Home for the Connected Holidays

This post is sponsored by Lunchbox. All opinions are my own.

Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro the house,

Not a device was stirring, not even me with my PC mouse,

The devices were charging, all plugged in with care,

In the hopes to be used all day and not having to share.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds

While visions of Minecraft and Skylander characters all danced in their heads.

And Mama with her tablet and Dad with his remote

Had just settled down after putting to sleep the kids of whom they dote.

When downstairs below there arose such a clatter

I ran down below to ensure our gadgets didn’t shatter.

The Christmas tree blazed with LED sparkle

I glanced in the stockings to ensure there was no charcoal.

When, what to my dazzling eyes should appear,

A bustling red-suited man with gadgets he held dear…

Oh, it’s going to be another great digital Christmas!  As my kids grow older, their tastes are maturing.  Board games and stuffed animals are fun, but what they really want is their own  tablet…one they don’t have to share.  You see, as a well connected mom, we have more than our share of tablets…but they belong to the  family, not to any one child.  My kids are dreaming of the day they have a tablet to call their own.

I remember when I bought my first tablet, because I wanted extra memory, it cost me $900!  Ikes!  Today, the prices are come down dramatically and you can find a reasonably priced tablet for your child that they can enjoy and you can feel less nauseous should they drop it or lose it.

Back in My Day

Reflecting back to when I was a child, we had Barbies that didn’t talk…and aspire to much, we had huge record players with built-in stereo to listen to our tunes.  We had Atari and played video games with characters made from squares (pixels) bigger than Minecraft.  Atari was all the rage.  There was hardly a day I didn’t play my Atari games.  We watched ON TV and waited for a good movie to come one and ensure we were there when it did, as DVR’s hadn’t come along yet.

We also had a Windows PC.  It was my first connection into a limited connected world and I loved it.  I never dreamed of moving my PC to another room other than the office and the idea of resting in bed while playing solitaire, it never entered my mind.  And using it to communicate with friends?  Why?  We just picked up the phone.  Granted, I wasn’t as “connected” with friends back then as I am now, but at time, that’s all we had, as email wasn’t prevalent yet.

The Benefits of Tablets

Coming back today’s time, it’s absolutely amazing to me how far technology has come.  People as no longer as tethered to their desks as they once were.  You don’t even need to take a laptop with you when you travel anymore, as a tablet with a keyboard is all you need, lightening up your briefcase.

Tablets provide…

• instant communication through chat, email, and apps
• hours of entertainment through movies, TV Shows, and music
• reading to your heart’s content
• the ability to be your own DJ with curated favorite lists
• live video conversation between people…near or afar
• unlimited games…paid and free…to engage…and distract us
• productivity suites like Office 365 to create, edit, and read documents on the fly
• directions to places you’ve never been
• a camera and video camera ready to capture action at a moment’s notice
• shopping at your fingertips…at top dollar or discounted
• control over your lighting, TV, stereos and more
• job opportunities…with social connection and job searching
• connection to your kids’ schools to download homework assignments and read online books

The list goes on.

Windows Connected Tablets

Although laptops are more robust, most of the time you don’t need all of that power and memory.  Today’s tablets are more convenient, touch-oriented, weigh less, and travel more easily than their laptop counterparts.  With Windows connected tablets selling for as little as $149, it’s never been easier to give a gift for the Holidays that provides endless entertainment for you or your children.

Here’s a sampling of the Windows connected tablets available right now Walmart:

$149      Nextbook 8″ Tablet  with Windows 8.1, comes with a quad-core Intel processor, 1280×800 resolution touchscreen, and a 16GB  bonus Micro SD card

$199      Toshiba Encore 2 with Windows 8.1, comes with a quad-core processor 1280×800 resolution touchscreen and 8 GB RAM memory included

$394     Asus T100 – a more robust Windows 8.1 tablet with a quad-core processor, 10.1 inch 1366 x 768 resolution touchscreen, an included keyboard

Two Top Benefits of a Windows Connected Tablet

1.  You can have multiple profiles on one tablet.  So one child can have their own set-up with favorites saved on her browser, apps organized like she likes, and her email ready, while another child can have his own set-up.  You can even have your own profile.  No other tablets are offering this.

2.  Microsoft offers 15 GB of free cloud storage on their OneDrive, allowing your content to follow you whether it’s on your PC, phone, or tablet.  I use this all the time.  I save OneNote documents on my PC at home and pull them up on my phone when out and about.  One time I forgot to bring my paper files with me.  No worries, I just opened up my OneDrive and I could share the documents on my tablet because they were saved in the cloud.  And yes, every profile will get their own 15 GB of storage!

Windows Connected Holiday Contest

To learn more about various Windows connected devices, Walmart and Microsoft are teaming up to give you a chance to win a $500 Walmart Gift Card PLUS a new Windows device.

Connected Holiday Contest

o 2  Asus T-100’s
o  Dell 3000
o  HP X360 Hero
o  Toshiba Radius
o  Lenovo Flex 2
o  Toshiba Encore

*  This post is sponsored by Lunchbox. All opinions are my own.