HiTechMommy

Geek Dads It's Your Time To Shine!

Today’s geek = A cool geek dad who is the definition of cool.  He's a confident, tech-savvy, engaged father who shares his passion for tech with his kids, creating new family traditions in his own way.  Personally it's one the most attractive aspects to my man.  He's into making sure we have all the right tech, that it works properly and that we ENJOY using it!

I found this really interesting - The Confessions of a Geek Dad survey conducted by Cisco Linksys sought to shed light on the emerging generation of guys fed on technology as children, and is now passing on this passion to their kids. The survey conducted in December found that a lot of dads are straight up  Proud to be geeks!  Nearly 70% of geek dads consider themselves to be cooler than other dads, with 75% of them attributing it to creating a home their kids’ friends enjoy hanging out at.  I just LOVE this! Also,   70% of geek dads say their kids think they’re cool because they’re tech-savvy, and that makes 87% of geek dads proud or humored. 

The Survey also pointed out that being savvy still comes with some trade-offs.  They found that 35% of geek dads say their partners get annoyed when they spend time alone playing with technology, yet 92% say their partners expect them to be the ones to maintain the home tech.  One in five geek dads admit to using technology in secret to avoid being discovered by their wives.  This cracks me up because I know this happens in my house but I don't care.  

 The last stat I found interesting shows an interesting redefinition in what's considered "quality time" with the kids. The numbers show that  71% of geek dads spend more time doing activities with their kids than their fathers did with them. 72% are more excited about teaching kids how to use tech tools than traditional tools, like a hammer or power drill.

 The survey showed that slow Internet (25 percent) and Wi-Fi connectivity issues (19 percent) are the top frustrations geek dads face when it comes to home technologies. Cisco says its  new Linksys E4200V2 Maximum Performance Wireless-N Dual Band Router, might be the answer to that,  geek dad or not, users get maximum streaming speed for HD/3D quality video streaming, superior wireless coverage, and faster USB hard drive disk performance for streaming media.

Also Geek Dads, check this out.  Cisco is giving away $10,000 in cool geeky tools to a lucky winner on their Facebook page!  Go to their Facebook page and tell them "What kind of new family tradition you or the Geek Dad

in your life is creating that demonstrates geek cool and helps develop your kids love and fascination of technology."

My question is - What's it like in your home? 

 

TODAY Show - Halloween!!

I LOVE Halloween tech!  Here's a TODAY Show segemnt alll about it! Enjoy!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Yup, Jack actually said...

During a recent wellness checkup for Jack, the doctor asked Jack, "What is your favorite food?" Grinning, Jack said, "Avocado." The doctor went on and asked, can he ride a bike, does he sleep well, does it hurt to poop and do you like bath time? But then the question came..."How often do you brush your teeth?" To which Jack earnestly replied, "I brush my teeth every night at my Daddy's but I never have to brush them at my Mommy's." 5 seconds of horrifying silence was broken only by the doctor chuckling saying Jack should brush his teeth every night no matter where he is. Where was a hole I could crawl into? I looked to the web for help. 

Check-In for Checkups directly benefits the Children’s Health Fund, an organization founded by Paul Simon and pediatrician/child advocate Irwin Redlener, MD. Children’s Health Fund provides comprehensive medical, dental and mental health care to homeless and low-income children.
Click into Check-In for Checkups everyday with your own healthy habit and each time Clorox will donate 10¢, up to $100,000, toward vital doctor visits for these underserved children. Involve your own children in healthy habit discussions, log into Check-In for Checkups every day, enter their healthy habit and watch the tally board go up!

You can guess what our first Check-In for Checkups healthy habit was! Mmmm, benefits children who might not otherwise receive medical attention, easy to use and gets Jack to brush his teeth. Win Win Win!

Tell me your first Check-In for Checkups healthy habit. Did it stem from an embarrassing moment?

P.S.   I wanted to say congratulations to the Techmamas  on being named one of the top 100 websites for women! In a recent blog they mentioned Check-in for Checkups being run by Clorox. 

 

Jack Draws Anything

 

I received a very touching email this morning from a dad.  Take a look and ask the kid to draw something!

 

Hi Cat

Thanks for getting in touch. What can I say. Hopefully you have had alook at Jack's website - http://jackdrawsanything.com/. In his words -"Welcome to my website. I am drawing *anything* to raise funds for the Sick Kids, just ask me. My brother goes in a lot. My name is JACK and I am 6 years old."

Jack (6) is my oldest kid and we have a sick brother Noah (1),
breathing problems, oxygen, you name it, always in and out of hospital (11th time last week). Jack gets an idea to raise money for the hospital by drawing *anything* in exchange for donations.

We also have a middle brother Toby (3). Daddy builds website, target of £100(family & friends) is smashed in hours as the site goes viral and we are currently sitting at £12,800 with 500 drawings to do (122 done). Requests from all round the world in only 5 weeks. Website had over
100,000 visits.

We are keen to spread the word and keep those donations coming in, as Jack is still drawing. Anything you could do to help would be awesome,share, spread the word, donate, request a picture, anything!

