Friday, 13 September 2013

September 13, 2013 – All your favourites in your ‘Pocket’

Happy Friday the Thirteenth everyone!!

This week I have chosen to share with you a fun tool which can be used as an app on the iPad, with Twitter and accessed from your desktop computers.  ‘Pocket’ (formerly Read it Later) is a great way to bookmark and store all of those great articles you come across or have been recommended to you.  If you are like me, your computer is full of folders and the bookmark bar is jammed with online webpages you want to come back to when you have more time for reading.  Pocket is a great way to retain all of those articles in one place, and tag them with key words so you can easily find them later. 

iPad, iPhones and Twitter with Pocket:
The Pocket app can be purchased from the app store for free or you can go to the user website (http://getpocket.com) and create a user account (also free).  When you are surfing twitter and someone recommends a great article they have just read, simply click on the link in the tweet and the article will open in a new window.  Here you will see a box with an arrow emerging from it in the top right hand corner.  Tap on this icon and select ‘Mail Link’.  Next an email message will appear and you simply type in add@getpocket.com in the ‘To’ line of the message.  When you tap send, the article will be added to your list of saved articles.  This is the same procedure to use if you are surfing with an iPad and find useful material you would like to return to later.

Chrome Extension:
Pocket is available as a free extension from the Google Web store.  When you purchase it from the Web Store, the icon will appear in the top bar of your web browser next to the web address.  When you come across a page you would like to read at a later date, simply click on the pocket icon and a header will appear at the top of the page stating that the ‘page has been saved’.  You will also be offered the option of adding ‘tags’ to the page.  This allows you to include key words which describe the article or remind you of what the article is about so you can find it much easier later.  

Bookmarklet: 

Pocket is available as a bookmarklet (button on your tool bar) so that all you need to do is click on the button when you would like to save a webpage to your personal pocket of items.  To add the bookmarklet to the tool bar you may visit the following webpage (http://getpocket.com/welcome?b=Bookmarklet) for complete and simple instructions

Accessing your articles and marked pages:
When you find yourself with a little time on your hands (not likely for a teacher, I know) or when you would like to retrieve an item you have stored, simply open the pocket app on the iPad or iPhone and log into your account.  Here you can find all of your items, in one location.  By tapping on the desired article, Pocket will open the item and you can continue reading.  From your desktop computer simply go to the pocket website (http://getpocket.com) to sign into your account.  Here all of your articles, videos, and images will be listed for you; with a click a new window opens and you are able to read the item. 

I hope this helps get you organized a bit and will allow you to clear out some of the bookmarks you have stored on your computer.

Past Tech Tidbits posts can be found on the blog at http://techtidbitz.blogspot.ca and if you have an idea for a future blog topic, please feel free to pass it along to me.

Cheers,
Stace



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