Technology continues to reshape our world. It was just three decades ago that the high tech “brick” (Motorola DynaTAC 8000X) made its debut. The first commercially available cell phone, weighed two and a half pounds – think small blue neoprene dumbbell – was 3 x 1.75 x 3.5 inches in dimension and cost nearly $4 thousand. There were no cameras, no 4G, and no applications. We’ve come a long way since mobile technology in 1983. Now, we not only have the basic talk, text and Tetris, but also applications such as Messenger, Temple Run and Snap Chat to name a few. Mobile apps are the trend of our time.
Entrepreneur Magazine predicts the app market will be worth $77 billion by 2017.
Apps span across a spectrum of subjects, uses and trend almost every interest and discipline. From the most downloaded, Angry Birds, to the most obscure, Places I’ve Pooped – an app that allows you to “pin and track your poo” – there are apps for nearly everything, including academics.
“Mobile learning is one of the top trends in education,” Hugo Saucedo said on his blog topmastersineducation.com.
A survey by McGraw-Hill reported that 81 percent of college students who responded used their smart phone to study. It turns out that apps geared toward students make up a fair portion of the mobile app market. Given that campus life can be stressful, these apps are great because they can make our lives simpler. Here are some of the most popular.
Super involved and want to organize notes, agendas, and to-do lists? Try Evernote. A high class collaborator needing to share documents, videos and photos? Try Drop Box. Hate writing bibliographies? Easy Bib can help. Want your sleep patterns analyzed so that you wake up at just the right moment every morning? Sleep Cycle may be the app for you.
Many more great apps exist, and there many to come.
