WorldCard Mobile for iPhone

HWorldCard Mobile: $5.99*
WorldCard Mobile - business card reader & business card scanner - Penpower Technology Ltd.

*Price at time of this writing. I received a copy of this app for review purposes.

Maya’s Dress Up (for the iPhone and iPad)

MMaya’s Dress Up.

In this game you can select from a number of different dolls to dress up: Maya herself, or one of her friends. You can change their hair style and color. There are hundreds of different clothing, shoes and accessories. You can change an item’s color or how they’re “layered” on your doll. You also have a number of different backgrounds to choose from. The selection is massive, really. And the publisher has plans to continually add new items.

You can save your favorite designs and send them to your friends.

Here’s a video so you can see how the game works. Or learn more about this game on the publishers website.

We’ve downloaded a few other free dress up games but none had the kind of selection this one does.

Maya’s Dress Up iPhone App: $2.99*
Maya's Dress Up - Total Eclipse

Maya’s Dress up HD iPad App: $4.99*
Maya's Dress Up HD - Total Eclipse

*Price at time of this writing. I received a copy of this app for review purposes.

Merry Puzzles – iPhone & iPad game

Did you know there’s only like 9 days until Christmas? (We do both Hanukkah and Christmas in our house. Yes, there’s probably a reason for tweets like this one:

Heh. Truth be told, I haven’t finished shopping – so a note from Santa is still a possibility. But I’m sure they’ll be angels the day before just to make me feel guilty if I didn’t get them anything…

In any case, one present I got earlier this month was this Merry Puzzles app (available for both iPhone and the iPad). There’s a bunch of adorable illustrations, cut into random little squares that you have to put back together again. The illustrations have built in animations you’ll see once the puzzle is completed. There’s a few different levels. Zach has stuck to the easy level. I tried one at the “expert” level… yeah, I’m no expert for sure. So there’s definitely a huge range of challenges there!

Merry Puzzles iPhone App: $0.99*
Merry Puzzles - Countdown to Christmas - Twigsbury

Merry Puzzles iPad App: $1.99*
Countdown to Christmas - Holiday Puzzles - Twigsbury

*Price at time of this writing. I received a copy of this app for review purposes.

Dog hunt

With the housing issue pretty much settled for now, we have begun our next hunt: the search for a dog. We can’t get one until we get into the house (which is at least a month to two months away) but we’re doing our preliminary research. Obviously key issues are the kids. As well, we want to make sure we get a dog that isn’t too wild. Our home will be on the small side, but I’d like to get a dog that I can take for a run once in a while, so a medium sized dog would probably be best. Some breeds (and cross breeds) we’ve been looking at are:

Golden Doodle

Cockapoo

Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier

We’ve also considered seeing what the local humane shelters have available – although from what I can tell, the breeds they tend to have the most of are not ones that we’re interested in. (Particularly boxers, pit bulls, and chihuahuas) Sometimes in the mix they might get one that seems interesting, so it will be a waiting game of sorts if we decide to go that route.

We’ve taken a few online quizzes to see what breed would best suit our family and ironically, those also seem to miss the mark. (One actually suggested a St. Bernard. LOL!! Are you kidding? In a small house with no yard?! I don’t think so) One idea we had was to go to a dog park and see a bunch of different dogs in action. Not that the behavior of one is always a representative of the entire breed, but at least it gives you an idea for a range of behavior.

smarTouch Gloves Review and Giveaway

So as I posted earlier, for my birthday my husband, parents and siblings all chipped in to buy me an iPad. I can tell you that the iPad is the most awesomest thing ever, but that’s for another post. There is, of course, one problem having gotten an iPad for my birthday, and that my birthday comes in the fall – cold weather will soon be upon us. (Yes, even after I move to California, I’m sure I’ll need to wear gloves, because it does get cold there once in awhile) – and actually – what’s that saying “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco?” I’m the type of person that wears gloves the instant there’s any kind of chill in the air. Obviously gloves and iPads / iPhones don’t usually play nice. I’ve seen some versions of gloves that will work with these devices, but they usually have some sort of weird nubby thing that’s sure to fall off at some point.

Well, Isotoner has come out with a great pair of gloves that work with the iPhone and iPad but without the nubby thing. They’re called “smarTouch” gloves. (Although I’ve seen them in some stores listed as “Smart Touch”) They sent me a pair of gloves to try out and I can attest that they do in fact work. There’s a piece of conductive thread woven into the index finger and thumb that the iPhone and iPad does register. My one complaint is that it would be even better if this material were on ALL the fingers – especially for use with the iPad because I do use QWERTY typing on it quite often. But hunt-and-peck typing is better than having to release my hands to the elements just to type a few words!

One additional nice feature these gloves have is the non-slip palms so that hopefully I won’t drop my phone and crack the glass again. Ahem. Yeah, that wasn’t fun.

Giveaway!

Isotoner has reserved two pairs of these gloves for me to give away.

Required Entry: To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favorite winter activity is.

For an additional entry: Tweet the following (and leave a second comment telling me you did so):

Enter to win a free pair of smarTouch Isotoner gloves that work with the iPhone/iPad! >> @theworkingmom http://bit.ly/ddiX83

(click the link to tweet)

Contest ends October 18th, 2010 at 10pm MST. There is no purchase necessary to enter the contest. I will be using random.org to choose the winner. I’ll contact the winner via email, and he/she will have 48 hours to respond. After 48 hours, if I don’t receive a response, another winner will be chosen.

*Disclosure note: the smarTouch gloves were provided to me by Isotoner.