Livescribe 3 Smartpen: Do More With Your Written Notes

By combining the ease of hand writing, the power and accessibility of Apple's iOS devices, and audio, the Livescribe 3 Smartpen is a powerful tool.  With the smartpen you can start writing on a pad of paper and see your handwriting appear on your iPad or iPhone almost instantly.

When taking notes It can record audio that is linked to your handwriting, allowing you to easily hear what was happening exactly when you were writing.  It can easily search through notebooks of handwritten pages to find the right note in an instant, and it allows you to share your notes with anyone without copying or scanning.

The Livescribe 3 Smartpen is not just a refinement of last year's Sky Wifi Smartpen. The Livescribe 3 Smartpen adds new functionality by pairing it with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. The Livescribe 3 is still capable of syncing handwriting and audio, but instead of recording the audio from a built in microphone, the recording happens on an iPhone or iPad paired to the pen with Bluetooth. With the pen connected to an iOS device using Bluetooth, features like handwriting recognition and cloud based storage options are handled by the iOS devices. Most of the pens functionality is handled with the free Livescribe+ app that seamlessly manages the Smartpen.

Read on to find out more about the Livescribe 3.

iOS 5 Reminders App Will Help Everyone

Apple next operating system upgrade for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch will include a new app called Reminders. iOS 5 is set to be released this fall. To learn more about the accessibility features in iOS 5 click here and here. The Reminders app will is a to-do list that notify you when you have something to do. Within the app you can make a to-do list and set it to remind you to complete the task at a particular date and time. The app can also remind you to do something when you leave or enter a location. For example you could set a reminder to alert you to pick up the eggs after work. The new reminder app in iOS 5 will help many people remember tasks through out the day. Apple explains the Reminders app on apple.com as,

"Next time you think to yourself, “Don’t forget to...,” just pull out your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and jot it down. Reminders lets you organize your life in to-do lists — complete with due dates and locations. Say you need to remember to pick up milk during your next grocery trip. Since Reminders can be location based, you’ll get an alert as soon as you pull into the supermarket parking lot. Reminders also works with iCal, Outlook, and iCloud, so changes you make update automatically on all your devices and calendars."

The Reminders app is not available on the app store and is only available for iOS 5. Click read more below to see more images and a video of the Reminders app.

iTunes U Helps Students

iTunes U is a free service that helps anyone who wants to learn. iTunes U allows any user to download lectures and PowerPoints from some K-12 schools and many collages and universities. To download a class lecture from iTunes U, search for the topic or school you are looking for in iTunes. iTunes U is great for collage students who want to watch lectures again. iTunes U allows you to watch your lectures on a Mac, PC, iPod, iPhone or iPad. iTunes U can also help people learn about a new topic without going to a physical classroom. iTunes U is simple for both the institution and the student. Apple descrbies iTunes you as,

"iTunes U brings the power of the iTunes Store to education, making it simple to distribute information to your students and faculty — or to lifelong learners all over the world. With an iTunes U site, your institution has a single home for all the digital content created or curated by educators, which can then be easily downloaded and viewed on any Mac, PC, iPod, or iPhone."

 iTunes U can help any student excel with its wide ranging topic areas and content uploaded by schools. Apple  explains iTunes U's universal access,

"iTunes U can be a powerful and accessible learning tool for students with disabilities. For the vision-impaired, iTunes U works with VoiceOver, the built-in screen reader on the Mac, as well as with compatible screen readers on PCs. iTunes U also allows for learning with iPod and iPhone, which offer features to help vision-impaired students find the information they need (using VoiceOver on iPhone and iPod touch, and spoken feedback on iPod nano and iPod shuffle). And for students with physical or motor-skills needs, iTunes U brings the classroom to them, so they can learn at their own pace and in a more comfortable environment."

To try iTunes U go to the iTunes store on any computer or iOS device. To read Apple's iTunes U web page click here To see more pictures of iTunes U click read more.

Readability Makes Reading the Web Easier

Readability is a free browser add-on that strips out distractions and only leaves your article behind. Websites are cluttered and have lots of advertising that can distract you from your article. Readability takes out the advertisements and distractions and only leaves the text of the article behind. In addition, Readability has options to increase text size and color for easier reading. Click here to download the extension which works with most browsers.

In iOS 5 there is a similar feature called Reader. Reader also takes out the advertising and clutter out of articles on the web. Unlike Readability, Reader only works with Safari for iOS devices. With these tools you will never have to be distracted by an advertisement again.

How to Use Parental Controls

The Internet is an interesting place were you can read, watch or listen to almost anything. The Internet can also be a big distraction.When writing a paper or reading a book surfing the Internet can be a distraction. Learn how to make your computer distraction free for your self or your children by using parental controls. With parental controls you can set restrictions for the internet, games, what times you can use the computer and much more. Parental controls are built into most operating systems and are easy to use. Click  the read more button bellow to find out if your operation system has parental controls and how to use them.