Are you ready to Blaze!

My friend Michelle was at the checkout line one day and thought to herself, "Wouldn't it be cool to use my mobile phone to pay for this transaction?" (I'm paraphrasing). There are probably many people with this thought besides Michelle, the only difference is she had the resources, experience, and cajones to pull it off! Today she is founder and CEO of BlazeMobile. My girl is badd! (NOTE: I realize I'm daiting myself with that slang). So, this weekend I'm blazin' to the movies, the museum, and whatever else I can do with BlazeWallet, my newest iPhone app. I'll let you know how it goes....

Stay tuned....

GoGadgetGurl!
"Knowlege the ultimate fashion accessory!"

Breast feeding with your iPhone

Huh!? That's was my first thought. I was talking to a colleague telling him about this blog and why I started it and he immediately got it. He told me that he's looking at his wife with a kindle on one side of her lap and the the iphone on the other while she's breast feeding their son, and thinks to himself her fitness magazine isn't talking about this. Exactly! there aren't any womens' magazine or even technology magazine's that review, evaluate, technology from a personal, lifestyle perspective. And for me being a female I really want to see in our womens' media cover technology from a lifestyle perspective. So, that's the reason I started the blog; to start, contribute, and enhance the conversation on how technology informs our decisions, our experiences, and our collective mindset.

And before I go, yes, I looked up the iPhone breast feeding apps and I am simply amazed! Since I haven't been blessed to me a mother yet, I didn't know how much information a mom has to track when she chooses to breast feed! These apps help moms keep track of everything from the last breast her baby fed on to tracking bowels (sorry if that's TMI for some of you). If you're a mom or a mom to be with an iphone and want to know more check out these iPhone apps, search on breast feeding at the App Store, or learn about Baby Tracker Nursing by http://www.andesigned.net/ for $7.99 and Breastfeeding by Lars Bergelt for $0.99.
The price difference is in the amount of information each tracks. I have to agree with one customer's comment, "Apps like this are what separate the iPhone."

GoGadgetGurl!
"Knowlege the ultimate fashion accessory!"

PS> and the Amazon kindle was reading material while breast feeding. Of course!

So What's This I'm Hearing about Windows 7?

So, I was speaking with a co-worker the other day and he says "I hear Windows 7 is getting some good hype?", and I say "Windows 7? They just released Vista! I guess they had to give up on Vista with a quickness". And then he said "Well, I think Windows Vista got alot of hype early on too, eh!"

Later I pondered, "7? Why 7 ?" Let's see there was Windows 3.0. That's the last time they used a number. Since then there have been Windows 2000™, Windows NT™, Windows XP™, and Windows Vista™. I never switched to Windows Vista. When I first heard about it, the reviews were all negative, so I thought why bother, especially since my employer at the time wasn't bothering either. I have used Vista on my honey's (he's my fiance, now...and he didn't propose via text!) HP laptop and experienced those annoying access control dialogs. Oops, I digressed! Back to the Windows lineage...let's say Windows 2000™ and Windows NT™ are Windows 4.0 (if my memory serves me correctly, they released very close together), Windows XP™ is 5.0, and Windows Vista™ is 6.0! And then Windows 7.0! Ta dah! But wait a minute what about Windows 95™?

Are you still wondering if their is any truth to the hype? I did a quick google and discovered there is?! Check out Don Reisinger's blog The Digital Home, specifically his posts, "What scares me about Windows 7" and "Why I can't get enough of Windows 7". And then there's Ina Fried's posts, "Securing the Windows 7 beta" and "Windows 7 on a Mac Mini". And finally, a petition to release it now!

What's makes me laugh is the comparison's to Mac OS X. I have this image of Microsoft engineers sitting in a conference room around an iMac running MacOS X with the question written on the whiteboard, "What can we bite off of Mac OS X and then improve on? " And didn't they do the same thing to develop Windows 3.0? All I can say is Microsoft may have the dominance in sheer numbers of users of their OS, but they have always followed Apple in innovation. And since Apple is on the eve of releasing their next version of Mac OS X this year before Windows 7, it's likely the Windows 7 beta hype will be short lived. Which just gives Apple more commercial material.

Disclaimer: I'm writing this blog on my iMac.



GoGadgetGurl!
“Knowledge, the ultimate fashion accessory!”

"<your name>@usps.com"

I heard a news story on NPR.org about the billions of dollars the United States Post Office lost this past year. And it struck me that at it's core the USPS is about delivery. So, what if at the birth of the expansion of the internet, when yahoo and hotmail began offering free email, what if the leaders of the USPS saw the explosion email would be globally and offered free email as usps.com. I bet 9 of 10 people who made the decision to pick a free email service would have chosen <your name>@usps.com over yahoo and hotmail. I know I would have. No doubt. It makes so much sense to have the same company that handles my home mail, handle my email. And today USPS would not be known as just snail mail. Not sure how the USPS could have capitalized on multimillions of people having free email serviced by the United States Post Office, but I'm sure lots of people would be thinking of lots of ideas :)

GObama!!!

I am thrilled Barack Obama is the President-elect of the United States of America. I feel as if we, the American people, have been given a hand to lift us up out of the the tumultuous sea of fear that has been governing us. Maybe I’m being overly dramatic. Yet, I don’t care. I am excited on so many levels. I’ve been reading articles for months on the positions of McCain vs. Obama, and the arrogant authority the Bush administration has been taking to serve a conservative agenda and undermine our democracy….though, let me not get so high and mighty on my soap box. This blog is for the stories of technology in our lives.

Obama’s campaign used technology masterfully to generate momentum at the grassroots level. And I am looking forward to the innovation that his presidency will fund, and support. I read an article in the New York Times comparing McCain’s position on innovation vs. Obama’s position. I have always believed that the success in the Silicon Valley was due in large part to the free education system that we had for many years at the Junior college level, and the extremely affordable education provided to Californians by the California State University and the University of California systems. All that free and affordable education not only cultivated genius, but gave geniuses like Steve Jobs and Larry Ellis the workforce necessary to build their successful companies. So, when I read that Mr. Obama feels that funding education and research in technology and the sciences will boost America’s position as a leader in innovation, I agreed. That's the long term solution. We had no more time for the McCain approach which would have been to deregulate corporations and hope they do the right thing. That’s the same old trickle down theory from Reagonmics 101. Thank God we’ve been saved!



God Blessed America.

GoGadgetGurl!
“Knowledge, the ultimate fashion accessory!”