The Working Mom » product review

Mathomatix Number Sense HD iPad app review

Jennifer — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:19:16 +0000

I still have not purchased an iPad. I’m working myself up to buying one, I really am. I mean, I can only drool over everyone else’s for so long before I finally break down. In any case, I have an official iPad app tester: My mom! She makes the perfect iPad app tester for me because not only does she have an iPad (yes, my mom is cooler than me) but she is also a retired teacher and continues to be a “teacher’s teacher” today. (yes, my mom is a workaholic like me) So it’s great when I have an educational app to have her test out because not only does she review it from the standpoint of how much fun an app is – but also how well it teaches concepts. To make things even better, she has many grandchildren which happily offer their services as test subjects. Here is her review of Number Sense HD:

The creators of PunFlay’s Mathomatix Number Sense for the iPad, outdid themselves from a technical and educational standpoint. As a child works her way through the 5 different games included in the application, she is having fun while gaining number skills and concepts that build on each other in a natural and pedagogically appropriate way. I wonder how many other apps have been checked against the National and California Standards for teaching mathematics to kindergarteners. Very impressive!

Booster Balls focuses on counting from 1 to 30. The child collects 10 balls at a time and then feeds them to a cute little monster. A child’s voice gives clear and easy to follow instructions and provides a model for the child to count along with. The game is simple and fun. My six year old granddaughter, Kayla, liked catching the balls and feeding them to the monster even though the game was clearly no challenge. Five year old Joey and 3 year old Leah really enjoyed counting along, and with each repetition of the game became more confident.

Do the Dotty is a “connect the dots” game with sets of 10 numbers up to 30. Now we are upping the ante. Not only do you have to be able to count, you have to recognize what the number looks like and follow the instructions, connecting the numbers in sequence to create a picture. Kayla, of course, breezed through, repeating the game many times, changing the colors of the completed pictures. Joey declared the game really fun, but required some assistance as the numbers increased. After a few tries, he began to recognize the numbers on his own. I could tell that playing the game over a period of time would improve his skills. Leah loved creating the pictures, but needed a lot of help following the directions and recognizing the numbers.

Recognizing the numbers in sequence is one thing, but finding them in random groups is another challenge. Numberella provides this challenge. The players are asked to pick out a specific number floating in a cloud to create a rain shower. Easy for Kayla, not so easy for Joey and Leah, but entertaining enough not to discourage repetition which leads to learning.

Now we come to the really conceptual challenge, using an understanding of what the numbers stand for to manipulate objects. Fishoonka and Toot Toot Train accomplish that brilliantly. Fishoonka emphasizes the concepts of ‘more and less’ by having kids move fish back and forth to create the requested pattern. Toot Toot Train takes it to the next level by requiring the addition or subtraction of cars to create the desired train length. Joey needed guidance to achieve this but began to get the hang of it. Even Leah began to get the idea and was very pleased with herself.

All in all, I give this app 5 stars. As an educator, I appreciate the careful crafting of the games from the concrete to the conceptual. This is a real learning tool as well as an attractive and entertaining game, a bargain at $1.99. Bravo, PunFlay!

Number Sense HD: $1.99*

*Price at time of this writing

Disclosure: We received a free copy of this app for review purposes

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Coolest Geek Toy (that my daughter is loving right now)

Jennifer — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 01:05:44 +0000

One of the things Rachel got for her birthday was a set from the Snap Circuits line. Basically they’re these pieces that very easily snap together, and you build various electronic devices. A fan, (that also doubles as a flying saucer with the right set up), an alarm, a music box, a light switch, etc. etc. It makes building circuit boards as easily as playing with Lego’s. They have a little booklet with easy to follow diagrams showing you how to build the various projects. There are symbols on the pieces that show you how it would look on a “grown up” diagram. As well, the booklet explains what is happening with what you’re building – so it’s teaching you as well. My daughter cruised through the first set she got for her birthday (something like 100 projects). So we ran out and got an add-on set that had 300. For a kid that normally has a fairly short attention span, she is playing with this toy way more than I expected.

