The iPhone Mom

A big thank you to Monaica in Kansas for letting me know about this contest:

http://www.growyourbusinessnetwork.com/will-you-be-tricking-or-tweeting-this-halloween

Follow the link to learn how you can enter to win a new iPhone through a Facebook costume contest. You might just see my photo out there if I get brave enough!

Rejoinder is wild! I would not recommend giving it to your child unless you completely trust their grip on your iPhone. This is another game that makes a case for an iPhone wrist strap. Duct tape and a rubber band might work too. The object of the game is to follow the commands on your screen. The faster you respond the more points you earn. Sounds easy enough but those commands have you interacting with one of four characters. You start with a rabbit. Rejoinder asks you to flip him so you flip your iPhone. It asks you to make him jump so you make your iPhone “jump”. It asks you to stretch him so you use your finger on the screen to stretch him out. Lastly it asks you to give him a tickle with your fingers. If you fail to respond, or respond too slowly the rabbit gets a bit cranky. With each level that you pass the commands increase and the amount of time you’re given to respond decreases. Yikes!

I enjoyed playing Rejoinder, it was a nice departure from the other games on my iPhone. But it’s definitely not an app I’d give my young kiddos. Unless I was looking for a quick way to justify an upgrade to a 3GS.  So moms, dads and trusted children have fun with this one!

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Digital Dandelion

Confession time. I’m not one of those moms who loves to have their kids in the kitchen with them. My kitchen is small and my view of cooking is one of survival. I do it so the family survives not because I really enjoy it. I want to be one of those fun moms with fun recipes but I’m just not. My husband on the other hand enjoys cooking with the kids. So at least one parent is making sure they’ll go off to college knowing how to do something other than pop microwave popcorn. Why am I airing this default in my character? Because guess what – there’s an app that can give my kids a cooking experience without involving my kitchen. It’s called Little Cook and while it won’t actually teach them how to operate an oven or read a recipe it does let them “cook” without grumpy mom.

Here’s how it works. You choose a dish from the kitchen (ice cream, sandwich, soup, omelet, pizza or salad) and then add your own ingredients. You’ll see the ingredients on the screen and you can scroll through them using arrows or by swiping your finger. When you find something that you want to add just drag it into the dish. Go ahead and add whatever you feel like, there are no rules. As you add ingredients they show up at the top of the screen. If you feel like swapping something out just drag the ingredient from this row and it’ll disappear.  Now when you’ve achieved culinary perfection you tap on the check mark and the app’s taste tester gives it a try. She’ll let you know how your dish turned out and whether she enjoyed it or not.

My kids have been enjoying Little Cook and it’s fun to see what they think belongs in a salad. Here’s a hint, it’s nothing green. I’m not sure if any updates are planned for the app but it’d be fun to see more dishes added later on. For now though there are enough different ingredients and combinations to keep all the little cooks with iPhones happy.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Aqility

A disclaimer up front – Evernote is such a deeply layered service that there’s no way I can touch on everything it does in my review. I’m still discovering all of its potential. It claims to “Turn the iPhone and iPod Touch into an extension of your brain.” If ever there was someone who needed a brain extension it is I. Mine hasn’t been the same since Baby J was born in July. My husband swears by Evernote and has been suggesting that I try it. So, after stubbornly holding out the appropriate amount of time, I did. What I’ve seen and used so far is impressive.

The Evernote app is free and ties in with www.evernote.com and a desktop version that’s also available for free. It works as a note keeping system. You create notebooks which hold notes. Give them tags and attributes so they stay organized. Using the app you can add notes, snapshots, photos from your camera roll and voice clips. What you add using your iPhone or iPod shows up online and also in your desktop version. So it’s possible to keep everything synced and up to date. A great way to keep track of things in one spot.

With Evernote you have the ability to search through your notes and not just written notes but photos as well. My husband recently took a picture of a Snicker’s Marathon bar that he wanted to look for at the grocery store.  A few days later he did a search within Evernote for “marathon”. It pulled up the picture of the bar because the picture had the word marathon in it. So it scans through your pictures as well as your text. Pretty cool.