 

Update:  Here's a picture of Jack!

CES 2011

I'm so excited to finally be here! The show begins tomorrow but I already have my eye on a few cool gadgets that I hope to see in my home this year. 

Here's a video about Kenmore Connect

I'm a lady who likes her laundry machines and this Kenmore Elite washer with Kenmore Connect is awesome! Not only is it a fantastic high efficiency washer, but it has the ability to communicate  directly with the service technicians to diagnose any problems or answer my questions via a technology called Kenmore Connect.  This technology is breakthrough for home appliances and won a CES Innovation Award.  Moreover, it’s available now for FREE with your Kenmore or Kenmore Elite laundry washer or dryer. Simply call and let your machine do the talking!  How cool is that? 

Smartphones are all over the showroom floor this year and this one stands out. The  Motorola CLIQ 2 with MOTOBLUR helps me make the most of my day by managing both my work and home life. With three sets of home screens for home, work and weekend, I can access the apps, shortcuts and widgets I need, whenever I need them.  Powered by a 1 GHz processor and enhanced speeds on T-Mobile's 4G network, CLIQ 2 can keep up, no matter where my busy life takes me. Love it!

And as a mom with a smart phone and a 4 year old- I know kids LOVE to play with them as much as they can and they often get them dirty!   I ran into these new 3M Natural View Screen Protectors and fell in love! They’re easy to apply because work like a sticker and are easy to put on and if needed, take off. They protect your smartphone against scratches and smudges from dirty little fingers! They come for a variety of smartphones and they even have one for the iPad! They start at $14.95.

As a mom I  know all too well  how important it is to capture those precious memories and I've found an awesome way to do it! This  is the new Samsung HMX-Q10 and it's the featured camcorder at CES! It makes it so easy for me to capture moments with its “one button” operation.  And here's something unusual, is has this awesome “switch grip”  I can switch from left to right and the LCD screen auto-adjusts itself. Plus it’s completely full-HD.

This is going to be a very cool year in technology!  

Holiday Is Coming!

Holiday shopping is just around the corner and moms and dads all across the country are starting to ask - what's going to be hot this holiday? Don't worry guys, I've got ya covered with this first round of holiday tech 2010!

Motion controlled gaming is continuing to make waves this holiday and Sony's kicking things up a notch by offering HD! Using the PlayStation Eye Toy in conjunction with their new, cool PlayStation Move controller, gamers get the latest in precision motion control on a wide variety of games that the whole family will love! My family loved the PlayStation Move Start Bundle's game , Sports Champions but also enjoyed the singing games, and Eye Pet. PlayStation move is going to be the hottest thing this holiday in the gaming space so get 'em while ya can!

If your family is anything like mne then I'm sure someone is going to be asking for a new laptop! This one's easy - the HPEnvy14 Beast Edition is THE coolest laptop to drop in a while thanks to the collaboration between HP, Dr.Dre, Interscope Records and Jimmy Iovine. They made this baby not only look super cool with it's black housing and red light up keys, but the screen is amazing, the size is slim and the sound quality is not to be believed allowing you to listen to your music the way the artist intended you to.

Next up is something I was totally blown away by, a 3D still camera! This thing is so cool I could hardly believe it! This is the perfect gift for the person who has everything and who has a love for tech From FujiFilm this is the FinePix Real 3D W3 and it's the FIRST camera that lets you take 2D and 3D photos as well as record HD video~ It actually has two lenses build into it and two processors that create these unbelievable images! You can view the coolness right on the screen or hook it into your 3D TV or laptop. If you want to print out the images you simple upload them to Fuji's site, SeeHere.com and can order prints that look fantastic!

Looking for a gift for a practical person, someone who loves to travel or a student? Magic Jack is one of the coolest inventions I've seen come around in a while! It's a device that you plug your standard phone into on one end, then on the other , your computer. Now your ready to make and receive phone calls, from the same number, anywhere in the world! This device eliminates the need for monthly phone bills and for $40 for the first year and $20 each year after that, you're making calls with no monthly fees! Need voicemail, caller ID, call waiting and so on? No problem, Magic Jack does it all!

This next gift could is a really cool and unique idea for anyone and could be a life altering moment for the recipient. It's a brand new web address that's called .co and it's sweeping the web as THE next big domain name extension to have. All of the .com names are taken and the web truly is headed towards this new era so you've gotta get on it, mom! What you do is head to their website, www.givea.co, no "m" needed, and there you'll buy a gift certificate that you can print out and stick into a card. With this gift someone can then snag their kid's names (which EVERY parent should own), the name for a business , a blog or website. Think about it - Google, Yahoo, Facebook - these all started as domain names and have changed our lives. Remember, for now on, .co is the way to go!

eBayClassifieds on BigTent

OK, I love this. And it's not just because I work with eBay Classifieds, it's because it makes my life easier.  

If you're a mom who buys new stuff for your kids the second they grow out of the old stuff, which is all of you, then you know that using the moms in your area to look for used items is a great resource.  We trust these ladies.  We feel like if we're going to need a set of kid sized snow skis for the one time we're heading to the mountain this winter,  we're going to ask if any fellow moms have some for sale before we run to buy a new pair. 

