Category Archives: tech

Apps for Kids on Sale from Cupcake Digital

CupcakeDig_SummerSale_Opening

Cupcake Digital is blowing out summer with an app sale!!! They have 5 different apps on sale but only from now until August 17th! So don’t wait, grab them today!

Cupcake Digital Dragons2_ICONHow to Train Your Dragon 2 (The Official Story App): This is a great story book app that also has coloring pages and other activities! There are even free pages available for download.

 

 

 

 

CupcakeDigitalRIO2_SOCCER_ICON Rio 2 Sky Soccer: This also has a great story with downloadable activities! It also has a variety of soccer games to keep little hands busy!

 

 

 

 

CupcakeDigitalSSC_Summer_ICON Strawberry Shortcake Summer Fun: This has a great story with great activities! Kids can also virtually color in pages and there are free downloadable activities.

 

 

 

 

CupcakeDigitalSSC_JumboColor_ICON_Summer Strawberry Shortcake Jumbo Coloring Book: This has a ton of great coloring pages that your little one can color/paint/stamp or virtually decorate how ever they want! There are also downloadable pages!

 

 

 

 

CupcakeDigitalYGG_Music_ICON Yo Gabba Gabba! Music is Awesome!: Who doesn’t love music? Not only can they do the 5 dance filled musical activities but they can create their own music! They can record their music too! They can also color pictures and watch music videos.

 

 

 

 

Remember these are only on sale for a few days so grab them now! Then you will have them for those crazy school commutes and all the waiting times!!!

 

(Disclosure: I was compensated for telling you all about this great sale. But thoughts are always mine!)

Tech Discounts for Students (even Some for Homeschoolers)

Lenovo ThinkPad T400
Lenovo ThinkPad T400

I have always heard of academic discounts on technology but have never seen them outside of a college until a couple of years ago. But even then, homeschoolers were not included and there just wasn’t that much on offer.

Needless to say, I was stoked to see someone mention the site! They have a variety of refurbished laptops at a discount for students (kind of like the name suggests;).

You can pay for specific upgrades and you buy 1 machine! It doesn’t have to be wrapped up in some mass order (though they do that too). It looks like for that you can just order straight off the main page. But if you are a school there are a couple of options. The one that interested me was the homeschool option! You get a further discount from the price on the front page. The discount correlates with the quantity you order. So if you get together with a couple of other homeschoolers, or want to buy a machine for each of your kids;), you can get even better prices.

Surface-Pro-3-with-Pen

Want something a little more cutting edge? How about a Surface Pro 3? This one is only for college (or university) students. You can get $150 off this new machine! I think technically it can still be called a tablet but it really is an ultra book! You can type to your heart’s content with the case’s keyboard and play all the games you want;). This deal is currently at Microsoft Stores, Best Buy, Staples and Tiger Direct in the U.S., and Microsoft Stores and Best Buy in Canada. This deal expires September 6th so don’t wait to take advantage.

So there are a couple great tech discounts! So go grab them!

(I am a Lenovo Insider and a Microsoft Champion but this post is all from me;).

Quick Look at the IdeaCentre Flex 20

lenovoflex

We got a new machine!!! Have I mentioned lately that I like this blogging gig;)? As an Lenovo Insider I received a Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20 to use and review. This machine really has 2 sides. One side is as a standard computer and one is as an entertainment/game center.

As a machine it is gorgeous. It has a great 19.5 inch screen that has a sparkling display (for work or media). It comes with Windows 8 preloaded and I just had to update it to Windows 8.1 to really get going (I like having my standard setup;). I just popped out the extremely durable stand and I was ready to go. The multi touch monitor meant that I could really take advantage of all the Windows 8.1 goodness! This is my first time in using a touch screen desktop and I don’t think I will be able to go back. And how it differs from using my touch screen Yoga is that there is so much more screen real estate that it is fabulous!!!

The hardware on this machine is more than I expected on a dual mode machine. It has 8 gb of ram and handled all the standard use I could throw at it. And I mean my multiple windows/tabs online along with some video editing and a couple of game apps all at the same time. I wasn’t doing heavy rendering nor compiling but I was doing my chaotic blogging work! It didn’t hiccup once.

While it is portable it isn’t a laptop so don’t be surprised that is fairly heavy with limited battery in comparison to a laptop. It has about a 2 hour battery ( little more). It is portable but really portable to a table because I don’t think it is both holdable and usable with 2 hands only;). While it converts to a tablet I view it more as a game board. Which leads to the funner side of this machine!

You can lay it down and play games on it! I find that you can totally play Windows 8 apps on it. All those word scrabble and racing games, the whole bit can be fun on the IdeaCentre Flex. But wait, there’s more! The IdeaCentre Flex comes with the Aura Interface and some great apps that are from Lenovo. This is some fun stuff! There are strikers and joysticks and dice that all will work with the system. Jeremy and I have had some serious rounds of Texas Hold Em and Air Hockey. There are also kids coloring apps in the interface that my daughters are enjoying quite a bit.

We are loving this system over here in the NerdFamily house! There will be more posts coming soon about all the fun we are having! This is another fabulous Windows 8 machine and I recommend it highly for families looking for a nice computer and some fun!!!

(I am both a Windows Champion and a Lenovo Insider. That doesn’t influence my opinions and all thoughts are mine alone! Thanks again for the machine Lenovo!)

