Apps

Students in developing countries can use a free app called Library for All to access books and other resources that would otherwise not be available to them. Rebecca McDonald of Australia created the app after volunteering for hurricane relief work in Haiti in 2010. She says the books, available through the app, are authored by local writers and illustrators, allowing students to read books in their own languages. The books and educational resources can be used on a mobile phone or e-reader.

Does your child use Chrome as their browser for school? In a recent article from Edutopia, special education teacher Kathryn Nieves shares a list of 10 free extensions for Google Chrome browsers that her students use most often at school. The list includes extensions such as Noisli, which provides customizable mixes of ambient sounds to aid concentration, and AlphaText, which lets users customize their browsers for accessibility. Others on the list are VoiceIn Voice Typing, which provides speech-to-text functions for dictating notes, and Dualless which gives the capability to split the screen so you can work in two tabs simultaneously. Nieves suggests trying these extensions out in the summer before the school year starts and schedules get hectic.

Facebook has notified parents and corrected a technical error that permitted thousands of children using the Messenger Kids app to join group chats not approved by their parents. The app lets children between 6 and 12 years old message and video chat with family and friends who their parents approve. It's unclear how long the flaw existed. The app has been controversial since its launch in December 2017, and child advocacy groups have repeatedly urged Facebook to shut down the app, arguing it violates a federal law aimed at protecting a child's online privacy.

Writing in Forbes, Adrian Dayton discusses the seven “dumbest” things people do on social media/business recruiting site LinkedIn. The unprofessionalism Dayton outlines includes filling a bio with overblown adjectives, adding nonsensical hashtags to posts, and making romantic overtures, which is reportedly an increasing problem. Creating more than one profile confuses potential connections, and abandoning a profile signals a lack of seriousness. These are all good tips on what to avoid for both adults and high school students, as many are beginning to use the platform as part of the college application process.

A video of a chimpanzee scrolling through an Instagram feed on a smartphone has attracted more than 1.6 million views, but has also drawn criticism from animal welfare experts. Primatologist Jane Goodall said she was "very disappointed to see the inappropriate portrayal of a juvenile chimpanzee," and commented that such viral videos encourage illegal chimpanzee trading.

Summer is coming and there is a good chance you will be adding more apps to your phone for travel, entertainment or maybe to keep your kids busy. Before you do so, think about how you can clear up your phone by organizing and deleting apps that you and perhaps your children no longer use. Need some help getting started? Try “How to Declutter Your Phone” for tips on deleting apps, freeing up storage and disabling unnecessary notifications.

As reported in The Drum,  Snapchat is continuing its partnership with the Ad Council (public service announcement creator), to roll out a new "Because of You" anti-bullying campaign. The campaign, aimed at teens, encourages Snapchat users to use the Lens Carousel feature (part of the app) to share a moment on how another individual made a positive impact in their life.  ‘”Because of You” is a movement that encourages teens to reflect on the power of their words and actions, and consider how they are affecting others – for better or worse. The campaign encourages a more empathetic, inclusive culture by asking users to consider the impact of their actions.

Snapchat and the Ad Council will also co-host a ‘Creators for Good’ summit as part of Snap’s ongoing Creator’s Lab workshop series, inviting creators to the Santa Monica Creator’s Lounge to learn how to use their creative talents to promote social good initiatives.

A recent article in Adweek reports that from 2017 to 2018, the number of fraudulent apps increased more than 150%, according to a DoubleVerify report. Since 2017, invalid ad impressions on mobile devices has doubled year-over-year. Security experts are calling on developers and app stores to help fight fraud in the mobile space.

It looks like privacy concerns are not chasing away social media users, according to Mashable .The share of adults in the United States on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest has remained basically unchanged since 2018, according to a Pew Research Center report, even though consumers have voiced concerns in other Pew studies regarding data privacy and censorship. YouTube won the popularity contest with 73% of overall users, while younger demographics favor Instagram and Snapchat.

As reviewed in The Verge, the new privacy app “Jumbo” on Apple’s iOS is designed to take the guesswork out of user data protection protocols on social media sites. Although some social media sites have restrictions on what the app can do, Jumbo can help manage your privacy on Twitter, Facebook, Alexa and Google search, and plans are afoot to add Tinder and Instagram. So how does it work? For example, connect to your Twitter account, and Jumbo will delete tweets from the time frame of your choosing, let’s say after a month. Your Twitter password is saved to the iOS keychain, not Jumbo itself — part of the company’s effort to collect as little data about its customers as possible. The app is currently free, but eventually we all may end up paying to protect what little is left of our privacy.