Not For Tourists: New iPhone App

I was asked to check out the new iPhone app from Not For Tourists. It’s like a mini-Yelp, a self-described “ultimate guide for the savvy city-dweller.” So far, there are three editions: Manhattan, San Francisco and London. My gut reaction was “why is this better than the Yelp iPhone application?” And now I realize that I have to back up: do you know what Yelp is?

Yelp is like a new-fangled Zagat guide of EVERYTHING. Dentists, restaurants, parks — you name it, Yelpers have written reviews about it. (Unless you’re in a city like say, Boise.) And unlike Zagat, Yelp does not edit their users’ reviews so you get the whole shebang of what people thought. Some helpful, some mean, some are friends of the owner of the restaurant being reviewed, some are just having a bad day and taking it out on the coffee shop — but it’s pretty easy to read between the lines with just a little experience.

So, back to NFT.  The organization on the app is well done: you can search by neighborhood, by category (restaurant, hotel, hospital) and then when you figure out where you want to go, you can search for other places nearby.  You can even bookmark your faves.  The one crucial category that they left out is “Bathrooms.”  It’s so key to know where the good bathrooms are in New York, even if you live and work there.  (Free tip:  Best Bathroom is in Henri Bendel’s on 5th, downstairs.  It’s like a studio apartment.)

Here’s why it’s worth $4.99 for the app: you don’t have to be online to get the information, like you do with Yelp.  This is helpful if you’re somewhere in New York and can’t get a signal.  Or don’t want to pay for a signal.  Whenever you sync your iPhone, it will update the information.  That’s nice.  And even when I was an expert on Manhattan, you really can’t know EVERYTHING.  The downside is that there is not a conglomoration of reviews like on Yelp — but then again, do you really need to read 170 reviews about Hotel Gansevoort when you’re on-the-go?  Do that at home.  On Yelp.

I say get it.  At the very least, it’s good entertainment on the subway for all of you closet know-it-alls.  And you know who you are.

The Definition of a Vacation -- along with an iPhone App

My last vacation was a helluva long time ago.  Before kids.  Yes, I have traveled since I've had my (2) kids (ages 4 and 5), but those were "trips," not vacations.  A vacation is where you don't have responsibilities to pick up after/feed/referee your small children.

So, I have frequent flier miles to use and I no longer live in the same town as my parents, so there is actually the possibility that my mom and dad will come to our home to take care of the children while we go away -- ON VACATION.  When we all lived in LA together, our house was kinda shabby and their house was kinda far away (45 minutes in traffic) from the kids' school, so it was not a great situation.  Now that we live in Boise where life is easy (seriously, Boise is Shangri-La), we have a dedicated guest room and the local ski resort is free for seniors (!), I believe I can make a vacation happen for my husband and me.  My parents miss my children tremendously.

We can't go far (international travel is out, dang), and we want to go someplace warm and fun -- and that seems like another country.  Miami.  Last time I was there, we stayed in a shabby hotel.  Not sure why.  Oh, right.  We were poor.  This time, if I can make it work, here is where I would like to stay:

You can't really go wrong with the Four Seasons, right?  (Until you get the bill, that is.)  I've stayed at a Four Seasons in Chaing Mai and in Los Angeles:  calm, extreme attention to detail (in a good way) and the most excellent beds ever.  But the Miami Four Seasons is in the Business District.  I'd prefer to be in South Beach (who wouldn't?).

Last time I was there, I wandered through the Delano lobby.  Fabulous Phillipe Starck design.  Very kid unfriendly.  I liked this place.  The rooms are all white.  To me, that screams "VACATION!"  This is a place where I can be an adult and not a parent.  Despite the too-cool-for-school vibe, I would feel relaxed here.

Another option would be the Albion, also in South Beach.

(by the way, I'm getting my reserach done on Oyster.com -- they have photos and reviews from real people who PAID for their lodging themselves -- problem is, they only have seven cities' hotels reviewed right now.  Can someone please invest in this company?  it's like the yelp/Zagat of hotels -- but will all the photos, you get a much more in depth view.)

