What is a "Read It Later" service?

Whether you use your computer, tablet, laptop, eReader or other mobile device - such as a Smartphone or iPhone to "surf the web" we all have the opportunity to read numerous articles, watch videos and other information from friends & family on Facebook, Twitter or maybe Pinterest; or you get News Feeds from your favorite media websites... BUT you don't have time to read or view them all now..  

That's how a "Read it later" service or app can help.  These "apps" saves the information - link - etc. so you can view the article, photo, video later at your convenience (yes-this is also cloud computing).  So with thee services, you establish an account, meaning you have to have a username & password and that allows you to access "your account" and whatever you've saved... 

Many of these services are free (including my 2 personal favorites) but some are not - but they all allow us to  manage articles and other media that we want to access later...  Apps for these services can be downloaded to your computer, tablet or other mobile device and they are very very easy to use..... 

If you have a Pinterest or Twitter account they also offer this service and Facebook will offer it very soon....

I've been playing with 2 different services and really like them both - and yes, both are free

Evernote is my personal top choice abs quite honestly the one I now use daily, because I can store anything I want to remember including quick reminder notes (my family and associates will tell you I'm a constant list maker so this is great for me), but I can save anything I want to view or read later.. www.evernote.com

Pocket (formerly known as Read it Later) is my 2nd favorite and worked wonderfully.... www.getpocket.com

Others you may want to check out...

Instapaper, website is:  www.instapaper.com - Free and paid versions

SnipIt, website is: www.snip.it/#welcome - Free 

Side note... For those of you with tablets and other "Android based devices" some of my students in Arizona are loving this new free app - called "CRACKLE" which is a totally legitimate app offering free streaming of TV shows and movies.  I found that it doesn't have all TV shows, but there are lots of old favorites and some of the new ones as well; same goes for movies...  But again, it's free so a great way to play with "streaming" before you move on to one of the paid services, such as Netflick or HBO... so you might want to give it a try... I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the picture... 

Update-heard from several "Apple/Mac" users and I was wrong - Crackle has been available for  "i" devices for quite a while now... so enjoy everyone.....

Check it out: www.crackle.com

Difference between Webcasts & Podcasts

Difference between webcasts & podcasts

Webcasts and Podcasts have a few things in common, but they are very different.

Both are different ways of getting information, via audio and or video "streaming" to a lot of people anywhere in the world using the Internet. The words themselves, like so many other new words being added every year to our vocabulary & dictionaries for computer lingo, are fairly new:

• Webcast became popular in the mid 1990’s
• Podcast became a popular term in 2001 because of the Apple iPod…

A basic difference is that Webcasts are sent in "real time," meaning that they are "live" (even though some Webcasts are saved and then viewed later) and they are watched on a computer... So many companies and organizations use webcasts today versus holding “in person” large conventions or seminars (often referred to as webinars-another great new word)

Podcasts end up being archived and can be viewed at a later date and they can be saved and played back on your iPod or many smartphones today, and if they are audio only then you can play them back on your portable music player, like your mp3 player.. Many Podcasts are “pre-recorded” and then published on their site as files you can open at your convenience – fast-forwarding, starting & stopping and rewinding – whatever you want.

Most of us find that Webcasts can't be copied and shared as easily as a Podcast can

Media Player for audio & video - VLC

For years, most of us have been using “Windows Media Player” because it is built into our computer operating systems.. But what's included isn't always the best choice..

Most tech guru’s feel that the best free media player to use, whether you have Windows XP, Windows Vista or the new Windows 7 Operating Systems is: “VLC”

VLC is a highly recommended media player which plays lots of audio and video formats and be used for streaming protocols. It is easy to use; it's a very small program that doesn’t take up much disk space; doesn’t slow down your computer in anyway and of course it’s free… to download go to:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/