Family on the Phone

Continuing with our Camping theme across Mom’s Talk Network, I thought it would be nice to see an actual geocache.

Since I have not been able to do one of my own, I found this video below for your instead. The guys in the video walks you through how to set up a handheld Garmin. He recommends using a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx for geocaching. Then he is off to geocache with his boys.

Go check him out!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuASWCZ040M

This week on Mom’s Talk Network, we are talking all things related to camping. And what better thing to do while camping than hunt.

No, I’m not talking hunting bears, deer or any other furry little creature. I talking Geocaching!

Now, I have to say up front that I have never in my life Geocached.  I actually had to go look up what it was. I have tons of friends that do it (I asked on Facebook if anyone knew what it was and all my friends seems to chime in) but never knew it.

Geocaching is basically a nationwide treasure hunt. From my understanding that are caches (boxes) placed all over the world that have goodies in them. When you find one, you can take something out but your must put something back in it. Then put the cache back where you had found it.

Sounds like fun, right?!

How do you find this caches you ask? Well, there are sites like Geocaching that help you get started. Many of my friends said that you would need a GPS device of some sort. They all seems to recommend the handheld Garmin as the best option.

So, I will give geocaching a try this weekend to see how my fiancee and I make out at this. I have HIGH hopes that we will find something very special our first time out.

I would love to hear about your geocaching experiences. How did you get started? And how?

photo credit: aaronparecki

My Droid was scheduled to arrive at my door Friday, July 16^th before 3 pm. I cannot tell you how excited I was that it was finally going to be in my hands.  My fiancée had gotten up early (6:30 am , 3 hours before he was suppose to get up for the day) that morning to buy it for me.

By 2 pm on Thursday, the Droid X was on back order. I was a bit worried that we had not made the cut off mark.  It was not until late Thursday evening that we found out it had been shipped out and was on its way. YAY! I could taste it! Well, not really but I could feel it in my hands.

I woke up Friday, ready for the Fedex man to show up at my door.

I had a few errands to run that morning, so I woke my sister up so that she KNEW not to miss the Fedex man! She moaned and groaned at me but promised not to miss him.

I arrived home to no package. I had beaten my Droid to the house. So you can only imagine my excitement when I heard the Fedex man pulled up to my house. When I opened the door, I told him how happy I was to see him. He laughed, thanked me for being so happy that he was at my door.

I had the Droid X in hand.

I had planned on doing an un-boxing video for your all but my camera had other ideas. I did take picture for you though.

I’ve now had a few days to play with it. I bet you are wondering how I like it.  Well, let’s just say I miss my blackberry.  I have had a very hard time with making the switch over to a virtual keyboard. I have also had a problem with getting my email accounts added. It doesn’t seem to want to accept my Cuddlebuggs.com email accounts. We did get it to receive message but we still have not be able to send from the device. It’s also way too big for my little hands. It’s almost like holding a mini computer. It’s very uncomfortable for me.

I was really hoping that I would love this phone but I don’t. I SO wanted to be that high tech girl that loved all gadgets but alas, I’m not.  So, I will be sending my Droid X back this week in exchange for the HTC Incredible.

The HTC Incredible was the phone I wanted originally but sent it back because I thought the Droid X was better.  You live and learn huh…

I’m always trying to keep up with the schedules of the children in my life. I am forever looking for apps on my blackberry or  my fiancee’s phone ( a Motorola Droid) that might help me do that.  So, this weekend while waiting for that great 4th of July bbq, I found myself searching my fiancee’s  phone for the perfect app.  That’s when I stumbled on to Baby ESP.

I just about jumped of the couch when I found it. It seemed perfect for my needs.

Now, this is not an app that will function for older children – say over the age of two. But it IS  great for new mommies who are trying to learn or implement a schedule for their newborn babes.

The first thing that I noticed while playing around with this application is that you can track anything from naps, bottles, the last time you breast feed and their last dirty diaper. You also can add other events that normally might happen during your little ones day – like play dates or tummy time.

With each event, you have to option to set a timer to notify you of the next feeding or cleaning – which ever comes first. And oh yes, you can set more than one timer at a time.