The Albion is a more modestly priced hotel, 2 blocks from the beach and is purported to be one of South Beach's best values.  Hey, I can do a value vacation.  No kids?  Still a vacation.

Now, what I would really like is for Oyster.com to get an iPhone app (please, investors?) so that I can do all of this research in-between shuttling my kids from school to their activities.  I would just be able to enter: South Beach, Kid-Unfriendly, and Value (you know my priorities).  This is something that Oyster could accomplish in two weeks.  Come on, guys!  I would even pay 99 Cents for it!

This is a TravelingMom dedicated post.

BYOW: Free Wifi in Every Hotel!

I was just telecommuting online (webicommuting?) with my boss (project-based, GDI to the end!) who was on vacay. He was at a schnootzy hotel that had crap wifi: couldn't get a signal, had to keep moving around to find his bars. And that's with a $20 internet connection fee! Now, this is a very FANCY hotel. I guess no one really has to work if they go to that hotel, but my boss, he's got a great work ethic.

Now, if you can afford that hotel and you DEPEND on your Internet connection to help you stay productive, you really should look into getting your own, personal wifi bubble. OK, no, I haven't used it, but David Pogue has and you know that I love/trust/want-to-be-the-best-friend-of David Pogue.

Mr. Pogue explains it very well, but here it is in a nutshell: You pay anywhere from $30-$60/month and you get your own personal hot-spot that you can share with up to four other people (children with iPods, co-workers, etc.).

How is it different from a cellular modem? Well, first off, it doesn't have to be plugged in -- it's cordless, small and has rechargeable batteries (and works while it's being charged!) and secondly, you don't need to plug it into your laptop -- you don't even need a laptop at all! It's got a super strong battery that lasts 4 full hours of full use and 40 hours in sleep mode.

Why can't hotels just supply free wifi? Let me answer that question with another question: If you work on your vacation, is it really a vacation?

Tweet This! Gain viewers to your blog.

A friend of mine had "tweet this" at the end of her blog post and I felt like this was something I needed. So I googled "Tweet this" and found a post that showed me how to do it. I found it here.

It looks difficult, but it's not. You just have to READ. For those of your who don't like reading... yes, it's difficult.

Why is this important? Well, it's a great use of Twitter -- rather than telling people who are "following you" that you just stepped off a plane or something (woooweeee), you can actually give your followers a tangible thing to do after they've read your post and found it awesome: "go and read this blog. I found it fascinating."

And I use the Tweet This after I've published a new post, to alert my followers.

Do it before everyone else does it. It took me five minutes.

Tiny Your Link: Here's What Bugs Me

The following tip is super easy and makes you look VERY in-the-know:

When you are forwarding a link to a friend and it takes up 4 lines of space, why don't you make it into a Tiny URL?

Say what?

A tiny url merely shortens the link into a more manageable link, one that won't lose its function when it wraps around to the next line because it's... short. Tiny. Very small.

Here's how it works: Go to the website and paste your link in the box provided and then click: "tiny it." The screen will refresh with a new, leaner link (url) that you can twitter with or send to a friend or post on Facebook, etc.

This is important to know in the same way that the following is important to know:

• Don't attach 30 photos to an email to your friends
• Don't forward chain emails
• Don't forward joke emails from your parents
• Don't use yahoo/hotmail/gmail for your business email

There are a lot of new rules of etiquette in the 21st Century online. How do you find them out?

Stick with me! I'll let you know.