Here at our house my hubby is a Mac and I’m a PC. Evernote crosses platforms so it works on Macs, Windows, the iPhone, Blackberries and also on the web. Am I missing anything? With the free service you have the ability to share notebooks but not to modify someone else’s. This means that my husband can send me notebooks and I can see them in my Evernote but I can’t add my two cents. So not the best way to share a Honey-Do list. There is a premium version available for $5 a month (or $45 a year) that allows you to modify a shared notebook. With the premium version you also get an increase in the amount you can upload, the ability to add any file type and increased security. Click here to see how the versions compare. Right now I’m plenty happy with the free version.

There are a few things that I’ve found “awkward” within Evernote. When you use the iPhone app it always starts on the “New Note” screen. Not that big of a deal but it’d be nice to have the existing notes pull up first as that’s what I’m usually viewing.  Also, I found some of the formatting a little quirky when I started playing around with text size and color in a note. Lastly, there’s no easy way to mark a note as completed. However, when you’re creating a note you can insert checkboxes and check them off. We’ve also found a work around that works for us. I’ve got a notebook called “Completed” and when I’m done with a note I move it from my regular iphonemom notebook to the completed one. It’s as easy as dragging and dropping. I could also delete the note but I like to keep them around in case I need the info. later.

So far I’ve been pretty happy with Evernote and I’m looking forward to the promised brain extension. It can’t come soon enough. Anyone out there had any experience with Evernote?

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: Evernote

Mom Maps name says it all – this app gives you maps for moms. It uses your iPhone’s location to give you lists of “kid spots” that are nearby. These locations are divided into different categories: parks, restaurants, playgrounds, museums and indoor playareas.  Select your category and the app pulls up a list of what’s around. From that list you can select a spot to see more details. You’ll get the address, phone number, a website, a rating and reviews. (The last three show up if available.)  You can also choose to see the location on a map or get driving directions.

Right now the app supports 8600+ different kid spots and they’re adding more everyday. The ladies behind Mom Maps were able to quickly add in my city so that I could test out the app.  It pulled up a ton of good stuff. Places I knew about and lots I didn’t. So any other Moms out there in Boise, this app is ready to go for you!

I asked Alesha from Mom Maps how they’ll be going about adding all the new locations and this is what they told me. “We are adding a couple new cities every week. We are working from a list of cities as we get requests and then we going to get all the major US cities. Anyone can add locations from the website, so if someone wanted it in their area before we get there they could help populate it by spreading the word to other moms in their area. Our ability to locate really great spots outside of SF is automated and still very much relies on great moms(and dads) contributing content.  We can find the basics, but if there’s a restaurant, store or indoor playspot you love that is not there, or rated properly, please let us know and we’ll fix it!   Right away!”

As Alesha mentioned we regular, ol’ moms play a key part in getting great spots into Mom Maps. There is a website, www.mommaps.com that you can join and then use to recommend locations you want to see added. Here you can also rate and review different places and those ratings will show up in the app. You can also search for kid spots directly from the  website. So like Alesha said, if you live in an area that they haven’t added yet you can add your own locations from the web and tell your other iPhone lovin’ moms to do the same.

I think the idea behind Mom Maps is fantastic and the app is very well done.  I’m looking forward to using it in my city as well as when I travel. It’ll be a wonderful thing to be able to find a park without having to use a google search in Safari or the antiquated yellow pages. I also like having the ability to add reviews for a kid spot right from my iPhone. So if I find myself coerced into taking the kids to a fast food playarea and it smells strongly of stinky feet instead of fresh sanitizer, I can let other moms in the area know to steer clear.  We have to look out for each other you know.

*According to iTunes Mom Maps already covers the SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York City and their surrounding areas. If you want to see if your area is covered visit www.mommaps.com and type your city/state into the search feature and check it out!

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Seller: Family Travel Tools

My First Words:animals is a spelling/reading app aimed towards preschoolers. A darling picture of an animal is displayed and underneath the picture are spaces for the letters that spell the animal’s name. Underneath that are the letters needed. Your job is to drag the letters into the boxes where they belong. When you touch a letter you’ll hear it’s name. Then when you’ve correctly spelled the word the app says the letters again and then says the animal’s name. Then you’re off to the next one. There are twenty different animals to play with.

Before you begin spelling you can tap a bar with one star, two stars or three stars. I have no idea what these stars mean. At first I thought they indicated the level of difficulty for the words, but I got the same words no matter what stars I chose. Also, there are animal sounds to go along with the pictures and it would be nice to have the choice to turn these off.

I really liked the visuals with this app and the concept is good. I think that by separating the words into difficulty levels and toning down the animal noises My First Words:Animals could become even better.

