The latest and greatest digital tool you've found?

I noticed that although the social media platform is the same, the application for mobile phone with different versions have many advantage. For example, there is a weibo app for business, it is convenient to reply or post news and others. For a business, it is necessary to run social media with appropriate tools.

The latest digital tool that I have found is called WolframAlpha it works kind of like a dictionary and like Google combined. All you have to do is type the word or question you are looking for and this tool will find an answer for you. Google works by providing you with links of whatever you are searching; WolframAlpha gives you the answers for your question like a dictionary.  This tool makes it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. It can solve math problems for you! It is really a cool tool and I will be using it from now on, I’m so glad I found it. 

 

When I spent the summer in London, we learned about a website that would give you an app to block all websites that you use to procrastinate (facebook, twitter, world star hip hop -- don't judge.) The app is called "Self Control" and you can limit for long you want to ban sites for. Even if you delete the app, you still cant get on the sites you've blacklisted, so it forces you to be productive. You guys should give it a try!

 

The newest digital tool that I have been into lately is Hype Machine. Lately I have been into discovering new music and and sharing it with my friends for all of us to tune in and share our opinions about new artists/music styles. You create your own blog where you share the music you have found and your friends can post and comment on it as well. Luckly, I have more blogging expereicnce now because of New Media that I can engage more fully than before and have more insight as to how ot be effective in an online media community. Hype Machine is $2.99 in the App Store.

One new digital too I have started using lately is called Waze. It is an interactive navigation app that gives reports on traffic, gas prices, police, and accidents in your area. With an interactive map, it shows all of this information and is updated by other Waze users. You are able to put in your own information on the roads you are driving on, and it helps other drivers in the area. By clicking the Gas icon, it shows all of the gas stations in your area along with their current prices. It also gives a police notification. If someone is driving and they see a hidden cop car, they post in Waze the time and place of the 'hidden' police. I've only just started using this app, but when it comes to long drives and traffic conditions, I feel it can be extremley useful.

Wildfire is the one I want to introduce. Some of them might know because it become a part of Google. I like its "Social Media Monitor" for easy tools for monitoring SNS activities. There are a lot of tools for watching SNS, but this is the easiest. Please check it out. http://www.wildfireapp.com/products/monitor

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My new favorite digital tool is Vine. This application is so cool! You can video tape different things and then they come into one cool video. I played around with Vine a lot with my friends in the past week and it is so fun to see what comes out in the final video. This can help in a future career because it could be a new innovative way to advertise on the internet. The way that social media is changing, we need to make it more fun. Making an ad for the internet using vine could make it much more energetic and interesting for people to watch. Check Vine out!

The mobile social media platform, Path, is quite interesting. Path is a mobile-based social network that allows you to lifestream with 150 close friends and contacts. Path started as a social networking site primarily for sharing photos but you can also check in, post status updates, and share music/movies/books. It sort of reminds me of the app GroupMe, but you can do more with this app. I think it's pretty cool and worth checking out.

I’d be lying if I said Reddit isn’t my most used iPhone app on my phone. It doesn’t necessarily offer productive digital tools, but it does hold the best cat pictures and videos out there. On the other hand, I have found “iPhone Secrets” to be extremely helpful and guarantee every iPhone user would agree with me. Apple offers so much within the little device that the average user isn’t aware of. This straightforward app educates you on the ins and outs of the iPhone through many simple editorials. After browsing this app for a few hours, you’ll realize that your iPhone is even more amazing than you initially though. I also recommend the “MyPC” app if you have a use for it. My father and uncle co- own a hardware in Lewiston and he uses the app almost every day. Since my dad lives in Royal Oak, he commutes every other weekend while my uncle is in the store every day. The MyPC app allows him to access the hardware store computer as if he was actually there. It allows him to be so productive even though he is three hours away. 

