What is all that talk about Chromecast?

HOW TO USE A CHROMECAST

                                            

     First and foremost a Chromecast is a device used to stream photos videos or music

to a television by use of a mobile device.

In order to use a Chromecast you may need:

                                                                         - a television with a HDMI slot

                                                                         - Internet connection

                                                                         - any mobile device with a chrome browser

                                                                         - and the Chromecast device.

STEPS ON USAGE

Step 1: Setup.

           Insert the Chromecast into the HDMI slot of the television. Then by use of a

remote press input to select the HDMI. Once selected you will view instructions on

the website to key into your mobile device as well as your setup name.

Step 2: Launching.

           Using your mobile device download the app and open it. Then it my take a few

minutes of loading and a code will be shown. If it is in correspondence to the one

on your television screen you may select the option ‘that's my code’.

You will then fill out a menu with your Wireless Network and its password. Below

this select a Chromecast name and press continue. Launch your chrome browser

and add the cast extension.
           
                                                    
     You may now use your Chromecast by clicking on its icon and selecting ‘cast tab’

 for the website you are on to be projected to your television screen. Once the icon

changes to blue the tab is being displayed on the Chromecast.

Should You Upgrade to the iPhone 7/7+?

iPhone 7 dramatically improves the most important aspects of the iPhone experience. It introduces advanced new camera systems, the best performance, the best battery life ever, and immersive stereo speakers. The brightest, most colorful iPhone display, and it looks every bit as powerful as it is. This is the iPhone 7.

The iPhone 7 and 7+ has come out with amazing colors, and it is even water resistant, which is amazing if you’re clumsy like me! Both the 7 and 7+ come with, 12 megapixel rear cameras, and 7 megapixel front cameras. The 7+ has a dual camera, which makes the background of the photo blurry, and the main object you are taking a picture of crystal clear.

The brightness has greatly improved, and is now 25% brighter than any other iPhone. It now has 3D touch, so you can open apps and do other things with one tap. Definitely a great improvement from the 6s. The Air Pods that came brand new with this new iPhone have gotten a bad reputation, but Apple has fixed the problem, by adding a cord that you can plug into the charging port since there is no more headphone jack, so you can listen to your music through earbuds.

The LTE data coverage is 3x faster than the previous 6 and 6s, which allows you to make calls faster and more efficient. You can roam the internet as well with no issue buffering or freezing!

Everyone now has probably heard about IOS 10, and it has been the biggest update for Apple since IOS 9 came out last fall! It gave all the IOS devices that were available for the upgrade a big change, and people had mixed reviews, but personally I love it, and is much better than the previous IOS’s.

People either hate or love the iPhone 7/7+ but from what I have heard from friends who have the iPhone 7/7+ , is that they love the phone, and they don’t regret upgrading at all. But if you want to take a look for yourself and see if you might want it, here is a link:

http://www.apple.com/iphone-7/

How to Gimp

Alex Leach

Intro to Gimp

Gimp is an art type of program that is free and allows you to edit pictures any way you would choose as well as make a custom one or new one of your own. This program allows you to draw things onto pictures, insert pictures, cut pictures out, fill on pictures, etc. Will all those types of tools you can use, the program can get a little tricky but it’s actually quite simple after some testing around.

So for add a picture you want to edit just go to the picture and drag it onto gimp and it should automatically format it for you. After you do this you can use any tool you want such as the scissors and cut the area around the focused spot you want to keep to put on a new one. To make your own picture from scratch you can go to the task bar and click new and put in any size paper/pallet you want and start drawing with whichever tool you want. I would recommend the brush though because it is more solid. If you want a background for your blank page you can drag in an image or go to the paint bucket and search the options on there. The one on the left can put in solid colors or if you go to the bottom section located below the icons you can click on pattern and use preset patterns. The icon on the right you can make a background with a mixture of colors by clicking on one of the 2 boxes. If you would like more than one color there are certain options that will help you add more. Those 2 colors also go for the brush except it only uses the color on top of the 2 colors.

This is just a little intro into Gimp. You’ll find out there is way more to this program and you’ll be able to use more icons for enhanced work. Most of these icons do pretty much exactly what they show so it's also not really a huge deal to go over. Hopefully this has helped you have an easier start to Gimp.

Link to Gimp: https://www.gimp.org/

Pictures are also from Gimp

Google Translate

Google Translate

Google translate is an application or a multilingual translation machine.

