Putting together jigsaw puzzles, playing cards, and watching home videos are seemingly holiday past-times of...the past. Enjoying time with family over turkey and cranberry sauce has more or less become a matter of survival for many. And smartphone app companies are taking advantage of our short attention spans and loss of interest in watching Uncle Harry chug eggnog and sing Christmas carols.Whether you're belted into a minivan for hours, stuck sitting between your great-uncles at the holiday supper table, or just not sure how to plan your attack for Black Friday, there are mobile apps to get you through it, sane and sound.
Here to keep you sane, entertained, and organized are the latest, must-have apps for the holidays.
Specially for Thanksgiving, the top five apps you just have to have: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/22/tech/mobile/thanksgiving-apps/index.html. Coloring books keep rugrats out of the kitchen, while grandma cooks like a gourmet with the $50.00 Professional Chef app. See, kids are quiet and you get to eat the best stuffing of your life--all because of your smartphone or tablet! It's like the stuff of dreams.
For the entire holiday season: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/11/holiday-survival-apps/all/1. With these, you can plan your holiday flight, create and share memories, handle cooking conversions with ease, and again, keep the kids, as the women in my family would say, "out of this damn kitchen!"
Now the question is: are these advances in smartphone technology going to bring us together or push us apart? Aren't the holidays about dogs and kids running everywhere, burning the the bird, and running head-first into Herberger's at 4 a.m. on Black Friday with no game plan at all? Isn't chaos what the Christmas season is all about? Or is this just my family?
Honestly, what did we do BEFORE we all had our own personal technology to keep us entertained? Technology is amazing, but it detracts from the whole point of the holidays. Some of these apps really are great tools, but does it bother anyone else that we need them to "survive" the holidays, rather than just enjoy this time of year without them? I will agree, however, that a 12 hour car ride might go by a little faster playing Angry Birds and Turkey Plucker than singing Jingle Bells and counting license plates.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The internet will give you cancer, too
OK, the internet won't give you cancer (or will it?), but one huge concern about the world wide web many experts and parents have is how much time kids are spending online. This has been an issue for developmental psychologists, doctors, parents, teachers and educators.
"Staring at the screen damages your eyes." "Online games will stunt your brain development." "It'll make you stupid." "It's a waste of time." "It's making our children fat and lazy." "Social networking decreases face to face social skills." "Tweeting and texting ruins language skills."
Some of these arguments sound a little ridiculous. Some are right on the money.
There are many concerns about children spending too much time online. Whether its 15-year-olds thinking they can insert "LOL's" into their English papers and receive full credit, or a decrease in how much face time parents and children have, experts are attributing these problems partly to time spent online.
In this article taken from Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/29/does-online-time-hurt-kids-face-time/ , the concern that parents have with this issue is expressed as well as a popular method used to mediate this possible problem: monitoring internet use. Some however, as shown in this article also, feel that children need to be exposed to the technology of their time, fearing that by withholding social networking from them, we are holding kids back.
This site names this trend we are seeing in children: internet addiction http://childrenshospitalblog.org/internet-overload-are-we-spending-too-much-time-online/. The amount children spend online is revealed here, as well as links to the view points of a neurologist, a media expert, and a psychologist for their thoughts on the matter.
This is not a new issue, as shown here in an article from 2007, http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-09-27-parents-kids-online_N.htm; parents and experts have been struggling with this for years and as the problem increases, there seems to be less and less parents can do to monitor their child's online activity. With the innovations of smartphones and online game consoles, kids don't even have to be on a computer to be online anymore. Whether or not this is a good or bad thing, is something I can't answer. There are benefits to the internet, as well as negative effects. All of this is subjective, however.
"Staring at the screen damages your eyes." "Online games will stunt your brain development." "It'll make you stupid." "It's a waste of time." "It's making our children fat and lazy." "Social networking decreases face to face social skills." "Tweeting and texting ruins language skills."