 

One new digital tool I have discovered is an app called Fooducate. You scan the barcodes of different foods and it gives them grades (A, B, ....). It also shows you some healthier options you can try instead if the food doesn't have that great of a rating. You can also just search for food you're thinking about buying, you don't have to scan the barcode. This is a great app when you're grocery shopping although it doesn't really affect my purchase decisions that much. 

Aisle411 is a application that retail stores are adopting for their customers. It allows them to see a store map on the phone while shopping and allows them to search for things if they are lost and can't find an employee to ask directions from. 

Right now as I'm on the search for internships and potential after college jobs, www.onedayonejob.com/ has saved my life. It has been so helpful in the intern/job hunt for me! They advertise as "Entry Level Jobs for College Grads". They are so much more than just that. They have many up and coming new companies (the next new google perhaps?!) which list all of their current openings. I love this site and hope that you all find it as helpful as I have!

I recently found out about a website called zumu.co. I'm not sure if it is necessarily 'new technology', however it's a pretty cool site. Basically, it's a new online trading format where you can trade in your old cd's, movies, and games for money. You insert the barcode number and get an instant value. They send you a free shipping label for you to send the items in and you then receive your cash. They are dedicated to recycling and fundraising causes. I'm thinking of gathering up all my old movies and taking a look to see how much they're worth. Technology working to make our lives easier, once again. 

My current favorite and recent digital app is Wanelo (Want, Need, Love).  It's a lot like pinterest except when you click on the item, it takes you to the site where you can purchase the product - dangerous, but really sweet.  Its so easy to search and find popular and trending products.  I have spent so much time on it and really enjoy how easy it is to find everything just one click away! 

For someone running a small business that has direct customer interaction the new digital tool called Square is it for you. I walked into an ice cream shop in Florida last week and instead of swipping my card on a normal machine, the women has this little square tool that was directly plugged into her phone. You swipe your card and it will directly take money out and pay the person holding the tool. All you have to do is sign with your finger on the screen or use a smart pen. It is something so easy to use, I often see it in local taxis. Drivers can use this to ensure that people don't scam or get away without paying the right amount.

One cool tool that I have found recently is a little app and service called PushBullet. This service has saved me loads of time since I started using it shortly after it was launched a few weeks ago. Basically what it does is allow you to transfer information from your desktop to your comptuer in a very quick and simple interface. You can share lists, files, addresses, links, or just plain old notes. Through the service's website or Google Chrome plugin, you simply copy and paste the information you want on your device and it immediately pops up in the app and in your notification bar. I travel around the Metro Detroit area a lot for work, so I've found this especially useful for addresses. If I search for an address on Google Maps and press the PushBullet icon in Chrome, the address is already entered in the app and ready to be pushed to my phone with a single click. Once on my phone, Android picks up the text as an address and offers to navigate to there. So far though, it is only available for Android users.

One digital tool that I love using isn't the latest and greatest but has been very helpful to me for a while. It's called Notational Velocity and I use this app for my macbook. It's great for being able to organize notes or text that you write up. It's very helpful for school, work, and other daily activities. It also able to sync with Simplenote which can also sync with Dropbox. It's a helpful tool because it becomes an archive in the way you can search your documents through titles. It also uses more than just plain text.

One of the latest digital tools I have fallen in love with is an app called "concerts" (all lowercase) what it does is it takes all of the artists in your iTunes and then tells you which ones have upcoming tours and concerts. You can also access all the local venues in your area to see which shows are being played locally. It's just nice to have because I always want to stay up to date on where all my favorite bands are without having to sign up for newsletters that always ends up leading you to spam. It's funny because I actually had this same idea for an app one day and was looking it up to see if it already existed. Unfortunately I did not end up making millions from inventing it but at least I got an awesome app out of it.

I personally do not use digital tools that often, so I would like to talk about Google Doc that shocked me the most. When we do group meetings, people always have had time sharing a document using messengers or email. However, Google Doc really saved people's time. We were able to share our thoughts immediately online, and we could make changes so fluently. This tool really shocked me and impressed me the most.