If you are looking for a really cool science type toy – this one is a great idea. The site says it’s good for kids aged 8 and up – but it is simple enough I think kids a little bit younger than that could even do it.

Click here to see the larger Snap Circuits SC-300 set on Amazon.com (you’ll notice it has 5 stars and something like 469 reviews. I’m not the only one that thinks this is the coolest toy ever)

Here’s a video of her playing with one of her circuit projects:

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Lola’s Alphabet Train – iPhone Game

Jennifer — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:15:08 +0000

We received a copy of Lola’s Alphabet Train a few days ago and it has quickly become one of Zach’s favorite games to play on my phone. The game has a few different modes depending on which level you are playing: Easy, Medium, Hard. In easy mode, you pick the letter spoken and shown (capital letters only), the next phase you pick the matching lower case letter as it falls from the sky. Then lastly, you move letters into the correct order to spell a word (you just need to move the letter on top of the hint). In the medium level, when it comes to the spelling mode, only a few letter hints are shown. You also play an additional mode where you are given a letter and you need to pick a picture of an thing that begins with that letter. The pictures are cartoonish, so for some, it’s obvious what the item is meant to be, and others could have a few names. (ie. is it a hamster, mouse, rat…?) In hard mode, you start a new mode where you select the word for the picture shown. (Multiple choices are offered). Then for the spelling mode, no letter hints are given. Again, I do wish in this mode it would at least speak the name of the picture shown. For example, in one instance, it showed a picture of a sheep – but all we could think of for the name was lamb but obviously the jumbled letters given to construct the word weren’t right. LOL! As you go along throughout the game, you collect coins that you can then buy prizes with. These prizes don’t appear to be saved anywhere. It would be nice if you could check in and see all your prizes. Hopefully this is something that will be added in the future. Additionally, I hope they make it so that you can turn the carnival music off and maybe turn off the sound effects, but leave the voice on. (The carnival music really needs to have an option most of all!) You can also customize it show your name, but this is also something that doesn’t seem to be saved.

Still, I think the game has potential, as it has held Zach’s interest and he likes playing with the letters in the game. Click here if you’d like to see a video of the game.

Lola’s Alphabet Train: $1.99*

Lola’s Alphabet Train is also available for the iPad:
Lola’s Alphabet Train HD: $2.99*

*price at time of this writing.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of these apps for review purposes

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The Big Brag and Yertle the Turtle – ebooks for the iPhone and iPad

Jennifer — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:07:18 +0000

Oceanhouse Media has recently released the next set of Dr. Seuss books as universal apps that work both on the iPhone and iPad. I’ve already expressed my love of Dr. Seuss books, so once again I’m thrilled to see the collection continue to expand. The Big Brag and Yertle the Turtle feature the ability to read the story yourself, have the story read to you (manually turning the pages), or auto play (pages turn automatically). Sound effects can be turned on or off.

In case you’re not familiar with these titles: in The Big Brag, a rabbit thinks outloud to himself about he thinks he’s the best animal of all, at which point a bear listening nearby disagrees with him and boasts that he is the best of all animals. So they put their skills to test against each other, the rabbit trying to hear as far away as possible, the bear trying to smell as far away as possible. They are then interrupted by a worm who says he can see so far, he sees around the world and back again to two fools who have nothing better to do than argue who is better than the other.

In Yertle the Turtle, Yertle is king of his pond, and all he can see, but he is greedy and wants to be king of more – to do so he needs to see more. So he orders his poor loyal turtle subjects to come and make his thrown higher and higher. They obey, but one turtle complains that it isn’t fair. Yertle ignores his pleas and continues to order more and still more turtles over so he can sit on them. Finally the complaining turtle sneezes and makes the huge turtle tower crumble to the ground, sending Yertle into the mud and freeing all the turtles.

I think you’ll love these stories as much as my kids and I do. Zach happily listens to the stories over and over again.

