Photo Credit: Ipadmango.com

I can’t tell you how many times our IPad or iPod has saved our sanity while traveling with our 3 kids. Being on the lookout for fun and educational apps is always a must. We love that PBS kids always has something new to offer and, for free!

Just in time for the busy holiday travel season, PBS KIDS has made their popular PBS KIDS Video app for iPad now available for iPhone and iPod Touch! The app provides families free, streaming access to more than 2,000 videos – including clips and full episodes – from favorite PBS KIDS series. The app will offer kids quality educational content on those long holiday trips and well into the New Year.

The app includes clips and full episodes from PBS KIDS series like THE CAT IN THE HAT KNOWS A LOT ABOUT THAT!, DINOSAUR TRAIN, CURIOUS GEORGE, SUPER WHY, SESAME STREET, WORDGIRL and WILD KRATTS .

The PBS KIDS Video App also features helpful tools for parents such as:
· Access to local PBS station TV schedules
· Additional information about TV series, including intended age and learning goals
· The ability to download related educational apps and TV episodes directly from the App Store and iTunes
· Marking series as “favorites”
· Sharing videos via email, Facebook and Twitter

Happy Holidays and we hope you enjoy this new app from PBS Kids!

I love my iPhone. It is absolutely awesome and teamed with my iPad it’s even more rockin’ because I am a IPhoneographer and I love that I can automatically upload pics from my phone to my iPad and then edit them on the larger iPad screen. I’ve had my phone for almost a year now and it’s been wonderful.

Up until a few weeks ago…when it started acting a FOOL!

After the latest “Update” it started to give me this screen message that “This accessory is not compatible with this device” problem there is that there was no device or accessory hooked up. :/ So, then it started to sorta get sluggish at times with only 1 app open and the Home button stopped responding like it normally does. So, then yesterday it stopped working all together. The Home button {the button at the bottom in the center} just stopped working no matter how hard I pushed it, pushed it and then waited, pushed it then pushed it again and again and again while yelling at it “What is the matter with you?!??!!!!”

I had to run off to cheer practice with my daughter and couldn’t get to a store to get it looked at. After at least an hour of trying to reset it, restore it, turn it off and “let it rest” nothing was happening and I knew that it needed a genius.

DH volunteered to go to the Apple Genius Bar for me and 2 short hours later {because he had to drive an hour to get there} I had a NEW iPhone4! They said that it’s a “known issue” which is sad… I mean come on, if you know it’s a problem maybe Apple can be more pro-active and reach out to all the iPhone4 users and send them something that says that if your Home button is not working properly then come into a store and get it checked out. I know it saved me a headache by getting it replaced and not having to be ghetto-style and turn off the phone to get to another screen {which is what A LOT of people are doing out there from what I was reading online}

It seems to be that with the birth of each of my children there is something new created that is just awesome. I only *WISH* this app was around when I first had my daughter.

Similac has created a Baby Journal App to help you from the early hazy days to the busier days with a more mobile baby. Keeping track of those oh-so important things like wet/dirty diapers, sleep and shots can be so overwhelming and tedious at times. I kept a notepad with me this last time I was dea with the baby haze of a c-section and I can’t tell you how many times I had to have someone go fetch the darn notebook for me and woke up the baby.

With the free Similac Baby Journal app, you can easily track baby’s eating, sleeping, and diaper changes. You can predict the next feeding time. And see connections between what goes in—and what comes out. When you know what to expect, you can make the most of your time. And your time together! This app truly helps you be in sync with your baby through the journal that you can easily email to Dad, Grandma, Auntie and even your doctor!

My fav part of this is the ickiest part probably– the POOP-o-meter rating

It’s one of those things that is necessary to know– the doctor WILL ask you about the consistency of the poo so, it’s a great way to keep track! You will never in your life be so grateful for the poo o meter {ok, I totally made that name up LOL}.

The other fav of this app for me is the lil face avatar of your baby– too sweet and reminds you just why keeping this journal is SO important.

From feeding to sleeping to changing to growth to just notating those other funny little things that babies all do– this app is genius! We are so tech savvy nowadays and our phones are becoming more and more of an all-encompassing tool for us. Thanks to Similac we can use this tool to keep track of the most important status updates in our lives

Disclosure: This is a compensated post from Collective Bias.

I have 2 school aged children and a nearly 1 year old. I need as many tech savvy tools as I can get for FREE to help me. Nowadays kids have it all– laptops, ipods and can even access the internet at school on a regular basis we need to teach them how to use the web for good.

Goal For It is an excellent online resource that provides a variety of free solutions for personal success that are easy to use and can help bring more focus, balance and fulfillment into everyday living. I especially love their simple-to-use Chore Charts and Behavior Charts that help children of all ages learn essential skills in a fun and rewarding way.
 
