In our world today, it is easy to be overrun by the sheer number of applications that are available on our smartphones. The App Store by Apple has over 500,000 apps; for anyone counting, that could mean a different app each day for the next 1,370 years. Since there are so many on the market, it is easy for college students to miss apps that could really be beneficial for both work and life.
One type of work app necessary for college students is cloud storage, meaning apps such as Dropbox and Google Drive. College students should be most familiar with these services because of their constant on-the-go lifestyle. For those unfamiliar with either of them, Dropbox and Google Drive are cloud based, meaning that files, such as photos and documents, are stored in a remote location. These services allows the user to upload files and then access those files from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Voice-recording apps are also extremely useful in the school realm. In addition to the built-in voice recorder on your phone, there are apps that enhance that technology for your benefit. DropVox is one of them. DropVox is $1.99 on the App Store. The advantage of DropVox, over your phone’s built-in recorder, is that this app allows for immediate upload of each recording you make to a linked Dropbox account. This cloud-based recorder allows you to access any of your recordings from anywhere. Also, you can later download all of your recordings in a couple of quick clicks for archiving if your cloud storage ever becomes full.
An application that is especially useful to those who write papers all the time is an app called EasyBib. This application allows for easy citation for any book resource. It has both a search and scan feature. The search feature allows the user to search by title of the book and gives you suggestions based on what you input into the box. The scan feature allows you to use the camera on your phone to scan the barcode on the book and generates the citation for you. The app allows for the most common formats of citations: MLA, APA and Chicago.
There are apps, too, that help make our lives easier outside of class. One of these life apps is called LifeLock Wallet. This app is made by the company LifeLock, who is known for their identity protection services. However, they have acquired this app from a company formerly known as Lemon Wallet. LifeLock Wallet allows its users to input their identity information and their payment types, such as credit cards, into this app. In case your wallet is lost or stolen, your identity and your credit are protected.
MyFitnessPal is another great app for busy college students. College is not usually known to be the times in our lives when we are our healthiest, but MyFitnessPal can help change that. This app allows its users to answer a few questions about height, weight and if the user wants to lose any weight. The user gets a daily number of calories that they should eat a day to either maintain their current weight or lose weight based on how they have answered the questions. When you add food to the daily journal, the user has the vast database created by the people at MyFitnessPal. In addition to their database, the app has a feature that accesses the user’s camera to scan the barcode of the food. This instantly puts in the correct number of calories based off the nutritional information of the product. The app also allows the user to input exercise and the amount of water that they have drunk during the day.
Whether the apps are for your schoolwork, your life or just for your Candy Crush addiction, there are plenty of apps waiting to be found. When you think of something that you would like to do, first ask yourself, “Is there an app for that?”
