Words With Woz

I'm playing Words With Friends...With Woz.
Try saying that ten times fast!
Try playing this game – or any other game – against a genius and see how you feel!
#nervous

Hand-Made iPhone Tip:

Whenever you fear the memory zombies will make you forget your next potential move, Skitch it.
(of course, this also applies to iPad, but I prefer playing Words With Friends on my iPhone)

1. Take a screen shot of your current screen by holding down the home button then immediately press once on the 'lock' button at the top of your iPhone. You must press the lock button immediately while holding the home button because if you hesitate too long, SIRI will beep.

2. Launch Skitch and tap the plus + sign in the upper right corner.

3. Navigate to your Camera Roll in the photos (yes, you want Skitch to have access to your photos) and select the screen shot you just snapped

4. Use Skitch to annotate your screen shot to remind you of your next move

You can use Skitch for so many occasions. I use it all the time for tech support. It's so easy to say, here, see this? Tap here and then draw and arrow or circle something. Most times when people are lost, so are their eyeballs, so it's helpful to show them exactly where to look. It's one of my very favorite apps and I've been using it for years now since it was a baby website!

Get Skitch for iPad

Get Skitch for iPhone

Get Words With Friends for iPhone

Get Words With Friends for iPad

Find The Clownfish

I recently saw a link to this article about clownfish and it made me think of Apple and Steve Jobs. Whenever I see a clownfish I think Finding Nemo, of course, but being a geek, I also visualize one of the standard-issue Apple Desktop pictures. Thinking about that then leads me to wonder just how these iconic desktop backgrounds are selected to become a part of the OS installed on all Macintosh computers. Can you imagine the hundreds, or even thousands of photos the Apple OS designers pour over? Every time there is an OS upgrade, one of the very first things I ever do is to go check out what new desktop backgrounds come pre-installed. For some reason, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in doing this. If anyone does know how the images are selected or has photo credit information for this or any of them, I've love to know.

A long-time friend once told me a cute story about Steve Jobs while we were catching up on Facebook. She knows I'm an Apple Geek and told me she works out in Silicon Valley right off of Woz Way. (I'm envious and must go visit, of course!) Her friend's husband is the Facilities Manager at Apple. One time he was sent to Steve Job's office because he had set of Finding Nemo cast figurines from Pixar on his credenza. Apparently Steve had run into it with a cart or something which resulted in one of the figures falling behind it. Can you guess what the note said?


He needed someone to "Find Nemo."


I love that story. I can only hope that the Facilities Manager kept that note. I know I would have!

I believe Steve Jobs even resonated with the clownfish — identified with it somehow. Here is the link to the Wikipedia article on the Clownfish. If you're an Apple Geek like me, you might see the same parallels.

It's also interesting to note that Finding Nemo is one of the few DVDs that will still play on our 1999 Tangerine iMac G3! You can even still use the screen savers and play the bonus DVD content! Makes ya wonder, doesn't it?

Here is another cool link that will educate you on the Clownfish.

What is your favorite Pixar character or desktop background? I'm always looking for new backgrounds for my desktop so share if you have a link to one you really like!

Who else is excited to see Finding Dory in 2015?!

My Toddler Loves Photo Booth on iPad

And here I was wondering why the iPad was running out of space! Attack of TheKeaganator!

99 Pennies for Your Thoughts?

This young man was diagnosed with bone cancer and died just this past Monday at the age of 18. Before he died, he recorded this song as a way to say goodbye to his family and friends. It's now number 1 on iTunes. If you buy this uplifting (tear-jerking) song, the proceeds go to cancer research.

Shed a tear, spend a buck, then maybe one day cancer won't suck.

Clouds - Single Zach Sobiech Pop           2167 Ratings

Go Ahead, Pitch Me

Almost daily I receive emails from marketers and app developers asking me if I'll review or write something about their product or app on my blog. Almost daily I need to turn down these offers. While it is a good problem to have, it's no small challenge trying to keep up with the onslaught of requests (good, bad and downright ugly) in addition to caring for myself, my family and running my own small consulting business! Darn those priorities!



So many times I regret having to turn down opportunities for product and app reviews because despite the work and time they take, I sincerely do enjoy reviewing apps and products. It's only too bad that there just aren't enough hours in the day to fit it all in. Don't tell anyone, but I'm a bit of an appaholic. Ok, so that's not exactly a secret and being a mom with a blog makes me a bit of a target when it comes to marketers looking for free or next-to-nothing advertising. The even sadder truth is that I know I'm not alone. There are so many great content creators out there whose expertise really benefit fledgling companies. There is real gold to be mined out there. Promotion and endorsement is an art that ought not be taken for granted, so you really need to make your requests shine.

That is why I am recommending this book to anyone who has come to my blog or visited my growing social graph hoping to get a review or recommendation from me. I really do want to review your app or product, but please, do your homework and make it your duty to read this book and heed the advice. Make it worth our time — yours, mine, my readers' and your consumers'!

Pitch Perfect: The Art of Promoting Your App on the Webcontains fantastic advice from many of my smart friends on the subject and then some! If you read carefully, you'll even find a thing or two in there from me! (That's my way of disclosing to you that I made some minor contributions to this book.)

This book is available in the iBookstore, on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback as well as from Pearson.

Tech Tuesday Hangout No. 5

Today I covered for Benjamin Roethig who normally hosts the Tech Tuesday Hangout live each week. (to be populated soon with video) It was a fun learning experience baptism-by-fire-style on how to host, broadcast, record, edit and publish a Google Hangout! I was joined in discussion by Patrice Brend'amour, Doc Rock and Steve Sande. We talked about a wide range of topics including but not limited to: iOS Game Center leader boards, gaming consoles, apps, Steve's revised book release, Doc's funded Kickstarter project, Patrice and Ben's new website as well along with several other topics that came up. You can even learn how to avoid being eaten by a shark with one simple tip! You don't want to miss it, so watch our discussion unfold and do come back and join us next Tuesday!

Show notes with links are on their way and I'll revise the post once I enter them all.

TUAW Talkcast Mother's Day Edition

Click here to listen to this podcast
My Annual Mother's Day Tradition!

Damn. Even Siri Thinks I Talk Too Much

I can't win.

I asked Siri to:

"text my husband:

'Josh's graduation party is tonight. What time do you think you'll be home because I'd really like to crash for a few hours before we go. Is that a possibility?'

The screenshot above was Siri's response.

She quotes M*A*S*H characters now? How did she know I like M*A*S*H???

Hmmmm. Now I wonder if she can do Cheers?