Welcome! Are you an over scheduled mom with little time to figure out technology? Or are you a technology guru who loves sharing tips with others?
We cover different ways to make technology work for you without spending hours researching and learning how to do it on your own.
|
 by Dan Van Beek
Editors Note: Just got back from the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I took lots of pictures and have lots to show and tell you. More coming next week!
My boys and I are suckers for racing games. We’ve tried them all; Gran Turismo, San Francisco Rush, Forza Motorsports, Need for Speed and Mario Kart, to name a few. We also sport all the necessary attachments to get the most out of our racing experience (wheels and floor pedals). So when we had the opportunity to play and review NASCAR Unleashed* we jumped at the opportunity.
Now mind you, my boys are 10 and 13, so their reflexes are far sharper than mine. At the onset of the game all I managed to do was spin-out over and over again while my boys managed to learn the intricacies and finesse of hugging corners and leveraging the track for time. What we noticed immediately different about this game that differs from other racing games is how a player gains boosts. It is done by taking out opponents (which in-turn become rivals), drifting turns correctly, completing objectives, and pit stops.
However, my favorite part of the game is when you end up leaving the racetrack behind and hit the public streets. All &$%# breaks loose. It is a relentless, unavoidable, edge-of-your-seat, stuff flying everywhere, trees in the road, rip-roaring experience. All this is going on as your rivals nip at your heels at breakneck speeds. We laughed at our own mayhem and misfortune from start to finish.
The graphics aren’t ground breaking, but it does deliver enough information to help you manage the course correctly. But then again, it’s not intended to be the game that immerses you in an accurate representation of NASCAR driving, instead it’s built to for fun. If you are looking for a racing game the whole family can play without the frustrating learning curve, this is the game for you. So break out your mullet wigs, sleeveless shirts and Start Your Engines!
NASCAR Unleashed is available on the Wii ($39.99) and the PlayStation 3 ($29.96) through Amazon.com with free super saver shipping.
* I was given a copy of NASCAR Unleashed in exchange for my honest opinion.
Click on pen to 
by Lori Cunningham
Today I take off for the 3 1/2 hour trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to make my pilgrimage to CES - one of the largest consumer electronics shows in the world. This will be my third trip as Editor/Founder of the WellConnectedMom.com and TheWellConnectedHome.com.
The first day will cover trends and some of the new products debuting at the show. The second day will be back-to-back press conferences by Panasonic, LG, Intel, Sony, and much more. The next four days I’ll be walking through the hundreds of exhibits and meeting with companies. Many companies wait until CES to make their major announcements about new products they will debuting this year. A lot of these announced products aren’t even finished yet. Some will be out within a month, others within 3-9 months.
Get a glimpse of what happened at the show last year: The Consumer Electronics Show in Pictures (2011).
Out of the hundreds of thousands of gadgets, choosing the best products for Moms can be quite difficult. I look for unique products that Moms most likely haven’t heard of but would love if they knew about them. Products I’ve featured are the ZOMM to help you keep track of your cellphone, the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach which helps you assess your sleep patterns, the Cisco Valet where moms can set up their own wireless network…without help, and the Eye-Fi which will automatically download your pictures from your camera as soon as you get home and turn on your camera (works with wireless home networks).
Read about these great products and more:
CES 2011: Great Technology Products for Moms
CES 2010: Great Technology Products for Moms
Each year I also cover the top trends I’ve identified by attending press conferences, CES Association trend analysis meetings, and my walking the tradeshow floor. This past year the connected car was big along with apps everywhere (on all devices), and the connected TV (or Smart TV).
In 2010, the tablet was the hottest trend, which of course continues onto this year. Same with 3D TV and eReaders.
Read more of the trends I predicted:
Top 6 Products Trends of 2011
Top 6 Products Trends of 2010
I can’t wait to get you up-to-date on more technology and find those gems that won’t get much attention in the news but are gadgets moms need to know about. If you’re curious about a particular product or want me to report back on something specific just leave a comment after this article and I’ll get on the project!