I can’t wait to be able to test this app out on the next newborn that comes into my life. I believe that the Baby ESP app for the Android will save me a great deal of paper, worry and time.

photo credit: Markus Rödder

After the disappointing news on Tuesday of not being able to keep my T-mobile @home service, I headed over to Hostgator’s Voip website. I had heard about it a few months ago from Nicole Dean, but never took the time to check it out.

Today, I got my chance.

I have to admit that I was not expecting a whole lot of Hostgator in the VOIP department. I mean I know their hosting service is second to none – but what could they really do outside of that.

I have to say that a bit of joy hit me when I arrived on their website. The first thing I saw was that I could have service with them for as low as $8.25 per month.  Which mean they have already beat T-mobile @home .  But I need more than just price to make me switch – so I continued on to see what other features that offered.

Man, was I surprised when I looked over the list of features.

Not only do you get the standard features that are offered with any line:

• 7, 10, and 11 Digit Dialing
• Caller ID w/ Name
• Call Waiting
• Call Waiting ID
• Three Way Calling
• Call Forwarding
• Call Blocking
• Do Not Disturb
• *67 Outbound Caller ID Blocking
• *69 Call Return

You can also receive some advanced features:

• Custom Incoming Caller ID
• Contacts List
• Online Call Logs
• Unlimited Speed Dial
• Advanced Voicemail
• View Voicemail Online
• Voicemails E-Mailed
• Voicemail SMS Notifications
• Distinctive Ringtones
• Virtual Numbers
• Virtual Number Voicemail Boxes

I went from really not expecting anything to finding what I think is one of the nicer VOIP services out there. I decide the next step would be for me to test out their customer services. So, I picked up the phone and called. I was a little put off by their initial message but that was soon forgotten after speaking to James. He was very helpful in answering my questions. I even had to call back because I forgot to ask him about something, and he remembered exactly who I was.

That was another thing that was in their favor. I was able to speak with the exact same person I had spoken to earlier.

Once I had all my questions answered, I decided to take the plunge and sign up for Hostgator’s Voip service for a month. I figured if I didn’t like it after that, I could send it back.  Oh yeah, they have a 30 day money back guarantee.  If you aren’t happy, just send it back.

So, we will see how it goes in a few days. But until then, let me know if you’ve had a chance to use Hostgator’s voip service. I would love to hear what you think about it.

photo credit: comedy_nose

So, yesterday in my T-Mobile @Home is No More post, I said that today I was going to give T-Mobile  a call to see if I could save my @home services with them. And as promised, I did just that.

As usual, I got this really nice lady who was willing to help me out in any way that she could. I let her know that I was inquiring about my @home service. She did say that the service has been discontinued for new customers but that if I wanted to, I could keep my service just as it was.  This made me EXTREMELY happy.

But my happiness didn’t last long.

There was a slight problem in my plan. As we talked, I did let her know that I would be moving over to Verizon by week’s end. And that I would be porting my cell phone number over to them once I activated my phone with them. She, of course, asked me why I was leaving and I explained why – which she understood.

Now here’s the bad news

In order to maintain my T-mobile @ home services – I would have to hold an active cell phone line of at least $39.99 a month in order to keep the @home line. This defeats the whole point of me moving over to Verizon.

So, unfortunately, as much as I wanted to keep T-Mobile in my life somehow, there is no way for me to do so. I’m sad that I will be closing out my account with them after over 10 plus years of quality service from them but it must be done to save us money!

Now I am on the hunt to find another VOIP company that will suit my needs. Maybe I will go check out Hostgator’s VOIP next. Yes, that’s what I will do.

As you may have read yesterday, I am moving my follow me phone number to a VOIP service. I was so excited about the moved because I had planned to go with my currently cell phone provider – T-mobile.

A year or so ago, they began to offer an at home services called T-Mobile @home. It worked like any other VOIP service but seemed to be the cheapest around – it came in at a low $10 a month. YAY!

So you can imagine my surprise and upset when I found this article last night about the service being discounted. I think I ALMOST cried. I just could not believe it. All I could think about was who was I going to go with NOW. Yes, there’s Vonage and Hostgator but I wanted to stay with T-mobile somehow.

Ahh, but there is light at the end of the tunnel for me still.

I had forgotten that I had not yet canceled the original @Home line I had with T-Mobile. So later today, I will be calling them to find out if I can in fact continue to keep my line open and if I can port my business line over as well.

I have my fingers and toes crossed. Would you mind crossing your too? I could use all the help I can get on this one!!

