burnett, and although the format does not give you complete step by step setup instructions it gives one a clear orientation and the information that is required to connect the Java STK, with Android and Eclipse componets.

There are also good instructions at the Android Developers Website.

The components you need are:

•  First make sure you have JAVA installed on your computer.  To get a current copy, go to the ORACLE website.
• You will also need an editor of some kind the oldest and most used by people in the field is ECLIPSE, and you should dowload this as well.
• And the third piece is the Android STK.

To make sure it all talks to each other I ran the most basic of programs:  HelloWorld on the Android emulator (very much like the emulator in App Inventor).

Yeii! it Worked!  Now the real fun can begin.

Mobile Technology for Library Searches.

Mark Andy West et al, in their article "Expanding Access to Library Collections and Services using Small Screens", highlights the use of the BSUL's mobile technology to do journal and catalog searches.

Their CardCat Mobile app allows students and faculty to search for an author, a title or a subject from their hand-held device. CardCat Mobile displays book information like location, call number, and availability for each result revealed by the search.

Firing up App Inventor for Android

I have finally finished the last of the beginner tutorials and am starting to build up my list of projects. So far it is easy enough, but I would like to get a clearer picture of exactly how the components work. A good resource for this is App Inventor - Create your own Android Apps.

So in order to test drive App inventor and analyze its viability for creating mobile applications for libraries and other related users, I have to first download that application and create a phone emulator (since I currently do not own smart phone).

I started out by first logging on to the App Inventor set up page, and followed the instructions there.

1. Install and test your JAVA installation
2. Set up your phone emulator or your phone
3. Install App Inventor (the app inventor design stage is web based)

Once all the components are loaded there are several beginner tutorials:
HelloPurr (yes, this deals LOL cats)
PaintPot (a little paint application)
MoleMash (a game)
PicCall (phone functionality)

Java Tips

This site has a beginner tutorial for Java for use with Android: Learn Java for Android Development: Introduction to Java


Here is a great site full of resources I found to help learn all about Java: NetBeans.org

Mobile Technology in the Library

So being a graduate student I'm taking a lot of wonderful classes on all aspects of Library Science and  related knowledge.  One area I felt I needed more exposure to was Mobile Technology.  So for a while at least I'm going to use this blog as a diary for my mobile learning escapades. I started last week with some links my professor Jacek Gwizdka sent me:

http://groups.google.com/group/app-inventor-instructors
and
http://groups.google.com/group/app-inventor-instructors/browse_frm/thread/10a64e64b7886afb

Which in turn led me to a bunch more!  So the journey begins!

[more mobile technology]