Tech Tuesday – July 8, 2014 | The Triangle

Tech Tuesday – July 8, 2014

WORKING WORLD: This is my next…

As a millennial student working hard to earn an impeccable GPA and keep up with extracurricular activities, indulging in new technology is always an enticing reward. Sometimes, however, there aren’t always many options ¾ or maybe there are too many. When purchasing unfamiliar technology, it can be hard to distinguish between the kind that you can pick up at the next convenience store and the one that will be worth your money. It is also difficult to not make assumptions as to what to expect when the device is out of the box. Instead of bothering your techie friend to ask about the pros and cons and recommendations, The Verge can help you out.

“This is my next” is a new series that The Verge started and it has caught the attention of other blogs and social networks. Essentially, it is a reviewing system for popular technologies, for which The Verge does the hunting and testing, and you read the results. The Verge posts plain and simple reviews of products mixed with their overall market analyses for certain products such as Chromebooks, smartphones or cameras.

GADGET GLORY: StormTag

If you’re ever wondering if there’s still a “30 percent chance that it’s already raining,” this device may help you out. No, it isn’t a meteorologist or a personal Karen Smith to accompany you throughout your day. This gadget is called StormTag and it’s unsurprisingly linked to your smartphone. What it aims to do is collect and measure weather data from sensors and then broadcast it on a network to other StormTag users.

As a crowd-funded device on Kickstarter, StormTag is a crowdsourced solution to weather updates that are always accurate. Never again will you need to actually leave your desk, bed or residence to find out what the weather is like because of the increased presence of crowdsourced broadcasting. Integration of data from the crowdsourced weather map, WeatherSignal, will be built into StormTag. WeatherSignal can now be used with or without a sensing device, but you can pre-order StormTag and learn about all of the internal components on its Kickstarter page.

SMART STUDENT: Coursera for Personal Finance

Being a broke college student is not any fun. Addicted to shopping and eating, I’m particularly terrible with managing and budgeting my money. I view online financial management tools like diets ¾ each one works differently for each person. Sometimes no diet works for you, but knowledge becomes power to controlling your eating habits. Learning about nutrition is pivotal to staying fit or in shape, and I believe that that is the same when it comes to finances.

Again, I’m no finance guru. If I were, I probably wouldn’t care less about the financial management applications or programs or books or classes. But this class, a personal finance class, is not only FREE, but also online. Offered by Coursera, a popular and notable online learning network, you can take free university courses to brush up on a topic or explore your curiosities. Coursera courses, however, do not count for university credit.

There are three upcoming courses regarding personal finance offered by the University of Florida, University of California and University of Michigan. If you’re taking a particularly low course load or if you’re on co-op and have some free time on your hands, consider learning more about how to be financially successful in hopes of being the next Donald Trump one day.

Maria Elena Marinelli is a junior information technology major and the assistant web production manager for The Triangle.