Best items ever

Traveling

We have been on the road for a week. 

Sleeping is always a worry on the road.  It's not your bed, it doesn't have the same sounds, or your pets aren't in the same place.  

Well, I give you the next best thing. 

And this worked even on my mothers hardest bed of the universe. ( I woke up in pain but I did sleep). 

There are two items here and the only thing missing is iPhone ( which I used to take the picture). 

First is the double USB plug from Costco- although I know they are at Kmart, meijers and probably Walmart. I have an iPhone 5 so it uses the bottom plug- to the white cord. 

The second item is the speaker. Mine is a rechargeable USB powered speaker. There are two kinds of these. Mine is the kind you can daisy chain a few together to maximize sound. The Dinosaur has one that changes color while it plays. 

I use this for sleeping so the lights don't help me. 

With the 2 USB plug both items have power and are close enough to each other to work just fine.  I like it on a bedside table. 

WHY?? You ask.  

Well I found an app called Sleep Machine lite. 

It plays different white noise sounds. Like wind, waves and stuff like that. You can take a few sounds and mix them to get your blend. 

It also has a timer and you can add an alarm at the end or not. 

These items have made it so that I can get at least 5-7 good hours of sleep even in the worst situations. Plus- I only have to carry ONE small bag with me. Not my whole computer. Or blow out the tiny speakers on the phone. 

(Which I did last summer to my old phone after 2 weeks on the road.)

Hey - it also works great for a instant hotel room party.  Or sharing music with a small group. 

The speaker does work with its rechargeable battery, but I have not tested out its battery life yet. I'll probably do that later this month. 

Well- sweet dreams. Off to plug in and pass out.  

Apps

Back to Dinosaur Training......

I was asked today by the Dinosaur to check out some apps to see if they were worth using or losing.
This is a bit of a challenge for me, because, well - I've gotten rather lazy.  (See previous posts. LOL)

Anyway - First one on the list is - Lose it.

I Google'd Lose it and found there is an App for both the iPhone and Kindle fire.  It might be the same app, didn't see a picture of the icon on the Amazon page.  But I did find the reviews there and that is really what I am looking for.

• The good - people say it is sort of balanced and they do a pretty good job of keeping track of all the stuff they eat. You can find lots of food from different restaurants.
• I noticed someone on the iPhone said it used to sync with RunKeeper (which I do use), but after an update it wasn't working.  Those kind of complaints happen when one app updates and the other hasn't yet.  I figure that is what happened.  RunKeeper and this app look like they are in it for the long haul.
• It has some complaints that connecting to social media might be on the premium version - of course, same for RunKeeper.  I still use the free version and am doing ok.  

So the question becomes - would I use this app.   I totally should use this app.  I know I need to lose a little weight and maybe my lovely self could be addicted to the filling in the info, instead of filling my face.  Ahh, what a lovely idea.  I haven't used it, but I'd be willing to give the free version a try.

Second app -  Coupon Sherpa

Ah, they named stuff after me.  Actually there are about 10 Apps with Sherpa in the name and then there is a company called Sherpa Solutions Business that makes a ton of apps.  So, much came up when I did a search for the app.  I found an About.Com review of the app and it made sense.

• This app is great if you have kids or buy lots of clothes, shoes and books.
• This is does nothing if you want to get your grocery coupons for food.
• Oh, if you love Starbucks- I saw it listed, so yeah okay- if you could get a Starbucks coupon each week, that could be a big saver.
• I think they have stuff for fast food and entertainment. 

Tanya from About.com said she saved 15% on something at Barnes and Noble and then 10% at Petco.  Sadly my dog food does not come from Petco.  My boys have delicate stomachs, ha ha ha. 

 For Free I would be willing to give it a try, I need to make some room on the screens. LOL

Third App -  Book Crawler Lite  

This app I can way in on a little more myself.  I did go check the reviews on my phone and then hit someone else's blog and their full review on it.  I personally use iBookshelf, that came out way before the Apple IOS update that included the books and newspaper shelf thing as a part of the phone.  And I found some interesting info.....