The FREE Chore Charts and Behavior Charts impart many important lessons, including:
Responsibility; A Chore Chart is an ideal way to help your kids feel like they are making a contribution to their family by doing their part around the house. Understanding right from wrong; Setting behavior goals is an important way to help children strengthen their character and judgment.
Healthy Habits; Teaching good habits involving nutrition and physical activity are the cornerstone of prevent obesity in children and adolescents.
Money Matters; The optional point system teaches children three important lessons for managing money; earning, spending and saving.

I was able to set up my account in a few easy steps. I created a goal chart for my weight loss and I also created Chore Charts for each of the school aged kids. I like that the site allows you to select which chores to add to the chart. Also, you can add cash incentives to the tasks if you choose. I think that is great because for my 8 year old, there are things that I would love to reward her with cash for such as folding laundry. Even more so I’d love to add my own custom chore of car washing and vaccuming and pay her for that as well. You can create as many of your own custom chores and create badges for them on the site.

Once your child is 13, they can create their own Goal For It account and keep track of their own personal goals and create To-Do lists as well. Parents don’t have to worry about their privacy because children under 18 years of age do not show up in the community or searches. Teaching our kids to actually create their own goals and acheive them on their own is such an important part of parenting.

Overall, the site is a fantastic tool to use for your children. I created my daughters chart with her and let her pick her theme, colors and set up an email alert to her email so she can see where she is at. One thing that I did not like about the site was the look of the site. I don’t think that the logo is very interesting. Also, I don’t like the flow of the homepage. I would like to see more visual “eye candy” when I go to the site. Right away, my kids were uninterested when we went to the site and it took a little time to poke around to get to the “fun” images for them.
I would love for you to visit http://www.goalforit.com and check out their solutions for yourself.

Disclosure: I was engaged by MomSelect on behalf of GoalForIt.com to participate in a review and was compensated for my time.

The best APP that ever happened to me, my LoseIt! App for my iPhone and iPad. I have been using it for the last 4 weeks on a consistent basis. Sometimes I eat things that I just don’t want to sit and calculate down to the exact calorie count so, I use the search function to get as close to it as possible. That is for sure one of the biggest tips for anyone using this app– don’t be so hard on yourself to be exact with the calories, to me, as long as you are at least aware that you are consuming the calories, getting it down to an exact number isn’t that important.

The same goes for workouts. There are times when my elliptical machine will say that I worked off more calories than the app gives me credit for– I just go with it. The app has really helped me to keep myself accountable for my food consumption as well as my workout routines and how often I work out.

A few weeks ago I decided to put myself on blast and link my LoseIt! app to my Facebook account– I went even further and have been posting my weekly reports on my blog here as you will see above.

My most recent short term goal was to lose another 5 pounds on top of the 11 pounds that I had lost so far. Well, suffice it to say that my women’s troubles made losing weight difficult but, I did lose 1 pound

Stay tuned… I’m workin’

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SMithMicro Software is your mobile connection manager specialist. More connections, more networks and on more devices!

Mobile connection management software has emerged as a critical requirement for industy-leading enterprises worldwide. But the need to offer employees secure, ubiquitous access to business-critical information has introduced complex challenges for IT administrators. QuickLink Mobile for PC laptops and Smartphones and the QuickLink Mobile Server have emerged as a leading Enterprise solution for connection managers.

With QuickLink Mobile you can customize the UI to extend your corporate brand. It offers a robust skinning engine, flexible localization options, and detailed control of application features and default settings, allowing you to customize the user experience for any market.

Whether bundled with data cards, pre-installed in 3G & 4G capable notebooks, access points or Smartphones, or made available for end-user download, the QuickLink Mobile connection manager gives wireless carriers, enterprise network managers, and PC and original equipment manufacturers one simple, yet powerful connection manager solution for connecting virtually any device to any wired or wireless network. Its advanced, automated connectivity management capabilities ensure that end users can easily manage and quickly connect to the fastest, most cost-effective network available.

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Trimble MRM GPS vehicle tracking solutions provide you with a clear understanding of what is happening in the field so you can more effectively manage your mobile workers. Our easy-to-use solutions help reduce operational costs, increase productivity and safeguard drivers and vehicles through web-based software that lets you track your fleet any time, any where you have Internet access.

Trimble is a leading provider of advanced positioning solutions that maximize productivity and enhance profitability.

Though best known for GPS technology, Trimble integrates a wide range of positioning technologies including GPS, laser, optical and inertial technologies with application software, wireless communications, and services to provide complete commercial solutions. Its integrated solutions allow customers to collect, manage and analyze complex information faster and easier, making them more productive, efficient and profitable.

Trimble products are used in over 100 countries around the world. Employees in more than 21 countries, coupled with a highly capable network of dealers and distribution partners serve and support our customers.

For over 30 years, Trimble has created unique positioning products that help customers grow their business. Our portfolio includes over 900 patents and serves as the basis for the broadest positioning offerings in the industry. Trimble augments its organic product development with strategic acquisitions to bring the latest positioning technologies to a wider market.