2010 – My 15 Favorite New Things

I’m too old for bleeding edge tech innovations but love how the following made my life easier this year.  Most, but not all, are apps on my Droid Smartphone. They are all things I began using this year:

1. Wool cycle on my Whirlpool Duet washer – Much easier, faster, and cleaner than my former handwash days.
2. Netflix - it’s convenient, with instant download for movies I want to see.
3. Hootsuite - it’s like social media on streamlined steroids, and I love the phone app too.
4. #Tristatewx - a Twitter hashtag – Easily see weather changes in the Tri-State area, from weather professionals and locals. Love to see a whole community collaborate with it.
5. Bump – phone app – Quickly exchange business card information with other iPhone and Droid users who use it.
6. GStrings - phone app – when my kids carry their violin or guitar places to play, they can quickly and accurately tune their instruments.
7. Maps – phone app – though I struggle sometimes reading the map, it has saved my bacon while travelling. Though it’s a little hinky sometimes, I like the voice Navigator that helps me get to new destinations.
8. Voice to Text – phone app – I can ask my phone to search Google, Tweet, or update my Facebook status. Though it struggles with my southern drawl, it saves time.
9. Barcode Scanner – phone app – I can scan bar codes and compare prices while I shop. QR codes will use this to make 2011 a different kind of year.
10. Smart Protractor – phone app – helped my kids with their math when we couldn’t find a real protractor in the house.
11. Evernote – phone app – Thanks to Dan Sully of the Social Media Club of Evansville for introducing this new super organizer tool for those of us who organize better by computer than by way of real paper.
12. Color Flashlight – phone app
13. Air Horn - loud horns. When a friend was in a touchy situation alone one evening last year, she downloaded this with her phone on highest volume.
14. Rosary - phone app
15. Contacts - My Outlook contacts are synced to my phone, along with my Facebook phone directory.  

The Android LightSaber app did not make the list because they still have no female Jedi, so I have to fight like a guy.  The whoopie cushion app can provide fun laughs, but my more mature, saner half would hate it if I listed it.

Watch in 2011: the Holiday World phone app which promotes a whole community of cool places.

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My Droid Pwn Intervention

The notice that I’m due for a new cell phone is as exciting as a card to get our cat its annual rabies shot.  I hate learning a new phone.  Life’s too complicated, so I ignored the notice.

When I was given a $50 gift certificate to Verizon the week my phone started to die, I thought it had to be Divine Intervention.  

I asked on Facebook and Twitter: Droid or Blackberry?  Answers poured in.

After I tried the Blackberry and Droid, I saw the Devour.  It seemed sturdier, and I liked the keyboard.  The store was out of Devours, so I went home with news that I would be a new Devour user the next day.

When I returned home, I posted on Facebook that my next phone would be a Devour.

My 15-year-old daughter raced up the stairs, “No, Mom!  You can’t!  You have to have the Droid!”

She scolded me on my Facebook wall:

Mother! Please do not consider getting a Devour! The Droid is the Optimus Prime of the phone world. A more powerful camera, higher res and larger screen, and faster internet.

Also, consider the commercials. The Droid has this epic ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w83UQk…iuNZQ&feature=fvw

Therefore, I have made my argument on your phone, and shown Verizon that a Megan Fox commercial is not as effective as the add that uses the line “a stud missile duct-taped to a racehorse.”

 I answered:

I think I just got phone pwned by my daughter. Guess who’s going phone shopping with me tomorrow.

There was a disturbance in the Force.  I was the object of a Droid Pwn Intervention.  By my own daughter, whom I once taught how to keyboard with correct hand position. On MY Facebook wall, when I started FB to monitor HER!

She shopped with me today, and I did get the Droid.  When I got the phone, case, and cover, she took the parts and told me SHE would put it together because I might mess something up. 

First, she showed me how to log into my social media.  With my first Facebook update via Hootsuite, I was relieved.  

Then my daughter played with sounds and settings.  I thought of Yoda in Star Wars, “You must unlearn what you have learned” as I struggled to figure out the new settings.

Later, I realized something we forgot: “How do I answer this?”  Social media’s a higher priority than a telephone.

My kids and I are shifting roles as they pull me out of Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon and into a TIE fighter.

 I don’t know if I like my new ship.  However, like Yoda, I can adapt.

 As Yoda said, “Feel the force!”

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