iPhone/iPod Touch Game Giveaway!

I am fortunate enough to have a free iPhone game for kids to give away to one lucky recipient! Matt and I have this game on our iPhones and it is really fun.  The information below says that it’s for toddlers, and while it is definitely loved by the younger set, we have seen kids all the way up to 13 enjoying it!  It is called KidFun PlayBlocks, and here is the description of it:

KidFun PlayBlocks
An iPhone Learning Toy for Toddlers!
Kids love building towers out of wood blocks and knocking them down, and now they can do it on the go!

KidFun PlayBlocks lets kids build towers of blocks and knock them down over and over by throwing colorful balls at them, even while they’re sitting in the grocery cart.

KidFun PlayBlocks is a learning toy that helps your children learn about the physics of blocks and stacking and gravity.  There is no score, just like playing with blocks in your living room at home, which makes the game easy for little kids to play, too.

For older kids, try making a tower and then count how many balls it takes to knock it down.  This can be a fun way to share the game among multiple kids and add some challenge.

(Note that KidFun PlayBlocks used to be named TowerSmash)

If you would like a free copy of this application (also available at iTunes), leave a comment telling me when you most appreciate sharing your iPhone or iPod Touch with your kids and I will draw one name this Friday, January 30.  I will email you a code to get it free on iTunes.

Have You Seen My Bluetooth?

Okay, what is with those little Bluetooth headsets?  I really need to have one but can’t hang onto them.  There are so many work days when I don’t have time to return or make a single phone call from work and my 30-minute drive home is my only chance to keep up with parents, other therapists, and those damned insurance companies.

Does anyone else go through them as fast as I do?  After losing two of the more expensive Plantronics Voyager 510 series over the years, I finally bought a cheaper one at Radio Shack ($20 on sale after Christmas).  It didn’t feel as secure in my ear but the sound was just fine.  I used it for about 10 days before it too disappeared.

I used to keep them in a small pink pouch that I thought was pretty easy to transfer from one bag to another (something I do at least once a day), but the whole pouch seemed to disappear.  The new one was, I believed, in a zippered section of my work bag, but I have had no luck at finding it for the past week.

If you manage to hold on to these useful little guys – please, I implore you! – tell me how you do it.

Mama 2.0 is GEEKED OUT.

Originally posted at The Wonderwheel on July 10, 2008

Okay, so I had something else to talk about today, but it is clear that I made a big mistake yesterday, so let’s clear that up first.  I accidentally wrote about my iPhone love the day before iTunes opened its new Applications store (yes: Music, Videos, Podcasts…and Applications).  Supposedly, we iPhone users weren’t going to be able to access these until tomorrow, but thanks to a tip from this blogger and some technical assistance from this husband, I have been able to geek out for hours today.  (Did I mention it’s Day 2 of 2 when the boys are both in camp this summer? And that Lyle came home and is napping while Baxter’s still at camp?)  Here is the info on how to do it today, if you are inclined to be at the head of the pack.

So here’s the thing.  We live in the future in a really big way.  I downloaded a ludicrous number of applications that range from incredibly useful to sublimely ridiculous…for free.  And they hardly took up any memory.  And if I don’t tell you about some of them, I am going to burst.  So the more serious post lined up for today?  You can come back and read that tomorrow, if you are so inclined.  But for now: technogeek time.

Highlights from the “incredibly useful” category:

* The new Contacts button on my home screen.  THANK YOU, Apple, for not making me go digging for that any longer!  Hiding that in the Phone category was just plain silly.  I love you to bits, but it just was.

* The If Found button that provides my phone number and a reward amount in case the phone gets lost.  I love that the icon is a dollar sign – what else would someone touch first if they found an iPhone just lying there?  “Hmm…what have we here?  Ooh, someone dropped their iPhone?  Aha – and maybe if I push this button I can get some cash, too!”

* The very nice Bank of America application that allows me to log securely into my bank so that I can check balances, transfer money, etc. when I’m away from the computer.  Which is quite useful for my business banking needs.

* Dial Zero: This application has a seemingly endless number of businesses to choose from or search for.  When you select one, it dials you – now, get this – straight to a human operator!  Of course, my grandparents don’t have an iPhone, but when I was staying with my grandmother, I spent a long time trying to find a human being for her to talk to at Medicaid about her prescriptions, and I just saw that I can select that company and be taken directly to a woman for her to rake over the coals next time.  Priceless!

* I’m impressed with Exposure, which links to my Flickr photo account, allowing me access to all of my photos with a nice, simple interface.

* There are some great new productivity applications for the phone as well.  I am currently trying out both Jott and Evernote – Jott looks especially cool in that it takes voice recordings through the phone and transfers them into text for me.  And then I can organize them into my to do lists and files.  Whoa.  Both have potential to help with organizing my to do lists.  See what I mean about living in the future?  I just got this for FREE, Wonderfriends. (And by the way, these two applications are also on the web for free – check them out!)