For the last 3 + years, I have been using Kall8 for my business. Kall8 is a follow me phone number that forwards to any phone that you want. The service is easy to use and I have never had any problems with them whatsoever.

But today on my morning walk, I realized that my home office needs have begun to change.

I still need the flexibility of call forwarding that Kall8 provides but not the cost. Kall8 cost roughly about 6.9 cents per min. And there is a monthly rate of $5 per line. Now this is good if your call volume is low like mine was in the beginning but not now that things are increasing.

I need a service that will allow for the increase in volume and not hurt my purse.

So, I started my search today for the best option to replace Kall8. The two services that came to mind during my search were VOIP service and Skype. I have used VOIP (voice-over-internet-protocol) services in the past and loved it. The cost for most companies seems pretty reasonable.   I could also forward my calls to my cell phone if I needed to be available while out of the office. The other great thing about this service is that I could port my number over. So I would not lose my

VOIP services seem reasonable, now what about Skype?

I have so many friends that use Skype and love it. So, I had to check them out too. I have used Skype for chatting and conference calls every once and a while – but never for phone services. I have to say I was somewhat surprised when I found out how much Skype cost per month. You can get service for as low as $2.99 per month. You can also pay as you go for as low as 2.1 cent per minute.  Nice huh…

The only downside I found to Skype was porting of my number. I did not see an option for that – which is something that I need to be able to do.

So I have come to the conclusion that VOIP is a better option for my small business needs but Skype may have just made its way in to my home as a option for our home phone service.

photo credit: anne.oeldorfhirsch

For the last 10 years, my cell phone provider of choice has been T-Mobile. I loved them. I have found their customer service to be top notch (customer services is VERY important to me) and that I always had a clear connection.

But a few months ago, things changed for me.

My fiancee got a job working in one of the local call centers here for Verizon.  As employees, they received discounts on their service.  So it only made sense for me to switch over. But the decision to switch has been an agonizing one because until now, I never thought even twice about switching carrier.

Then the Motorola Droid walked into my life (this happened to be the phone my fiancee chose).

What is a Droid you say?

An Android based phone is a Google based phone that runs more like a computer. These phones allow you more freedom, in my opinion, to become more mobile with documents, email and other business/family related projects.

I had always been a blackberry girl but realized after playing with the Motorola Droid, that the RIM system is a bit outdated. This realization made the choice to switch even easier.  But wait, there’s more.

Verizon announced about a week and a half ago the arrival of the Motorola Droid X. I really didn’t think it could be any different than the one my hubby had but I thought I would take a look at it to see what upgrades they had made to the phone.  Boy was I wrong. This phone is amazing. It surpassed my expectations of what a phone could do.

Here are just a few of the cool things the Droid X offers:

• HDMI out to your TV
• Adobe Flash 10.1 Player
• 8MP camera and dual LED flash
• 3G Wifi Mobile Hotspot
• 3 microphones
• Aggregated Social Networking
• 4.3 inch, 16:9 screen

I know this might be a bit much for some, but for me (my gadget loving self) it’s just right.

Dumping your iPad in your handbag really isn’t a good idea as the screen will (as has happened with many iPods over the years) get scratched. Handbags are designed for all those girly things you need to carry with you, and not an iPad. However, an eBay seller has managed to get hold of an iPad cover that was modified to be a handbag. This gets around the scratching problem as it was first designed to keep your expensive device safe, not for throwing makeup in.

The bags are made out of durable, water-resistant neoprene (as is standard on most regular iPad cases) and zips across the top to protect you having your iPad swiped straight out of your bag. The designs on the cases are completely unique and are limited edition; buying these cases will not only make you look unique, but they are also an investment.

You have the choice of 16 designs ranging from Mickey Mouse to beautiful pastels to bold abstract colours and swirls. There is a nice bit of detail in the stitching around the edges of the case that on some of the designs provides a really nice contrast and draws focus slightly from the main design. However, the best bit about the case is the presence of handles – they turn the otherwise unique, but regular, iPad case into a very practical one that would not look out of place in any city in the world.

The price to pay for this luxury is a mere $15, but you will have to get in there fast – at the time of writing, a few of the designs are out of stock and the iPad hasn’t even been released yet.

To see more iPad cases and covers, visit the iPad Covers Blog.