Some of these arguments sound a little ridiculous. Some are right on the money.
There are many concerns about children spending too much time online. Whether its 15-year-olds thinking they can insert "LOL's" into their English papers and receive full credit, or a decrease in how much face time parents and children have, experts are attributing these problems partly to time spent online.
In this article taken from Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/29/does-online-time-hurt-kids-face-time/ , the concern that parents have with this issue is expressed as well as a popular method used to mediate this possible problem: monitoring internet use. Some however, as shown in this article also, feel that children need to be exposed to the technology of their time, fearing that by withholding social networking from them, we are holding kids back.
This site names this trend we are seeing in children: internet addiction http://childrenshospitalblog.org/internet-overload-are-we-spending-too-much-time-online/. The amount children spend online is revealed here, as well as links to the view points of a neurologist, a media expert, and a psychologist for their thoughts on the matter.
This is not a new issue, as shown here in an article from 2007, http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-09-27-parents-kids-online_N.htm; parents and experts have been struggling with this for years and as the problem increases, there seems to be less and less parents can do to monitor their child's online activity. With the innovations of smartphones and online game consoles, kids don't even have to be on a computer to be online anymore. Whether or not this is a good or bad thing, is something I can't answer. There are benefits to the internet, as well as negative effects. All of this is subjective, however.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The iPod Turns 10!
Apple has revolutionized entertainment in many ways. One of the biggest ways that has affected nearly everyone I know is the iPod. Originally released in October of 2001, Apple recently celebrated the device's 10th birthday and gave tribute to how far it's come.
The original iPod, described at brick-sized and brick-heavy, due to it 5GB hard drive--a concept never before seen in portable MP3 devices--came onto the scene and blew the minds of millions of people. People were used to Sony Walkman and tape players. This new device allowed you to store music, take it from CD's, etc and store your entire music collection on one portable device. It has completely overhauled the way music is stored and sold in just a decade.
Steve Jobs said it best, probably knowing the exact impact the device would have, on October 23, 2001. He stated at a press conference: “With iPod, Apple has invented a whole new category of digital music player that lets you put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it wherever you go. With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again.”
This article, from Macworld digs deeper into the impact iPod has had on music. http://www.macworld.com/article/163179/2011/10/how_the_ipod_changed_the_world_of_music.html
As a former owner of a generation 2 original iPod (I lost it in a car accident. It was the only injury I suffered.), it's hard to believe that it's already been 10 years. I often forget how far technology has come in just my lifetime--even in just HALF of my lifetime.
As stated in this article, http://www.pcworld.com/article/242411/apples_ipod_turns_10.html,
the iPod has given way for Apple to create other handheld devices, including the iPhone and the iPad. In just ten years we have gone
From this....
To this....
The original iPod, described at brick-sized and brick-heavy, due to it 5GB hard drive--a concept never before seen in portable MP3 devices--came onto the scene and blew the minds of millions of people. People were used to Sony Walkman and tape players. This new device allowed you to store music, take it from CD's, etc and store your entire music collection on one portable device. It has completely overhauled the way music is stored and sold in just a decade.
Steve Jobs said it best, probably knowing the exact impact the device would have, on October 23, 2001. He stated at a press conference: “With iPod, Apple has invented a whole new category of digital music player that lets you put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it wherever you go. With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again.”
This article, from Macworld digs deeper into the impact iPod has had on music. http://www.macworld.com/article/163179/2011/10/how_the_ipod_changed_the_world_of_music.html
As a former owner of a generation 2 original iPod (I lost it in a car accident. It was the only injury I suffered.), it's hard to believe that it's already been 10 years. I often forget how far technology has come in just my lifetime--even in just HALF of my lifetime.
As stated in this article, http://www.pcworld.com/article/242411/apples_ipod_turns_10.html,
the iPod has given way for Apple to create other handheld devices, including the iPhone and the iPad. In just ten years we have gone
From this....
To this....
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