If you’re in college and you don’t have a smart phone, you are a rare breed. I know I walk around my campus with my eyes glued to me iPhone screen, trying not to bump into the other students with their attentions captivated by their iPhones or Blackberrys or Droids.
While they might be used primarily to distract you from your studies, they can actually help you improve your school work. If you have the right apps that is. Yahoo! Education recently named the best apps for students, here are five:
1. Dictionary.com
It doesn’t matter if you’re a biology major or an English major, there are always words you need to look up at the drop of a hat. Compatible with the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and more, Dictionary.com is a dictionary and thesaurus that provides access to nearly two million words.
This app was named a top iPad app for college students by U.S. News and World Report; you don’t need an Internet connection once you’ve downloaded the app, which is a huge, plus if you’re in that lecture hall with the crappy Internet.
2. Wi-Fi Finder
Speaking of Internet, if you’re looking for a place to work off campus that has a Wi-Fi connection, this is a good app to do it. The application tracks down free and paid public Wi-Fi hot spots on your iPhone, iPod touch, Android, and more.
This mobile app can detect some 545,000 hot spots in 144 countries worldwide, according to Apple’s online store. So this could be especially useful if you’re studying aboard or in a strange city and need to get some work done.
3. Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock
Sleep can be a problem when you’re in college. Either, you’re sleeping too much and miss class, or you’re sleeping to little and turn into a crazy person. This app helps with both of those things.
Using an accelerometer that monitors your sleep movement, the Sleep Cycle alarm clock wakes you up during your lightest sleep phase. In theory, this means that you should wake up feeling more rested and relaxed for those early bird classes.
The Sleep Cycle alarm clock is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.
4. Chegg
Buying textbooks sucks. Why are they so expensive, seriously? Anyway, thanks to the wonderful Internet, we no longer have to buy books at full price. One of resources you can use is Chegg to rent textbooks right from your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
The coolest feature is that you can scan a book’s bar code with the iPhone’s camera, which allows you to compare prices from different stores and sites, or set up a rental of the textbook.
5. Mental Case
Everyone is going green now, so why not expend that to your studying habits with digital flashcards from Mental Case.
Like flashcards, this app enables you to create mental notes, but it uses plenty of bells and whistles. The virtual flashcards include text, images, and, yes, audio. They can be presented as slideshows, too, with the capability of sharing your notes with others via your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
