Its like a private diary, facebook style. Finally. A place I can post all the stuff thats not exciting enough for facebook, but will be reflective and meaningful to me later. The world doesnt need to know what I am eating for lunch, but I like seeing it, so heres where im putting it. My content just got more relevant.http://www.takeflava.com
Category Archives: technology
Sleep as Android app – the swiss army knife of alarm clock/sleep tracking apps
I dont wake up for alarms. My sleeping body is too clever. I once kept my alarm clock across the room tucked under my desk behind a chair. Within days I had figured a way to turn it off in my sleep.
I recently began using this app on a recommendation from my nephew- and I can say its one of the smartest little multifunction alarm clock and sleep tracking apps I’ve seen. Not only does it track your movement, through your phones accelerometer (to see when you are sleeping), but you can also set it to wake you at an “ideal” time when your body has completed a sleep cycle. Not sure how it figures this – but its cool. You wake more refreshed. And for all of you that need an alarm that is smarter than the morning you, there are tests you can make the alarm ask you (to get your morning brain working) in order to turn off the alarm. Like simple math. I dont know about you, but once my brain is thinking about multiplication tables – I’m up.
Draw Something App
I don’t typically write app reviews, I have about 300 apps on my Droid Bionic, and most of them are pretty fun. But yesterday, my sister invited me to play Draw Something – which is like words with friends and pictionary combined. It has changed my life, and brought my work productivity to 0. I have since recruited some of my coworkers to play, thus reducing the offices overall productivity – which I would never do for something that wasn’t this much fun. The app is free, and like pictionary- you draw pictures for the other person to guess. I haven’t figured out the scoring system yet, but I don’t really care who wins, its hilarious watching your friends draw and redraw something really poorly. Get the app, and play with me I’m Yvetteg555, and I’m a pretty awesome drawer!
P.S. Its on android and iPhone so you have no excuse unless your a bberry.
5 Things You Need To Try
Butter Baked Goods: Rose Marshmallow
The only Marshmallow that is AS GOOD as my homemade recipe, Butter Baked Goods – Rose Marshmallows, get it at Dean and Deluca
Lightly flavored with Rose water, these fluffy heavenly squares are perfectly sweet and addictive!
Swingline PowerEase Stapler
If you staple anything during the day, do your poor hands a favor and get the Swingline PowerEase stapler. No more having to push with all your might trying to get a staple through thick sheets of paper, this handy little guy goes through up to 25 sheets of paper with 70% less force required compared to traditional staplers. I found it was much easier to use then the Staples Reduce Effort staplers, and doesnt have as much annoying snap-back. Its one of those office products that I would chain to my desk (if that didnt look so ugly) because my coworkers tend to get sneaky with other peoples stuff.
Contessa MicroSteam Garlic Chicken Penne
I cook, but not as often as I wish I could, because I actually enjoy it. I am all for easy to prepare dinners, but often this means you compromise on taste. So I went in trying Contessas Micro Steam meals with a little hesitation, not only is it a meal in a bag (like Bertolli’s) but it also is microwaveable, and it cooks right in the bag!
So this is the preparation: Take bag out of freezer, throw it in microwave for 6 minutes, open bag and dump onto plates and enjoy with husband.
Mmm. It was actually very good! We tried the Garlic Chicken Penne, and the asparagus pieces tasted fresh, the pasta sauce and mushrooms were perfectly cooked. The chicken was pretty good too. I give this high praise because in the end, you dont have to wash a skillet! Get a coupon for $1.50 off here
GeoDefense for iPhone
My next review is for all the lovers of iPhone users out there, for which I am one. And dont get me started on how much I love my iPhone! <3! I was addicted to Bejeweled for a good 4 months, until I found GeoDefense, a game about setting up laser shooting towers, and such, around a maze that these little alien pacmen travel down. Your goal is to stop them from getting to the end of the maze.
For each Alien you destroy, you gain $, which you can use to buy more lazers and gun towers.
The Aliens move at different speeds, and have different weaknesses, so you need to diversify your defense plan in order to succeed.
Fast paced, and frustratingly addictive. There is a free version available, so I’ll let you check it out for yourself.
Last but certainly not least…
I tried twitter for the first time about a year ago. I didn’t follow anyone, I just started tweeting all sorts of random useless rants about my commute, and about a week later, I decided – this sucks, and I stopped twittering.
I came back in February 2010 with the idea I would try it a little different the second go ’round. This time, I began following massive amounts of people – regular people like me, news sources, and people with similar interests in food, coupons etc..
After about a week, I realized I was hooked, and after a month, I realized this was a life changer. I was now a dedicated twitterer. I started connecting and making friends with people all around the world. Martha Stewart actually followed me, and I can remember dancing and jumping up and down, she is my favorite human.
