Technology | The Angel Forever

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Apps for The Festival of Lights

Posted on November 17, 2014 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

No matter how you spell it, The Festival of Lights begins at sundown on December 16, 2014. That means that we will just finish lighting the candles on our menorah before everyone else is celebrating Christmas. To get into the holiday spirit, I thought I would share some fun apps that my family will be enjoying this Hanukkah (or Chanukah).

Menorah – Chanukah

This app is a virtual menorah that will help users to light their Chanukah candles each night. There is an animation that will actually show you which way to add and light candles once the holiday begins. In addition to this, you may listen to Chanukah prayers with music. The menu at the bottom also allows you to follow along with the prayers in Hebrew, English, or the transliteration.

The boys and I can not wait to have this to listen to while we light our candles each night.

Match 8 Hanukkah Game

For some reason, we never found this game last year, but this year we are going to be addicted. Match 8 Hanukkah is a game that adds a touch of math with a twist. You must combine candles on the menorah so they add up to the number eight. As you do this, the candles will be burning and you do not want them to burn out. It is a simple and very addictive game. As you increase levels it gets a lot faster. You need to be quick with your fingers to combine candles before they burn and time runs out.

I have a feeling we will be having Match 8 competitions over the next few weeks.

Droidel

Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I play it on an app. When it’s time for Chanukah, I spin my 3D top! Yes Droidel is an Android version of the dreidel game. The count down calendar let’s us know how many more days until the Festival of Lights begins. We can customize the game for 2-4 players, change the song that plays, add a name to the droidel, and keep track of the spin statistics. The boys are having a blast using this one already and I have a feeling they may compete with the Droidel and reals dreidels once the holiday begins.

When I put this onto my phone, I missed the fact that it is not compatible with my Galaxy S5. It does work, but I am unable to get the settings menu which is there for other Android devices. Be sure to check and see if it will work with yours before you download. Without the menu, you will not be able to adjust the player options, see your spin statistics, change the type of dreidel, or access other customizations.

What are some of your favorite apps for the holiday season? I would love to know, so please share in the comments below.

Disclosure: As a member of the Verizon Lifestyle Bloggers, I receive devices like the Samsung Galaxy S5 to test out and share ways that I use it in my life. I am a long time Verizon customer, and all opinions are my own.

Categories:
holidays Technology

Team Spirit for Your Smartphone and HopeLine

Posted on October 29, 2014 12:07 pm by TheAngelForever

Dropping my smartphone and cracking the screen is something that worries me a lot. It had never happened until the morning that I can still see in slow motion. I was standing in the hallway of our elementary school. Suddenly, the phone slipped between my hand and my son’s hand. I stood there and watched helplessly as my smartphone went flying from several feet in the air to the marble floor below. Typically, I put phones into something immediately, but had not had a chance for this one. As I picked it up off the floor, I held my breath. I was so very lucky, that phone only had a small little crack in the corner and it has not spread.

When my precious Samsung Galaxy S5 arrived, I wasted no time and went to our local Verizon Wireless store before I activated the phone. At the time, the phone had just been released and there were not a lot of cases. I still knew just what I wanted to purchase. Since I knew my boys would be using it with me, the Defender by OtterBox was calling my name. This case has saved my phone more than once. We are big OtterBox fans for our tablets and my first run with a phone case has been impressive.

Now imagine being able to cheer on your favorite NFL team while protecting your prized phone at the same time. Thanks to OtterBox and and the NFL pairing up – Verizon Wireless website, football fans from all 32 teams may purchase a Defender by OtterBox for their iPhone 5/5S, Galaxy S4, and Galaxy S5.

Thanks to #VZWBuzz, I received a Buffalo Bills case to dress up my Galaxy S5 for football season. Since it’s the same great Defender series by OtterBox, I can let up on my defense mode to let my kids touch my phone. Oh and for those with a tendency to be butterfingers, I am able to let down my guard about fumbling my Galaxy S5. It’s also fun to see closet Buffalo Bills fans notice my case and give me a thumbs up. It isn’t every day that someone in New York can brag about a winning record in Buffalo (5-3 at the moment).

Which team OtterBox are you looking at and what would you love to see next?