The Big Brag: $1.99*

Yertle the Turtle: $3.99*

*price at time of this writing
Disclosure: I received a free copy of these apps for review purposes

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Highlights My First Hidden Pictures – iPhone Kids Game

Jennifer — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 06:16:06 +0000

It’s always so thrilling when something I treasured from my childhood still exists to become a treasure for my own kids. Highlights Magazine falls into that category. Of course, one of the best parts to the magazine was always the hidden pictures game. This game is now available on the iPhone with Highlights My First Hidden Pictures. The game is every bit of fun on the iPhone as it was in print, but with more bells and whistles. The pictures are in color – when you find an item, simply touch it and it’s marked as found. You can zoom into or out of the picture.

The game comes with 8 puzzles, and if you register, you get 2 bonus puzzles. More puzzles are available for purchase as an in-app purchase. One thing I really liked that they did was explain how to TURN OFF the ability to purchase items from within an application so if you don’t want this ability freely available to your child, it’s pretty easy to enable and disable.

When I played the game, the pictures were fairly easy to find – although I did struggle on a few. Zach also liked the game and found a few right away, but seemed to struggle on some of the items as well. I would have assumed that the game would have been easier than it was given it’s title, but I still thought it was well done. Also, features like the “hint” button help reduce any frustration a child might have from not finding the item more easily by zooming in closer and closer to the item, each time you lick the “hint” button, to help you find it.

The game is available for both iPhone and iPad (however, and iPad Optimized version is still in the works). Additional puzzle packs cost as little as $0.99. To see a video of the game click here.

Highlights My First Hidden Pictures: $1.99*

*Price at time of this writing.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

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AutoStitch Panorama vs. Pano – iPhone Panorama Apps Review

Jennifer — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 14:51:21 +0000

After my previous post about the You Gotta See This! app – I went looking to see what other types of panorama apps there are out there. I had bought one several months ago called Pano – but the favorite it seems, as far as I can tell from posts I was finding online, is another one called AutoStitch Panorama.

I was impressed with a few of the AutoStitch Panorama features – namely the fact that you can just take as many photos as you want, using the regular iPhone camera. You don’t have to take them in any particular order – just shoot away (but try to get a 30% overlap). And you can crop the photo yourself at the end.

However, despite the rave reviews the app was getting – I was not impressed with it’s stitching results. I tried several times to be as careful as possible about the photos I was taking, making sure the phone was the one rotating, not me – making sure the photos were well in focus, angles were consistent, etc. – and yet in just about every panorama I took, there were way too many “bad overlaps” and a lot of ghosting for my satisfaction. This was especially noticeable if there was a definitive structure line in the picture (like a post etc.)

However, the application I had bought those many months ago – still created the best looking panoramas. But where Pano fails, is what I liked about AutoStitch; with Pano, you do have to take the pictures in a particular order, and in fact, you have to take it in a particular direction too – left to right (I can’t find anywhere a way to change this). Also – you’re restricted to taking the pictures going in one straight line, if you want to add more “height” to the panorama, you can’t. But in the end – the panorama you get, is very clean – with minimal oddities in the overlap. When you’re taking the pictures – it shows you a shadow of the edge of the late photo you took, so you can be sure to get the right amount of overlap and help line things up. (However, this isn’t very useful if the scenery is somewhat repetitive)

But the proof is in the pictures. Take a look below. Same scene – two different Panorama apps:

First by AutoStitch Panorama:

(right click – and open link in new window or tab to see the closeup. The “lightbox” thing doesn’t do so well with how wide these are…)

Might be easier to see the details on VR rotator (You’ll be able to zoom in/out in the VR rotator thing)

Second by Pano:

(right click – and open link in new window or tab to see the closeup.)

And again the VR rotator.

I think the difference is really clear. You can see I was able to get more height on AutoStitch, but the ghosting was ugly. Pano’s panorama was beautiful – but limited.

