Could you live without your Smartphone?

If Deloitte’s recent study is anything to go by, no, you couldn’t live without your Smartphone. According to The Journal, the research revealed that about one in six of us are looking at our phones more than 50 times a day.

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For many of us, living without our phones and not having constant access to the internet is impossible to imagine. We spend so much time using them to check emails, update statuses, post photos and message our friends – it’s safe to say many of us need to undergo a digital detox. So are you addicted? Here are five signs that you are:

It feels like you have lost a friend when you’re without it

If you happen to lose or break your phone, it’s the worst thing in the world. You feel like you’ve lost your best friend and therefore the only way to stay in touch with the online world is to log on to your bulky home computer that takes 15 minutes to load. If you realise you’ve left it at home when you’re half way to work, you’re likely to be the sort who will turn around and deal with the consequences of being late. If you accidentally break your phone, luckily LoveFone will be there for you.
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Vtech For Summer Travel

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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Kamino iOS App For Travel

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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

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

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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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Sprint HTC One (M8) Harman/Kardon Edition

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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As part a Sprint Ambassador I am able to share new Sprint technology with you all and this is just one of those times.

In the ever expanding cell phone market it can be difficult sometimes to find the right phone for you.  Each seem to be able to do so much and fit in the palm of your hand.  Sprint has one such phone which specializes in music.  This phone is the HTC One (M8) Harman/Kardon Edition.  This phone’s most unique features all center around making your music sound better and discovering more of it while also being a stellar smart phone.

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Sprint has been giving its clients a constantly evolving choice in cell phones.  One of their most recent the HTC One (M8) Harman/Kardon Edition is no different.  The device runs Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) and has a blazing fast 2.3 GHz Quad Core Snapdragon Processor.  Both of which make this the phone to have to run all those Android Apps everyone is always suggesting.  Audio is where this phone really kicks in.  Most noticeably when listening to a personal mp3 file on this device then on any other.  The sound is astounding, even when the files are compressed.  With Clari-fi technology your music files are restored in real time to their original sound, even the bits lost to compression  Not only does your music sound great but so does Spotify.  With Sprint’s Sound Session, now a catalog of nearly 20 million songs is are your finger tips.
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Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition

There are a ton of great tablets out there and to help you differentiate the good, the bad and the meh.  We at Have Sippy are taking a look at the Samsung Galaxy Not 10.1 2014 Edition.    This tablet has a huge screen, is responsive, easy to use, and fun.  It’s great even in the sun, has little to no glare, and has a great battery life as well.

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The Galaxy starts off with the familiar Galaxy Note 10.1.   The Galaxy Note starts with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.  With an impressive 2560×1600 WQXGA 4 million pixels display pictures and video look incredible and the size of the screen is almost.  Images are sharp, videos clear.  With a 1.9GHz Samsung Exynos 5420 Quad-Core Processor games and applications scream with speed.  Each app opens quickly and easily.  The tablet also has a 8M camera with flash and 2M full HD capabilities.  The camera does a good job and pictures are sharp video it can record at 30 fps in 1080p resolution.

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One of the most interesting aspects of the Galaxy Note is the S Pen.  The S Pen is like a super smart stylus.  Not only is it for dragging and clicking and writing but also navigation via the Air Command Menu.  With this menu users can get additional information about a  highlighted object with Air View.  Also available are: Scrap Booker which lets you copy and paste anything for later use.   Action Memo lets you write down a note at any time.  s Finder, helps organize and keep your data in order.  Screen Write is a lot like the print screen on a desktop.  But instead also opens up an graphics program to play with to your heart’s content.  Last but not least there is the Pen Window, that acts like a Picture in Picture for the Note.  You can open an App in an App.  IS open a calculator while working on a  word document, watch a silly cat video between worksheets in Youtube or simply check your calendar before making an appointment.
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Yoshi’s New Island Video Game

Disclosure: The below was provided for me in order to facilitate my review. All opinions are my own and honest. I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC Guidelines. Please see “Disclose” tab for more information.

toys and nintendo 062Yoshi is one of the most beloved characters created  by Nintendo.  The reasons being that he is cute, tough, and hey- he throws eggs.  He is the quintessential assistant and mode of transportation.  Lets face it, if we could call ride a Yoshi to work or school everyday we would.  This lovable dinosaur is back in the Yoshi’s New Island for the Nintendo 3DS and 2DS.

The game starts out with the familiar stork and Mario story.  Mario is bring carried to his parents, but along the way the stork is attacked by Kamek, causing Mario to fall to Egg Island- and the adventure begins.  This game plays like other Nintendo plat-formers, but with a more child friendly theme.  Many textures look like crayon or pencil drawings, while the main characters are brightly colored and vibrant.  Their animation seamless and a pleasure to watch and play.  As with most recent Nintendo plat-formers, if the player is stuck at a point in the game, wings, then golden wings are available for usage.  These help Yoshi to fly, holding down the jump button, and make him invulnerable to most attacks.
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