Linux boost at Maastricht University with Android tablets

CC-BY-SA WikiMedia Commons.

I learned yesterday that all employees with a longer contract will be equipped with an Android tablet. That is great news for this blog, because Android uses the Linux kernel. It means two things:

1. adoption of Linux at Maastricht University gets a boost
2. this blog becomes a lot more relevant and it is probably time to start a blog series about Android apps that will benefit researchers at Maastricht University

My first suggestions:

• Evernote (for meetings)
• OpenStreetMap (for travel, 10 free offline country maps; offline route planning)
• Plume (Twitter client; for tweeting at conferences; see doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003789)
• Rainy Days (for home-work travel)
• Feedly (to read Table of Contents of journals)
• Coursera (MOOCs to learn something outside your own domain) and DuoLingo (to learn your fifth foreign language)

Of course, don't forget the apps for the online services you likely use already, like DropBox, Google Drive, a good webbrowser (Chrome or FireFox) etc. You may also be interested in the app our UM Library recommends for electronic reading of journals, Browzine.

So, the remaining questions really is, which app does ICTS recommend for reading our university email?? And, will that still require super powers for Microsoft to delete everything on your Android device if you accidentally (or your kid, dog, cavia) types the wrong security unlock code too many times??