Category Archives: ipad

Introducing the new MediaHub App for iPhone and iPad

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Today we are very excited to announce the launch of the new MediaHub iOS App, which enables you to browse, search and save items on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

If you want to download the app and have an iOS device then head over to the App Store here. The app is free to download!

The MediaHub iOS App Featured screen for June/July 2015

The Featured screen in the MediaHub iOS App.

Who is the MediaHub App for?

The app is for any user of MediaHub based at a subscribing university or college and using an iOS device (an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad/iPad Mini).

In order to provide you with the appropriate search, preview and bookmarking functionality the app is limited to those from institutions that support UK Federation login.

When you first download and set up the app you will be asked to login with your username and password. Once you have been logged in – which may take a few seconds – you are ready to go and you will remain logged for several months before you will be asked to reauthenticate. This helps ensure that our licensed content remains secure, without compromising the speed or ease of browsing through the app.

Is there an Android version?

We know that MediaHub users have or access a wide variety of mobile devices and we are currently building an Android App at the moment to ensure more of you have access to MediaHub whilst on the move. We expect the Android App to be available later this year.

What can you do with the app?

As the MediaHub App will be of most use when you are away from your laptop or desktop machine, rather than include the full range of functionality available on the web service, the app has been designed to enable you to search or browse for content on the go. Use it on your commute, when filling time between lectures or meetings, or when you get that great idea and want to quickly save an item to look at or include in your presentation later.

The app allows you to:

  • Browse featured content – the highlights from our collection which also appear on the front page of MediaHub.
  • Browse the most popular items – this is always an interesting and entertaining way to explore our content, as readers of our Most Popular blog posts will already be aware.
  • Search for MediaHub content – with the option to filter by format (video, image or audio), and to search external collections. You can also choose how your search results are ordered, by relevance, title or distance from a location – either your own current location or a location you have selected on a map.
  • Preview and view MediaHub items – including being able to watch videos in full (although we recommend that you do this via a wifi connection to minimise possible data charges).
  • Favourite MediaHub items for later use –  when you favourite an item in the app, it will also be added to your favourites list when you next login to the MediaHub service website. And similarly anything you have previously favourited in the service, will be synced to the app. So, you can search, browse, and select items whilst on the move, then download and edit into presentations, lecture notes, student projects, etc. when you are next editing these on your laptop or desktop machine.
  • Share MediaHub items – via email and phone messaging.

To give you an overview of the MediaHub App and how it works we have created the following user guide video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

How can I provide comments, questions or feedback on the app?

We welcome all of your comments and feedback on the MediaHub app, and on any aspect of MediaHub.

There are a few ways you can share your thoughts on the app:

Leave a comment and/or rating in the App Store

This will not only help us, but will also mean that your fellow MediaHub users hear your comments, constructive criticisms or top tips about the app. We would really appreciate your comments and ratings in the App Store as these can really help other new users to find the app, decide whether it is the right choice for them, and get an idea of how it is being used by others.

Leave a comment on this blog post

We will be keeping an eye out for comments and, like the App Store, any comment posted here will also benefit your fellow MediaHub users who may well have similar questions. We can then reply publicly  – and may update this post with new information as a result.

Join us for a Webinar!

To mark the launch of the MediaHub iOS App we will be holding several short webinars on the app, what you can do with it, and how you might use it in your teaching, learning or research. We welcome your comments during the webinars – or send in your question ahead of time and we will ensure it is included.

We regularly run MediaHub webinars and you are always welcome to participate and comment.

Contact us privately via the EDINA Helpdesk

If you would prefer to ask your question in a less public place, or have a very specific problem, question, etc. then you can contact the MediaHub team via the EDINA helpdesk: email: edina@ed.ac.uk or by phone: +44 (0)131 650 3302.

Who built the MediaHub App?

The app was built by the MediaHub team, based at EDINA. Not only did they build the app, they also baked a MediaHub App cake to celebrate its launch!

Image of the MediaHub team with celebratory cake

The MediaHub Team, from left to right: Catherine Fleming; Lorna Campbell; Mark Allan; Tim Stickland; Viv Mayo; Nicola Osborne; Niall Munro.

Where can I find the Terms and Conditions?

When you download the app you will be agreeing to the terms and conditions for the MediaHub App. You can read these in full via the App Store, and you can also read and save a copy from the link below. At login we ask you to agree to terms and conditions for Grapevine, the MediaHub bookmarking and personalisation service. You can read these in full via the link below. As with the web service, all use of MediaHub content must comply with the MediaHub Terms of Service.

If you have any questions about how to use the MediaHub App, the MediaHub service in general, or how to use any image, video or audio item that you have found through the app or service, please get in touch with our colleagues on the EDINA helpdesk, who will be happy to answer your questions. You can contact us via email: edina@ed.ac.uk or by phone: +44 (0)131 650 3302.

What does the MediaHub iOS App Look Like?

The screenshot at the beginning of this post, and the images below, give an ideas of how the app looks on an iPhone.

The MediaHub iOS App Search Settings screen

The MediaHub iOS App Search Settings screen

The MediaHub iOS App Search results screen

The MediaHub iOS App Search results screen

The best way to find out how the app looks and works is by using it! So, please do download the MediaHub iOS App, try it out, and let us know what you think!

