I was so excited to get my new iPad 2 shortly after the release date. It was fun from the start, but I knew I was barely tapping into it’s potential. When I finally made time to read My New iPad 2 from publishing great No Starch Press I realized that there was far more to my cute & loveable little toy than I even imagined. It’s got all of the basics and some great tips for the more advanced techies too.

Best-selling author Wallace Wang’s patient, step-by-step instructions will have you using your new iPad to:

* Find your way using the Maps app and the iPad’s compass
* Get organized with the Notes, Calendar, and Contacts apps
* Set up your email accounts and browse the Web
* Listen to music, read ebooks, and take videos and photos
* Use FaceTime to talk face-to-face with distant friends and relatives
* Shop on iTunes and the App Store for the best new music, apps, movies, games, and books
* Set parental controls, use a secret passcode, and encrypt your backups for maximum privacy

And so much more. You’ll even learn top-secret touch gestures to help make the most of your iPad. Check out this book and discover the hundreds of amazing things your iPad2 can do. It’s $20 well spent.

Win it! We’re giving away a copy of My New iPad 2. Simply comment on this post before noon mst on December 15, 2011 to enter.

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Disclaimer

If you’re a woman with a smartphone, you may know what I’m talking about. Even if you don’t want to admit it to the internet.

I admit I have texted a quick “ok” and even opened my facebook with the tip of my nose on a cold winter day.

What?

It couldn’t be helped. I live in Canada and you can’t use a capacitive touch screen with gloves on. Or, you couldn’t until Agloves. Pictured at right (black is the new black!), Agloves are thin gloves made of silver-coated nylon. (Hence the Ag…bring back memories of high school chemistry?) Touch screens work because tiny amounts of moisture, salts and oils in your skin allow electrons to flow between you and your device. Agloves allow the bioelectricity from your palms to flow through the gloves to your fingertips, maintaining your connection whenever you need it.

Great concept, right? But do they work?

Yep! Almost perfectly. Or maybe perfectly. It’s my fingers that suck. I send the funniest texts, but it’s never on purpose, and I’m glad to say that my typing didn’t get any worse while wearing Agloves.

I love the science; I love the sleek black styling; I love not taking my gloves off in -30 temps to send a text. I love Agloves.

Win it! We’ve got a pair of agloves for one lucky TOP reader. To enter, simply comment on this post before noon mst on Nov. 30, 2011.

CONTEST CLOSED

As both a parent and an early childhood educator, I love School Zone Publishing so I was thrilled to hear they’d released some great new iPad apps shortly before my own iPad arrived. School Zone is has provided 30 years of superior educational content that is designed for ease-of-use and makes learning fun for children while teaching essential skills. My classroom and home are full of my “old favourite” workbooks, games and flashcards from School Zone, and I’m so excited to be able to use these great resources while integrating technology at the same time.

My children, my grade one students and I have been using some of School Zone’s newer iPad apps over the past two months and, with a backlog of 25+ reviews this is the first one I’m sharing with you – because they are AWESOME. They appeal easily to kids because they’re colourful, provide instant gratification and encouragement and they’re learning with current technology. The other reason I share these with you at this particular time is because it drives teachers nuts when kids come back to school in the fall and they’re where they were the previous February because they’ve done nothing to stimulate their brains all summer. It doesn’t take much, really…read daily bedtime stories (you’re doing that, right?), build reading time into every day, use math skills in your daily life (cook together, subtract popsicles eaten from the box…), write letters to Grandma, and play some great games like these once in a while.

The ones we tried range from $99 cents to $9.99. Prior to trying these, I never would have paid more than a few dollars for an app for my kids but these are worth every penny. I’ve listed & linked the ones we tried below, and I’d recommend you check out these and the many other School Zone apps that are available because you’re sure to find something that your child will not only love to play but that will target their specific learning needs and make school a little bit easier come September.

Multiplication & Division Flash Action ($5)

Spelling 1-2 ($10) was my favourite of all the apps I tried for the 7-8 year olds – it allows them to enter their own spelling lists each week to play with and is pure awesome.

Alphabet & Numbers 1-100 Flash Action ($5) Basic early literacy & numeracy skills with School Zone flair.

Phonics Made Easy Flash Action ($5) Just as it says – nothing beats phonics for early reading instruction.

Colors, Shapes & More Flash Action ($5) Easy peasy colourful app to teach and reinforce basic concepts for toddlers and preschoolers.

Time, Money & Fractions On-Track ($10) Perfect for those accelerated learners in K-1…a great challenge! Also great supporting curriculum for any grade two child.

Memory Match Game ($1) This is a fave for a certain three year old I know!

When I first got the pitch asking me to review The Text Hook, I laughed, thought how stupid I’d look texting while I walk my kid around in a stroller and how ridiculous people are now with their phones, and ignored the email. Fast forward several months. I’m on my elliptical trainer which has recently moved to a spare bedroom and out of the main room so now there’s no tv to watch. I’m dying of boredom and claustrophobia with the wall beside me. Bing! I wonder if that product I was emailed about a few months ago would work on the elliptical? After digging out the email and requesting the product sample, I promptly forgot about it. There were some (okay, only a couple of them…I suck…) workouts in between the email and the arrival of the package which were only sustained by leaning my Kindle on the console.

When the package arrived, I was excited to get it all hooked up. I don’t use a stroller anymore, but the Text Hook fits perfectly on the top bars of our elliptical and treadmill, and also on my bike. (I tried in the garage – I’d never try to text and bike, but it might be handy for music on a leisurely ride?) I love being able to have a movie or music playing on my phone during a workout in a location that’s easy to see. The Text Hook is perfect for it! My phone, the Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant, is not in their list of compatible phones but it fits perfectly. So does iPod. The patent-pending design secured my phone tightly but I still have access to the entire screen, and it’s very adjustable -even rotating 180° so I can watch my movie the big-screen way!

The Text Hook sells for $26 and is available from their online shop and many retail stores.

Disclaimer

Parents in the know are all aware that iPhones are a lifesaver when it comes to preventing meltdowns in public. Hand the kid a phone with a great app and you’re golden for another 15 minutes of shopping!

The My Living Stories digital storybook apps combine beautiful artwork, narration and interactive features in an easy to use platform that is perfect for preschoolers to read along all on their own, without any help. My Living Stories are a great solution for entertaining on-the-go or as an aid for teaching children to read at home. The apps allow for your child to read along with English or French narration or read the stories themselves. Interactive sounds and animation bring stories to life. Another great feature is the ability to record your own voice to go along with the story (this feature requires an iPhone or iPod Touch with microphone capabilities). My Living Story classic stories include Princess & the Pea, King Midas, The Tortoise & the Hare, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the Three Bears – fairy tales you’d want your children to know anyway.

Story apps are some of my faves, because I don’t feel like I’m contributing to my kids’ future video game addictions but rather to their literacy & tech-savvy…ness. Unfortunately because our server was in the (flooded) basement and that’s where my iTunes folder is, I haven’t been able to play with My Living Stories yet, but they’re there waiting for me whenever my *^$!ing basement is done!

Win it! Canadians only: Enter to win a $25 iTunes card! Just leave a comment on this post before Friday August 6 at midnight mst telling me which My Living Stories story you would like the most.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about the contest @opinionated with the hashtag #MyLivingStories and leave an extra comment when you do so.
2. Blog about the contest and leave an extra comment when you do so.

…and all of the usual extra entries apply too!

Contest is unfortunately, only open to Canadians. You may enter this contest on multiple blogs, but are only eligible to win one iTunes gift card as part of the My Living Stories contest.

Disclosure – I am participating in the My Living Stories program by Mom Central on behalf of Decode Entertainment. I received 3 free apps and a gift card as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

As soon as I read about the Flip video camera, I knew I wanted one. I ended up ordering a Flip Ultra for next to nothing during an Amazon sale and had it shipped to someone in the US for free who then shipped it to me in Canada for just a few bucks. It pretty awesome with it’s super easy operation, 30 minutes of video and wicked flip out USB connection for seamless and fast transfers, but when I got my slick personalized Flip Mino HD I knew I had hit the jackpot. It shoots 60 minutes of footage in cinematic quality high-definition widescreen and is sleek like no video camera I’ve ever seen. As a parent, the customization appeals to me strongly – the picture of my children on my camera pretty much rocks – but the ease of use and quality of the video wins out over any other cool feature. It’s so convenient to just stick in my pocket when I head out with my kids and now I can capture anything and everything they do in high definition with just the push of a button, and transfer it all to my laptop, edit it and capture screen shots as images with no cords and no video editing ability.

Generally I like to share some negatives of any product – particularly when it’s a product from a big company – but I’ve got nothing. This thing freaking rocks.

Mom Central CANADA (yay!) is giving away 3 customizable Flip MinoHDs on Momcentral.com/canada. To enter, send an email to momcentral@live.com with the Flip password TOP in the subject line. Contest ends October 19, 2009 and is Canadians of legal age only.

Many of our readers are bloggers who are proficient designers, SEO optimizers and all around tech geniuses. Many of our readers are bloggers who know how to post from a blogging platform, Tweet a little and use Facebook. Some of you, we know, are simply folks who sit at home entering contests just for fun. We’re cool with all of you, and though we certainly identify more with the first group, this review is leaning a little toward the latter groups.

Christina Tynan-Wood’s How To Be a Geek Goddess from No Starch Press is geared specifically towards women who want to know more about all sorts of technology. Whether you’re buying a computer, surfing the web, shopping for a cell phone, checking your email, wanting to keep your kids safe on the web ro are wandering aimlessly in the electronics aisle, Christina has you covered. She has a great grasp of how the “average” woman and the “average” man differ (yes, I know…none of us are “average”…) and she gives the non-geek woman a comprehensive and incredibly easy to read & understand guide to today’s tech in this book.

How To Be a Geek Goddess is going for only $16 at Amazon right now, and qualifies for free super saver shipping.

Win it! We’re giving away a copy of this fab geek read! To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon mst on March 6, 2009.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED