technology

Do you have a teen in your house? Well you know like I know the gadgets are a hard habit to break. The Ipad and Iphone interfere with bedtime so what is the fix for this? I unplug my wifi at night, BAM it’s off.

Since 2009, I have become a part of the blogging world and all the social media components. Twitter was my fan favorite, until I was sold on the value in Facebook. Instagram is a slow walk as it is difficult to juggle all 3 with relevant posts.

When my teen first requested a cell phone I was not onboard with the idea mainly due to the expense. Now fast forward three years and the teen needs to have a phone or so I am now convinced. For me more responsibility warrants the use and need for a cell phone. He is now letting himself in after school so I was convinced for the new school year. The downside to having children with technology is they are never satisfied with a current model it has to be the latest model. On his 14th birthday I found myself in the Tmobile store adding a new line to my plan plus his Iphone 5c. Although, he wanted the Iphone 5s my pockets warranted the 5c so here we are with latest Apple product. Shortly after we made the purchase he was already gearing up for the Iphone 6. When does it end? The mini Ipad is two years old.

The biggest challenge is how social media rules the lives of a teen. I realized in the first part of the school year my teen was staying up late on either the Iphone 5c or the Ipad. Finally I contacted Tmobile to see if I could set restrictions on his line. I learned Tmobile does provide this feature for a fee of $4.99/month under family allowance. The plus is the feature exists and the con is a cost per month. The other con is the owner of the account cannot set the time increments; these are already set by Tmobile.

After finding the teen up in the wee hours of the morning and struggling to get up for school, I have resorted to paying for this feature and unplugging the wifi at night. This is the only way I feel he will unplug and get some rest. How do you handle a teen’s social media connection?

Smartphone—Finally

Jul 23, 2010

Smartphone-Last month my last phone was not charging with the in home charger. Instead of paying my insurance deductible and getting a replacement I had the Verizon Wireless store reactivate an older phone until I decided which Smartphone to purchase. The problem with the old phone is I no longer had the in home charger and could only charge in the store and it was not a camera phone. In the past few weeks, I debated on which Smartphone to buy so that I finally move into the 21st century of technology. My biggest dilemma was not spending a fortune to upgrade my phone. Last year I learned the smart way to upgrade my Verizon phone was to purchase online vs. going into the store. When you purchase phones online the rebates are taken off before checkout. I wavered back and forth on purchasing a Droid vs. Blackberry. The Motorola Droid definitely exceeded my budget at $199. The LG Ally phone was going to cost me $49 vs. the Blackberry at FREE. When purchasing items online I utilized the reviews and after careful consideration I decided to go with the Blackberry Curve 2. On Monday, I ordered my phone with an expected delivery of Wednesday.

On Wednesday, I checked the tracking number to see when to expect my delivery. After running some errands, I arrived on my street to find the FEDEX guy parked in the middle of the street. It was perfect timing as he was delivering across the street and headed to my door with my phone. I was like a kid in a candy store with my new gadget. When I opened the box I was excited to find my new purple, sleek phone. I scoured the directions on how to activate my phone and realized I needed to charge the phone. This was hilarious because after plugging up the phone I realized it was missing the battery.

The first step was to activate my new phone which was pretty straightforward. I am against visiting a Verizon Wireless store if I can do the steps from the comforts of home. The next step was transferring my contact list from the old phone to the new phone. Lucky for me the last contact list on my Verizon Wireless profile was from my most recent phone. I had to go into my Blackberry and download Backup Assistant. Now I will admit this took a little while as I navigated my way around the Blackberry to find the multiple downloads available. After about an hour I downloaded Backup Assistant and transferred my contact list to the new phone. Later that night I was introduced to BBM, linked my Google email and dowloaded the Twitter application. OMG, I can finally check my emails and tweet while out of the house.

I am still a novice and looking forward to learning about all the phone has to offer. Now I finally feel like I am a part of the 21st century of technology…..and totally wonder what took me so long to get on board? Smartphone