Touch It: The Digital Camera Buyer’s Guide

Unless you're Ansel Adams, most new consumer-grade cameras will provide you with enough pixels and therefore, sharpness for the images you need. So how do you select a camera? First off, you need to touch some actual cameras and think about a few things:

• How does it feel? Might sound silly, but if it's too heavy or large (or small), you might not use it.
• Shutter speed: digital cameras are notorious for shutter lag time, but they are getting faster. When you press the shutter, does your subject move before the shutter clicks? Do you have children? Do you like candid shots? Does this matter to you? Finally: How many blurry photos do you have?
• Rear Panel LCD (that’s the screen on the back of most digital cameras): Most people don't look through the tiny little viewfinder anymore: it's so much easier to frame the image through the LCD. Which camera has the best LCD?
• Zoom/Lens/Image Stabilization: How often do you use the zoom? If often, perhaps image stabilization would be a good feature for you, since the closer in you zoom, the less stable the image. Is the lens decent?
• Check Out The Interface: Does the software on the camera seem intuitive to you? What about all the buttons? Do you have the patience to sit down with the owner's manual? If not, get a super easy-to-use camera. How do you know? Use it in the store!
• Batteries: Are they rechargeable, or will you have to constantly feed your camera new batteries?

When you are clear about the features you want, check out CNET.com. It's like Consumer Reports for electronics. Amazon.com has consumer reviews as well. One more thing to remember: Most cameras don't come with decent-sized memory cards (that's where you store your photos). Make sure to invest in a large capacity memory card – I’m talking 2 gigs, (see Tech Lingo in Chapter 4), especially if you’re shooting video with that camera. That way, you won't have to download your photos/videos after every dozen shots.

Now for the video camera: You want video of your children at this age. You want to remember how they walk, talk and smile. Let's step back for a moment and think about how you are going to use this video, how you are going to store it. I have a video camera that I barely use because downloading the video is a bear and viewing it is difficult (if it's part of a much larger block of video, I have to search). And editing? I mean, really, who has the time?

Most of my video is now shot from my digital still camera. It has great video capabilities and I have a 2 gig memory chip, so space is not an issue. I download the video whenever I download my photos and because each clip of video is separate when shot on a still camera, I can easily find the clip I'm looking for, once I've organized my inventory. Much, much easier.

So you want to know which camera I bought? I have a Canon PowerShot SD880IS. Why? It’s easy to use, it’s got image stabilization (I’ve got fast-moving toddlers), the price was right and the images look great. It’s my 2nd Canon in a row. My sister swears on her Nikon SLR because she can use her 35mm camera lenses with that camera. She turns her nose up to my Canon. To each her own.

Sidenote: What are you doing with your old digital camera? Why not give it to your kids so that they can learn how to shoot a camera? It’s a great project to do with smaller kids – they’ll feel quite accomplished when they see the images that they took all by themselves. You can even make a scrapbook – described later in this chapter.

Free and Reliable Wake Up Call

This past weekend, I booked myself a flight for 9am Sunday morning. I didn't realize it was going to be daylight savings time starting that day. So I was losing an hour. Ugh. 9am flight. At least I live close to the airport.

I was worried about being awakened by my smart phone, because I didn't know if the clock would reset in time. So this time I used Snoozester.com.

Snoozester is free and it works. I signed up online, entered my cell phone number and my time zone and told them when I wished to be awakened.

I got a call at 6:30 (which was really 5:30 in the standard time I was used to), followed by an ad. Funny, I don't remember at all what the ad was for. I was ASLEEP!

Note to self: don't buy ad space on Snoozester.

Music Playlists For Kids

You know when you're in the car with your kids and you can't agree on the music? Yeah.

We all have good intentions. We know what music our children like, more or less. So for the little ones, I put "their" songs on the MP3 player. And when we're in the car with me, they complain.

Here's my solution: even though I could make the playlist in about ten minutes flat, when I do it with my kids, we're able to sample new songs (to see if they are agreeable) and then they feel like they have created something. It's totally worth the time invested on the front end.

We use Rhapsody, which is a music subscription service. This means that I don't own the music, but I have access to over (something like) 5 million songs. It's plenty. They even have story-teller tracks -- a favorite is Mark Binder.

It's like I always say: do the heavy lifting up front and cruise later. (theoretically)

Low Tech Fixes for High Tech Problems

From reviving cell phones to credit cards to hard drives, this New York Times article is chock a block full of interesting fixes. I can't let this go by without a shout out... Check it out here.

