Send links, maps, phone numbers, & more from your Chrome browser to your phone

Are you ever on the computer and want to send what you have up on the screen to your phone?  I can think of many times that I was looking up restaurants on my computer and wanted to send the address to my phone so that I could then navigate to that place using the navigation app on my phone.  I'm sure that you can think of many similar situations.  Having to start researching all over again on your phone is a time waster. One you setup the application in Chrome and on your phone, you will be able to send links, maps, phone numbers, & more from the Chrome browser right to your phone.  Please see the two sections below for Android phones and iPhones and follow the steps for the device that you have.

Android Phones
First, you will need to go to this link and install the Chrome to Phone extension for your Chrome browser.  Next, you can go to this link on your phone to install the Chrome to Phone app.  You could also go to the Google Play store on your phone and search for "Google Chrome to phone".  The last step is to sign in to both the Chrome extension and the mobile app.  Once you've signed in, you can start sending things to your phone by clicking the extension in Chrome, like in the image below.

Here is a video on Chrome to Phone:

iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch
The app for sending information from Chrome to your iPhone or iPad is not as feature rich as the Android version, but you may still find it handy.   You can go to this link to install the Site to Phone Chrome extension.  The next step is to go to this link and install the app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.  You can also open up the App Store on your device and search for "Site to Phone".   The last step is to login to both apps and then you can start sending links and other things from Chrome right to your phone.

Do you use other apps or methods of getting information from your computer to your phone?  If so, please post them in the comments below.

The Evernote Trunk

So, have you become a big Evernote fan yet?  If you have then you are going to love this post.  Evernote itself is a great tool, and the addition of Skitch makes it even greater!  But there is something else that really makes it an awesome tool, the integration with other tools, hardware and services.  You see there are a lot of other people out there that are big Evernote fans too and some of them are software developers and hardware manufacturers.  They like Evernote so much they have built integrations and developed hardware that works with Evernote in amazing ways.  I bet you are wondering where you can find all this great stuff.  All of it can be found right inside of Evernote by clicking on the "Trunk" button in the left-hand menu.  Once you click this button you will see a menu at the top where you can select Apps, How To, Hardware and Gear.

In the Apps area you will find Skitch and a host of other applications that are ready to integrate with Evernote.  One of my favorites is Instapaper which lets you archive webpages for later reading.

In the How To section you will find a number of books and guides for using Evernote.  I am a big fan of Lynda.com and will be checking into her offerings on Evernote!

In the Hardware you will find all kinds of scanners and other tools that can connect to the Evernote application.

There are some fantastic integrations that make Evernote even more versatile.  If you check any of them out leave a comment on the blog to let us know how it worked!

This will be my last post until the end of December.  So have a great holiday season everyone!

Taking notes in class - The digital way

Do you take notes while you are in class?  Do you use paper, a laptop, tablet, smartphone, or some combination of those?  Having access to my notes digitally and being able to search them has been invaluable to me, so I typically take notes using my computer.  I have also found it useful to take paper notes when I was in Math classes because there was just no way I could type all of those symbols and keep up with the instructor.

There are lots of services for you to type and take notes and here are the ones that I have found to be most useful.  These services are all free.

Google Docs

As I have mentioned in earlier blog posts, Google Docs and Google Drive have been invaluable. It is very easy to just create a folder for a course and quarter (like ENGL 101 Fall 2012) and then create documents to type class notes in.  You can look up these notes anywhere you have an internet connection and even offline if you set that up.  You can search through all of your notes to find specific topics and keywords.  This was helpful when studying for upcoming tests.  It was also helpful on test days, as I could open up the mobile app on my phone and read through my notes as I was riding the bus to class.

Google Drive also allows you to upload any type of files as well.  In addition to your notes for a class, you can upload PowerPoints, example files, images, or anything else from your instructor and have a central place (besides Canvas or Angel) to access all files and notes related to a particular class.

Here is a link to Google Drive/Docs.


Evernote

Evernote is another fantastic note taking tool.  It was designed specifically for taking notes and doesn't have multiple uses like Google Drive, but it does its specific job quite well.  You can provide a very helpful and short explanation on Evernote in Andy's blog post here.  If you like taking handwritten notes, you can use your smartphone, iPad, or Android tablet take pictures of your notes and import them right into Evernote.  That is all explained here in another of Andy's blog posts.

Here is Evernote's website.


Springpad

Springpad is a slightly different multi-use online tool.  Here is a short video to introduce you to it:


With Springpad, you can type your notes like in Evernote or Google Docs, but you can also add lots of other things, such as:

• Links to websites
• Or, add by items type:
• movie
• music
• book
• place
• recipe
• product
• wine
• tv show
• photo
• video
• file
• alarm
• check list
• event
• task
• contact

Springpad could serve as your notes, your to do list, contact list for your classmates you are working with on a project, list of bookmarks you want to save for your class, and much more.  In some ways, it is a more flexible tool than either Google Drive or Evernote.

Here is a link to Springpad's website.


How do you take notes in class?  Please post in the comments your go-to method for note taking in class.