As we enter this New Year, I am blessed by your subscriptions, tweets, comments, readership, and recommendationsWellConnectedMom.com to your friends. Thank you.
Click on pen to
 by Lori Cunningham
While at the Consumer Electronics Show last January, I ran across a company that makes a 8 1/2″ x 1″ portable scanner. I was intrigued because the thought of taking a scanner on the road with me never entered my mind. I began thinking about how I would use it. I could use it to scan in sales materials from tradeshows so I wouldn’t have to lug them back. Cool. I could scan in business cards so I wouldn’t lose them in travel or in a drawer at home. Nice. But the question was, would I be able to find them on my computer when I needed them?
Enter Neat Receipts. Neat Receipts is a company that makes scanners JUST for organizing. They go one step further than scanning– they also use Optimal Character Resolution (OCR) to read the words on scanned documents so you can search for keywords easily later. Brilliant!
What You Can Scan In:
For Business
- receipts
- invoices
- business cards
- sales documents
- collateral
- meeting minutes
- napkin ideas/drawings from that late dinner
- contracts
- reports
For Home
- clippings from magazines and newspapers you want to keep (think Pinterest!)
- kids’ report cards
- kids’ artwork
- school paperwork
- letters
- Christmas and/or Birthday cards you want to keep
- drivers license/credit cards/passports/birth certificates – anything else you want to back up in case lost
- pictures
- business cards
- warranties
- insurance policies
- invoices
- instruction manuals
- receipts
- medical/health information
- doctor reports
- prescriptions
- family recipes
- family history documents
Features
- All scanned items are searchable
- You can create expense reports and print them out complete with copies of receipts
- Helps you to track your expenses for budgets and for tax time
- Data can be exported to PDF, Excel®, Quicken®, QuickBooks®, TurboTax®
- Business card information can be exported to Outlook, Plaxo, or Mac Address book
- You can scan documents into PDF’s
How I’m Organizing
Business Cards:
I went from this nicely organized way of filing my business cards to………..
Now my cards are out of sight, fully searchable, and travelable!
Receipts:
I went from this drawer full of messy receipts…. To filed receipts and the ability to look at the details of each receipt.
There’s more!
Need to create Expense Reports?
If you are a business traveler and you need to keep track of your expenses to submit, bring along your NeatReceiptsscanner. Submitting business expenses has never been easier. You can create a Business Expense Report which will show you a summary of all of your expenses along with a copy of each receipt you scanned in for that report.
NeatReceipts mobile scanner MRSP is $199 but can be found at Amazon.com for $175.23.
A Mom’s Perspective
There are two types of way people organize their papers:
1. Pile Style – where you have piles all over your desk
2. File Style – all of your papers are filed away, neat in their files
I am a Pile Styler and my husband is a Filer Styler. Needless to say, he can find important information ALOT faster than I. But, that’s about to change. No longer will I have piles of business cards to file away. No longer will I have a mess of a file drawer. Now in 2012, I will be scanning in all of my business cards and receipts. It doesn’t take long to do so and it will make it SO much easier to retrieve information within minutes – even seconds – when I need it.
I have piles of things for the kids on my desk – upcoming after school classes, party details, projects, classroom rules, grade level expectations, the list goes on! I keep the piles handy so I can get to them when I need them. NO LONGER. I will scan the info. into my computer and file under a certain month folder, say “February”, or file under my child’s name – probably in a more detailed folder like “Classroom Activities.”
I’m very excited to start of clean in the New Year with a much more organized, more searchable, more travelable, less visible-data rich office environment. How about you? How do you plan to organize your desk in this New Year?
* I was provided with a NeatReceipts mobile scanner in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. I am using Neat Receipts on a weekly basis.
Click on pen to
|
|
Use the Highlighter
This website now has an AutoPublish widget: