Technology
Stem toys, Steam toys, smart appliances and technology that makes your home work more efficiently. The pace of technology is rapid-fire and ever changing. Here's why it pays to stay on top of what's hot and what's not. This section of Thrifty Mommas Tips is basically the intersection of where technology lives and exists to make your life better. Technology exists everywhere we look right now and it is evolving every second. Apps are always with us and ready to be engaged or downloaded, but which ones are worth the time and real estate on your phone? For that matter, which phone is the one you want to partner with for the next two years? From the computer and camera in your pocket every day to the doorbell, the smart TV and dishwasher that texts you messages when something is wrong, electronics and gadgets can be brilliant tools that enhance our lives. Your home right now has never been more tapped in, or smarter reading your activity and comfort to achieve a better lifestyle for your family. But these same consumer electronics and apps can also be intrusive or frustrating and expensive if they are not what you expect. How is a person to know what to spend time on? I vet things thoroughly here, from cameras to small appliances, smart thermostats, steam dishwashers, and fun toys so that you can buy with confidence. These are my favourite things that exist right now in the technology space.
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Netgear Arlo 4 HD Camera Set and Keeping Your Home Safe #ad #BBYConnectedHome
What’s more important than safety this time of year? Or any time of year for that matter? Knowing your home, or home office, is safe whether your loved ones are indoors, or out with you, can often be the difference between worry and peace of mind. That’s why this Best Buy exclusive Netgear Arlo 4 HD Camera Set is a must have for your connected home. I am a gadget girl at heart and anything that makes my life easier, with the help of great technology, makes me happy. This year I discovered a small gadget that synched with my iPhone and allowed me to check on my office…
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Tony Hawk Circuit Boards For Tweens by Hexbug – #TMMGG2015 #giveaways
Of all the people on your list this year, the tweens and teenagers can be some of the hardest to buy for. Oh sure there’s always gift cards. Kids like to spend those after they hit double digits. But if you are like me you still love to have something under the tree for them to open also. Gadgets? Sure, why not. But there are only so many electronics you can give. Kids, of all ages, still like something to unwrap and play with on occasion. So happy to share that HexBug has you covered this year for all the tweens and teens on your list. These Tony Hawk Circuit…
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Social Media Bullying – What Do I Do If My Child is Being Bullied on Social Media?
Social media is here to stay and unfortunately that means social media bullying is also a threat, so you better get savvy about monitoring your child on their social channels. I wish more than anything that I didn’t have to write this post. I make my living off social media and I love it for many reasons. I use it mostly for social good to help build messaging on line for brands like World Vision Canada, and patient groups seeking help, or raising awareness, for issues like infertility, adoption, child poverty. I love what I do and it is the best of several worlds for me – passion, advocacy, and…
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Five Fantastic New Family Games for XBOX One – XBOX One Media Showcase
A couple short weeks ago, before school started up again, I was invited to a Toronto event called XBOX One Media Showcase. I was interested to see which of the new game launches would be appropriate for families. Happily I found quite a few and I spent a few hours testing some out. There were dozens of great games for adults and the new Halo was a huge draw. But I was more interested in the likes of Skylanders Superchargers. These are my Five Favourite New Family Games for XBOX One Platform. (shown clockwise.) Plants versus Zombies – GW2 -(Garden Warfare 2) everyone is familiar with Plants versus Zombies on their handheld…
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My Tech Rockstar – Withings Home Monitoring Device #Giveaways
I heart this Withings Home Monitoring Device with Air Quality Sensors so much more than I ever dreamt I would. It gives me the full on tech warm fuzzies. Now let me explain why. And at the end of my heartfelt rhapsody on all things Withings don’t forget to enter the contest to win one of your own. It will rock your world. Good apps, and good technology adds value to your life. There are games I like that amuse me. But do they add value to my life? That’s arguable. There are gadgets I adore that lately are easily incorporated into my day and make me happy. There are…
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Sell Your Old Clothing, Toys or Furniture Easily – Varage Sale Comes to London #LDNONT #VarageSale
Hold up Facebook sales groups. Here comes Varage Sale now in London, Ontario too. Varage Sale takes the headache out of garage sales and helps you to sell the little extras that are cluttering up your home. I have been eyeing this up for several weeks as I watched Varage launch in communities around the GTA. I even downloaded the Varage Sale app before they launched in London. I am a bit of an app geek and love to see what new apps are doing and how they compare to other tools. I watched Varage Sale in Ottawa and in the GTA and I even messaged the app to say…
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How to Remove Link.is From Your Tweets
Have your twitter images been sideways? Literally? Have your tweets been claimed by some strange third party? Has your twitter feed been looking hinky? What’s up with that? This past weekend I’d had it. My audience was even telling me on twitter that my tweets didn’t look right and the images weren’t the correct images that corresponded to the topic of my tweets. So I checked out what my reader and good friend Jenn was telling me. Sure enough the images were sideways on occasion and there were actual ads in some of my tweets that I had not permitted to be there. That was really not okay. I needed…
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Wowee Snap Pets Unboxing and Review #BBNYC #SweetSuite2015
Recently I attended one of the biggest nights in toys at Blogger Bash New York City, Sweet Suite event. There were toys for all ages and stages. There were cute things my tween and teen would love and many fun crafty items too. I hope to bring you a couple more of those soon. But I left the event with Wowee Snap Pets and was pretty excited to get ahold of that because I knew one of the girls would enjoy playing with it. So today we did the unboxing which you can see more of on our Thrifty Mom Media Youtube channel. [tweetthis]Wowee Snap Pets unboxing now on…
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Microsoft Canada – Upgrade to Windows 10 and #UpgradeYourWorld
Today is a great day for Windows users in Canada. Today is the day that Microsoft Canada releases its Windows 10 upgrade! This highly anticipated upgrade brings back favourites not seen in Windows 8.1, plus some extras. Microsoft Canada is celebrating this momentous occasion with their #UpgradeYourWorld campaign. So I want to know how do you upgrade your world? Microsoft Canada – Upgrade Your Windows Microsoft Canada released Windows 10 today, and the roll out is simply awesome. For one thing, they’ve brought back the start menu that Windows users know and love, making the interface far easier for a lot of users than the Windows 8.1 interface. This is a great…
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Organize Your Wallet With UGO Wallet $20 Offer #UGOWalletStart
If you are at all like me your wallet is weighed down by more rewards cards than you can count. It seems every store you visit these days has a rewards card. In fact lately they seem more prevalent than ever. Just today I was hunting for my library card and barely could find it buried beneath rewards cards. So when I heard about UGO Wallet app I had to give it a try. UGO wallet app is free. You can download it and store all your rewards cards on UGO Wallet app. And more importantly right now for a limited time when you sign up, download the app and…