How to re-purpose an old tablet into a smart mirror display

              Today I will be showing you how to breathe some new life into that old tablet you have lying around. I have found the coolest project you can do with an old tablet is to convert it into a smart mirror display. This is a very easy project requiring very little technical knowledge and less than $20 in supplies assuming you have the most basic of tools at your disposal. Out of everything on the list below the only item I needed to source was the mirror which I got on Amazon for $14 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017ONH3EG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Supplies:

• ·       Old Tablet
• ·       Wall charger
• ·       12" x 12" Acrylic See-Through Mirror
• ·       Cardboard
• ·       Tape measure
• ·       Scissors or razor knife
• ·       Electrical tape
• ·       Marker

These are all the supplies you need for this project and almost every single one could be substituted to fit what you have laying around your house. Now that you have compiled everything you need to assemble this smart mirror we must start by first selecting the correct settings and installing the software on the tablet.

Prepping the Tablet

              First make sure your tablet is running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher. I recommend doing a factory reboot to purge the device of any clutter that may have accumulated in the devices past life. Assuming you are now running a clean reset Android 4.0 or higher tablet the next step is getting into the power saving settings of your device. Go to Settings, Display, Advanced, Sleep and then select always on when plugged in. After you have set the correct power / screen settings you will want follow this link from the playstore and install this free app. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.morristaedt.mirror This is the app that will run your smart mirror display. It includes many features including:

• ·       Day, time, and weather display
• ·       Biking recommendations
• ·       Stock price swings
• ·       Face detection
• ·       Mood detection
• ·       Today's XKCD
• ·       Next calendar event
• ·       Top news headlines

You can go into the apps settings to select which of these features you want displayed on your mirror and turn off the ones that are of no interest to you. Once you are happy with your selections it is time to physically build our smart mirror!

Smart Mirror Display Assembly

Step 1. Use your tape measure and marker to mark out a 12” by 12” square on the cardboard

Step 2. Align your tablet on the inside corner or the square your marked out, then trace the tablet with your marker.

Step 3. Take your scissors or razor knife and carefully cut out all the lines you have traced. You will be left with cardboard housing that fits your tablet.

Step 4. Line up your mirror with the cardboard, assuming you bought a 12” by 12” mirror and followed my directions thus far the mirror and cardboard backing should line up perfectly leaving a slot that will perfectly fit your device. Once lined up take your electrical tape and tape the cardboard to the mirror creating a border of electrical tape on all sides not only holding the housing together but also creating a sleek black frame for your display.

Step 5. Place your tablet in the housing and plug in the power cable, notch out the cardboard if needed to connect power.

Step 6. Take your electrical tape and tape the tablet and power cord into place. This can be done by simply taping every side of the tablet to the back of the cardboard.

Step 7. Plug power adapter into wall and enjoy your new Smart Mirror Display!

7 Gmail plugins to boost your productivity

            Today I’ll be giving a short overview of my seven favorite Gmail plugins. I’ll be featuring an array of very useful tools to help you up your productivity by automating certain tasks, streamlining your user experience through simplifying your inbox, and gaining better control of several aspects of Gmail using utilitarian inbox plugins.

1. Unroll.me: (Outlook, Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail and iCloud) Unroll.me shines in its simplicity and ease of use. Once installed it automatically populates a list of all your subscriptions. For every entry you have three options; keep in inbox, unsubscribe or add to Rollup. The first two options keep in inbox and unsubscribe are pretty straightforward. Rollup is a feature where any subscriptions you add to rollup are then hidden from your inbox. Then presented to you in a news feed/social media feeling format daily.

2. Gmail snooze: (Chrome only) Snooze is a great little plugin that allows you to “snooze” emails so they disappear for a set amount of time and then remind you when the snooze period has ended. It’s a simple idea but also a powerful tool in your productivity kit. Snoozing less urgent mail will allow you to focus on what’s important without forgetting to respond to less urgent matters.

3. Rapportive: (Chrome, Firefox, Google Apps) Rapportive dredges the internet for information on your Gmail contacts. Once installed simply open an email from any contact and all sorts of information about them will instantly load on the side bar. This will show you different social media accounts they are connected to, as well as pictures and a small bio. When it comes to building your career, and trying to make connections Rapportive is a great addition to your networking arsenal.

4. Boomerang for Gmail: (Chrome, Firefox, Sarfi, Edge, Opera) Boomerang for Gmail is a bundle of a few really nice messaging tools. Boomerang allows you to schedule your emails to send at a specific time. Boomerang also allows you to resend an email in a predetermined amount of time if you get no response. What really sets Boomerang apart however is its AI assistant called respondable. Respondable looks at your email as your composing it and offers advice on how to make it more professional and more likely got get a response.

5. Bananatag: (Gmail, Outlook, iOS, Android) Bananatag allows you to track your sent emails. You will be sent a notification when someone opens your email, beyond that you will get a plethora of information. If any links were clicked, attachments opened, how long they viewed your message etc.

6. Gmelius: (Chrome, Opera, Sarfi) Gmelius offers many features that have already made this list. Including schedule emails, snooze messages and track email opens. Beyond all of these the most impressive feature of Gmelius is it allows to block other email tracking plugins. For example, if someone sends me an email and they use Bananatag to track it Gmelius will then block the tracking. Then notify me that they were using Bananatag to try to track the email and that the tracking was successfully blocked.

7. Key Rocket: (Chrome) Key Rocket is a must have for anyone who uses keyboard shortcuts. How it works is anytime you perform an action that you could have used a keyboard shortcut for Key rocket prompts you with what sequence of keystrokes would have accomplished your task. This is great because its constantly teaching you shortcuts, after having this installed for a week I navigate through Gmail much faster.