Highlights from the Sublimely Ridiculous category:

* Multiple applications for Twitter.  I am trying out Twittelator and Twitterfic (which  is one I am familiar with).  Apparently you can set up Twittelator to send an all-points-bulletin to all of your contacts if you are ever in an emergency, which comes complete with your exact location.  Could be handy.

* Shazam! (They don’t put that exclamation point there, that’s all me.) When you open Shazam – seriously, listen to this one – you can hold your phone up near music that’s playing, and it will “listen” for a few moments, tell you the artist and song name, and then link you to iTunes or the music video if you wish.  You can also create an album of songs you capture on Shazam.  Huh?!  Oh, and I tried it – it works.

There are also a few I downloaded with next week’s solo flight with the boys in mind:  Moo, Phone Saber (makes lightsaber sounds when you move the phone – and of course shows one on screen, complete with color choices – !), JirboMatch, Yes/No (a simplified Magic 8 Ball!) and Finger Paint.

I should add that if I were willing to pay something for downloads, there would be infinitely more to choose from, but for now I have plenty of freebies to keep me busy.

iPhone users out there, tell me what you find in the iTunes Application store that is useful and/or ridiculous – I have equal respect for both!  I’m looking for your advice, insights, and suggestions.

iPhone Love

Originally posted on The Wonderwheel on July 8, 2008

I’ve wanted to post about the wonders of my iPhone for about a year now, but I still find myself somewhat sheepish about the fact that I own one.  I want to say to everyone who sees it, “I’m running a business – it was a much-needed tax write-off last summer!!” as if anyone actually cares how I pulled it off.  However, I don’t hide it when I’m in groups like I did for the first few months (when just pulling it out of my bag attracted a large group of curious folks), but I do try to lay low with the thing.  At any rate, I decided to post about it because I realized two things recently:

1)  I’ve had it for a full year now, and I am still madly in love with it every single dingle day; and

2)  Now that the new one is coming out at a far more reasonable price, more people might be thinking about purchasing them, and therefore more interested in what I have to say about it.

So I won’t go on and on, but I’ll give you a few things that have made the biggest difference for me:

* Direct access to my personal and work email accounts anytime I want.  This is useful when stuck in traffic or waiting for a client, but especially excellent when I am traveling.

* Very easy key pad that pops up for typing.  People seem to be frightened of it, but believe me, you get used to typing on it within a few days, and the word prediction feature works very well for me.  I can write long emails, comment on blog posts, and send lengthy, grammatically correct text messages quickly and easily.  As I once wrote about, even a 6-year old can pick it up and start using text messaging well.

* The visual voicemail is just amazing.  I’m a big fan of the little numbers that show me how many voice mails and text messages I have, and I can choose which new message I want to listen to by touching that name or number. If I need to fast forward or rewind, I just move the little bar where I want to listen.  Actually, the whole phone/contacts feature is incredible to me.  Every bit of information in my MacBook’s Address Book is synched up with my iPhone, making it easy to make calls and look up addresses (which can be touched to pull up a map and directions to that location – and now there is a real GPS feature on the new ones).  I have also assigned my favorite photos of family and friends to their contact pages so that when they call I get to see their shiny, happy faces.

* It’s my iPod.  All of my music is on this thing.  And here’s a scenario for you from a drive to work (when I’m not carpooling): the iPhone is connected through the car stereo so that I can listen to whatever I want in the car.  I’m wearing my BlueTooth headset.  I’m jamming to music when all of a sudden, the music is turned down for me automatically because a call is coming in.  I touch my ear piece and answer the phone.  No sudden turning music down or off, or fumbling with the phone to answer.  That’s one smart piece of technology.  As soon as I hang up the call, my music comes back on. This never fails to amaze me.

* The camera on the iPhone is quite good.  I frequently take a shot of a child I’m working with doing something fabulous, and I zip it off to their parents via email in the middle of a therapy session.  As you might imagine, they love getting these.   I also love to send a cute shot to Matt or the grandparents seconds after I capture it.

The awesome thing about the iPhone is that it just keeps getting better.  Apple continues to roll out upgrades that I get automatically by synching it with my computer, and Google seems to be working overtime to make all of their super cool applications work on it.  On my iPhone home page, which I can now customize, I have added buttons for my Google Reader, for Google Talk, and my home/work Google Calendar.   And, of course, a direct link to The Wonderwheel.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, and there are plenty of features that I don’t even make use of on this device that I’m sure someone else would place at the top of her list. I briefly considered upgrading to the new phone being released this Friday, but there’s really no point.  I’m sure I could get used to a faster data speed right quick, but the current speed rarely causes problems.  I’m also not that interested in a more expensive monthly plan.  I do suspect that I’ll be ready to upgrade next summer when they come up with yet another version and I’ll be in a different financial position, but for now I am completely happy with the phenomenal little piece of technology that I’ve got.

Okay.  Thanks for letting me get that out of my system.