World News: Talking Tech: Download these apps for back-to-school season

Saturday, August 28

Summer is almost over.

For many kids, this year means a return to the physical classroom, while parents scour for supplies, clothes and whatever else they might need for the start of a new school year.

It also means once again juggling homework, assignments, extracurricular activities and so on.

Luckily, we have some tech that can help. There are many apps out there both kids and parents can use to help them adjust, whether it's tools to learn or to stay organized.

Here's a look at some you should consider downloading:

• Quizlet. Instead of writing out piles of flash cards, why not make them readily accessible on your mobile device? This app lets users you make digital flash cards across a variety of subjects such as math, languages, science and more.

The PhotoMath app takes pictures of math problems and solves them.

PhotoMath

• Photomath. An ideal app for both kids and parents (especially this pre-algebra-challenged journalist), Photomath lets you take pictures of math problems and then solves them. Along with each solution, the app will also take you step by step through how the problem was solved.

• Socratic. The Google-powered learning app lets you plug in questions either by text, audio or photo across a range of different subjects. Like with Photomath, you submit math problems to solve, or add questions or topics and the app spits out the appropriate response. It might come in the form of a Wikipedia page, a YouTube video, or a solution from another app.

• myHomework. Need help keeping school work organized? The myHomework app for laptops, tablets and smartphones is a planner allowing students to keep track of their classes and assignments.

• Duolingo. The popular language learning app can help users who are studying Spanish, French, German and countless other languages with smaller mini-games. If you've got younger kids, the company also has Duolingo ABC, which helps teach kids how to read and write in English.

• Epic! Perfect for elementary school kids who love reading. The Epic app features thousands of books at all different age groups and reading levels. The app's Basic account offers users one free book a day from a smaller library. The Unlimited option for $9.99 a month includes more than 40,000 books as well as audiobooks and "read-to-me" books where the app will read the book to your child.

• Fantastical. My personal favorite calendar app. It integrates with most third-party calendars and gives users elegant views of their day-to-day schedules and breakdowns of the month, and even incorporates weather details.

• Any.do. If you need some extra organization, this tasks app can help users stay on top of daily tasks as well as plan tasks beyond today. Great if you're a parent who needs to keep tabs on kids' school time and extracurricular activities. If you want an alternative, there's also Microsoft To Do, formerly known as Wunderlist.

What else happened in tech?

• Remember that planned OnlyFans ban? You know, the one meant to remove sexually explicit content (the stuff that made OnlyFans popular in the first place)? It's not happening.

• Not just Facebook and Twitter. TikTok is also littered with videos promoting white supremacy and anti-Black racism, a new study found.

• Having issues with Gmail spam? A USA TODAY reporter (who also just happens to write our sister The Daily Money newsletter) chronicles his experiences with important emails Gmail keeps pushing to the spam folder.

Game break

This week was Gamescom, which is Europe's answer to E3. So, lots of news this week. Among the highlights: The creators of popular PC series Civilization are working on a strategy game based in the Marvel Comics universe, and we got our first look at Elden Ring , the action RPG collaboration with Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin.