Holiday Tech Gift Guide. Understanding Pearltrees: A New Way To Organize Web Content. Many people search the web, read content every day and share that content. While advances in search technology has made finding information easier and easier, saving and organizing information in a way that captures a story or conversation can still be very challenging.
I just posted on Techmamas.com about my first experience with Pearltrees.com; I was on a Traveling Geeks trip to LeWeb and Pearltrees was one of the French companies we met. Being a visual person, the Pearltrees online application offered me the tools to capture and organize online information in a visual format that also reflected the storyline behind the issue being discussed. I decided that my next step was to use it and see what happens. What happened – is that adding content to Pearltrees became part of my daily workflow.
I now find it to be an essential way to organize the content I view daily, in a way that I can organize, share and embed in my blog. A Pearltree is made up of Pearls. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Bio For Beth Blecherman. TechMama and TechMamas is a trademark of Beth Blecherman Short bio: Beth Blecherman is the Chief Technologist of Cool Mom Tech, the intersection between tech, parenting and style. She left her position as a Senior Manager at Deloitte for Family Management then decided to blog as a career 2.0. Her personal blog is TechMamas.com (@TechMama ), a platform,to discuss technology, social media and her obsession with consumer electronics.In 2006 she joined on as one of the Co-Founders to Silicon Valley Moms Group (a mom blog network that covered over 11 regions).
In 2010 Silicon Valley Moms Group was sold to Technorati. In 2009 she was chosen as one of the Nielson Power Mom 50 influencers. Beth is a host of MommytoMommy.tv, a new online show for moms. TechMama Goes Hot Mama - Guest Celebrity from Kimberley Blaine on Vimeo. Her favorite conference is CES and she is proud to be on theBoard of Advisors (and speak at) for MommyTechSummit at CES. One of the co-hosts of MommytoMommyTV. TechMama in Books: Liveblogging Pillow Fight With My3Boys - Part One. As I was frantically trying to sneak some blog posts in before bathtime tonight – about the tech conference I just came back from – I heard the dreaded words "P I L L O W F I G H T" coming from the other room where my 3 boys were playing.
My husband is at a business meeting tonight, so there was no one else to "break it up". So what does a modern TechMama do in response to an impending pillow fight? Apple iPad: Discussion of Features and The Name. My first step in coverage of the Apple iPad was to understand the features not only as a techie but as a mom that appreciates mobile gadgets. Yesterday I posted a write-up with all the information I could find about the Apple iPad features.
Looking at the Apple iPad features I listed yesterday, there were many that make the iPad a valuable tool, including it’s user friendly design and interface, attractive build and access to a large number of applications from the iPhone (140,000 as of today), entertainment media and eBook libraries. These are all features that moms and families look for on a mobile gadget. Today I wanted to look more into the Apple iPad features and reflect on the much discussed name “iPad”. The features: While writing the post about the features I did wonder if the Apple iPad had a webcam as some had speculated before the official announcement. Mashable wrote a post that summarized what features are missing, including a camera and no USB port. 1. 2. The name “iPad”: Twitter Virus Gone Viral: "Is This You?" (Don't Click on That Li. I did a quick check on Twitter this morning and I saw lots of direct messages (or DM's) with the same type of wording – which always sets off phishing or virus alarms for me.
I NEVER click on those links and neither should anyone else! Phishing is defined on Wikipedia as " the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication". A computer virus is defined on Wikipedia as "A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer.
The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, adware, and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability. " So I decided to see who else was having this issue by sending out a Tweet (without any links!) Mashable posted on the topic. Here are some examples of what the Twitter direct messages look like. Twitter DM text: "haha. Forget About the iPad, I Want the Clothes Folding Robot. Web Management Tools For Students, Teachers and Parents. It is that time of year when I ponder what is the best system to manage my family's schedule and as a room parent – how to manage the class information. So I took my quest online. Here is what I found so far…. Mashable had some great posts on web tools for students and teachers, so I started by reading those posts.
Mashable – Back to School: 15 Essential Web Tools for Students (Evernote, Notely, Grademate, Backpack, StudRails, Diigo, Delicious, Mindmeister, Google Docs, Etherpad, SlideRocket, Wikidot, Citeme, EasyBib and Zotero) CLICK here to read the student post. Mashable – Back to School: 10 Terrific Web Apps for Teachers (SchoolRack, SchoolTool, Curriki, Edmodo, Shmoop, Footnote, ClassMarker, Bookgoo, DOC cop and TeacherTube) CLICK HERE to read the Teacher post. I know teachers who create their class sites using Dreamweaver, blogs or TeacherWeb.
Here are some web tools for parents who have kids in elementary school/highschool. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Any more to add? Sony Vaio. Techmamas: Adventures With My HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition. When I talk to moms about netbooks they question why they would need one when they already have a laptop. I try to explain that netbooks are small and light enough to keep in their purse all day. I already started my review for the HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition, but the next step was to see what would happen if I truly kept it in my purse - where would I end up using it? Did I need to have mobile computing beyond my smartphone or could I just wait until I got home? I took it to CES and saw the Dress that inspired the design at the HP Booth. Then... There were also a pair of matching shoes and a red carrying case to store the "digital clutch".
But I prefer to just carry it around without a case because the design is so pretty. Then.. I had to show off the HP Mini to the salespeople at the store next door to the cafe - which was having a big sale. I took it out while I was waiting for my twins basketball game to start. Whats next? HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web: World's First Web-Con. I dropped the kids off at camp this morning and headed to the HP Reveal press conference to hear a briefing on a *mystery* product. As someone that loves mysteries, I could not wait to get there and find out what it was. I missed the press conference because of camp drop off timing, but I did demo the product and talked with the HP Marketing/Engineering staff – who were all very eager to hear what moms would look for in the product.
Luckily I had another mom blogger with me to also discuss ideas ( @Vdog). And the mystery product is….. " Here are details from their press release: "HP introduced a category-changing product and an entirely new web-based printing platform with HP apps. Additionally, HP apps allow people to connect instantly with fun, informative and personal content. What does this mean for moms/parents/kids? The printer does not have internal storage so it is not a replacement for a computer. More technical details will be released soon. HP, Monday, June 22, 2009; 10:01 a.m. FTC Guidelines Are Out: FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing End. Following CNN has helped me stay on top of news, and this morning it was from KuhnCNN – Eric Kuhn's tweet about FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials that let me know they came out this morning.
Update 3pm pst: Eric Kuhn also posted on the CNN Political Ticker website about the FTC guidelines. There are numerous other articles popping up including on the New York Times (which mentions fellow blogger Linsey Krolik). Here is a link to the press release on the FTC website: FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials . Here is a link to the PDF Text of the Federal Register Notice for FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials. For background here are some posts written when it was first announced the guidelines would be coming. I wrote a post on TechMamas.com about blogger relations to marketers: It's Not About The Review, It's About The Relationship & Relevance .
Overall: Whether a speaker is considered "sponsored"?