Petite USB drives, already handy for carrying data, are becoming more useful and powerful. The open-standard platform of the U3 smart technology from a company called U3 allows users to securely run U3-compliant applications without leaving a trace of data on the host computer. This new technology is available for any PC, and apps for this utility, in addition to regular USB drives, are included in our list of 51 productive and petite apps that every student should put on their USB drive. [click to continue…]

One of the latest social media applications that has been getting a great deal of buzz is…Google’s Buzz. Google rolled out Buzz not too long ago, with the hope that it would become the next be social media thing. Google is hoping that the fact that Gmail users automatically access Buzz will help it continue. Also helping is the fact that Buzz makes it easy to connect Buzz to other social media feeds, creating a hub of sorts for your various social media accounts, including Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and your Blogger profile. [click to continue…]

Video collections can offer hours of entertainment, but they also can provide users with hours of education. YouTube offers a venue for many college videos, for instance. If you go to that link and type in, “University of Michigan lectures,” you can find many lectures offered by Richie Hawtin — an English-Canadian electronic musician and internationally-touring DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno’s second wave of artists in the early 1990s. In these videos, Hawtin discusses how technology is changing the way music is played, produced and experienced. [click to continue…]