• Book Crawler shares all your books.  Other people see what you are reading.  (umm, I already do that with Goodreads - I don't need another app to do that)
• The Blog I found said they had a real problem with scanning their books in.  YES, you do have to download one of the Pic-to-shop or something like that scanner- but I already have that stuff for the QR codes everywhere.   Their problem was the phone can not keep up with the scanner, you can scan a ton of books, but it has to search online for the info to go with the ISBN number. (which means it has to connect online)
•  Oh, I just noticed on my iBookshelf that it connects to Goodreads and will show me reviews from that website.  (I totally do not need Book Crawler)
• I liked iBookshelf because it had a space for me to say if someone borrowed the book from me and WHO has it.  THAT is worth everything.  

Overall, I already have this app covered and I'll certainly stick to iBookshelf.  I still have a ton of books to add to it anyway, hate to start over- because that would suck... LOL  I wonder if I can go in and link iBookshelf to my Goodreads log in.  That would save a ton of time.    I totally PASS on this App.

Last one today -  Walkie Talkie Apps....

This category I'm not so sure about.  There were 15 apps right at the top.  One had a free version and then a paid version. ugh.  Okay, so I guess the point of this app is so that you are not using minutes but you can still talk on your phone.  This is where they DIVERGE greatly.

I read a ton of reviews and it is almost like there are two versions of this type of app.

1.  The phones talk to each other over wifi - okay we already have that with Face Time???
2.  The phones talk to each other using Bluetooth.  (Um, severe distance limitations)
3.  They can either be live conversations or sort of saved things that go over the internet to someone else and they can listen later.  Basically like text talking.  The one app had people saying they really liked that feature as they were not texting but talking to someone- while driving. hmmmm  
4. The biggest problem is that you MUST have both people with the same app on their phone.  I know young people are really into a million apps on the phone, but really, I think I'm not impressed.
5. Several people used it as baby monitors or a way to talk to each other from one end of the house to the other without waking the baby.  Okay, useful.
6. One person said it was the best way to keep in contact with family overseas and deployed.  If you have wifi you can talk, I would think Facetime would be better, but hey Facetime uses a ton more bandwidth and battery I would guess.

The one that seemed to have the best reviews was Voxer Walkie-Talkie PTT.  

I would be willing to try it out, but you have to have someone else with the same app, and I'm not sure if you have to start on the same wifi network.  

That used way more brain power than I was expecting.  Sure, only looked at what other people had to say.  I will download the first two and give them a try.  I don't really have any spending money right now so I don't know how much good Coupon Sherpa will do me for a couple months.  

Dinosaur wants me to figure out how to link Calendars - that is going to be way harder.  I'm hoping someone figured that out......  

Maybe tomorrow I'll have more....  Sorry no pictures this time.

Learning something new.....

 I freely admit I did not figure out any of this stuff on my own.......
I got help from friends, Google and from whoever posted it somewhere else.
I just want to put some stuff in one place.   And it helps the Dinosaur, which is the best part...

Screen Shots

1. I just learned how to take a screen shot on my Iphone.  You would think I knew how to do that and I have been wondering for a long time how everyone shares those wonderful terrible Autocorrect freak outs online.  - Now I know and I'll tell you.....
2. First just get what you want to show up in the middle of the screen.
3. Then Hit the Home button (the circle) and the On /Off button at the same time.  Not for real long, but if you hit them together the screen should flash and TA DA- a picture of the screen will show up in your Camera Roll.
4. I will now use this special technology to show you how to Get the Emoticon keyboards.

That Crazy Emoticon Keyboard for all your Smiley Face needs.

1. Hit the home button on your phone.  Find the Settings Icon.
2. Hit the Settings Icon and scroll down till you see - Keyboard.

 3. Once you tap Keyboard, it will come up with more 
      icons, with on and off buttons.  
4. Scroll down to find Keyboards - it should just show 1. 
    Once we are done, it will show 2 like seen to the left
     there.
5. Tap the keyboard icon.

6. This screen comes up and you just click the Add new Keyboard.

7.  A whole giant list of keyboards of other languages will come up.

      Look for Emoji - Tada-  You will have a ton of Emoticons on

        your keyboard.

I just realized, you have to see how to use it. LOL

OK, next picture please....

Ok, look at the new picture.

Down in the Left Corner there is a little world icon.
That is your access to the Emoticon Keyboard, or any other keyboard you add to help your typing.  There are 5 different groups of icons down there.  As you see its currently on the smiley tab.
The Tab with the clock on it is a list of all the emoticons that you have recently used.
To get out of this keyboard, just click on the World Icon and it will take you back to the regular keyboard.

I hope this helps someone.
Have a good night....