HIYERTY

Tuesday, April 25

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MyFitnessPal

 

With the New Year rapidly approaching, weight loss is a subject that is sure to be on many peoples’ minds. The trouble is, with the endless stream of fad diets, fad exercise routines, diet pills, and other “lose weight quick” schemes that flood the market, many people are overwhelmed with the concept of losing weight. MyFitnessPal allows its users to use the most tried and true method of weight loss available – tracking your diet and exercise. MyFitnessPal allows you to track your caloric intake by adding your meals manually or using their huge database of foods to enter nutrition info (it even has a barcode scanner). Then it allows you to track your caloric output by inputting your exercise for the day (via its large database of strength and cardio exercises). If you expend more calories than you take in – Voila! You lose weight! You can set goals and track your weight loss progress with this app, as well. This is a must for anyone with “lose weight” on their New Year’s Resolution list.


Monday, April 24

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Untappd

 

Untappd is the ultimate app for beer lovers, setting up a type of social network for brew enthusiasts around the world. Untappd allows its users to explore nearby popular bars and beers, share reviews, ratings, and photos of what you’re drinking, as well as read reviews from friends and other beer snobs across the globe. Besides the social aspect, Untappd can recommend new beers based on your taste. The app also allows you to create a “wish list” of beers you’d like to try, and it allows you to unlock a variety of badges for trying different brews at different locations. With a constantly growing community, Untappd is a very fun app for you beer drinkers out there.

Sunday, April 23

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Audible

 

Audible.com, owned by Amazon, is an online service featuring over 150,000 audio books (and other spoken word content). The Audible app delivers all of Audible.com’s content to you with a simple, clean interface while you’re in your car, at work, cooking, really whenever you’d like. You can browse Audible.com’s library, download new books to your account (Wi-Fi is a must when downloading), and, of course, listen to them all within the app. With a variety of features, including variable speed and button-free mode, there is simply no better way to access and listen to audio books out there. If you’re an Audible.com user, this app is a must-download immediately. If you aren’t, this app alone is a great reason to sign up!

Saturday, April 22

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BitLit

As far as literature goes, I’m finally making my way into the digital age. I have just recently begun acquiring eBooks on my phone and my tablet, making reading on the go much easier. However, many of my favorite books still sit on a bookshelf in my room, collecting dust. BitLit is a new app that is seeking to assimilate your collection of physical books with your digital books on your phone or tablet. BitLit works with publishers to offer you free (or deeply discounted) digital copies of the books you already own physically. You simply take a photo of the cover of your physical copy with the BitLit app (as well as a photo of your name written on the copyright page), and they will send you a link to a digital copy of that same book. To make it even simpler, you can scan entire shelves of your books, and BitLit will tell you which of your books are eligible for digital copies. Time to enter the digital age – download BitLit today.

Friday, April 21

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Pushbullet

 

Pushbullet is the most simple and direct way to communicate between your phone and desktop/laptop computer. Quickly send notes, files, lists, addresses, or URL links between the two devices, and an interactive notification pops up (either via a Chrome or Firefox extension on your computer, or in your notification panel of your phone). You can also use Pushbullet to mirror your phone’s notifications to your computer – instantly see incoming texts or notifications from your phone apps (Twitter, Instagram, etc.) while working on your desktop. While there are more cumbersome ways to perform the same tasks, Pushbullet does them quickly, simply, and efficiently. This really is one of those apps that you never knew you needed, but can’t live without once you download it.

Thursday, April 20

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Wickr

Wickr, with the motto “Leave No Trace,” is a self destructing messaging app that was designed by cryptographers, is like a much more adult and secure version of Snapchat. The focus on Wickr is privacy and security – even your name and phone number are never in the company’s hands. Messages (which can include pictures, audio, or video) “self destruct” after a user-determined lifespan (from 3 seconds to 6 days). Messages are instantly encrypted using military-grade technology, and each message has its own decryption key. Once the messages self destruct, Wickr works in the background to overwrite the message’s data so it can never be recovered. Wickr also disables the screenshot function, so recipients can’t keep any of your messages (a problem that has cropped up with competing apps). The app features a well-designed and easy to use interface, and an image editor (similar to Snapchat’s) is available as well. Wickr is a fantastic app for sending secure messages, and is absolutely the best in its category. We’re looking forward to seeing what the future holds for this app.

Wednesday, April 19

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Coursera

Coursera, founded by Stanford computer science professors, works with over one hundred universities to make their courses available online. With over 800 courses in more than 25 subject areas, ranging from physics to engineering to medicine to business, Coursera is one of the biggest suppliers of massive open online courses in the world. Now with the Coursera app, you can take that vast library of knowledge on the go. Built to supplement the online courses available at coursera.org, the app allows you to stream video lectures (and sync from where you left off on coursera.org), take quizzes tests, browse and enroll in courses, and view the syllabus for any course you’re taking. While the app currently doesn’t support interaction in the discussion forums, or allow you to access peer-reviewed writing assignments, Coursera is a very well designed app, and a very useful one. Expand your knowledge today with Coursera.