Exploring Data on your iPhone

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This post describes a methodology for exploring the data on your iPhone/iPad that you have captured using Fieldtrip GB.  Why might you want to do this?  Well there are a couple of reasons:

  • You have cleaned your Dropbox account and deleted the records
  • Some of the data didn’t seem to upload to Dropbox*

* we have had 1 user report that some of their photos did not transfer to DropBox during “Upload Records”.  This is odd and may be as a result of a patchy data connection.

iExplore

iExplore

  1. Download iExplore – this is a free utility for your desktop that allows you to explore the file system on your iPhone
  2. Instal iExplore 
  3. Open iExplore – click continue with Demo
  4. Connect iPhone/iPad to your computer
  5. In the navigation on the left select Apps –> Fieldtrip GB –> Documents –> Edina –> Assets
  6. You should see a folder for each asset you have created.
  7. You can copy these to your Desktop or directly to Dropbox if you have a Dropbox folder on your Desktop

This should allow Apple users to find and retrieve data that they have collected using Fieldtrip GB without having to use the Upload Records function.  However, we would still strongly recommend using the Upload Records function and then access the data through the FtGB Authoring Tool.

 

Geo-tools for Teaching and Learning

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I’ve been out and about quite a bit over the past 2 months, mainly to promote Fieldtrip GB but this has given me the opportunity to sit through some interesting presentations and i have found out about a number of great tools that i thought i should share with you.

Polldaddy – this is an online service that allows you to create and conduct quick polls.  You can view the results immediately so the exercise can become interactive when you are teaching. You can use Polldaddy on websites or through mobiles with their app.  Quick, easy and effective.  The free account gives you 200 survey responses a month and up to 10 survey questions per survey. There is a Pro account which cost $200 per year.

Skitch – Skitch is a annotation application from the makers of Evernote. Skitch allows users to annotate images and screen-grabs, adding extra information and notes.  This could be great when students are out in the field. Students could take a picture and then augment the picture with their own notes e.g. adding in a fault or rock unconformity. One neat feature is the ability to sketch on maps, the app launches Google Maps you just sketch away. Skitch is available for iPad/iPhone, Android, iOS and Windows.

Skitch

Skitch annotations on a photo

 

SkitchMap

Skitch annotation on a map

Fotobabble– Fotobabble allows you to add audio clips to images, they call it talking photos and slideshows.  This could be a great way to convey information to students, give them a visual representation and then some audio which triggers a discussion point. Or, get the students to use it to augment the photo’s the capture in the field.  This way they will not be left trying to remember what on earth  the photo is supposed to represent.

Fotobabble

Fotobabble – talking photo’s

iSpot – this one is a bit different, it is a project which aims to crowdsource ecological mapping, but there is a twist.  The user can take a picture of a plant and submit it.  iSpot has a team of experts who will identify the plant species and provide the user with some information about the plant.  This is neat in that the users get information that they are interested and the project team get data from locations around the UK.  An example of a symbiotic crowdsourcing scientific project?  Quite possibly.

iSpot

 Google Earth Engine (coming soon) – Google Earth Engine is Google extension of customisable views in Google Earth.  With Earth Engine users can upload their own data and perform simple spatial analysis on them. The obvious advantage with Earth Engine is that users dont really have to worry about base mapping data, they have access to all the imagery from Google Earth.

Google Timelapse datasets – this is what large organisations can do if they focus their processing power.  Google has made mosaics with all the data from Landsat 5 and Landsat 7.  This is a huge amount of data and a colossal amount of processing.   Some great examples of the time lapse include:

This stuff was the preserve of the remote sensing scientists, but is now accessible to anyone with an internet connection. This would be great for demonstrating any temporal change that has occurred since 1984, as long as it is big enough to be visible from space.  

 

Fieldtrip GB – this is an app fro EDINA that enables users to capture data on their phones. Users can choose to create their own data collection forms and once collected, data can be exported to csv, kml and geojson format.  The app is also suited for collecting data as a group exercise, a great idea if you have lots of students and want to crowd-source data collection to demonstrate an example. There is a blog article on how to set up a group exercise on the FtGB blog.

Fieldtrip GB

Fieldtrip GB

In addition, there were a number of apps that were worth a look.  I have listed them below with the briefest of descriptions. If you want more information, then just click the links and have a play.

  • QuakeFeed – (Apple) Earthquake feed for most of the World.
  • Earthquakes – (Android)Earthquakes is a quake application that based on multiple data sources. With this app, you can get the latest earthquake info immediately from all over the world. Also, you can search the earthquakes occurred in the past.
  • GPS Note – (Apple) With GPSnote you can easily add, edit and delete notes on the map.
  • OS Converter – (Apple) Easily convert between British National Grid References (i.e. OS Grid Refs) and Latitude, Longitude coordinates (both OSGB36 and WGS84 are supplied).
  • Altimeter – get heights in real time.  Android – DS Altimeter. Apple – Travel Altimeter 
  • Clinometer – measure slopes. Android – Clinometer   Apple – Clinometer HD
  • Decibel Ultra – measure noise levels in the field. Android – Decibel-O-Meter. Apple – Decibel Ultra
  • Rainfall Radar – takes feeds from rainfall radar satellites and trigger an alarm if you are about to get wet. Android – OSM RainAlarm Apple –  MyRadar

That’s about all i can remember, if more comes back to me then i will add it to the post.