It is most commonly known for translating texts and phrases but it can also translate speeches, images sites and real time videos. It translates nearly 103 languages and serves quite a large number of people worldwide. It is also very easy to use and has a short procedure. The application is free to download and install for all phones and has no monthly payments.

I believe it is very sufficient being bilingual; I use it to translate words I may not know in English. Other than translating it also helps people learn various languages. It helps in communication and promotes easier dialogue. It may even be cheaper than having to find a personal translator and because it is in your phone it’s portable and can be used at any time. You may therefore want to download Google translate now to help you with your day to day activities and trips.

    

Keep Track of Grades With Follett Notifications

Follett Notifications

By:  Kyanna

Not too many students or teachers know about this app. It is used in all subjects. Any teacher can use it from any class. Any administrator can use it. Parents can use to check their kid(s) grades. As long as you have an aspen log in account then you can have access to the use of this app. Like I said before Follett Notifications is very helpful to students. If you have a phone or if a parent has a phone then you are all set. It’s a great reminder for students. I would say it’s worth the download. It’s worth the download for parents especially because I know my parent is always asking me about my grades but now they don’t have to ask they can just take a look themselves. This app does send notifications to the phone when your teacher puts a grade in as well. So, as soon as your teacher officially logs your grade in then you’ll get a notification. It’s great because instead of waiting to get home or waiting for lunch to go online to type all of your login information to find out one grade, you get it sent to your phone right away. You don’t have to log in or try to find Wi-Fi to be able to log in. You don’t have to go through that kind of lengthy process to find out one grade with this app. You don’t just find out what your grade is on Follett Notifications, you can also get reminders. Your teachers can send out reminders about permission slips or a test and administrators can send out information about report cards or if the school day gets canceled. Follett Notifications sounds like a great app so far, am I right?

Follett Notifications is an app that I was told about by one of my teachers. After the teacher suggested the app, a few of my friends downloaded it including myself. They all think it’s very helpful. I think it’s helpful. This is for and used by students, administration, teachers, and even parents. This is a push notification app so you can receive notifications about multiple things. It notifies students about news within the school. Teachers or administrators can just send out a notification and you will receive it instantly. This app was offered by Follett School Solutions, Inc. It’s also in the works with Follett Aspen Student Information System.

It’s easy to get if you have some sort of electronic with an app store. You can just go into any app store like Google Play and search Follett Notifications. The logo is green and white. You can always go to the category section as well and it should be under “Education.” The thing that I love most about this app is that it’s free!

Now, there’s pros and cons to everything. There are very few cons and I would say the biggest one is it doesn’t show what teacher posted what grade. I read some other people’s point of view on this app and students and parents were complaining about how they didn’t know what grade went to what class. Another frequent complaint by mostly students was having to delete the notifications one by one so there is no “delete all” option. Altogether, there are just a few minor cons.

The app is for reminding and informing students and parents as well not to interact with each other. Despite those couple of cons, Follett Notification presents important information to the students and helps them stay up to date. This app is definitely great for you if you like to know your grade instantly, if you are a forgetful individual or if you have a child that forgets to tell you important information, whatever the case may be. Tell your teachers, principal, parents, friends, family, etc. Get the word around about Follett Notifications!   

Easy Steps to Increase the RAM on Your Phone

How to increase or expand the Random Access Memory (RAM) of any Android phone by using Micro-Sd Card

If you have been using a smartphone for a while and you've been observing that it seems so slow, then the issues of the phone are caused by the Random Access memory (RAM).

Requirement for increasing the RAM of an Android phone

• Micro-SD Card (4GB and above)
• A computer
• A rooted smartphone or tablet
• A software (Roehsoft RAM Expander)

Note:  In order to expand the RAM of any android phone, the phone must be first rooted. To root means having the privilege to modify the software codes of the device.

To Root your device

To Root your phone can be done in two ways:

• Using a computer
• Using your smartphone

Step 1: Download Kingo root then install. Kingo root app is a powerful app recommended for android 4.4 above., it requires WiFi connection in order to root

• Click on root in the app then the root progress will start

Once the root is successful, a message will popup that the device has been rooted. Since the phone is rooted, there is access to the RAM

Increasing the RAM of your phone using Roehsoft RAM Expander

Since you have a rooted phone, then you can increase the RAM of your phone with the following steps below:

Step 1: Make sure you have a Memory Card that is 4GB above.

Step 2:  Download the app called Roehsoft RAM Expander, then install

Step 3:  Then click on the app, a message will popup, then give the app it's root permission and selects the language option.

