Devices and Technology

By Katherine Payne

Introduction

The following slides show what technology I have been using since I began my media course back in September. These include devices, web browsers, search engines, websites and programs. They have helped me to keep up with my blogging, to edit photos and search for existing examples of work to compare and evaluate my own work.

DevicesThese include memory sticks, cameras and computers such as the Acer laptop 5320, the dell OptiPlex 360 and the I Mac pro. These are all extremely important because they allow me access to the internet, to be able to take pictures and to store all my work so it is portable.

Memory stick

This is an extremely important device. It stores all of my media work so when I move to different computers e.g from a laptop to a mac then I can continue working on pieces of my work wherever I go. I have actually ordered a new memory stick which is also a necklace so it will be harder for me to loose.

DSLRTabitha kindly let me use her cannon DSLR camera which is of a higher quality so that my pictures would be easier to edit and when I zoom in the picture won’t blur so much because it captures more of the light.

I used a camera borrowed from school to take pictures which I would later edit for my school magazine front cover. This camera allowed me to take standard pictures with an auto focus.

Cameras

School camera

Acer laptopSchoolsI have used this laptop to access my blogger and to keep a second back up of most of my necessary work so that in case my memory stick is lost again then I can still continue working. Another thing is that because Microsoft publisher is not accessible on the macs I have used this laptop to be able to use publisher to create my prototype music magazine.

My Acer LaptopI have also been using my laptop at home to go on blogger and edit posts or to upload work that I have spell checked on word for grammar and spelling mistakes. Another thing I have been using my laptop for is to use pixlr to create my school magazine and also my collage for my music genre.

I mac pro

The mac pro has been used for accessing Keynote and Pages which are only usable on a mac which i don't own so can only been done in school. One thing I have learnt about the macs is how to use keynote and then because you cannot upload the PowerPoint straight onto blogger you have to convert them into PNG images first and then upload them separately which I can now do easily. As typical I have also been using a mac to blog about my work as I am doing now.

Web Browsers

These give me quick and easy access to the internet without hassle. They also have helpful extensions and useful tools to help me save pages and find what I need quick and easily.

Chrome

Chrome is a browser created by Google and it is what I use at home all the time because it is fast, reliable tools and because it can link with my Google account so I can save pages I may want to re-read etc. for example if I see an A grade students work from last year or earlier, I can save the page and come back to it to see what they have done and compare it to my own work later on.

Chrome has a clean design, a sandboxed security system, and a Chrome Web Store. Among other new features chrome is am excellent browser because it now has at the bottom of the main page a bar where people can jump to Chrome Apps or a page of most often visited sites. As Google continues to integrate more of its services, such as Google+, into one whole bundle, it becomes easier for people to not just use Chrome as a Web browser, but their universal interface to do everything they want. This works hand-in-glove with Google's Linux-based operating system with a Chrome Web browser interface, Chrome OS, and even PCs that use nothing but Chrome OS such as Samsung's ChromeBook. This just proves how well chrome works.

Safari

Safari is the alternate version of Internet Explorer for the Mac.

The Top Sites' new-tab page view of your most-visited sites and Cover Flow history are lovely, but once you get past its pretty looks you're left with a pretty ordinary Web browser.

The one feature it has, that the others don't have, which I think is noteworthy is "Safari Reader." In this mode, Safari removes all the images, ads, and other junk and just leaves you with the text. There are extensions that give you this power to clean up Web pages in other browsers, but Safari has it baked in. , If, like me, you want the text and nothing but the text on some pages, it's a really attractive feature.

Now in the mobile world, Safari is the best Web browser around. But, on PCs, well, you can just do better. The one possible extension is on Mac OS X Lion systems. There, where Safari can be displayed in full screen and you get swiping, pinching, and tapping gestures support, Safari is a worthwhile choice.

Internet Explorer

Although slow and annoying at times Internet Explorer is still useful because it means I can have access to my blogger and other websites. It has become the best improvement over it’s predecessors and has the benefit of speed, trimmed down interface and HTML5 support.

Microsoft has even built in the unique new Tracking Protection, which gives users more control than Chrome and Firefox's solutions to this privacy issue. In some performance measures, particularly graphics manipulation tasks, IE9 has at this point been equalled or surpassed, even on its own hardware acceleration benchmarks. On two out of three JavaScript benchmarks, it's bested by both Chrome and Firefox. But IE9's improved tabs, search, and unique pinned site capability that places site icons in the Taskbar, all make it a worthy successor to IE8. This means that I can easily access any websites, stored information easily and then quickly and safety solve and problems with performance etc.

Search Engines

Google

• Google is as ever a very useful search engine, especially when searching Google maps for possible locations in the area. It means that I can print screen images to upload to my blog and it is also useful because it has helped me with searching for existing music and school magazines to see other peoples work and to see professional pieces of work and compare them to mine. A final use I had for Google was to search for alternate words that I could use to make my posts sound more sophisticated and knowledgeable which I have also done using media terminology.

Bing

Bing is a…

Websites

Pixlr

Pixlr is good photo editing website where you can alter the colour hue, style, size and add fonts etc. for free with little hassle. It is easy to navigate and there are lots f useful and handy tools to use when editing your pictures for example crop, hue, saturation, air brush, coploursplash, text and overlays etc.

Blogger

• This is the website I am using to upload and blog all of my media work.

Slideshare

Pic monkey

This is a nifty free editing website which has some other style fonts and other layers/overlays which are cooler than pixlr but some of the stuff has to be paid for as you have to have a premium account with them to use it like air brush which on the other hand is free in pixlr. In comparison pixlr is better.

Programs

Publisher

• I used this program to edit the front cover of my prototype music magazine. However it was probably not the best option I could have taken and in future when I create my personal music magazine with my own images I will use pixlr instead as it will probably easier and quicker to use.

Prezzi

Microsoft word

• I have used this program mainly for helping me spell check my work because blogger does not have a spell checker but I should think about maybe typing what I want on Microsoft word and then highlighting and moving the work onto blogger.

Keynote

• On the I mac pro.

Microsoft PowerPoint

This is just like Keynote on the macs but a lot easier to use and has a wider range of visible editing tools so you don't have to spend ages looking for everything.

Excel

Excel was mainly only used to create tables for purposes such as to choose my name for my prototype magazine and to