gadgets

Home Tech Support: It Really Is Time Consuming

03/15/2017

If you think keeping the technology running smoothly in your house consumes a lot of time - you are correct!! But no need to retreat to the woods. Just be aware of the pros and cons of digital life, and keep reading Digital Zen to help sort through it all.

Around the House, Entertainment & Fun

Sonos Brings Music Library Back to Life

02/22/2017

Happy to say, Sonos works exactly as advertised and we are all enjoying our music collection again! Some lessons learned, and a tip for saving money on these awesome speakers.

Around the House, Safety & Security

Nest Protect: a Better Looking, Better Performing Smoke Detector

09/09/2015

Nest Protect is a $99 combination smoke and carbon monoxide detector that looks good and offers more functionality than those ugly white boxes.

Parenting & Kids, Tech Support

Fix It: Kids Dropped My iPad Now the Display is All Funky

09/05/2015

If you drop your iPad and now can't read the display, here's how to restore the colors to normal. You won't believe this fix!

Safety & Security, Tech Support

Enable Find My iPhone Before It Goes Missing!

08/11/2015

If you lose your phone, and it's nice to know you can hop on the Internet and track its location immediately. To track, play sound, turn on lost mode, or erase, you must have Find My iPhone enabled first. Here's how.

Around the House

Found It: Best Charging Station Ever

04/09/2015

Meet my new charging station. I love that it has room for my smartphone and tablet as well as an extra slot for papers and mail. The contrast stitching is a nice touch, too.

Parenting & Kids

Aha! Finally a Way to Limit Time on the iPad

12/09/2014

If you have young kids you might be familiar with "Guided Access" for the iPhone or iPad, which locks the device on one chosen app. With iOS 8, you can further restrict use by setting a time limit. Hurray! Here's how.

Around the House

Easily Email Docs to Your iPad

11/23/2014

PDF documents were littering up my desktop, waiting to be read. I avoided reading them at my desk, and printing them out just traded digital clutter for paper. Now I simply email PDF's to my iPad where they wait unobtrusively until I'm ready for them. Here's how.

Tech Support

Trapped in the Technology Tar Pit

10/27/2014

Technology Tar Pit: when the effort to keep up with baseline technology consumes more time and energy than is reasonable, leaving you overwhelmed and grumpy.

Around the House

The Hiku Scanner in Action

07/16/2014

This magnetic do-dad sticks to the fridge for a quick scan of any item that is running low, and the shopping list syncs to an app on my iPhone. It's so easy to use, even an eight year old can add essentials to the shopping list, as I recently discovered!

Around the House, Parenting & Kids

Three Tech Toys Under Our Tree This Year and One That Is Not

12/16/2013

Introducing three of the tech toys that will be under our tree this year (and one that will not), chosen because Santa believes they will be either fun or useful.

Around the House

Now No One Will Swipe My Adapters and Cables

11/12/2013

I adorned my mobile adapters and cables with decorative duct tape for easy identification. The "mini roll" size at .75 inches wide required little to no trimming. Now no one will walk away with my stuff.

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