Again, this is why I think that there is in fact room for one more panorama app despite You Gotta See This!‘s claim that “there are already plenty of panorama apps.” I think making use of the gyroscope in the phone is an excellent way to improve on what’s already been done. (And actually on a slight tangent – with the gyroscope in the phone; WHY oh WHY!???! is there no “stabilizer” in the iPhone camera? In this day and age – all digital cameras have stabilizers so that you don’t have to hold your breath and hand very very still so you don’t shake the camera. And yet the iPhone camera lacks a stabilizer. Really?? I hope we don’t have to wait as long as we did for “copy/cut/paste” to get camera stabilization. Seems to me, with the gyroscope in there, it should just be a matter of software. What good is that great camera on the iPhone if every photo I take is blurry???) =steps off soapbox=

AutoStitch Panorama: $2.99*

Pano: $2.99*

*price at time of this writing.

Updated to Add: I just recently made another panorama using Pano – I still think this app does a much better job than AutoStitch – but just to prove it’s not totally perfect -you’ll see in this most recent one – a small oddity to the right of the picture where the trees and grass are duplicated. It didn’t get the overlap perfect at the end there – but still pretty good. Also – This time I used the app in portrait mode, rather than landscape to get as much height as I could. It’s a smaller area (only about 90degrees rotation). Here it is.

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Panography vs Giving the people what they want – You Gotta See This! iPhone app

Jennifer — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:33:17 +0000

Sam told me about this app he saw a write up about that’s called You Gotta See This!. What the app does supposedly is this: You click “record” and then wave your iPhone around (slowly) and it will take several sequential photos and based on the movement of the camera and the gyroscope in it (assuming iPhone 4 compatibility only here), it will line them all up to create a picture. Now this picture will NOT be a panorama. It will be what they call a “Panography” – basically a series of (outlined) photos, overlapping each other to create an effect associated with David Hockney. (I wonder if, as an artist, he is thrilled to become another Ken Burns, where people can computerize his style.)

I was really intrigued by the app and was this || close to buying it, but then noticed the reviews. People were really annoyed that you could not get rid of the seams. The developers retort: “Stitched Panoramas are not Seamless. This is by design. ‘You Gotta See This!’ is not a panorama app. The purpose of the app is to create what is called panorama collages or panography”. (Side note – Chapter One in Developing Applications for Dummies: Standard responses when things don’t work the way people want them to: 1) “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” and 2) “The application is working as designed.” Ugh. )

Fair enough – but it seems to me that getting rid of the seams would be possible. I can understand that the point of the app is to create this cute effect, and I can see using it every now and then – but I can also see getting kind of annoyed that I don’t have the option to create the photos without the seams. I’d rather have some stitches not line up perfect and have most of the seams go away (or at least their “shadow outline, or Polaroid outline” go away) and let me touch it up with Photoshop, but still allow me to have a really cool big panorama picture – than be forced into always having a “cute effect” picture. The user base clearly wants this feature, and they don’t seem to be giving in and have no intention to.

Is it just me, or does that seem… petty? Silly? You’d think that an iPhone app developer, given the feedback on how to make their app better or more useful, would do so, especially since I would imagine the change to do what people are asking for, would not be a huge leap away from what the app is already doing. Given the choice, if another app that comes along does something similar, and does get rid of the seams, I’m all over it. Personally, I’ll take functional and useful over cute.

You can read more about the app and see some samples of the pictures it creates on the developers website: boinx.com

If you want cute photos, (or hope they’ll get the hint from their userbase) – you can also buy the app here:

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Green Eggs and Ham – eBook for the iPhone / iPad

Jennifer — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:00:52 +0000

Oceanhouse Media has been in the process of taking all the Dr. Seuss classics and putting them into digital format for the iPhone and iPad. They’ve recently released another eBook from the collection: Green Eggs and Ham.

There are three options for the story: Read to Me (The story is read to you, and you can turn the pages manually. This gives you time to click on things in the picture to have the word shown to you), Read it Myself (You read the story, you turn the pages. You can still click on individual words to have them read to you, or pictures on the page to have the word read and shown to you), Auto Play (The story is read to you, and pages are turned for you. There is a pause at the end of each page so you can click those pictures and words still). They’ve added some sound effects to the pages. If they drive you crazy, you can turn those off too – click on the little “i” on the main menu and you can turn them off.

I really love the Dr. Seuss books, and I’ve been really pleased with the way Oceanhouse Media has been creating the eBooks. They’re fun, the kids love them. If you’d like to see the full collection they have available, check out their website.

Green Eggs and Ham: $3.99* (one app works on both iPhone and iPad)

*Price at time of this writing.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

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10 Cool Games and Tools for the iPhone

Jennifer — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 03:57:56 +0000

I haven’t done a big roundup of iPhone apps I’ve been playing with / using for a while – I’m still buying apps like its nobody’s business. Here are a few of my recent favorites:

A while ago, I reviewed a few apps that I got to help me tune my daughter’s Cello. They were pretty good – but not perfect. What I really needed was something that could show me when we were *close* to the right note, how far off we were, were we sharp or flat… because honestly, when it’s really close, it’s really hard to tell. I first started looking at devices that did this and they were really pricey – then I found this app. It’s currently priced at $3.99 and worth every penny!! Just play a note and it shows you where you on a dial how close you are – watch the dial as you tune the instrument. (Works when you sing too!) It’s just awesome. Very simple and does a great job!

Cleartune – Chromatic Tuner: $3.99*

Next up, Trivial Pursuit. I’ve never been really good with trivia, but the game is still fun. I can’t remember what inspired me to buy this, maybe it was on sale… either way, I downloaded it. The iPhone version of the board game is pretty fun. I like that you can change some of the settings if you want to play a variation on the game (ie. how many wedges are required, where you earn wedges – how hard your opponent is if there should be a time limit to answer). If you don’t like waiting to see how your computer opponent does, you can speed through his play. Now here’s the cool part – you can play with someone else. There’s two ways to do that: “pass n’ play” (obvious how that goes) – or “Wi Fi Multiplayer” – so if someone on your WiFi network has the game too, you can play against each other. That feature in games, I’ve gotten a little addicted to, I have to say.

You’ll see some reviews complain of it crashing, and I’ve seen the problem too. It does seem to come and go, though. I’m hoping they do make it more stable – but it’s something to be aware of.

Trivial Pursuit: $4.99*

When we were on vacation, I saw my nieces playing Monopoly on their iTouch and iPhones, so not to be out-done, I had to download it as well. The iPhone version of the game is more fun than the original board game, I think. While sometimes it doesn’t always work, you can speed through the computer’s turn by clicking a button on the game screen. You also have a few options to change the game to play a variation that suits you.

I won the first game I played on it, and have not won another game since. (And I’ve been playing a lot recently). Heh. I haven’t changed the difficulty but sometimes it sure does seem like it has the dice are stacked against me! LOL! It’s still fun to play. Since I’m on a multiplayer kick with these games, I was psyched to see it also can do multiplayer: either pass n’ play – or for wireless it has WiFi or Bluetooth. However, when I initially tried the wireless options, they didn’t seem to work. Bluetooth would only seem to work if you were hooking up with ONE player (maybe that’s something that’s unique to Bluetooth technology? – that it won’t connect with more than one device…? Not sure)

Monopoly: $2.99*

This is another one of those games I thoroughly suck at but it’s fun to play anyway. In fact, if you want to know how bad I am, since this game also has a WiFi multiplayer option, I played this game against my 13 year old niece when we were on vacation. She kicked my butt. LOL! Yeah, definitely gave her a little ego boost I think. After that, she kept asking to play me again. LOL!

Ok, a few things I really like with this game: if you’re really stuck you have the option to use a “Best Word” feature. You only get a limited number, so it’s best to save them for when you really need them – like at the end when all you have left in your hand is a “Q” tile. (Did you know “Qi” is supposedly a word – and it’s worth a fair amount of points for a two letter word) So that brings me to my wish for this game. I think it would be great if it had a dictionary feature with it. Some words I’d really like to look up and see “Hey, exactly WHAT is a ‘Qi’!!!” or I’d like to play a word, or rather, what I think is a word – but I don’t know if it’s just something I’ve made up. Yes, you can try to play it and it will simply tell you it’s not a word, but I’d like to know. Maybe there’s something close that I was thinking of. I mean, hey, if you get a “Best Word” feature that will figure out the best use of your tiles – why not give me a few shots with a dictionary…?