Free 411 on your cell phone

How much do you pay each time you call 411 from your cell phone? It seems like ten bucks, am I right?

Google has a free, voice activated information system, whereby you can get business listings.
You don't need a computer, an Internet connection, or even the keypad on your phone or mobile device. GOOG-411 is voice-activated, so you can access it from any phone (mobile or land line), in any location, at any time. For free.

Dial (1-800) GOOG-411. Say where. Say what you're looking for. Example: Pizza. Then, say the city and state. GOOG-411 will give you multiple choices for pizza in the area. If you know the exact pizza place you want, then you can say it in the first place and it will connect you.
If you are calling from a mobile device, GOOG-411 can even send you a text message with more details and a map. Simply say "Text message" or "Map it."

Sometimes, it can't understand what I'm saying -- and it doesn't help that my children are talking loudly in the background, but it's been golden so many times that it has afforded us great eating opportunities in unfamiliar neighborhoods. (I live in Los Angeles, so there are a lot of neighborhoods -- and choices.)

Magic Jack! $40 for a year's worth of phone calls...

It's a friggin' miracle! No, it's MAGIC. Yeah. Magic.

So we got the Magic Jack and within 5 minutes of taking it out of the box (30 day free trial, by the by) and plugging it into our computer, we had a new phone number with voice mail, call waiting, call forwarding, three way calling blah blah blah. The works!

After the 30 day trial is over, we will pay $40 plus shipping and handling and that will give us a YEAR of free calling to the US and Canada. We provide the phone. Right now, we use Vonage, which is pretty inexpensive at $25/month. But folks: $40 a year is INSANE.

Here's the negative: the jack plugs into your computer, so your computer must remain on to receive incoming calls. Otherwise, they will go straight to voice mail. I haven't figured out the other negatives yet, but if I do, I'll let you know.

A no brainer -- and great for a new small business. I'm just saying...

YAPTA! Save on Airfare!

Yapta is a newish website where you enter in your flight information so that the website can track whether the price of your airline ticket is going up or down. It will send you an email alert every time the ticket fluctuates in price. When it goes down, you can decide that now is a good time to buy.

And that’s when the fun begins…

After you purchase your ticket, you let Yapta know at what price you locked it in — and it will continue to monitor the ticket price. If it goes down again, you will get the email alert and then you immediately contact the airline, telling them that you want a voucher for the difference in cost between what you paid and what the cost is right now. Yeah, they will actually send you a voucher.

Last Summer, I bought 4 tickets to Boise for $300. The price went down three times. The lowest eventual price was $240. Can you do math? I saved $240 on those tickets.

And when I bought tickets for Denver for this Spring, I was able to apply those vouchers to my next tickets (they expire in a year, so I had motivation). End result: we are flying from LA to Denver for $77 roundtrip each.

My arm hurts because I’m patting myself on the back so much.

Win a Nintendo DS Game

If you're into your Nintendo DS, read on:

Nintendo travelers alert! Win a DS game that is guaranteed to keep the kids busy while you drive (or read your book). Simply submit your own adventure story on TravelingMom.com and be entered to win. Hurry! Contest ends January 31.

http://travelingmom.com/blog/neopets-adventure-contest.html

I don't believe that there are a lot of submissions, so your chances are good.

Wait a Minute: Backup!

You know you should, and yet, you don't. No, I'm not talking about essential fatty acids, I'm talking about backing up your data.

Imagine this scenario:

Your hard drive fails. You haven’t backed up your data because

A) you were too lazy,

B) you were too lazy or

C) you have been meaning to do it.

