tech

Who?Comics App

January 29, 2012 By NerdMom Leave a Comment

Thank you to who?Comics for sponsoring this post and encouraging my child to read biographies in comic book form! Please click here to learn more about the app. And follow who? Comics on Twitter for updates

As you all know, I am a big fan of reading and an even bigger fan of learning! So you can just imagine how excited I was to receive the opportunity to use the who?Comics app on my iPad with my kids!

Who?Comics is a free app and it comes with 2 books. There are 27 other books available for purchase. Some are sold individually but there are also packs available. Which of course, are a better deal;). So I got the Scientists pack (surprise, surprise;). Right off we checked out Marie Curie and Thomas Edison!

Here is a little detail you should know going in. These comics are not the super quick, over view type comics. There are 150 pages of details about the subject’s personal life. Which means it isn’t a quick read! I was very familiar with Marie Curie and I learned so much! NerdPie and I even cried at 2 different spots.

So what is my overall feel? Well, I love the idea of having these on the iPad for easy access! The art is clear and the story line moves at a good clip. This isn’t going to be a situation where you can read the whole thing in the doctor’s waiting room and that can be a good thing. This app was developed over seas and so there are a few translation issues. Due to that and the fact that these really deal with real life situations, I would make sure you child is near you when they read them. I had to explain about certain illnesses and certain historical events that were mentioned in the books we read. There was an assumption that the kids understood everything but mine had quite gotten there yet. (For example, why and how Poland was being occupied By Russia and how they weren’t supposed to speak Polish.)

My kids thoroughly enjoyed these comics! My kids are even asking for books from the library so they can learn even more! Both about the people in the stories and the science they discovered!

Thank you again to who? Comics for sponsoring my post. Please click here to learn more about the app. Visit who? Comics for updates. I was selected for this opportunity by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own. #CleverWhoComics #spon

Filed Under: Apps, Compensated, Educational, Entertainment, Geeky Stuff, Graphic Novels, history, kids, Kids Books, Reviews, tech

Kinect Love

January 19, 2012 By NerdMom Leave a Comment

I think you all know that I love my Xbox and the Kinect. of course my kids love playing it but I do too!. There is a great article on the Xbox Kinect over at The Online Mom that is definitely worth a read!

Filed Under: tech, video games

Kingston Giveaway

November 28, 2011 By NerdMom 5 Comments

Thank you to Kingston for sponsoring this review. Please click here to learn more about Kingston. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.

I recently received the 8 GB from Kingston with urDrive and eagerly popped it out of its packaging. I am feeling so old!!! These new jump drives are so small!!! They are so cute (I am also fairly girlie;)! We have gotten to the place where the jump drives size will be based on usability rather than storage size, weird.

This Kingston urDrive is more than a just a jump drive. It also comes with preloaded applications! It has great starter applications. Ones that can help you get organized and explore the web. It is preloaded with games and with a music application. But you can also use it as storage;).

So would you like to win a Kingston urDrive 5 pack ? Just leave me a comment telling me 1 thing that you would store or transport on a jump drive!

Extra Entries: This is such an awesome giveaway that I am sure you would like more ways to enter. Make sure you leave an extra comment for each entry.

Like my Facebook page and share this post with your friends! Make sure you share the post!!!
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Post about this giveaway and leave the link in your comment!

This giveaway will close on Friday, December 2, 2011! Then the winner will have 24 hours to claim their prize!

Filed Under: giveaway, tech

Motorola Bionic #MotoCalyp

November 14, 2011 By NerdMom 1 Comment

Recently I was cruising around Calyp (they had a 2 day free shipping deal on this) and saw the Motorola Bionic. Anyone who knows me knows that I love some cool tech and I have been hearing about the Bionic for a while. So I decided (and was motivated) to research it!

Being the huge research nerd that I am my first stop was the manufacturer page. There are great images of a super cool phone;)! And super cool accessories.

But what is a cool phone without the service plan. So I popped over to Verizon to see what they said about the Motorola Bionic.

I loved all the detailed information that Verizon broke apart all the details. The specs really look great. I mean is has 1 GB of ram, the camera is significant having 8 mega pixels. I love the fact it has a video camera that a 1080p capture because I have been know to vlog on the fly and I would love not having to carry my Flip also. And the site says that it has 10.8 hours of talk time on its battery!

There were some stellar reviews over at Amazon and that is something I really consider. Over all I walked away thinking that the Motorola Bionic was pretty smooth.

Then I went to the store…. Now don’t get me wrong. I know that there are drawbacks to every phone but the salesman almost completely ruined the phone for me. To start with it was about 3 times more in the store than Amazon, but that is life. I went in making it clear that I was looking for a phone and specifically analyzing the Motorola Bionic. I ooh’ed and ah’ed over the clear picture while watching Youtube and said how it felt great in my hand. The salesman then went through and told me every way that it couldn’t compare to the Razor. Everything from battery life actually only being 2 hours of active use in his experience (versus twice that in a Razor) to the fact that I could get a stronger Gorilla glass display with the Razor. He pointed out that the Motorola Bionic only has a 720p display while the Razor has a 1080p display.

He was pushing the Razor that every step. So much so I had to analyze his counsel! I had read so many great reviews of the Motorola Bionic I just have to believe that he was getting an incentive for selling the Razor;).

My final conclusion of the Motorola Bionic is that it seems to be a solid phone for a decent price. Before I would buy this I would have to hear some personal testimonies from people I know (versus the faceless reviews) because my tech dollars are precious. But based on my research it really seems solid!

(This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. While they gave me the subject the opinions are all mine. I also documented my analysis process over on Google+! )

Filed Under: tech

Win a Dell Laptop!!!

October 19, 2011 By NerdMom 2 Comments

I think Lady Geek TV is so cute! It is a series over on YouTube sponsored by Kaspersky and always has a great computer safety message. My kids love it too! But what I love more than just the show is that I won a Dell laptop from them last week!

This week’s episode focuses on ridding yourself of icky content and they have another Dell Laptop Giveaway!

So watch the video and enter!!!

Filed Under: giveaway, kids, tech

Our Possible New Computer

October 17, 2011 By NerdMom 2 Comments

Ok, so this is what we are thinking about! Please feel free to poke holes and tell me if I have missed anything! We are ordering everything tonight.

$59.99 RAIDMAX Altas ATX-295WBP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply

$211.98 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor (Processor and Motherboard combo)

$49.99 Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM

$169.99 Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 and Deus Ex Coupon Bundle

$54.99 Seagate 1.5TB SATA 6Gbps Barracuda Green HD

$19.99 Sony Optiarc AD-7260S-0B 24x DVDRW Drive

$99.99 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64BIT – OEM DVD

That brings us to just about $667. So what do you think? Am I putting to much money in a dumb area? Am I missing something? Help a girl out!!!

Filed Under: tech

My Shopping List…

October 4, 2011 By NerdMom 3 Comments

NerdDad and I have decided that we need a new desktop computer. We haven’t bought a computer since Windows Vista and that was about 3 years ago.

I have to say that I am a bit overwhelmed at all the choices that out there! I usually love Dell computers but I want to make sure that I am getting the most for my money but… I don’t want to settle for something that will be buggy later. If we aren’t shopping with Dell we usually shop reconditioned at CompUSA but we tend to have little issues with those later. This will be a computer we will keep for a while because it will probably become a media computer in a few years or a kid computer;).

So what are we looking for?

A Windows machine (No, I am not buying an Apple. Period)
Under $700
Probably at least an i3 but probably more
We want to run 2 screens!
I want to Skype and stream video for a possible Web show.
Want to play video games
Blogging, of course but that is such a small resource demand
Running a Virtual Machine for NerdDad’s projects
Run VNC well (again, not a huge demand)
Want it to run fairly quietly & cool (previous issues)

That isn’t really all that much. The challenge is knowing what is over kill versus a little room to grow. How much Ram should I get? How many cores? A little SSD? What level of a graphics card?

Ugh! So much research to do! Anyone have any wisdom?

Filed Under: Geeky Stuff, tech

Make Phone Calls on Your iPad

June 22, 2011 By NerdMom 1 Comment

I just got my brand new iPad 2 and am loving checking out all the cool apps that are making my life better! My most recent free find is Talk a Tone.

This is a great utility for utilizing you free Google voice! It is super easy to use where you just input your Google voice info. Then you can both make and receive calls! Your a given different compression choices and the sound is pretty good. Depending on your connection there may be just a little lag buy I haven’t found it to be a problem at all.

So go, talk and enjoy! All for free!

Filed Under: Apps, Reviews, tech

The Ubuntu Way

April 11, 2011 By NerdMom 1 Comment

Thanks for joining my for Tech Tuesday! Did you know that Linux has surpassed Windows in instillations? But that is mostly on professional machines like web servers and data centers. I think it is time that we see widespread acceptance of Linux on personal computers! Which brings us to the star of this week’s Tech Tuesday: Ubuntu!

Ubuntu is a free Linux operating system and it rocks! Before you all panic, you can install it so you can dual boot (when you can boot up in Ubuntu or Windows). But why? It is a system maximizing operating system! We have it installed on a kids computer that only has 512 of ram and the kids have no problem playing all their internet games! It doesn’t crash and it runs so much faster than the same system would run on Windows!

Some people tell me that they don’t want Ubuntu because of all the Windows programs they like. Well, a lot of these problems are eliminated by either living in the Google Cloud (with Google Docs) or by using Open Office. I have found that Open Office can convert most documents for me and save them back to a Windows readable format. Anyone can send you a pdf if all you need is the information. And I do have a dual boot system to help me print my coupons but that is all I use it for;).

Ok, so you all can see I love Ubuntu! Get it, use it, love it;).

Have you used Ubuntu? What is stopping you from using it? Or are you using it and loving it? Let me know!

Filed Under: tech, Tech Tuesday

Tech Tuesday: Dropbox

April 4, 2011 By NerdMom Leave a Comment

Everyone knows that backing up your data is vital! And in this age of cloud computing (not being tied to one computer) you want to be able to has great mobility. Well, for this issues and more, I introduce Dropbox.

Dropbox is installed on your computer(s) and you place your files right in it. They are still on your hard drive but when you change them they are automatically backed up online. When you sign up you can get 2 Gb right off and more if you have referrals (so please sign up through my links;).

You can log in from any computer and access those files. NerdDad uses 4 different computers and doesn’t have to keep track of a jumpdrive;). I use is on our media computer and both sides of my laptop (Windows and Ubuntu). You can also share files with others. NerdDad and I no longer have to email documents back and forth!

So there is my ringing endorsement for Dropbox and if you don’t believe me, Techzilla also endorses it;). And if 2Gb aren’t enough, you can buy more space!

Make sure you come back next Tuesday to see what free (or nearly free) tech resource I am going to blog about on Tech Tuesday!

Filed Under: tech, Tech Tuesday

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