*An update on the stars- They do relate to levels of difficulty. The words appear to be the same but what you can do with the letters varies in difficulty.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Alexandre Minard

*There is a Lite version of My First Words: Animals that is available. It features five animals.

Time Smart is designed to help your toddler keep track of time. You use it to help them move from one activity to another. It features two clocks. One shows the current time and the other shows the time your activity will start or end. For example, let’s say that your child is playing but you need to get them in the bath. You’d tell them they have five more minutes to play and then tap on the bottom clock in Time Smart and set it for five minutes. Your child can watch the clocks to see when play time is over and it’s time to hit the bath.  I like the idea behind this app but my biggest problem is there’s no sound (a ding or buzzer  maybe?) that signals when time is up. I looked at the iTunes description and the update that Apple is reviewing right now will have this feature. The clocks are cute and useful but I think this new feature is absolutely necessary.  I look forward to the Time Smart update.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Gomu Gomu

There’s been some press lately about how many moms are using iPhones. It makes me laugh when the commentary after the articles sounds so surprised. Did they think we were all still hauling around shoebox sized cell phones? Probably think we’ve got rotary dialers at home too. Well they’re wrong and moms are definitely an iPhone force to be reckoned with.

Here at the iPhone Mom’s house we’ve been talking about what Apple could do to make the iPhone (and iPod Touch) more “Mom Friendly”. They’re already great devices for keeping our kids entertained and even educated. There are some great apps for tracking our pregnancies, babies, bills and shopping, but what else would you like to see? Any apps you’ve been looking for but so far been unable to find? Those of you lucky ducks with the 3GS – do you find yourself using the video feature to record your kids at soccer, dance, etc.? How’s it working and was it worth the upgrade? Anyone thinking about asking Santa to bring the family an iPod Touch so you can reclaim your iPhone from your kiddos? The biggest thing that I would like to see is a children’s category in the App Store. That and the iPhone moving to Verizon so my coverage improves. Is it too much to ask that I be able to make a call or send a text from inside Costco? How about you?? Pretend I’m a big wig at Apple and leave a comment letting me know what mom-inspired improvements you’d like to see.

*I apologize if my tone at the beginning of this post came off a bit snarky. I’m very thankful for all the press and all my readers, new and old! When I mentioned “laughing at commentary” I was referring to some rather mean-spirited comments about moms having iPhones that I’ve read after some of the articles on other websites. Figure it’s better to laugh than take offense, but I hope that I haven’t offended any of you with my laughter.

I believe iTrackbaby was designed for parents like me. Those of us who have a baby but not enough time (or mental capacity) to record every little thing in a baby book. I kept great records with my first two children, lucky girls.  So now there’s an app that will hopefully help me redeem myself when my baby is old enough to notice the discrepancy in her mother’s record keeping.

On the main screen of iTrackbaby you’ll see your child’s age and a list of the things she should be doing developmentally.  From here you can see when you last sent out an email update or Facebook upload. In the “Photo” section you can upload or take new photos of your child.  Choose one as the profile picture and it will show up on the main screen.  You can also share the photo by email or Facebook.

This app provides an easy way to keep track of your baby’s milestones. All you have to do is tap the “Milestones” button and then choose what you want to record –sitting up, crawling, first word, etc., and when it happened. It’s a quick and easy process. It would also be nice to have the ability to add notes to the different milestones.

The “Growth” button gives you a growth chart where you can track your baby’s progress. You can view their growth in the areas of weight, height and head circumference.  I really liked this feature. With “Appointment”  you can enter in the date of your child’s next doctor appointment. Here you’ll also see a summary of what to expect at that visit. There’s a notes button in this section that will take you to a screen where you can record the things you want to discuss with the doctor.

I found iTrackbaby to be a helpful app and a good way to keep track of all those baby firsts. Now if I can just remember to use it…..

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Seller: Jamella Creations Company

Here’s a storybook app that’s just in time for Halloween. The illustrations in this app are gorgeous and it has the feel of a real picture book. Lula’s Brew tells the story of a little witch who doesn’t exactly behave like a witch should. This puzzles her aunts and doesn’t make them very happy. Lula likes to cook, not spells, but yummy food instead. I won’t spoil the ending of the story but I’ll tell you it’s a happy one and the message behind Lula’s Brew is great.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Jacob Rhodes