SimplyMobile Moms

Have you ever been at the grocery store wishing you had your computer with you? You know, when you realize that your grocery list is at home, on your hard drive, and not in your hand printed out like it should be?

Have you ever run into a friend that you never see and wished you could magically produce all those great pictures of your kids that are home, on your computer?

Have you ever been stuck at your child's practice (piano, soccer, taekwondo) wishing you could access a document on your computer and give it another once over before tomorrow morning's presentation?

SimplyMobile Moms is an incredibly easy and practical tool that allows you to send, access, and share the key electronic information that you need throughout the day via your mobile phone. SimplyMobile Moms is a unique, free service that helps us moms stay connected and organized via mobile phone, keeping our lives running smoothly when we are away from home. Doesn't the idea of having access to those lists, catching up on e-mails, and even reading your favorite blogs while on the go make your to-do list seem so much more manageable?

In the interest of full disclosure, the more advanced features like maps, emails, and large amounts of content are suited best to smart phones (iPhones and Blackberries, for example) which can access the content via a one-click web link. I do not have one of these fancier phones and have not tried these features. However, phones without an Internet browser receive content via text messages, so you can send yourself short to dos and ingredients from online recipes that can then be accessed while you're standing in the grocery aisle. This is amazingly helpful in so many ways.

My two initial reservations were about cost. SimplyMobile Moms is a free service, but I was concerned about the cost of the text messages. Turns out, as long as you are using a supported carrier - they are FREE!! (Their list of supported carriers is quite extensive, most phones are covered.) My other concern was about SPAM...I did not want a sudden influx of SPAM messages. They have a "guaranteed no SPAM" policy and I can report that I did not receive one single piece of SPAM. The downloaded software installed quickly and easily and is very simple to use.

Did I mention that this is a FREE service? I did? Well, to make it even better, SimplyMobile Moms is giving away and iPhone and two years free service. So what are you waiting for?? Head over there now and sign up!

Thank you to MomCentral and SimplyMobile Moms for sponsoring this blog tour!

Homework Helper in a Box

Because I can’t resist worrying about things long before I need to, I’ve been wondering how we are going to deal with the whole “Mom I need to research _____ for school” issue once Little J is a bit older. I am completely against him having internet access in his room and we don’t really have the set up for a centrally located computer where I could keep an eye on him. Maybe we’ll move before it becomes an issue.

But if we don’t, I will definitely let him use Microsoft Student! The folks at Mom Central Consulting kindly asked me to review a copy of Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008. This is a great solution for families facing the exact problem I will be – how to provide a collection of relevant, reliable information without setting your kids loose on the internet. It includes articles that can be accessed through searches as well as an atlas, dictionary, thesaurus, and language translator. It also has a companion, Encarta Kids which is geared younger learners aged 7 to 12.

But, Microsoft Student goes beyond just an encyclopedia. It is a full service homework helper! It includes the amazing MS MATH which includes tools, tutorials and step by step problem solving instructions to help students learn math concepts. Included in MS MATH is a full featured graphing calculator (valued at $100+) AND free online access to “Hotmath” ($49.95 value). Students can quickly find their textbook, and select the problem they are solving. Using the Equation Solver, they can instantly receive step-by-step guidance on how to solve a problem, and what the correct answer should be. (Take it from a former tutor…at $30 - $50 an hour, this more than pays for itself after one or two uses.)

The learning essentials section has great templates to get students started writing reports and presentations. It includes great organizational and brainstorming tools such as K-W-L charts and Venn diagrams that support the types of things your student is learning in school! It even has organizational tools to help with college applications.

The language section is a must-have for anyone who is taking a beginning level foreign language. It supports four languages and can translate either way as well as conjugate verbs. (I SO wish I had this when I was struggling with Spanish in high school!)

The literature feature contains over 1,000 book summaries in a Cliff-Notes type format. The teacher in me cringes a bit at this feature but realizes that most students have access to this type of material somewhere or other and any good teacher can tell whether or not a student has actually read the text. These can always be a good review tool. ‘Nough said.

This really is a great program and is an absolute steal at $37.50. The great folks at Mom Central Consulting and Microsoft have generously provided me with a copy to give away to one lucky commenter. If you’d like to have a copy for yourself, leave me a comment . Please remember to leave me a way to get in touch with you! Our random winner generator (Little J) will be picking a lucky winner out of a hat.
All entries must be in by midnight CST Friday February 29th.

Please check system requirements here. Please read them carefully – I did not and had an old version of Office 2000. I managed to make quite a mess of my laptop and wasn’t able to get much work done for a couple of days until the wonderful folks at my office’s tech-support (thank you guys!!!!) upgraded me to Office 2003 and got me back up and running. Lesson learned!