10 A+ Back To School Apps

Back To School Smartphone Apps

We here at the CRN Test Center understand that most business professionals juggle their work and personal lives, and now with the fun days of summer officially at an end and classes back in session, their children's school lives are added into the mix. For that, we bring you 10 apps from our Daily App blog to help ease back-to-school frustrations.

Free Graphing Calculator: For iOS

The Free Graphing Calculator is one sure-fire way to help reduce the cost of back-to-school shopping. This free app turns an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch into an easy-to-use scientific calculator that offers basic graphing capabilities, a unit converter, constants for scientific calculations and math and science formulas. So scratch that graphing calculator off your list and put the $80 toward a nice book bag.

Totes m' Notes: For iPad

Totes m' Notes for the iPad marries organization and creativity to produce an easy-to-use note-taking app. It's an excellent tool for creating notes that are neat, concise and effective. Folders are organized by subject and sit nicely on a bookshelf for quick access, and it's a cinch to customize and design different folder labels. Widgets include a calculator, measurement converter and various writing instruments. The sketching capability means that students can either copy images from the whiteboard or doodle in the margins.

iProcrastinate: For iOS, Mac OS X

If your student tends to procrastinate, you might consider getting him or her iProcrastinate, a cloud-based to-do list app that syncs Mac computers with iPhones. It opens with a window that’s separated by Subjects, Tasks, Steps and Files. Subjects are created and listed in the first panel. Tasks are created in the middle panel, and the Steps and Files in the third, where additional documents that need attention may be added. The calendar icon is an interactive option that sets up reminders, task priorities and completion dates. iProcrastinate uses Bonjour or Dropbox to sync the Mac with the iPhone. iProcrastinate costs $0.99 in the App Store.

Tasks: For Android

Making a list and checking it twice is a good idea not only for Santa Claus but also for busy students who are juggling school, sports practice and possibly a job. Tasks works by syncing a to-do list between an Android and desktop computer. It functions as a widget on Android 2.2 and higher to deliver due-date reminders. Tasks also works with multiple Google accounts and integrates with Gmail. Thanks to a recent update, Tasks now has more options for widgets, including special adjustments for tablets and the delivery of PED reminders, plus a 4x4 widget for Froyo and Gingerbread editions of Android.

Alarm Xtreme Free: For Android

There are few things more challenging than getting a groggy teenager out of bed in the morning. Alarm Xtreme Free is a free and full-featured customizable alarm clock app that could help make waking up easier. It uses gradually increasing alarm volume for a gentle awakening. The extra large snooze button makes it easy to use, and various snooze settings provide for a personalized touch. The snooze features include setting the snooze to decrease in time, setting a max number of snoozes and shaking the phone to dismiss the alarm, making for a highly customizable alarm clock. And, for those students who have a tendency to keep hitting snooze, Alarm Xtreme Free also offers a setting that requires the user to do math problems before being able to shut off the alarm. What better way to get a student thinking and awake than by not being able to disable the alarm until 23 minus seven has been solved?

Manila: For Android And iOS

With all that parents have to remember, forgetting to pay a bill could easily happen. Manilla is a free app that provides bill reminders and multiple account access on one localized app. Setup is simple. After entering each account’s login credentials, which will remain synced with the app, the email address, Manilla password and security question answer are the only credentials that ever need be remembered. Manilla automatically retrieves, sorts, organizes and files each accounts documents, such as bills and activity statements, and stores them in the app until needed. Documents can be downloaded, printed and sent via email. Customizable email and text alerts of approaching due dates and payments are pushed to the device.

Google Wallet: For Android

You'll never have to worry about your student forgetting his or her wallet at home, or losing it, if you have Google Wallet, a password protected app that uses near field communication (NFC) technology to conduct payments between the smartphone and an NFC-supporting terminal. Google Wallet is used just like a credit card, simply wake-up the phone and press it to the terminal; the phone will then ask for the pin, followed by selecting credit on the terminal. Google Wallet supports all major credit cards and some gift cards. All credit card information and financial transactions are stored securely on the cloud.

LastPass: For Android, iOS And Windows

Scrap pieces of paper can be lost or thrown away easily, and it’s usually not an issue, unless that piece of paper had an important password scribbled on it. LastPass stores and encrypts login credentials and works in conjunction between the mobile device and the desktop browser. Whenever login credentials are required, LastPass will ask if it should remember them and will automatically fill in the box from then on. LastPass automatically runs whenever the browser with LastPass installed on it has been launched. The information stored online also instantly syncs with the LastPass app.

Pocket: For Android, iOS

Unclutter your bookmark page with Pocket, which saves and syncs articles, Web pages, images, videos and almost anything from the Web to a mobile device. Articles found on Twitter, Flipboard, Pulse and Zite can also be synced with Pocket. If a student finds an interesting article on his or her mobile device, he or she can add it to Pocket through an email. Simply tap the share/email button, add the "getpocket" email address and the item will be sent to Pocket for future viewing.

TaskRabbit: For iOS

Being a busy parent always on the go means that you may not have time to go grocery shopping or put together your son's new desk. With TaskRabbit, a person who needs a task completed can use certified people to carry out those tasks for a small fee.

Once the task that needs doing has been posted, which can even be done by snapping a picture, a "rabbit" will accept and carry out the task. Once the job has been completed, the rabbit is paid over the app, through the sender’s credit card. TaskRabbit will take up to a 30-percent cut of each transaction; the job value results in the percentage deducted, in which a lower-value job will have a higher deducted percentage.

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