Back to School, Technically

It’s the time of the year again. After a very beautiful summer, it’s time to get ready to face the cold, harsh winter and get ready for a new academic year. Winter is coming, and so are we in helping you make the best out of the new academic year, technically of course.

Productivity

Software

If you are looking to buy yourself a copy of Microsoft Office, head to Software4Students (www.software4students.co.uk) and grab yourself a copy of “Microsoft Office 365 University” for a mere £54. (For those who do not know, this entitles you to a four year subscription for Microsoft Office. The new Microsoft Office is now subscription based. The non-subscription based “Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013” is a whopping £95!) The website also sells other useful software at a discounted price. If you are looking for a free alternative, look no further than LibreOffice and Mozilla Thunderbird for all your needs. Another interesting option would be open office, a like for like program of the official office which includes a spreadsheet, word and powerpoint component. (http://www.openoffice.org/) However if you do use this open source project, make sure that you save in the right format! In addition, why not check out something new? How about learning LaTeX? LaTeX is a typesetting language that allows you to produce very good looking documents. LaTeX is not the easiest to learn, and if you are just starting out, try LyX. We will cover LaTeX in a future issue, so keep a lookout! Also if you are in any of the engineering , maths, phisics related courses I would have a look at matlab and maple. The prior can be acquired through the university ICT service, and the latter is free through imperial software shop (unless you are medicine student, then its £25).

Gadgets

If you do not own a laptop or do not fancy bringing your 10 pound desktop replacement around, a tablet might be for you. You can use a tablet to take notes during lectures, browse the web when you are bored (also during lectures), and even play some candy crush if that’s your kind of thing. For a tight budget, look no further than the new Nexus 7 running on Android 4.3, which is yet another version of Jelly Bean. Prices start from £199. It is an awesome device with a beautiful screen. Felix will be reviewing the tablet in a future issue. If Android is not your thing, try the iPad mini, from £269. For a simple e-book reader, try out the new Kindle Paperwhite for just £109. We’ve heard that it’s really good although we don’t own one. Oh, if you want to save some money on your monthly mobile phone bill, you might want to check out Giffgaff. For a mere £10 a month, you get 250 minutes of talktime, unlimited text and 1 GB of internet. Add £2 for unlimited internet! If you recommend someone to Giffgaff, both of you will get £5 free credit each!

Apps

Apps are the heart of every smartphone and, and a good set will make your life much easier. Some usability and productivity apps I use on a regular basis are the Barclays mobile banking account (which has equivalents for the other banks, is very useful in checking my balance and doubles as a PINsentry), Buschecker (or any other highly rated bus time app, which is very useful for getting around after a night out) and iFormulas (iOS) (which helps me remember those pesky formulas that haven’t been ingrained in my head). Lastly, while not intrinsically useful, the imperial mobile app should be on every imperial students phone, even if it is just an issue of loyalty.

Entertainment (Skiving)

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and we certainly don’t want YOU, our dear reader to be dull. Here are some tips for you to keep yourself entertained.

Music

Getting music legally is now so much easier than before. Spotify offers a music streaming service that allows you to stream everything in their large library for free during the first six months, after which some limitation applies. If you pay up £10 a month, you get unlimited plays and you can even use it on your phone. Google Music, on the other hand, offers a free cloud storage service for your music that allows you to store up to 20000 songs on their servers to stream everywhere from your phone to your PC. If you pay up £10 a month, you get the ability to stream any song from their massive library, similar to Spotify. Both services offer some sort of “radio” service that plays songs based on your listening habits. In this editor’s opinion, Google’s algorithms seem to offer up better recommendations. If streaming isn’t your kind of thing and you prefer to “own” the music you buy, Amazon and the iTunes store allow you to buy digital music from their stores. Amazon MP3 even has a “cloud player” that allows access to your songs from anywhere. You might also want to know that Amazon now offers a free MP3 version of the CDs you buy from them through the new “Autorip” service. This offer even extends to CDs you bought from them in the past.

Film and TV

You can watch your heart’s content worth of TV and films using online services such as Netflix and Lovefilm which have reasonable prices for their subscription. You could also subscribe to various cable services such as Sky TV and Virgin Media some of which offer student rates. (You would also have to pay for a TV License, which offers a student discount.) Otherwise, you could always stream TV shows for free from BBC iPlayer, iTV Player, or Channel 4 on Demand so long as they are not “live”. If you are luck enough to have parents who suscribe to sky make sure that you install sky go on your devices, use it on your PC. As long as you haven’t reached your device limit , you should be able to get free sports!

Cloud Services

There are several services out there that will greatly simplify your life at Imperial, especially when you need to work with others. Google Drive is a very good tool to allow collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets, and even presentations. If you are looking to “wow” people with your presentation, try out “Prezi”. Fancy not chugging around a portable hard disk with all your files? If so, you really need to try out the various cloud storage services. Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud and Skydrive are just some of the most popular ones on the internet right now. Use them -- you won’t have to panic if you forgot to bring your USB drive to college.

Apps

Apps can be very useful in terms of productivity, however they can also add that extra element of entertainment that your gadget may be lacking. The FML app, is a good port of call for a quick laugh, and cut the rope is a very good game to have even if it is not free. Furthermore have a look at Plants vs. Zombies 2 which actually is free, and is quite a time killer!