In 2014 the Blackphone promised enterprise-grade privacy to ordinary buyers: encrypted calls and texts, private browsing and tight app permissions. What it offered and what happened next. Continue reading »
StudentNews.ie: student news, study tips and money sense
StudentNewsie has kept students in touch with the news that matters to them since 2012: college admissions, student loans, first jobs, phones and laptops, health, travel and sport. The original articles stay at their original addresses, rewritten in plain English with dated update notes, alongside new guides to budgeting and, for adult readers, the maths behind casino odds.
Student loans rarely stretch as far as you hope. How to cut your outgoings, why a SIM-only plan often beats a new contract, and how to work out what your phone really costs each month. Continue reading »
Why does the casino always win in the long run? Expected value, house edge and the law of large numbers explained with roulette, slots, blackjack, craps and baccarat, with worked examples. Continue reading »
What you will find here
- News, Education and Career: checklists for high school seniors, modern admissions tools, freelancing and first jobs after college.
- Finance: student budgets, cheaper phone plans, federal loans, loan forgiveness and the power of saving early.
- Technology: securing your phone, choosing a laptop and fixing common iPhone faults yourself.
- Health, Travel and Sports: better sleep, healthy teeth, Lanzarote and New York on a budget, and March Madness with the bookmakers' odds explained.
From high school to grad school, a laptop does the heavy lifting a tablet cannot. What to look for in portability, durability, specs and battery life before you buy a student laptop. Continue reading »
Discipline and compounding beat luck. A three-phase savings plan that starts with $1,000 at college age, the maths behind it, and why casinos rely on the same law of compounding. Continue reading »
American, decimal and fractional odds explained, how to turn any price into a probability, what the vig costs you, and how legal sports betting on college and pro sports differs by state and country. Continue reading »
Casino Math: probability you can see
Table games are probability made visible. A roulette wheel shows expected value at a glance, and blackjack shows how the cards already dealt change what can come next. Once you understand why the house wins in the long run, insurance, investing and sports analytics make a lot more sense.
The Casino Math section is written for adult and college readers. It covers the house edge, card counting, poker as a game of skill, the bookmaker's margin and the careers that grew out of game theory. A good place to start is House Edge Explained.
Your phone holds your messages, photos, banking apps and your school or university login. Five simple steps every student should take to lock it down and get it back if it goes missing. Continue reading »
Selection Sunday 2013 was ten days away and no team dominated. Automatic bids, the bubble, the magic number of wins and what the futures odds said, plus how the tournament turned out. Continue reading »
How to build a student entertainment budget that survives a spring break, a gig or a casino night: the 50/30/20 rule, Vegas costs, the hourly price of table games and slots, and simple limits that work. Continue reading »
The iPhone 5S was reliable but not perfect. The most common problems owners reported, from crashes and sensors to battery drain, camera glare and a dead microphone, and how to fix them. Continue reading »
Student numbers worth knowing
| Number | What it means |
|---|---|
| 7–9 hours | Sleep most adults need each night; teenagers need more |
| 50/30/20 | Needs, wants and savings as shares of your income |
| 120 payments | Qualifying payments needed for Public Service Loan Forgiveness |
| 13–14 inches | The laptop screen size most students can carry all day |
| 52.38% | Win rate needed to break even at standard −110 prices |