Sulia  everything you can like about Buzzfeed, Mashable, and other news sites rolled into one. I like this site because its a one stop shop for all the information you could want or need tailored to your interests. It has a Pinterest like feed which makes it very user friendly and visually appealing. Instead of visiting 15 websites everyday I just visit Sulia. You could use this for your company by posting articles and using correct meta data to classify them. Because this is an interactive news community more individuals will be likely to comment and share 

One cool ap I have discovered is called Lookout, It is an app the will help you find your cell phone if you have misplaced it. You can go to their website when you are unable to locate your phone and it will send a signal to your phone that will send out a loud siren sound so you will find you phone. It also will show you on a map where your phone is. If you are willing to pay a monthly fee lookout can even send a signal to your phone that will prevent people from being able to access the phone if your feel it might have been stolen and allow to you protect personal information and will back up all the info on your phone incase it breaks or is permantly lost. 

One cool Social Media tool that i have discovered is called TweetReach.  The purpose of this tool is to basically see how far your tweets have reached.  It may not be that useful, but it somewhat interesting!

I found a nifty site that appeals to the geek in me on stumbleupon:  http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/23kqdJ/:sFX2e7s@:PfEUNzm9/astro.unl.edu/na... I tell it the date and my location, and it tells me how many hours of daylight to expect.  I like to play around with it and compare the amount of daylight in locations like Sweden compared to those in Florida.

Another one I like is: http://www.llbean.com/parkfinder/search#lat=42.6057&lon=-83.1502&srhTerm... You tell it where you are, and this website will give you the locations of nearby parks.  You can even filter by types of recreation you are looking for (e.g., tennis, water sports). 

Because I am studying tourism, I like both of these sites because they are helpful when I think about tourism.  By the way, I recommend www.noaa.gov over www.weather.com for weather conditions, as it doesn't have all of the popups and ads. 

I only used it a few times, but I really like the social media tool called Storify. The tool allows people to pull content from different social media sources and post them on one "timeline" (if you will) for a full scope of an event. It tells a story in that people can reorder the events and provide context. I used this tool working at a previous internship to sum up a bicycle tour fundraiser. But it wasn't merely summed, the story was told through blog posts, tweets, instagrams, facebook posts, and news headlines. It encompassed the event as a whole and provided a little more creativity to tell that story. 

I have recently been on a health kick and wanted to get on a stricter workout routine so I have been checking out a few apps that help along the way. Fitocracy is an app that is a free daily workout tracker and fitness comunity that makes working out an eaiser everyday thing. Also if you are watching more so what you are eating MyFittnessPal is a free calorie counter and diet plan that is very helpful when you are still want to eat but just need come help learning what and how much. This app gives you recipes for every mealof the day and is easy to follow.

My favorite "digital tool" isn't necessarily a tool but I do learn a lot of neat things from it. Mostly very random pictures and stories but the Reddit app on my phone is definitely the app I spend the most time on. The pictures are never ending and if you are bored in class, this is the app you should be using instead of Facebook or Twitter. If you just go to the front page it won't dissapoint. I never really get into many more social media apps than Facebook or Twitter because I feel like any more than that would be too much. Reddit it is.

I haven't discovered very many new digital tools but the one I have used the most has been Goggle Docs. Google Docs allows me to share files with other people. It is great for group projects as multiple users can be on a document at all time. This makes it much easier for our group to create and work on a project all at the same time. I look forward to reading other students posts so I can learn more about other digital tools they have learned to use.

One tool I learned about this year and have been using a lot ever since is Dropbox. To me, it is the best way to transfer and share large files as opposed to emailing or uploading on a site like mediafire for someone else to download. I use it a lot to share music and videos with my friends. I like that it allows you to share a folder with multiple people so when someone puts something in there, everyone sharing the folder receives the file almost instantly (or longer depending on the size but still relatively fast). One thing that is really cool is that there's also a mobile app for this making it compatible with your phone as well.

Recently, I started using Jittergram, which is an app that lets you record a video and turn it into a GIF. It is basically like Snapchat, but runs the GIF on a loop instead of deleting it within 10 seconds. It is a cool app because the next step in the phone app game was making a video version of snapchat and Jittergram does that. It isn't very useful for much else other than making cool, short videos that make your friends laugh.

I haven't really been investing time towards finding new apps lately but one that I use all the time is Spotify.  Instead of having to pay for all the songs I want to hear through iTunes and constantly searching for them on Youtube, I can just use Spotify.  It is really great when I am studying and doing homework and can just have the music shuffle through.  The difference is I can pick my songs, unlike Pandora.

I found an Apple app called WANELO which has many different products.  It’s all things that can be bought and a link is given with the current price.  You can add products to lists like things you want to buy or to give as gifts.  People can leave discussions about if they have the product and what they like best.  I really like that you can follow certain peoples lists and communicate with fellow users. 

Wikispaces.com can be used for education,business, and personal purposes.  Wikis can be created for teams, events, meetings and projects. It’s helpful when discussing about a certain topic with everyone. You can receive feedbacks on passages, etc.  The unlimited storage capacity allows people to share all sorts of videos, images, documents, and files. There are many tools available to keep everything on schedule. Many businesses use this since it’s easy to manage. They offer a 30 day trial, but I think it’ll be highly useful.

A cool digital tool that I discovered is Taap.it which is an app for local shopping. The app lets Android and iOS users sell their stuff or search for specific items nearby. It  is making Craigslist local and relevant to small business and the company is hoping to appeal to not just indviduals but also osmall business that want to advertise indivdiual iteams. 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently learned about a site called Pheed. The idea of the site is that for a monthly fee you can sell your pictures, videos, etc. online. This could be useful for people who are trying to make a name for themselves and builf their own personal brand.

SULIA  is the ultimate way to keep up with news. It combines news sites likes buzzfeed, mashable, and digg into one spot based on your interests. The best part is that it is a very visually appealing and even somewhat resembles pinterest. Sulia is like news Pinterest.  You can post content to. So say your company want launching a new product you could categorize it with meta data and it would appear on peoples feeds 

I have recently discovered the iPhone app, Vine, which lets you capture and share short (6 seconds or less) looping videos on Twitter and Facebook. You can find, follow, and interact with people close to you. You also able to connect your Vine profile to your Twitter account to find people you know or through your phone contacts. 

I learnt so many staffs from this class so far. Actually, this is question is not easy to answer for me, but I think my answer should be Dropbox. Nowadays, we need to manage more and more data and documents, especially for an advertiser. Some time when I doing research in more than one computer such as from my laptop to the computer in the library, then the Dropbox really helped me a lot. I can just upload my data to Dropbox and go to the library to continue my research. It is really convenience for me. 

One new tool I've been using lately is the app called Evernote. It's so handy! It keeps everything in one place- all my lists, my calendar, my assignments, etc. For someone who is hyper organized like me, this app is fantastic. One of my favorite features is the page camera that turns physical documents into digital notes. It's also great that you can sync it to multiple devices.

the most intriguing digital tool I have come across is used by the Detroit Red Wings.  If you ever watch a red wings game, you will see that there is an advertiement super-imposed on the end wall.  this is strictly for a TV audience and the spectators behind the goal do not even know its there.  It truly is a step outside the box for marketers and is the type of plans that I want to use in my Oakley campaign.  

I really like dropbox. With lots of design/photo work that I do at my internship, in class and at home, it is necessary to always have a portable hard drive or flash drive. Drop box has made it much more simple for me to always have acess to my files. It is easy to share files with others without actually needing a device to carry around all the time. I really like how it automatically syncs folders and files too.

