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Tech App-titude: 5 Free Apps For the Savvy Pet Owner

Sara Yoo — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 04:00:00 PST

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

Tori Spelling on Texting and Facebooking in Front of Your Family

Tori Spelling — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 05:37:26 PDT

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.”

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

Father's Day Tech Treats For $50 or Less

GeekSugar — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:41:11 PDT

Show dad you love him and all his quirky wisdom with our pick for tech treats under $50 - the perfect price for a child on a budget!

Father's Day Tech Treats For $150 or Less

GeekSugar — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:32:28 PDT

For the techie dad who follows gadget announcements, has every sci-fi DVD box collection on the market, and secretly loves solving the household IT problems, we've compiled Father's Day gift guides for every budget. Today's list focuses on the gifts around the $100-$150 range. Round up the siblings, and go in on these gifts to show dad you care.

What Other Airlines Can Learn From Virgin America's New Tech-Savvy SFO Terminal

Kristy Korcz — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:54:13 PDT

Sir Richard Branson unveiled the brand new Virgin America T2 terminal at SFO yesterday, after a first-of-its-kind simultaneous flight of the Airbus A320, WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo over the San Francisco coastline. The new eco-friendly terminal is LEED Gold-certified and sustainable, which is a first in the US. Not only earth conscious, the terminal looks pretty sexy, too. Check out images of the new terminal, find out why tech-savvy travelers will love it, and what other airlines can learn from the new addition.

5 Facts About Americans and Tech Maintenance

Kristy Korcz — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:11:48 PDT

National Backup Day was just last week, but how many of you actually backed up your computer data? How many of you perform routine maintenance (like software updates) on your computers on a regular basis? According to a new study performed by Zogby International and Staples, not many! Get the details on how Americans feel about their tech IQ, and how to overcome your fears in this slideshow.

OMD! Read North's Personal Twitter Glossary

Morgan Ashley Parker — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 04:00:37 PDT

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

BOL: Barking out loud
IMFO: In my furry opinion
LMTO: Laughing my tail off
LYLAD: Love ya like a dog
OMD: Oh my dog
OMDT: Over my dead toy
ROTFE: Rolling on the floor eating
WYWNH: Wish you were NOT here

The list could go on and on . . . but I'm stopping here. Can you come up with any more in the comments below?

Source: Flickr User Aine D

Pull Up a Menu! iPhone Apps For Ordering Halloween Takeout

Rebecca M Gruber — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 06:00:00 PDT

There's no shortage of dessert on Halloween night, but what about some hearty food to fill lil bellies before kids head off on the trick-or-treat trail? For mamas who just don't have it in them to whip up a home cooked meal, takeout and delivery are the way to go. And for the mobile mom who prefers to order her tots' food while on-the-go, these iPhone apps put everything at her fingertips!

Be King of the Jungle and Identify All of Mac OS X's Big Cats!

Morgan Ashley Parker — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:35:45 PDT

If you're a fan of Apple products (like me!), you surely know that the Macintosh operating software comes with some fantastic feline names. My pal GeekSugar is at Back to the Mac today and told me all about the latest Mac OS X v10.7, named after the big cat seen below. I've gathered all the kitties featured thus far, so see if you can match their names to the pictures in this quiz.

Question 1 of 8

This cat is a:

Pink Ribbon: Apps That Help Raise Breast Cancer Awareness

Rebecca M Gruber — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 09:00:00 PDT

As a woman, your life has likely been touched by breast cancer. An estimated one in eight US women will develop invasive breast cancer at some point in her life. The current 5-year survival rate is 89 percent. Early detection is the key to beating this deadly disease (only lung cancer claims more female cancer deaths each year). Here are 10 iPhone apps designed to help women track the early signs of breast cancer and manage their treatment as they battle their way through it.