If you are a Verizon Wireless customer, be sure to login to your account. When I look at mine right now, the OtterBox line is 25% off. If the NFL is not your thing, there are plenty of other great accessories available. Those with an iPhone 6 can check out the OtterBox Commuter Series supporting HopeLine from Verizon Wireless during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. There are additional items for the rest of October in purple for HopeLine like the LG Tone Pro headset on Verizon Wireless that I have been eyeing. As always, please consider donating phones that you are not using to HopeLine from Verizon where they will get the refurbished devices with 3,000 minutes and texting to survivors of domestic violence that are with participating domestic violence agencies.

Here’s the VZWBuzz Recap from October 10, 2014 with TheOnlineMom about HopeLine from Verizon.

Have you ever donated a phone to HopeLine? If you have I would love to know your experience. If you have not, please look at the information and consider helping this amazing cause.

Disclosure: As a member of the Verizon Lifestyle Bloggers, I receive devices like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and accessories like the NFL Otterbox to test out and share ways that I use it in my life. I am a long time Verizon customer, and all opinions are my own.

Categories:
PSA Technology

Apps to Work on Math Fact Fluency and Counting Money

Posted on October 20, 2014 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Over the last few years, the focus of math education has changed drastically at the elementary school level. Students used to spend a lot of time learning math facts and other basics, now children are diving deeper into mathematics at an earlier age. As a parent and teacher, I see a major difference in these automatic math skills from my oldest son to my younger son. At open house, my son’s teacher noted that they wanted kids to work at home on math fact fluency. They had also seen a decline in the ability of kids to just know the math facts in recent years. To help my second grader with this, we are using the online program that was suggested, but I wanted some more fun items to have on his tablet. Thanks to Verizon Educational Tools, I was able to search for just what I was looking for. I selected two apps to try with JSL. One would work on math fact fluency and the other would practice with counting money.

$Apps to Work on Math Fact Fluency and Counting Money$

Bubble Pop Math Challenge 1-2

Bubble Pop Math Challenge 1-2 is a free app that you may pay to upgrade.

$Bubble Pop Math Challenge 1-2$

The app that you get free includes addition facts for sums up to 10 and sums to 20. After this, you can pay to unlock subtraction, money, and time categories for additional math skill practice. These additional bundles cost 99 cents each or you can get the three for $1.99.

Lakeshore shares that the app was made to meet these objectives:

Use strategies to add and subtract fluently
Tell and write time in hours and half hours using analog and digital clocks
Add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies; know from memory all sums of two and 1-digit numbers
Tell and write time to the nearest five minutes using a.m. and p.m.
Solve word problems with dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickles, and pennies using dollar and cent symbols

$Bubble Pop Math Challenge 1-2$

There are eight levels of play for each area of the app. As kids move along they earn points and the pace continues to increase. So far, JSL has only tried the free portions of the game, but he likes it enough that we will probably spend the $1.99 to allow him to do more in the upcoming weeks. He really likes that you simply look at the math problem and pop the bubble as fast as you can to get points within 60 seconds. Your goal is to get as many points and keep bubbles from hitting the water where they pop.

$Bubble Pop Math Challenge 1-2 - addition$

I appreciate the simplicity of this app. It does not make JSL anxious as he works on fluency of math facts. Some educational apps go too quickly, increase music volume, and can make even an adult nervous. The cute frog blowing bubbles that you need to pop while doing math is perfect to keep kids practicing over and over again. Another item to think about is that Bubble Pop Math Challenge 3-4 is also available and works with children on multiplication, division, rounding, and fractions.

Freefall Money – Coin Math

Freefall Money – Coin Math is a free app that is available to help children work on counting money.

While JSL can count money, he needs a bit more practice. This seems to have been covered only a little in previous years, so I wanted to make sure that JSL could go shopping and count money on his own. The nice thing about Freefall Money is that you can adjust the settings. Kids can work their way up from problems using only three coins to ten.

The coin illustrations are wonderful and do a great job for kids to recognize. If the coins are too close together, you are able to move them apart to make it easier to count the amount of money easier. Kids can match coins to amounts, tell the amount, and fill the piggy bank with a specific amount of money. The level of difficulty can be adjusted from three to ten coins at a time.

What apps have you used with your children to increase their math fluency and comfort levels? Please share any math level because kids of all ages can use practice to keep their skills in check. The key is to find something that your children like and does not seem like extra work, but is more fun while they learn.

Disclosure: I am participating in a paid campaign about Verizon Educational Tools. I will be sharing how I have used this with my family. I am a long time Verizon customer, and all opinions are my own.