I was doing some browsing on Mashable.com last week and came across an article about a new app called Augment. This app lets users "virtually" try out a new piece of furniture or a big screen TV inside their home. How does it work? The app uses the camera on the iPhone, iPad, or Android phone to place a true-to-size 3D rendering of an object inside a certain space in real time. So basically, if you can aim your device at a wall, you can see how that new couch you were thinking of buying will fit. As a bonus, you can also use the app to look at 3D renderings of pretty much anything, from an architectural design to a mock-up of a 3D print.

SocialEngage is the latest and greatest tool I discovered for running the MSU Writing Center's Twitter account. Formerly calle CoTweet, the application is made for small and large businesses, with multiple voices behind the tweets. Since I share the social media position with one other person, this app would allow us to leave each other notes, and also give an identity (but allowing followers to see who tweeted what) to each one of our tweets. This way, our coworkers and clients at the center will be able to see who is saying what behind the Twitter handle. It also allows us to leave reminders, such as, "Can you tweet about Open Mic Night at 8pm?", rather than having to text and email each other to coordinate tweets. It is very similar to Hootesuite but comes with a lot of added perks for the type of social media marketing we are doing! 

The latest and greatest digital tool is an app called Ghostwriter I use for my iPad and although it is that new I find it to be awesome. I use my iPad for a lot of things in my life including keepeing a daily calender, social networking, playing games, and taking notes. It is so much easier to carry my iPad around instead of my laptop and taking notes on it is amazing when I use Ghostwriter. Ghostwriter allows you ton type or write with a stylis on multiple different types of paper backgrounds with a bunch of different color pens. It allows you to export and import notes or other documents which makes studying so much more easier. You can export notes to your mail, Dropbox, Evernote and a few more. So if you are tired of lugging around that large laptop and own an iPad I highly suggest using Ghostwriter to take your notes on or if you are bored and feel like being creative draw something.

Because I’m doing social network marketing this semester and our target audiences are Chinese. I found an interesting Chinese site is called Sandaha.  This is a third party company who is acting like a middle man between people like us who want to promote something and the influencers who have millions of followers on Chinese popular social network sites. So we post our commercials as a task on the company's website, and the influencers who show interest on our task will share those commercials on their accounts. We pay the influencers commissions based on how many flowers they have.  The average commission fee is about 3 U.S. cents per flower. However, some most famous influencers who normally have about 10 million followers are going to need about $200 to share one post.

 

Lately I've been noticing how big of a difference that "Mailbox", an e-mail app, has made in my life. I have three different e-mail accounts in my phone, and the basic program that comes with the iPhone is not all that great for getting to the things I want to see right away, as well as coordinating all of my accounts. The app also lets me set reminders for things I want to view later, as well as creating lists. My favorite feature is the ability to "snooze" and email, or basically have it remind you to read the email later on. Since I have so many emails coming my way, it is really hard to sift through 70 emails first thing when you wake up in the morning. This app has really helped me stay up to date with school, work, and special emails from my various employers.  

Study Blue may not be a digital tool that is particularly vaulable for this class but this digital tool has saved me a LOT of time, stress, and worry while taking courses here at MSU. This tool brings together students in the same classes and makes it so that they can share material, past class material, and make notes into tests, and flashcards. My favorite part of this digital tool is that you can get the app for it on your smart phone and flip with flashcards on your way to class or an exam.

The latest digital tool that I have found and thought was pretty cool is Trunk.ly . Trunk.ly is an app that keeps a history of the links that you like or tweet and makes them searchable and easy to share. I really like this app because if there is every a link that you can't find but you know that you've shared then it is stored and makes them easier to find. Its basically a personal search engine for all of the links that you go to and like. 

My favorite digital tool I have been using lately is Spotify. It streams free music from your computer which is useful so you don't have to purchase songs to check out new bands, artists, songs, etc. Another aspect of Spotify that I really like is how it shows your friends on Facebook what you're listening to and vis versa. This promotes songs that I like, introduces me to songs that my friends like, and see who out of my friends has a similar taste in music.