Scrabble: $2.99*

Ahhh.. Chuzzle. This is a really weird game. But I have a soft spot for games that have cute little creatures in them. Fuzzballs with eyeballs – what’s not to love. At one time, I actually bought this game for my PC (back when I had a PC) – that was a few years ago now. The game is pretty simple to play, but the strategy gets a little tricky as time goes on. It’s a bit like Bejeweled except with more fur. You slide a row or column of Chuzzles to line up 3 or more Chuzzles of the same color/pattern (doesn’t have to be in a row – as long as they are adjacent to each other). The tricky part comes when you get a “locked” Chuzzle (which will lock the row and column that Chuzzle is on) or a Super Chuzzle which is one chuzzle 4x the size of a normal one. Until you match up the color of those Chuzzles, they stay on your board making your game challenging.

If you get this game, and haven’t played it before – here’s a cute “easter eggs” – try tapping the same Chuzzle over and over and over again and see what happens.

So here’s my one complaint about the game: MAJOR battery eater. Like BIG TIME. If you ever feel like draining your battery, play this game. I’m not sure what they did with the game, but it must use up a ton of resources. (Maybe it’s all that groovy music it plays in the background)

Chuzzle: $4.99*

This is another game I saw my nieces playing with and then quickly downloaded myself. Reminiscent of the TV game show – this one is a lot of fun (and much more fun than yelling at the TV trying to get them to hear your answers in tv-land) There’s a few different ways to play: “TV Show Game” style, Multiplayer (yay!), Toss-Up Game (They show you letters and you have to figure out the puzzle before it shows you all of them), and Speed-Up Game. (You spin the wheel once to determine the point value of each letter guessed, then you just take turns guessing a letter in the puzzle, until someone solves the whole puzzle)

Wheel of Fortune Platinum: $1.99*

I’m a sucker for time management games like this one: Turbo Subs. In this game you need to serve customers a variety of different food types, some that require preparation first, others that don’t. As per is usual in games like this, customers have a limited time before they get angry and leave your store.

I love the graphics in this game – I think there’s something about cute little food icons – I’m not sure what it is. One problem I did experience with the game that I see in the reviews on iTures that others have reported as well, is that sometimes the game is not as responsive as I would like. You click on an item, but it doesn’t register that you did. Otherwise, this is a fun game.

Turbo Subs: $1.99*

(This one also has a free version in case you want to try before you buy)

Uno is a classic card game – and on the iPhone it’s just as much fun. Once again, the multiplayer options here a great feature. Now that the kids have their own iPhones (our old ones that no longer have phone access) we can all play together and no one has to clean up. There’s a couple of extra features in the card game – if you put down a “0″ – everyone switches cards. If you put down a “7″ – you pick someone to swap cards with. There’s a “jump-in” feature where if you have the same color and number as a card that was just put down you can jump in and put down your copy of it (only one person can do it – so you have to be quick) – then the rotation picks up with the person that would normally come after you. If you don’t like these extras, you can turn them on or off in the options panel.

UNO: $4.99*

(There is also a free version so you can try the game out – but as I recall, the free game is extremely limited)

In Fruit Ninja – the object of the game is to slash up some fruit. As you play the game you’re given different swords to play with – for example one we won makes various color streaks when you slash the fruit. There’s two different ways to play. “Zen” you play against the clock and just try to slash fruit and get as many points as possible. In the regular game you can’t miss any fruit. 3 misses and the game is over. Also – occasionally a bomb will pop up. Don’t slash the bomb – otherwise the game is instantly over. (I kinda wish they’d let you hit a few bombs before ending the game – but I guess that’s the way the kiwi crumbles.) This is a really cute game – once again, I think maybe it’s just the cute food icons that reeled me in. Either way – still fun to play.

