Be Careful With How Many Apps You "Try Out".

For those who backup their iOS devices (i.e. iPad, iPhone) to their computer verses iCloud, a word of advice for you.

(Side note: there are two ways to backup your device's data (photos, apps, eBooks, etc) - either iCloud or your computer. Since the MLTI MacBooks are not iCloud compatible, we backup with our laptop only)

Occasionally, you may come across apps that you want to try out, then decide to delete them from your device for one reason or another. However, just because you have deleted them from your device, does not mean they are deleted entirely. What I mean is, these deleted apps are still stored on your computer as an inactive app. The reason for this is because you purchased it (even if it was FREE) and all purchased apps are stored somewhere. In our case, on your laptop.

If you are not careful enough, these inactive, purchased apps can take up room on your computer's hard drive space; which may be critical for those of us who have a lot of content already stored on our computer. An overly stocked hard drive could severely effect the performance and speed of your laptop. This could be very important when trying to use your laptop in class or on your interactive whiteboard. You want as little delay as possible when students are waiting.

In my case, I have a lot of video, extra software, images and hefty documents already stored on my MLTI laptop. On top of that, I discovered I have over 20GB of inactive and active apps stored and backed up on my computer; along with the video, podcasts, and eBooks, purchased though the iPad I use.  20GB is enough to reach my hard drive's performance threshold.

You can remedy or check this out for yourself simply by launching iTunes, going to your iTunes library and viewing your apps library. Select the apps you no longer want to keep and delete them. You can event sort your iTunes app library by app size. Sometimes you can locate "heavy" unwanted apps.

Nothing like minimizing!