The Online Mom

Tech Tips for Parents

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:00:00 PST

The steps you can take to ensure that your children are safe and act responsibly in today's digital world will vary dramatically on how old they are and how much exposure they have to technology. But if your children are still young, and they are starting to show an increasing interest in gadgets, games, and the Web, then it's definitely time to put your digital parenting plan into action! Here are 10 tips to help you get started: 1. Get In The Game! Make an effort to understand the basics of...

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Number of video gamers continues to grow

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:00:00 PST

The number of U.S. individuals actively playing video games continues to skyrocket, with a new study finding that as many as 135 million people – or 44 percent of the total U.S. population – played games on a regular basis in 2011. This represents an increase of 241 percent over 2008, when the equivalent number was just 56 million. Most of the new gamers are casual gamers and have been attracted to the gaming world by social or free-to-play games through new and convenient platforms such as...

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10 things you didn’t know you could do with a smartphone

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:32:00 PST

We love our smartphones for texting, e-mail, web surfing, and yes, for even making the occasional phone call! But did you know you can do so much more with your smartphone? Built-in hardware features and thousands of apps are turning our smartphones into everything from virtual wallets to handy tool kits. Here are just a few of the smartphone uses they might not tell you about at the local phone store! 1. Use your phone a remote control Some of the coolest apps in the App Store or the Android...

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Tech Report – Sony Tablet S

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:33:00 PST

While Apple’s iPad 2 continues to fly off the shelves and Amazon’s Kindle Fire grabs most of the headlines, another household name is quietly building a solid fan base in the highly competitive world of tablet computers. The Sony Tablet S may not have arrived with much hoopla, but it’s turning out to be every bit as good as its more heralded rivals. Sony took its time in developing the Tablet S and it shows. Everything is engineered with the renowned Sony quality and precision. And unlike some...

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Is Facebook making us sad?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:09:00 PST

When you first join Facebook, there is an understandable urgency to friend as many people as possible. The more friends you have, the thinking goes, the more popular you must be. While most people have only have a handful of close friends in real life, the average friend total on Facebook is 130. Now, it turns out that having all those friends may not be such a good thing after all. Research presented last month at the annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in...

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Choosing the right smartphone

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:07:00 PST

By TheTechDad There are very few things in life that you spend more time with than your smartphone. If you’re like me, then it’s the first thing you reach for in the morning and the last thing you put down at night. So in many ways, choosing a new smartphone is like choosing a new roommate: You better get it right or life is suddenly going to take a turn for the worse! But choosing a new phone doesn’t have to be a guessing game. Even though the selection process can appear complicated, there...

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How to find great apps

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:00:00 PST

One of the biggest attractions of owning a smartphone or tablet computer is the huge selection of available apps. Whether you are looking to play games, catch up on the latest news, get some recipe ideas, or just check the weather, there are literally thousands of apps to choose from. In fact, the sheer volume of apps can be overwhelming. There are 500,000 apps available for the iPhone alone, with thousands more being released each month. Apps for Android devices are not far behind at around...

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Teen Tweeting Surges

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:46:00 PST

By Kiwi Commons If you Google the words ‘teens’ and ‘twitter’, you’ll probably find that a lot of the results are articles and blogs pointing out that teenagers tend to shun the micro-blogging site, as opposed to Facebook. Many factors are given for the phenomenon. For one, teens apparently associate Twitter with self-promotion and generally don’t feel the need to self-promote until their college years, when they start planning in earnest for careers. Nevertheless, teens have begun migrating...

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What Facebook’s IPO will mean for users

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:38:00 PST

Facebook finally filed for its initial public offering (IPO) earlier this week and by now everyone is familiar with the astronomical valuations that are being attached to the company and how many gazillionaires will be produced as a result. Perhaps less attention has been paid to what the proposed listing is likely to mean for the average Facebook user. Certainly there is no immediate financial advantage – other than our own ability to buy Facebook stock and hope to turn a profit – but there...

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PBS Kids Lab helps build critical math skills

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:24:00 PST

Of all the subjects our children learn at school, math is probably the most important. Every career uses some kind of math skill, and studying math helps the mind to organize complex problems into clear and logical steps. By becoming proficient at math, students give themselves a competitive edge and the ability to take on everyday challenges with confidence. Unfortunately, studies show that over 60 percent of elementary students are below grade level when it comes to math, a deficiency that is...

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