After a month, I was more connected to what was happening in the world than most people I knew, and interestingly enough – I found that I was reading news sites and exploring the web much more in hopes that I could find something interesting to share with my followers (i call them “Fellowers” it sounds so much less imperialistic!).
Ultimately, everyone can benefit from twitter, whether you want to give to it, and take (as I do), or just give (like some celebs do, who dont follow anyone, just post about whatever it is that they are doing at the moment), or just take. There is something here for everyone, and thats why iLike it!
Until next time!
Tritium Keyring
Its helped me countless times, but yet I havent blogged about it – shame on me! Anywho, Tritium Keyrings are these little glowing keychains that glow for 10 years without ever needing any light. I cant explain the science behind it, but it is made from radioactive hydrogen gas.. I ofcourse did my research before I bought one- it emits a microscopic amount of gamma radiation, but its about a few hundred times less than a light up watch dial. You cant buy in the US, but you can scoop one up on Ebay.. Not sure why they wont allow these in the states, when they allow it in watches.. but hey, one more exclusive thing I can share with all of you here. They are usually about 10 Euro, when you can find it. Its probably saved an accumulated 2 hours over the course of my life, in scrambling through my extremely messy purse. Good luck my adventureous friends!
Mozilla Firefox – My favorite way to surf the web!
For all the years that I have been an internet junkie, Internet Explorer has been the way to get my fix. After about 4 system restores, a million virus scans, 3 disk defrags – and a plethora of curse words and violent fist pumps against the slowness of my web browser, I decided to try Mozilla Firefox. I read up and found that In 2008, CNET.com compared Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer in their “Battle of the Browsers” in terms of performance, security, and features, Firefox won top honors. It also used less memory than other browsers – which means my computer was less likely to crap out at the slightest problem. I could get on facebook faster, and play games at speeds that were almost a little too fast- And it also helps that it is a much more secure!
While I am only somewhat tech savvy- I can tell you that within minutes of switching to Mozilla, I realized my internet life had been much improved. I can’t believe I didnt switch sooner.. I guess its sort of like people who still use aol. They dont realize that there are other options for internet exploring.. I hope if anyone reads this, that they give Mozilla Firefox a try. You will understand once you’ve done it. This will be one of my top favorite things this year.
Archos 605 wifi – personal media player
Now that phones are multitasking so much better then 2 years ago, gadgets must also step it up from their ability to do one or two things.. Now they must do those things well and do even more. The archos 604 is a personal media player (pmp) that does tons. It records and plays movies and tv shows, plays music, stores picture and files, surfs the web via wifi, plays games, and when you download widgets online you can do a lot more.. Mind you the price point on the archos looks good on the site, but if you want to do it all expect to shell out at least 80 in software upgrades and about 100 on additional hardware. So do the math to figure out if you can afford it first or you’ll be up poopcreek.
Some things that really shine on this device are the clarity of the screen (and its a touchscreen!), the easy to navigate menus, nice compact size and big screen. (WxDxH): 4.8 in x 0.8 in x 3.2 in; Display type: TFT 4.3 in. I got mine in an 80 GB storage capacity which I will never be able to fill. Make sure you get the dvr recorder or half the features go to waste! If you really want to save buy it refurbished from http://www.archos.com But just be careful to make sure you didn’t get a dud.. If you buy the refurb make sure you try everything.. I spent 2 months waiting for my replacement to arrive after I sent back a buggy model that needed to constantly be reset, my replacement has had no problems. Definitely worth the $ especialy if you’re a nyc commuter like me!
My favorite phone – The HTC TyTN II
While im not sure why phones these days have such sily names, I am sure that my htc tytn murders all those other silly phones and so I could care less about the name. Eventhough I am a bit bitter that I bought this from a store in the uk before the phone was released here and paid full price, I could not be happier.. This is by far the best windows mobile device I’ve used..
For starters it has every app you could ever need and then some.. Microsoft word, excel, powerpoint, calendar and contacts, gps tracking software (mine came with tomtom but I think us versions come with another 3rd party software), mail application that actually allows you to see your mail as it was meant to be seen (with pictures) – previous versions only allowed you to see mail in plain text format..
While the overall look is also much improved thanks to the windows mobile operating system.. The results is a better looking home screen, more customization, less freezing up.. And thanks to htc I have enough memory to load my phone up with al sorts of fun applications like sudoku.. And agenda fusion, etc.. An even sweeter bonus is the phone is already set to print to a bluetooth printer, which I just so happen to have! Awesome!
Overall, I know this phone is probably too much for most people I know.. But im telling you, this is the way of the future people.. Your phones should do so much more.. And they do, this does.. With the iphone out im sure these types of devices will get more popular with the masses.. But until then, I guess I am still one of the few..
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