Tech Gear You Didn’t Know You Always Wanted

July 30, 2014 by 1 Comment

Disclosure- I received the below in order to facilitate my reviews. All opinions are my own and honest.

Need to get your gear on this season?  Protect your phone, your ears, your photos, and keep it all together as you move along with the latest must have gadgets.

07 26 14 lumix 020Wires, wires, everywhere, and no one knows where they go.  Or how to untangle them.  Why not go wireless?  The Kinivo BTH240 Wireless Bluetooth Headphones – $35 on www.Pure-Gear.com will keep you in tune with the music but without the wires- not only great for teens, but for younger kids who (like my 6 year old) want to chew the wires.  Not a problem if there are no wires to gnaw on.  They work with almost any device, and make it easy to wander about the car, plane, hotel room (wherever) without crossing mom and dad’s wires. Once you try these, you will wonder what you did before you had them.

07 26 14 lumix 025I love my new Samsung Galaxy S5. I want to protect it from all the abuse I dole out to my travel gear as best I can.  The new PureGear: DualTek ExtremeCase for Samsung Galaxy S5 is amazing, it fits like a glove, doesn’t inhibit photos or phone use, and takes quite a beating. It doesn’t add much in the way of bulk, and comes in 3 colors (yellow, white, and black).  The shock case keeps it safe from drops, scratches, and has padded rubber corners to absorb impact and isolate vibration. The material is tough yet flexible, and very durable while not compromising your photos or ease of use. Starting at $35 at http://www.pure-gear.com
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Vtech For Summer Travel

July 25, 2014 by 8 Comments

As we all know Summer time is trip time, be it down the street to Grandma’s house or across the ocean for vacation. There are a few similarities between all trips taken. One of which is boredom of the little ones. Back seat or a row up on a plane either way the most dreaded phrase uttered during the Summer is, “I’m bored.” This leads to noise and frustration and if siblings are involved added aggravation.

6 11 14 017V-Tech is here to help a bit with some nifty new toys for children of many different ages. We are going to look at just a few in the growing range kid’s electronics and educational toys.

First up are for our smaller ones are the Monkey Band Music Center and the Spinning Tunes Music Player both are for ages 6 to 36 months. The Monkey Band Center teaches children about music instruments with filly animal characters in an interactive format where kids play on piano keys and a beat a drum. There are two sing along songs and ten melodies to keep your kids interested and having fun. The Spinning Music Player is more along the lines of a boom box for little ones. It plays over 55 fun noises, including songs, melodies, sounds and phrases. All the while teaching music instruments and sounds as well as animals and music itself. The Monkey Band Music Center retails for #13.99 and the Spinning Tunes Music Player retails for $10.99.

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Kyocera Hydro Vibe #SprintMom #MC

July 9, 2014 by 4 Comments

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for Sprint. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and to thank me for participating.

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I am a Sprint Ambassador and will be sharing my experiences testing various Sprint devices and services for the remainder of the year. Today I will be sharing some experiences I’ve had recently with the new Kyocera Hydro Vibe 4G LTE smartphone.  One of the greatest features is that it is a smartphone which can survive up to a meter below water for up to 30 minutes, making this the ultimate summer phone.

This phone is a feature rich smart phone, which makes summer time a ton of fun.  The great thing about this phone is not having to worry about it.  It’s not this gentle, precious little piece of tech that has to be kept dry and safe at all times.  Instead it can take a bump because of its 4.5 inch qHD impact-resistant touchscreen display as well as not have to worry when your kid drops it into the pool. Again.
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– Best of Two Worlds

June 30, 2014 by 8 Comments

surface pro 2

When  on the go there are a few options in regard to how you can get those much needed last minute bits of work done.

Tablets are great because of their portability and their ability to hop on the internet and grab what you need quickly and easily.  Intuitive layout easy touch screen controls its all there.  But the keyboard.  Sure an on screen keyboard works for short blurbs or sentences here and there but a long document or huge complex spreadsheet will have to wait until you can actually type at a keyboard.  So a laptop has remained the dominant traveling workers piece of tech.  But Microsoft and Intel have come together to bring about the Surface Pro line of tablet-laptop hybrids.  These machines are built and look like a tablet but also work on a windows operating system and feature a fold up keyboard case which makes computing on the go fast, easy and portable.

Norway, Packing, Products (canon small cam) 377We were given the opportunity to try out the Surface Pro 2 which is while not the Pro 3 which was released very recently still a great machine.

