EduTech is a 9to5Mac weekly series that focuses on technology’s application in education, lower and higher level, both for productivity and enjoyment. If you have suggestions for topics or specific questions you’d like to see answered, feel free to let me know. Catch up on past installments here. 

In this week’s installment, we’re going to focus on the best camera calculator apps for iPhone and iPad. This is one of the best implementations of technology for students and makes the process of entering long equations into a calculator much more efficient.

Specifically, we’re going to focus on the app Photomath, but we’ll highlight a few other choices as well.

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With the release of iOS 10 last fall, Apple introduced a host of changes to the Messages app, including a new reactions feature. This feature allows users to long-press on an iMessage and add a reaction like a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to it.

Now, Facebook is apparently testing a similar feature in its Messenger app.

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Facebook is testing a City Guides feature in its iOS app. When you’re visiting a city, the feature points you to popular attractions, upcoming events and places locals visit – but with the friend focus you’d expect from Facebook. The app highlights places friends have visited, and events friends are attending …

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Microsoft announced today that it plans to bring Google Calendar and Contacts support to Outlook 2016 for Mac later this year. Outlook for Mac already works with Gmail accounts for managing email, but this update will mark the first time Gmail users can manage contact databases and calendar entries using Microsoft’s software.

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As part of an ongoing effort to tackle abuse and offensive users, Twitter is adding some new muting features to its apps.

Similar to what has been offered by third-party Twitter clients for sometime, users will be able to hide tweets from specific users or tweets that contain certain keywords from ever appearing in their timeline …

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Pocket, the popular read-it-later bookmarking service, has been acquired by Firefox developer Mozilla, according to Recode. Pocket has client apps on the iPhone, iPad, and even the Mac including both a browser extension and dedicated reader app.

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1Password for Mac is out with a new update that includes enhanced Touch Bar support on the new MacBook Pro and a new payment model. The powerful password manager was previously priced around $65, and now AgileBits is shifting to a subscription model that allows free trials on the Mac App Store.

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In this installment of Friday 5, I discuss five iOS apps that are near and dear to me. Most of these apps I use everyday, and each one of them brings something unique to the table.

The list includes Overcast, the excellent podcast app that just recently received a massive upgrade. Also included is block.fm, a different type of app that brings easily-accessible Japanese music to the masses.

These, and three additional apps round-up this week’s edition of Friday 5. Watch our brief video walkthrough for a quick look into some of each app’s most compelling features.
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The Girl Scouts of San Diego are currently crowdfunding a new app coding project for an iOS game called Marshmallow Run. The project has just three days to go and over $10,000 left before reaching its goal on Kickstarter.

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Instagram is introducing a new sharing format that lets you publish multiple photos and videos in a single post on the social network. Posts were previously limited to single photos or videos with the exception of Stories which are ephemeral.

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Marco Arment’s Overcast podcast player updated to version 3.0 this week and includes a new design with a novel monetization strategy: in-house advertising. Overcast has relied in in-app purchases and subscriptions in the past as well as Google-based advertising, but Arment is now rolling his own ads starting with the latest version.

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WhatsApp is introducing a new feature in its app called Status that uses a similar format to Snapchat Stories, TechCrunch reports. Like messaging through WhatsApp, however, Status will bring encryption to the popular format.

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Microsoft today announced that it’s bringing a few new features to users enrolled in the Skype Insider program on iOS and Android. In a blog post, Microsoft previewed new features including a built-in camera, in-call reactions, messaging reactions, and more.

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Ticketmaster for iOS was today updated with Apple Music integration, allowing users to more easily find upcoming concerts based on what’s in their Apple Music library.

The update pushes the app 1.10.2 and makes it significantly easier to quickly know when an artist you love is touring.

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Pokémon Go is adding over 80 new Pokémon this week, from the Generation II Gold and Silver games. All of them will be available to catch in the wild whilst playing Pokémon Go, not just from hatching eggs. You will be able to evolve some of the Kanto Pokémon you’ve already caught into their Johto successors.

The expanded Pokédex will be accompanied by a host of new features, coming in an app update later this week …

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TwIM is a new Twitter app for iPhone focused entirely on chatting over Direct Messages. TwIM supports the latest iOS features like SiriKit, 3D Touch, and rich notifications plus other features not supported by Twitter’s official app.

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There’s no shortage of options for virtual meetings these days, from Apple’s own FaceTime through Skype, WebEx, Facebook, WhatsApp and many others. But Amazon believes that there’s room for one more, aiming Chime specifically at businesses looking for an easier and more manageable way to host video meetings.

Meetings start on time because they’re easy to join – meetings call you and you can join with a single tap. Lengthy pins are a thing of the past. A visual roster shows who has joined the meeting and who is running late, and allows anyone to mute background noise. Amazon Chime offers rich apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac, and your chats are always synchronized across your devices. You can switch seamlessly between devices anytime, even in the middle of a meeting … 

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Fox Home Entertainment announced this evening that it is bringing its popular Movie of the Day app to the Apple TV. This app offers up a discounted movie via iTunes every day and has previously been available, albeit rather neglected, on iOS.

The app kicks things off with a discount of popular movie “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” which will be available for $7.99.

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