Categories:
Educational sponsored post Technology

When Listening to Audio Books is a Must

Posted on September 29, 2014 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Being able to listen to an audiobook has become an important part of my life. Sometimes picking up a paper book or reading an eBook is just not possible. There are times that my hands and eyes are working on something, but I am able to listen. Rather than have music, television, or other background noise on, audiobooks are a great solution that allow me to multitask.

The smartphones in my life have allowed me to keep whatever audiobook I am currently enjoying on them for access on the go. Of course, not all smartphones are created equally when it comes to their speakers. A problem I have had in the past is not being able to hear the narrator of a book if I forget my ear buds. The placement of speakers, the limited volume, and other audio inconsistencies mean that I can not always use OverDrive to listen to my audiobooks without my BOSE Soundlink Mini Bluetooth Speaker.

I can not tote my speaker with me to all locations, so one of the first features I check out on a new device is the ability to listen to an audiobook without additional accessories. When I received an HTC One Remix, one of the first things I did was to put my reading apps on it. Then, I connected up to the book that I was currently listening to. When I pushed the button to play and had it resting on my bed and face up, I was able to hear it perfectly. The narrator was clear, the volume did not have to go all the way up, and it self adjusted so I did not have to toggle settings as I was listening. I was pleasantly surprised and wanted to know more because it was very different from other phones I have used.

The HTC BoomSound™ technology is something that I witnessed. The dual front facing speakers allow you to project music, book, or other sounds right to you. Other smartphones have speakers built into the back so if you want to listen to something and multitask, the audio goes away from you. The phone also has built-in amps that boost volume so that even my kids in another room came to close my door because they did not want to hear my book. In addition to this, there is bass-to-treble balancing software that makes the sound more crisp and clear.

With this phone, I am able to listen to books while driving near and far to shuttle my kids from school to other afterschool commitments. In addition to this, if I put a book that everyone is listening to together, I can place it in the front of my van and everyone else will be able to follow along without any difficulty hearing. Yes, this is a great device to take on road trips, to a meeting to share audio, or anything else that may come up for a busy person that is on the go and relies on audio that can perform solo.

How do you utilize audio on your smartphone and has there ever been a time where you wish it could do more?

Disclosure: As a member of the Verizon Lifestyle Bloggers, I receive devices like the HTC One Remix to test out and share ways that I use it in my life. I am a long time Verizon customer, and all opinions are my own.

Categories:
books Technology

The Granola Strolla Portable Solar USB Charger

Posted on September 19, 2014 5:50 pm by TheAngelForever

Imagine having a dream to create a device and making it come true. This is the story of Granola Strolla founders Irene and Benjamin Rodda. The husband and wife team wanted to make a portable USB battery that was affordable and able to be charged with solar power.

We all know that keeping our smartphone, tablets, and other devices charged can be a challenge when we are on the go. Many locations do not have plugs for us to recharge and if you are walking around an amusement park you may not have time to stop. That’s the beauty of the Granola Strolla, you can clip it on a backpack, diaper bag, or stroller and it will be ready to give devices that extra boost that they may need during your outing.

We met three of the four Rodda family members in May 2011. Since that time, I have kept in touch with Irene and she has been featured on my blog several times. I have been able to see all of the steps that Granola Strolla has done to make this moment happen. During this process, Irene and Benjamin have relocated from the Boston area to Tennessee. In addition to this, they have welcomed their second son into the world. Even during tough moments in their personal life, they never gave up. They kept working on the prototype, registering for trademark, and all of the other business milestones.

Now Granola Strolla has hit the big leagues and they have launched a Kickstarter campaign. Rather than list all of the details about the Granola Strolla here, be sure to read more information on the Kickstarter page. Disclosure: I was sent a Swag Pack with Granola Strolla items for my support, but honestly would have done this post without it. It is my pleasure to help another family to get the word out. This Kickstarter campaign just started and they already have 128 supporters and close to 40% of their funding. Please take a moment to watch their video to learn more about Granola Strolla.

The Granola Strolla Kickstarter campaign ends on October 12, 2014. Please consider donating toward their project and making this dream come true. FYI this is the Granola Strolla Swag Bag that will be sent to those that pledge $25.

Wishing Irene and Benjamin much success with Granola Strolla in the future.

Disclosure: I was sent a Granola Strolla swag bag as a thank you. As noted, I would have shared this information with my reader to help another family. All opinions are my own.