Here are some of the specs for whats under the hood:

Hardware
Height 10.81 inches
Width 6.81 inches
Thickness .53 inches
Weight 2 pounds
Color Black
Speakers Stereo

Display
Screen size (diagonal) 10.6 inches
Technology LCD
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Kamino iOS App For Travel

June 24, 2014 by 3 Comments

kam

When traveling to a new place, one of the first couple of important steps is acclimating yourself to your new setting.  The best way to do this is take a walk.  Wander around a bit, see what you can find.  Go a bit off the beaten path.  This works, sometimes, but sometimes after your little stroll you come back only to find out you just missed an incredible view or the best Chinese this side of the Mississippi.  Alternately, you get crazy lost. This isn’t the end of the world but is aggravating, and it would have been nice to know what was around during your adventure.  This is the general idea behind Kamino.  Kamino lets users share their hikes around an area with other users, leading to new adventures and great finds.

Kamino is simple to use, it works using the GPS of your phone and other users suggestions.  The various hikes can include nature walks or simply a stroll around your local suburbs, highlighting locations like restaurants, recreation areas, bars, and stores.  This service can be great fun for explorers or for those of us who are not as adventurous.  Either by striking out and finding great local hot spots or having your own walking tour, this app will be a useful tool.  An important characteristic to remember is the GPS component of the app, so the user will have the GPS with them constantly.  This makes getting lost difficult and finding new stuff very easy.
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Sprint Kyocera Hydro Vibe

June 22, 2014 by 7 Comments

kyoI participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for Sprint. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and to thank me for participating.

I am a Sprint Ambassador and you will be sharing my experiences testing various Sprint devices and services for the remainder of the year.

Summer is here, and so is the sweltering heat.  The best way to beat this heat is with water.  In all shapes and sizes, from the small wading or kiddie pools in the lawn to bigger pools to the biggest oceans and water parks, they all count.  All are great fun and can be a wonderful way to spend time with your family on a hot day while keeping cool.  However, there is one natural enemy to water- electronics.  Electronics and water are mortal foes and only the most elite (or lucky) items can survive a plunge or splash.  One such item is the new Kyocera Hydro Vibe waterproof 4G LTE smartphone with Sprint, which is made to deal with all your watery days.

The Vibe has the unique characteristic of being able to survive being submerged up to a meter below surface for up to 30 minutes.  This can be superbly helpful in the summer months with trips to the beach or pool seemingly 7 days a week.  Water is everywhere and phones end up in pockets of bathing suits of course moments before a friend pushes you into the pool.  Alternately,  sitting in a beach bag near the towels, when some little rat does a cannonball and soaks everything nearby.  The possibilities are scary to think of but highly possible.  Rotten friends and kids are nothing to worry about with the Vibe- not is the everyday spill across the table where your phone is hanging out or it slipping into the sink while you wash the dishes.  I’m glad they are thinking about making phones waterproof- as they become more a part of our daily lives, they need to be better able to stand up to things.
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WIN Knivio M2 Bluetooth speaker system

June 12, 2014 by 59 Comments

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Are you looking for the perfect gift for the Dad in your life for Father’s Day?  By the way Father’s Day is this weekend, so get moving.  I have an idea for you.  Everyone loves music and I know the Dads in my life do as well.   Whether it is classic rock or easy listening Dads enjoy their tunes.  The best way to make them happy in this wireless Bluetooth digital age with an updated speaker system.  When looking for speakers be sure to go with a good system that is versatile and has sharp crisp sound.  The Knivio M2 Bluetooth speaker system is one system which hits all the marks and comes it at a nice low price point, for now.

The speakers are a 2.1 system meaning 2 satellite speakers and one sub woofer. the speakers may look small and stylish but they pack a punch.  With these speakers it is easy to fill a man cave with sound.  The et we have is now a fixture of our basement right near the retro-gaming TV.  It is quick the contrast old to new, but for any audiophile the speakers are appreciated.  Not only do the speakers support Bluetooth connections but also an RCA/3.5mm connection as well which is very nice for those of us with a more low tech man cave or if you just aren’t sure which your Dad would use anyway.
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Kirby Triple Deluxe for the 3DS

May 27, 2014 by 2 Comments

kirby

Kirby is a cute little puff ball of vacuuming power and he is now attacking the 3DS with his newest game Kirby Triple Deluxe.  In this game Kirby is collecting items, copying abilities and kicking butt.

Kirby  starts out with no weapons and few special abilities save for one.  The ability to copy enemy abilities.  Some of the abilities Kirby can copy are sword, leaf, whip, beam, ninja bomb and fighter to name a few.  All of which can be used one at a time to take out other enemies.  One of Kirby’s newest moves is the Hypernova.  This move creates a massive vacuum and lets Kirby suck up just about everything in sight including entire trees and massive enemies.  This move is larger then life and is a blast to play with.

In addition to the main story there are also other game play types available.  Even a fighting game which is cartoon y and fun.  With up to three other players this game is a blast.  Each player uses a different colored Kirby and can pick their special ability which mirror the abilities from the main game, including ninja, sword and beam.  This makes for some fast paced action  packed game play.
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