All of your financials, all of your emails, all of your contacts, all of your digital music and photos of your CHILDREN are lost forever. Oh wait! You could pay a company $750 to get that data back. Oh. They say that it actually can’t be done. It’s gone. Now you have to buy a new hard drive and totally reconfigure your computer and…

It’s a nightmare. And it’s not if it’s going to happen, it’s when. You can easily avoid this. There are many ways backup your data:

* You can get an extra hard drive, put it in your computer, and transfer the data.
* You can have the extra hard drive external to your computer, or
* You could backup online.

The simplest solution for the external hard drive is SimpleTech SimpleDrive. The software (StorageSync Backup) leads you through the setup, and once you’ve backed up the first time, the following backups will go much faster as it will be backing up only what is new or changed since the last time you did it. Some people love Simple Tech, some hate it. Let’s get to the good stuff…

My backup of choice is online backup. No more external hard drives, no more CDs and no more fiddling with backup software.

A company that backs up online elegantly and less expensively is Mozy. Mozy is an exciting (because it’s) FREE new software that lets you effortlessly, automatically and securely back up your data OFFSITE. The first 2 gigs are free, if you want unlimited gigs (um, that’s a lot of space!), it’s $5/month.

Good story: I told an acquaintance of mine heard about Mozy and she spent the five bucks a month for the big backup. TWO DAYS later, her hard drive failed! Kaput. Totally dead. No biggie, because she bought a new hard drive (for $80) and downloaded her backed up data from Mozy onto her new drive. This woman LOVES me. And I barely know her.

Here's how Mozy works:



Go to Mozy.com and click on "get mozy free." You will give them your email and create a password. In moments, you will receive an email from Mozy with a link to click. Once you've clicked on the link, you will be walked through a series of easy instructions to get backed up. That's it! If you choose, it can be a continuous backup, so when the software sees that you’re not active on the computer, it will backup your data securely because it’s encrypted.


Aaaah, the magic and mystery of online backup!

What If Your House Burned Down To The Ground?

OK, admittedly, it’s not something you really want to think about. But, what if? Let’s just imagine that no one was home, but that you lost every material item that you owned. Insurance could cover a lot of your loss, sure. But how are you going to get your children’s birthday photos off of your ashy external hard drive, mommy?

Back up your data! That is the single best piece of advice I will ever give you. Back it up online, even if you have an external drive. For $5/month at Mozy, you can achieve peace of mind in case, god forbid, your house burned, or someone stole your computer or your external drive crashed at the same time as your internal drive. See what I mean? Five dollars a month is NOTHING! For an unlimited amount of data! Sister, that is the bargain of the new millennium.

Just Tell Me The Answer! Cha Cha!

Have you been to Cha Cha? Here’s how it works: you text message or call via your mobile phone a burning question that you need answered immediately. (probably because you don’t have your computer handy, eh?) Within moments, you will get a text back on your phone with the answer. That’s it.

So, let’s say your in San Francisco for the week and you have no idea how to dress for the weather. Simply text your question to 242242 (spells ‘ChaCha’) or call 1-800-2ChaCha (800-224-2242) from your mobile phone to ask any question.

Or how about if you’re on a long road trip and you need a new joke to entertain your kids? Text cha cha! Truly! They will send you a kid-appropriate joke.

Now if your mobile could only babysit…

Canon V. Nikon

People got strong opinions about these two brands of point-and-shoot cameras. I tried not to get involved. You know what they say about opinions...

Well, I have one. And one of those as well.

I prefer Canon. But I must say that before I developed this opinion, I bought a Nikon. Last week. It did not fit. What was the model number? Oh, who can remember. (Who wants to? I don't recommend it anyway.) It was a mid-range model for $160 online. The camera was just plain difficult to use. I know how to use cameras -- but this Nikon! Oh, the torment!

1. Interminable shutter lag
2. blurry photos
3. orange photos
4. blue photos!

Now, I'm sure some of you (Nikon-heads) will say that I don't know how to use the camera. But let me tell you that I got my Canon SD 880 IS last night and I started using it immediately, without reading the manual and the photos looked great. Even the videos were great and the new, larger LCD screen looks great.

I just want it to be easy. And intuitive. And with my new Canon, it is.