Panasonic Link2Cell & Saving Calls! (A Giveaway Too)

Panasoniclink2cell

I know I am not alone with the modern issues of cell phones and home phones. I mean, first off I have too many separate phones to track! Secondly, I don’t get good cell reception everywhere in my house.
This was a huge issue when my dad was sick and when he died. I was getting calls from my step mom on my cell and in order to have a conversation I would have to go outside or kick all my kids out of the living room because that was the only way I could get a signal! But that is no longer my issue at home because technology (and Panasonic) has a solution.

– (Giveaway after the jump) Continue reading over at Geek for the Real Girl 

Finding Free Ebooks

finding freee books

Ebooks are awesome! They are great ways to read on the go and to keep a lot of books at your fingertips. While they will never replace paper books, ebooks are becoming more and more common place. But did you know that there are many, many ebooks that are out there for free? Some are classics but some are quite new and even best sellers! You can find them too but it is all about where to look!

My favorite hub is BooksShouldBeFree.com! They don’t provide any ebooks themselves but link you straight to the sources for many! They also have audio books in addition! They show links to a lot of the big sites but not everything.

Another hub for many is your local library’s website! Here in Fresno the Fresno County Library’s page has tons of ebook resources! Our library (and many others) have free magazines through Zinio that download and are yours. There are also lending agreements with OverDrive, 3M Cloud Library, Bookflix and OneClickdigital. Many of the books provided through these services are a lot of bestsellers and popular books.

I also like going straight to Amazon! They have free collections and often have many sales. I am currently reading  Pinterest Savvy: How I Got 1 Million+ Followers (Strategies, Plans, and Tips to Grow Your Business with Pinterest) that I picked up when it was free!

We are also very fond of the Gutenberg Project! They really are the originator of the free ebook. It was the original place for all the copyright free material. BooksShouldBeFree links to them a lot!

So in this day of ebooks, do you currently read them? What is your favorite kind of book to read on a device?

 

 

My Job Chart



I am a big believer on teaching kids the importance of chores and how to be responsible. Of course the official reason is that it is important to help our children become self supporting, responsible adults. Lets be honest, the more motivating reason is that I am not paid nearly enough to be their servant. I have yet to find anyone who can afford what it would cost to make me be their servant;).

We don’t do allowances in this house. We have always said there is a certain amount of work that is just part of being the family. That said, I always have big jobs, projects and extra ways for them to earn money or privileges.  So to that end here is a free tool that might help!

My Job Chart is more than just a chore list. I mean, I could just make a chore list on a scratch piece of paper. I am looking for a little more than that in a tool;). My Job Chart is a website and apps that are designed for both parents and kids to use. Parents can enter jobs and rewards. The kids can then log in and enter the jobs they have completed and redeem points for rewards!

The jobs are entered by parents and we decide how many points each job is worth so it isn’t just a check off system for the kids. We can teach them that harder (or even optional) jobs are worth more points. And I like how the rewards system is structured. You can enter any for of reward you want! It can be a product from Amazon that the kids can redeem points directly for (when you give permission) and it can be shipped to you. That is nice because then you don’t have to remember to go buy the prize;). But I like the other reward options too! You can put in any kind of prize like a playdate or video game time! There is even a charity section so your kids can redeem for those! It is a great way to teach how to give of your time for a charity because their time will be worth a donation!

Go sign up for My Job Chart! It is free so give it a whirl! And I do ask that you use one of my links because that will help support this blog!!!

Whirlpool and Innovating the Future


2014-01-08 10.46.12A huge component to large CES booths are always a look to the future and Whirpool gave us a variety of leaps into the future!!!

First, we jumped to the next generation of appliances with connected appliances. These are appliances that are connected to each other and you by direct communications and by app. So the dryer will know what kind of load it is receiving from the washer and how to treat it. But better thank that will be the app connectivity. Imagine being able to check while you are out and see if you (or your kids) remembered to actually turn on the dryer! Or as you are heading home start the dryer again to know out wrinkles. It could be so cool!

2014-01-08 10.47.32But better than that is the look 5 to 10 years into the future with the interactive cook top! This will be built on their induction stove top so it is already a smooth surface. So you will place a pot and use your hands to circle it in order to it turn it on. All your social media will be tied together to you can tweet, manage your Evites and Facebook all while standing front of the stove top! You can do more than just access your recipe but also go through each step and have it integrated into the stove top. So you will have a to do list created with you starting with the ingredient list that will be verified by your refrigerator.  Even Pinterest will be integrated so you can look for inspiration for recipes that may not already be in your recipe box!

First off the whole idea of innovation leading to this level of my life being integrated into my appliances. Secondly, I love the smoothness of the interactions!!! Since it is an induction stove then you touch it because it is cool. So I could set up a kid who is learning how to cook without as much risk as burning themselves because only the area with the pot will be hot. And they can have the recipe built in so it will give them reminders when it is time to do the next thing.

Needless to say, the innovations that Whirlpool wants to bring to our appliances can be more than convenient. It can change our lives!!! Whirlpool is doing innovation right! And I had so much fun checking out the innovation that they are bringing! I enjoyed it so much I got to take part in a video! Thanks BlogHer and Whirlpool!

 

 

  • Since Whirlpool 20/20 is all about a future focused on you, we, want to hear your ideas for it. Leave a comment below telling us your idea for the future for your home and be entered to win a $1,000 grand prize.
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