Step 4: At the left corner of the upper level of your phone, there is a place written “Swap”. Then click on it.

Step 5: This app is powerful on some phones, so it might ask you to create a swap file for the app. If it asks, then create a swap file for the app on the Sd card.

After that, it will ask you the amount of storage that you wish to have. Choose any amount of space on it but make sure that you have up to 1Gb free space on your SD Card.

Step 6: After swapping  a message will  popup  that “congratulations”.

Note:  The new GB of RAM may not be seen in your task manager but the phone will run much faster than it is before.

Google Drive

Google Drive is an amazing app made by Google and was launched on April 24, 2012. Many people use Google Drive because it can store data and can be accessed on any networked computer. The Google Drive is more like a flash drive because it can store large amounts of data.

Advantages of Google Drive

• Google Drive has free 15Gb disk space.
• Google Drive can be upgraded to about 100Gb for just $1.99 per month.
• Google Drive is free to download on the internet.
• Google Drive is connected to some apps like Google Sheet, Google Classroom, etc.

Disadvantages of Google Drive

• Hackers can hack through your device if your password is not properly secured.
• Uploading and downloading speed may be slow because millions of people are using it.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is an amazing browser that was produced by Google in 2008. Google Chrome is also known for the main component of the Chrome OS (Chromebook). This browser is really fast and it is the latest browser for the internet used by people today. Google Chrome apps are free on the internet, so it is easy to download. This browser works on both smartphones and computers. Google Chrome has access to some apps that are made by Google. Examples of these apps are Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheet, Google Slides and some other apps.

             

Advantages of Google Chrome  

1. Google Chrome is the fastest and latest browser among other browsers used for internet access.
2. Google Chrome is directly connected to other Apps made by Google.
3. Google Chrome is easy to use, especially for App developers, because they can get their jobs done much faster than those who use Mozilla Firefox and some other browsers.

 

Disadvantages of Google Chrome

1. Google Chrome consumes a lot of Random Access Memory (RAM) on phones and on PC.
2. Google Chrome themes cannot be changed.
3. Google Chrome does not save pages like other browsers.
4. Navigation bar on Google Chrome cannot be configured.

Cyberbullying

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dra2DrGlgy4Ye7OtjxjdRKc6GZK4IvtpU5JkHqlJxAY/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Math Students Engaging with Desmos Graphing Calculator

Desmos Graphing Calculator is a great app to use on your smartphone. A lot of math teachers nowadays don't think about smartphones as being excellent tools to have in class. Obviously students shouldn't have their smartphones during testing, but they can have their smartphones while doing normal assignments. In today's society almost every student has an Android or Apple and this app is available on both!

Usability: Desmos Graphing Calculator is very easy to use. There are no tutorials however it has a very simple setup. To get going all you need to do is type in the equation you want graphed, and the calculator will automatically graph it on the screen above the symbol keys.

Support: Desmos does not have any instructions or tutorials, but the app is very simplistic. If the user ever used a calculator before then they will know how to use Desmos.

Engaging: This app is very engaging. Since it has such a simple design anyone can use it. It can be downloaded on all IOS and Android phones. Students will naturally pick this app because it works with all equations that are able to be graphed. In the time that I have used it, I did not come across any bugs. It works well and it is a very useful tool for math classes.

Export/Sharing: This app is completely offline so there will be no need for an internet connection to use it. This also means that there will be no sharing of any sort while on the app. Within the app you will not be able to send any graphs to others online. The app does offer you to make an account. This will allow you to save your graphs in the cloud.

Customization: You will be able to customize what types of graphs you will need from the equations, but that's about it. Since this app is just a simple calculator there really isn't any need to customize anything else. Looking at the button layout and the menus everything is straight forever, and no editing of the app is necessary.

Collaboration: Desmos does offer a cloud system, but that is only for saving graphs for the future. There is no collaboration between accounts. The accounts are only there to load and save progress.

Import: There are no import options for this app. This app is only to help with graphing equations. It’s a simple but useful tool. No imported files are needed. The app stays relatively updated throughout the year, so if any new advancements are made in math than the app will be up to date.

Desmos Graphing Calculator is exactly what it says it is. This app is a very simple tool for all math students. It's responsive and easy to use. The app also allows users to create an account so that they are able to save progress in the cloud. Students will pick this app over others because it's easier than a regular graphing calculator, free, fast, and it isn't as clunky as some graphing calculator simulations.