This process of looking for the things we need just got even easier.  Bigtent, one of the largest group creation sites on the web, now has an eBay Classifieds tab on every page!  This means that now you can post things to buy/sell/trade among the group of people you're already interacting with online! 

Are you in a Bigtent group?  Will you use the feature?  Let me know!

PicPocket Books iPhone App

 

 If you're like me, and you have several kids in  the house that are learning to read, sometimes you need a way to occupy your child when you need a second. How great if you can buy a few minutes of entertainment that is educational, too?  This means everything to me and I've found that PicPocket Books offers really amazing looking kids picture books as apps, and you can feel good about handing your phone over.

Reading a book on a screen has the same educational, mind-opening benefits as reading a traditional print book: it increases vocabulary, improves concentration and focus, and expands horizons- so I'm all for it! PicPocket Books offers parents and their kids an alternative to flashy, and sometimes violent, fast-paced video games. The bookapps have some simple animations and/or interactive hot spots to encourage exploration and engagement, but generally, they place a priority on fidelity to the original picture book.

PicPocket Books is a big advocate of reading aloud to kids, and they say that bookapps are supplements, not replacements, for print books and the valuable time parents can spend reading with their kids. But if having kids books available on your iPhone means more exposure to stories and enthusiasm for reading for kids, then that's a very good thing!

Back To School

Yesterday I was on The TODAY Show talking about Back To School and today I was talking about more BTS tech all across the country.  Here's some of the great tech I talked about!

 
 
 

Did you know that 2/3 of parents say that electronic devices are increasingly becoming a part of the back to school routine. Laptops, digital cameras, iPods with learning apps on them all include items I've sent my kids off to school with at one time or another.  Two products you’ll need to keep your kids devices always powered up are the Duracell Instant Charger  and the Duracell my Grid.  The first is great for on-the-go power  with its slim size size and phat power capacity,  it provides up to 35 hours of reserve power and it’s small enough to throw in their backpack or keep in their desk at school. And at home, the Duracell MyGrid is great because you can charge up to 4 devices at once meaning no wires and no clutter. Mommy likes!  From cell phones to their mp3 players, you can make sure everyone’s gadgets are charged each night.

 

If you're running Windows on your kid's computers, a great FREE upgrade tip for parents is to make  sure they have the most up-to-date software to ensure they’re protected from harmful viruses and spyware.  A lot of parents don’t know what version of Windows they’re running so you can do a quick check on your computer then download the FREE upgrade if needed.  To see if you're running Windows XP Service Pack 3, which is what you want to be running,  this is what you need to do:  click the start button on the bottom left of your screen, click run, then type in “WINVER” ( this stands for "Windows Version").   Look for the text to read "Windows version XP SP3 or Windows 7".    If need be you can download the latest version online.  Each month, or as needed, Windows will now be able to communicate with your PC to assure it's emunie system is nice and strong!

   
 
 

Did you know that cyber-bullying is a HUGE issue that's affecting more than 40% of teens? It's quite upsetting but you can empower yourself if you know what to do.  You can protect your children with a service called SafetyWeb that works as an “internet cheat sheet” for parents.  You can monitor online interactions your teen are having based on their email address. This means anything they do  on facebook, twitter, and all over the web can be viewed by you which gives you the power to make the best decisions over you children's actions. This service is thurough, easy to use and is extremely valuable. 
 

 
Lastly, I have to admit, getting my kids to do homework usually involves some sort of negotiation.  Using video games is my secret weapon because they really get the kids to do what I need them to do !  The kids in my house love the Wii, and so do I,  so I feel like I win when we play something like Tetris Party Deluxe.  They're concentrating on putting together the puzzles instead of just mindless entertainment - and I like it.  It’s a great new twist on one of the world’s most popular games which has over 20 game modes and since I love it as much as they do, it’s a great way for me to bond with them after a long day of us all working hard.  This game is also available to love on the Nintendo DS. 

Mothering21.com - Have kids over 21?

Do you have a kid over 21?  If you do then this is a site you should check out.  I can't imagine Jack at 21, he just turned 3,  but the day is coming and I'm interested. From the mom behind Mothering21.com, check it out!

Hi Cat,

Thanks for asking....

The idea for the blog came from discussions with friends and acquaintances who have "children" over the age of 21. We found that after decades of hands-on parenting it was hard not be involved  in our adult children's lives from the college years right through the grandparenting years.

Sometimes it's we moms who don't want to give them wings and others times it's our children who still want our help.  For an number of reasons, including constant contact thanks to texting, email, cell phones, and  the internet, it seems that it's really hard to cut that umbilical cord.

Mothering21.com will take a look at a wide variety of issues, from the mundane (whose wedding is it? ) to the serious (adult children moving back home for financial reasons) and everything in between. 

I edit the site with a mix of links to relevant, topical pieces as well as original content.  I welcome contributions from other moms (and dads too) and hope that we can provide a place where parents can openly discuss some touchy--and touching--topics.

Best, Mary