Tech

If your iPhone is like another appendage, then you undoubtedly have apps to organize just about every aspect of your life: calendars, to-do lists, restaurant locators, pedometers, and diet monitors, to name a few. And these days, busy pets are just as lucky. We've rounded up our favorite free iPhone apps for safe and savvy pets and their companions, from medical references to dog-park finders to squeaky toys.

• Map My Dog Walk: You and Fido conquered an awesome hike last Fall, but a few months later, it's tough to remember the route. This app allows you to log your walk routes, share them with friends, and even calculate calories burned!
• Remind My Pet: For any pets on medication, this app keeps track of dosing schedules and emails or texts you when they are due for their next one.

For the rest of the list, keep reading

We're excited to bring you a new post from mother and actress Tori Spelling! Every other week we're bringing you the best parenting and lifestyle advice from ediTORIal by Tori Spelling, which is Tori's daily blog about everything from food and fashion to parenting and relationships. This week Tori sounds off on technology and children.

These days we use our phones for everything, from finding directions to reading the news, to pretend-texting. Yep! Want to avoid an awkward convo or look busy at a party? Pretend text. Or annoy your friends by sending real texts like “Trying to avoid convo with weird guy right now.” Our phones have the ability to save us in many scenarios.

I think we can all admit we rely on our phones for both convenience and emotional support. Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with my phone. If I lose track of it, even for a moment, I go on a panicked hunt. My phone is like another child. I even wake up in the middle of the night to attend to it. It’s not uncommon for my friends and colleagues to respond to my 2 am emails with a kind-hearted “go to bed, T.”

Related: Fall Is (Almost) Officially Here!

So yeah, I’m working on it. But one thing I am conscious of is putting my phone away when I’m spending quality time with my kids and people I love. What’s worse than spending a weekend at the beach and doing nothing but answering emails? Or going out to dinner with a friend you haven’t seen forever and watching them text their other friends? How rude! Sure, I’ll take my phone out to take pictures, but that’s it.

It’s important to do the best you can to set boundaries about when you check your emails or Facebook, tweet, and text your friends. Make sure there are at least two hours each week night when you’re doing something else, like cooking and eating dinner with your family, going for a restorative walk, or even watching your family’s favorite TV show. Focus on the show, make fun of the characters, throw popcorn at each other! Just don’t allow anyone to check their phones.

Same goes for weekends. No checking emails during your kids’ soccer games or ballet recitals, or spending all afternoon on Facebook when you could be going on a hike, attending a local event, playing catch, or walking the dog. Many of us have to check work emails after hours and on weekends. If you do, make time for this, and stick to the schedule. Early morning before the kids are up can be a great time if you’re an early riser. Then it’s out of the way for the rest of the day. Or if you’re a night owl, wait until everyone’s in bed. Some people concentrate better at nighttime – it just depends on your preference! One tip though, if you check work stuff at night, make sure you do something relaxing afterward, like taking a bath or reading a light book. A restful night shouldn’t include dreams about missed meetings or typos.

How do you monitor everyone’s phone use in your family? Do you catch yourself checking your phone when you shouldn’t be?

More great stories from ToriSpelling.com:
Weekend PicTORIal: FamilyMoon
DIY Pull-String Pinata
Emmys Fashion: Seeing Red
Missoni Madness

I love my dog. I love Twitter. My dog loves Twitter. Since he is no longer hooked up to Puppy Tweets, it's back to his usual tweeting style @norththedog. The problem is . . . he's getting rather wordy these days and 140 characters are not quite enough for all he has to say. Since we're forced to limit the length, I've come up with some alternatives to get the point across, human shorthand style.
I consulted GeekSugar for some of her most used phrases and then thought about my own. What is North trying to tell this dog for BOL? Find out and read more