Archive for the Category » tech gadgets «

Sep
29

iPod Touch: Make My Life More Fun!

Brenda Muench

I have recently received a most fabulous gift. An iPod Touch!! Today I’m going to continue this series with some of the apps have made it into permanent rotation on my device after a few months of using it. Today’s areas of focus are………

Sometimes I Hate Math

Sale Price – With this app I can figure out what’s the price of an item that was 40% off and then another 50% off the first sale price. LOVELY!

CheckPlease Lite – I can split the check 4 ways and figure out tip. Then have the amount go straight into Pocket Money (my checkbook program). I have only used this a few times but I really like the concept.

 

Fun Stuff

Geosphere (paid) - I am a geocacher. I was looking for an app that would let me carry all my cache information with me. Also I wanted to log my caches and upload them when I got back to an area with wifi. Geosphere lets me to both. Plus the app just looks really slick.

Flashlight – I have actually used this one! It’s literally just a white screen. Works great!

Splat! – Swatting flies by rocking the iTouch forward. Even my 5 year old niece likes this one.

iDork Lite – Draw lines on the screen to get your stick dude to move to the hole in the paper but be careful of falling pencils or you’ll just be a bloody splat on the page!

SnapWords – Each team gets a turn to get their members to say a set of words before time runs out. After 3 or 4 words you get a difficult word. Difficult words often prompt, “uhhhhhhhhh” and then some creative thinking! This one is great for long car rides with older kids or adults.

WordFlipper – Use the letters to make as many long words as possible before time runs out.  I love this kind of game!

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Sep
22

iPod Touch: Help Me Stay Connected!

Brenda Muench

I have recently received a most fabulous gift. An iPod Touch!! Today I’m going to continue this series with some of the apps have made it into permanent rotation on my device after a month of using it. Today’s area of focus is………

Social Networking

Tweet Deck – I used this program already on my laptop to help me get my twitter account into a more manageable beast. I have found so many people that I can learn from on Twitter but the amount of tweets that would appear between each of my log ons was more than I could ever look at and still have a life. Also I was missing important tweets from my music educator buds.  Tweet Deck has fixed that for me.  I have organized the people I follow into groups: teachers, music teachers, local friends, and everyone else.  I read the music teachers column every day and I scan the teachers group daily. If I have time I can scan the rest of my columns or I can just mark them all as seen and go on with my day.

Plurk – Plurk is much like Twitter for me but the conversations are deeper as the community is smaller. The threaded conversations also make it much easier to keep track of who commented on what topic.

Facebook – The Facebook app is paired down from the regular site but everything I need is here.  I can check my mail, see who’s left something on my wall and chat. Plus using this version keeps me from wasting hours on the actual site.

Bump – I’ll be honest about this one. I haven’t actually used it yet. But the idea intrigues me.  So I’ve got it set up and ready to go. I’ll let you know cool it is once I get to a tech conference where more people are likely to have it on their iPhone.

Textfree Lite – This is my answer to all my friends who like to text me. I know it’s hard to believe that a techie girl like me wouldn’t have a text plan but it’s something I’ve never really had much use for in life. I’m finding however that all my buds who have teenage kids are really attached to texting and sometimes they text me even though I don’t have any text plan on my phone. So I thought this app might fix my problem.  There are some limitations though. I can only send 15 texts each day but I can receive an unlimited number of texts. But here’s the real kicker: People who want to text me can only reply to my texts for there to be no charge to my phone account. That’s a pain. I’ve considered buying the paid version but so far haven’t taken the leap.

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Aug
12

iTouch: Help Me Get More Organized!

Brenda Muench

 

I have recently received a most fabulous gift. An iTouch!! Today I’m going to start with some of the apps have made it into permanent rotation on my device after a month of using it. Today’s area of focus is………

Life Management

Pocket Money Lite – This is the app I settled on to keep track of my checking account. A few months before I got my iTouch I also opened my first debit card. (I know, I know, I’m late to this game.  I don’t text either. More on that in another entry) It was so frustrating to me to have to write down in my checkbook register all those withdrawals via my debit card. Why did I have to record something with a pen and paper that was happening digitally? Even more frustrating for me is that my rural bank, which has been very good to me, does not have internet banking.  ARG! Add to this that I recently started looking for a replacement for my beloved Microsoft Money and you’ve got one frustrated techie! Enter my iTouch and Pocket Money Lite and I am again one peaceful techie. My techie transactions are now completely techie!

CardStar – I have to be honest about this one. I love the concept but I haven’t yet had a business that could get the barcode to scan off my iTouch. I’m keeping CardStar because even if the barcode doesn’t scan the numbers off the code can still be typed in by the clerk. This means that I still don’t have to carry around all those pesky membership cards and that is HUGE!

WordPress –I can blog from my iTouch!! Need I say more? And this will motivate me to get better at typing with my thumbs. :)

Grocery Gadget ($4.99) I loved my grocery list. Just ask the hubs! This app means that I know how much I’m going to spend before I even get to the check out and I can budget more easily. The process to add things to the list is really easy and it’s customizable. Shopping is easy as each item gets moved down to the bottom of the list after I mark it off. I do wish there was a way to mark items that I have coupons for though. Right now I’m making notes on each individual item but I have to go back and erase the notes each week as I clear the list.

CalenGoo ($6.99) I LOOOOOOVE my Google Calendar! Now I finally have access to it when I’m not online and it syncs when I get back to area with wifi. Oh and I can still keep all my other calendars too.  I can see mine, Mom’s, Carol’s, and IW’s. All these in its full color coded glory. Have I mentioned I love being color coded? I do!!

Next time: iTouch: Help Me Stay Connected!

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