Fruit Ninja: $0.99*

So, as I showed with a few pictures from vacation, I kind of let things go diet-wise. Well, ok, I REALLY let things go diet-wise. I gained way more weight than I had prepared to. This isn’t an option now – I’m not going back to the way things were before, so like before, we’re counting calories. This time I’m trying something new. I found this app online – you create a (free) account on their site: Daily Burn, and then you can use this app to help track your calories. There is a free version of the app where you can enter your calories in – but this one, called Food Scanner, takes it a step further: you can actually hold the barcode up to your phone and it will scan it and show you matching products – and enter all the details from the label for you. No need to search or do custom entries yourself. (Yes, I’m lazy – that’s how I gained this weight back, thankyouverymuch) You can still search for foods (in case it’s something that doesn’t have a label (ie fruit, vegetables, meat, etc.) or if it doesn’t find a match, you can enter the label in manually. Favorite the foods you use the most so you can add them easily later on. Everything you enter is synced back to your account online.

With these types of calories counters, the service is only as good as their database – so it’s nice that they seem to have just about all the foods I tend to eat.

FoodScanner: $0.99 (currently on sale!!)

Ok, I said 10, but you made it this far down in the post so here’s a bonus freebie app. It’s a good one too! I’m trying to do something a little different exercise wise this time too – with the nice weather, and now that my daughter is big enough – she and I have been biking around town. We’ll go biking for an hour or more – leisurely, but still it’s exercise! When I came home the other night, Sam asked me how many miles did we bike – I had no idea. I tracked a path on Google maps and discovered we biked almost 8 miles. Probably not as much as serious bikers, but I was still pretty impressed. I thought there must be an app that will help track you as you go – and of course – as they say: “There’s an app for that” – the one I’m going to start playing around with is: RunKeeper (Free). You sign up on their website, and when you’re ready to start running or biking or whatever, turn on the app and tell it start tracking you. When you’re done you can upload your path and time, with all sorts of stats to the website and share it on Twitter or Facebook.

There is a “Pro” version of RunKeeper that costs $9.99, but I don’t see a side by side comparison that would show features that would make purchasing it worth the money. And the fact of the matter is that the free version does everything I need.

Updated to add: You can check out my runkeeper page here and see my activities.

*Price at time of this writing.

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Book Review: The Help

Jennifer — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:30:51 +0000

Well I’ve plowed through another book. It’s like a whole new world has opened up for me. The fact that I haven’t read a book cover to cover (not counting the last book I read) since before 2005, I think, speaks for itself how awesome the iBooks app is. In any case, I thought that now that I’m actually reading (YAY!) I’d include some book reviews on the site.

The Help is my most recent read. Written by Kathryn Stockett, the story takes place in the early 1960′s in Jackson, Mississippi, during the Civil Rights movement. The book presents an interesting (fictional) perspective of black maids that worked for white families in that area. The core characters are a young white woman, and two black maids who tell their stories, and enlist the help of other maids to also tell their stories that eventually get put together as a book. They risk their lives doing this.

Having just finished reading what was basically a love story, I wasn’t sure I was going to get into this book, but I got sucked in immediately. The author switches perspective several times throughout the book, and some of the text is written in “conversational” English – as the person you’re reading about would think or talk. But it’s done very well and doesn’t cause you to stumble trying to follow along. The perspective changes can be a little weird at times, and sometimes I forget who is doing the thinking – but I guess that helps make the point of the book.

It reminded me how relatively recent the civil rights movement took place. I would like to think that a lot has changed since then but really, who am I to say that and/or how would I know. How many things from that time period still linger, but are not as noticeable or socially acceptable to be as obvious. The author is white, and I wish I knew if she did in fact interview people who lived through this time in history to get a realistic as possible perspective. I would assume so. I would also love to know how someone who is black feels about the book – especially someone from that time period. Do they feel the book portrays a relatively accurate description? I know the point of the book is to show how we’re all just people. We’re all the same. Of course this is true, but how we are treated by others can vary greatly – and I’m sure that sadly sometimes the color of your skin can still influence that treatment.

The characters are very well defined and I’ve found that this is an important key for holding my interest in a book. I feel like I know these women. I wasn’t ready for the last page of the book, because I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to them. It was a great book and I highly recommend it.

If you’ve read the book, I’d love to know what you thought about it.

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