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Archive for the ‘Holiday’ Category
Holiday traditions vary from home to home, but apps for the iPhone and iPad give us all a techie way to keep up with our customs no matter where we’re spending the season.
Here are a few apps, some new and some old, which caught our eye this holiday season:
iTree (Free) – A simple way to share the holidays, this classic app lets you decorate a tree and send it as an eCard to friends and family. You can write a personalized message on the card and the recipients can view it for free, even if they don’t have an iPhone or iPad.
Auto-Tune Christmas (Free… sort of) – Using Antares Auto-Tune, this app lets you sing, record and share a selection of holiday songs. Auto-Tune will modulate your voice, so even if you’ve been graced with the vocal cords of a toad, you’ll sound pretty good. You can wish your loved ones happy holidays through a song and send it as an eCard with a customized photo. The app is initially free, but additional songs and features, like unlimited sharing and posting, cost between $0.99 and $1.99.
Mobile Menorah ($0.99) – Celebrate Chanukah by selecting the number of candles, automatically or manually, and how fast you want them to burn. Enjoy the flickering flames of your menorah on your iPhone or iPad from anywhere in the world. This is a beautifully simple app and results in no unintentional fires. Also, part of each sale goes toward planting trees in Israel.
A Christmas Carol ($4.99) – The Dickens classic has been updated to fit the steampunk trend of a mechanized Victorian age. This interactive eBook takes you through the heart of the story, although not the full text, with original music, animation and illustrations that are lovely. Designed for the iPad, this is one the family should gather around. There have been complaints, however, about having to tap repeatedly to get some parts to work, but overall, is a unique way to share the holiday tale.
This holiday season, many children will be getting envelopes with heartfelt cards and cold hard cash, among their other gifts. Teaching kids how to handle this money responsibly can be tough, though. They don’t have to pay rent or buy groceries, and reminding them of these luxuries is often ineffective since, well, they’ve never had to pay rent or buy groceries.
FamilyMint, recipient of the 2010 Homeschool Crew Seaworthy Award for most family-oriented product and the Mom’s Choice Award, offers an engaging way for kids to learn financial responsibility. This online tool is easy for kids to use with colorful graphics and goal-setting tools that connect their money with real-world meaning.
The application grows with the child. A kid-friendly junior view is available for younger users and a more mature interface, the same used by parents, lets older children exercise more responsibility.
Parents can manage the child’s account, automating allowances, helping set goals, and even offering incentives like matched contributions and interest. Savvy to social media, FamilyMint has communities on Facebook and Twitter, is accessible by mobile device web browsers, and the application itself creates a dynamic, participatory experience.
FamilyMint offers basic service for free and a premium account for those who want more advanced options. This is a great tool to help your child learn how to manage holiday money and make him or her better prepared for the future.
Media Genesis is proud to have worked with FamilyMint to realize this wonderful tool for children and families.
Neighborhood rivalries over holiday decorations have continued to escalate in 2010. Year after year, this battle has taken its toll on the electric bills of thousands of American households, yet shows no sign of abatement. The tools in the hands of these decor despots has only fed their pursuit of a home so lit that it may be a beacon on the dark seas of space to life forms that don’t make for disappointing NASA announcements.
Today, the Joneses are tech savvy, so to keep up you’ll need to expand your arsenal. First and foremost, the heart of any holiday display is the lighting. You’ll probably still want to be able to afford to heat your home as you illuminate it, so energy efficient LEDs are a great way to trim the tree, the bill and the environmental impact. LEDs use 80 to 90 percent less energy than traditional light strings and can last for decades. If you want to go a step further, there are solar solutions available.
Innovation is the key to a breathtaking spectacle. You can buy decorations out of the box or tweak them to give a unique experience to any passersby. One idea is a waterfall of light that cascades downward and gives the illusion of serene movement.
If you are of a technical persuasion, you can hack some common LED strings. Or, if you have a lot of vacation time stored up, you could whittle it away making a display of lights, music and movement so ostentatious that your neighbors won’t sleep until January or a sufficient ransom is paid.
All of this effort would be for naught without an audience. While no one on your block will be able to miss your attempt to beat the sun at her own game, such an exhibitionist endeavor deserves more. A few ambitious families in Lafayette, LA, put together LafayetteLights.com, so local families can find who has decked their respective halls on an interactive map. It’s a brilliant use of online technology to both show off and bring the community together.
All of this is in good fun, so no matter how you choose to adorn your abode or how competitive you get, have a beautiful and safe holiday season.
