Reviews – Page 5 – Tech, writing, and tech writing

Online Baby-Related Resources

Seems to be a baby boom going on at the mo, so for all my pregnant pals, I’m going to do a roundup of some online resources for expectant/new mommies that I found useful when expecting my two.

First off, websites:

Magic Mum – Subscription required. Loads of different forums on all stages of parenthood (trying to conceive, pregnant, struggling through those first few weeks, dealing with toddlers or teens…), to buy/sell/giveaway areas for baby- and non-baby-related gear, and to chat about non-baby topics such as house and home, hobbies, weight-loss… You name it, there’s a forum for it here. It’s a very active site, and I found it a really fantastic resource on my first pregnancy and first year with a baby, though I’ve drifted away from it a bit now that I’ve found my feet.
Rollercoaster – This site has lots of useful articles on conception, pregnancy, family life, nutrition, links to baby-related retailers, product reviews and the like. A good place to start if you just want to read some straightforward info without getting into debates. They’ve also got forums, and you can join a group for mums due the same month as you so you’re in touch with people at exactly the same stage all the way through your pregnancy.
Mumsnet – A UK site with more forums, blogs, info pages. Since things work slightly differently in the UK, not all of the info will be relevant to the Irish experience, but I particularly like their Product Reviews page, so wanted to give them a mention.
Name voyager – Stick in a name and see its popularity plotted over time. This is fun whether you’re expecting or not – try it with your own name.
Pampers – Info pages and Q&A for different stages of pregnancy and development in early childhood. As it’s a commercial site, they also have brand and product promotion, so you can sign up for a free pregnancy calendar, regular info packs, samples and money-off vouchers. One of my favourite freebies from these guys was a CD that arrived early in one of my pregnancies with the sounds of “inside the womb.”

If you have a favourite site I’ve not mentioned here, please give a mention in the comments!

Next time, podcasts.

For a bit of Friday Frivolity, I thought I’d share a current favourite iThing app of mine and my 5 year old’s: Foozle! Great name, great game. It’s less challenging (and frustrating) than Angry Birds, which is good for the 5 year old in particular, but it’s still quite engaging.

The basic premise is that you have a bunch of furry little shape-shifting critters, some of whom are good and some of whom are bad (and occasionally some of whom are neutral) sitting around on platforms. Some platforms are level, some are angled, some are bouncy, some swing… You want to make all the bad guys fall off the screen, while hanging on to the good guys. Tapping a Foozle changes its shape from a square to a circle, and depending on where it is, that’ll either start or stop it rolling. The fewer times you tap to get rid of the bad guys, the higher your score.

ABBYY TextGrabber + Translator

The TextGrabber + Translator – ABBYY app is the biz, and incredibly easy to use.

Launch the app, point your iPhone at a piece of text, give it a moment to autofocus, snap, crop to just what you want, then click Read. Moments later, you’ve got an editable copy of the text in front of you to do with as you will. Alternatively, you can select a photo from your Camera Roll if you’ve already got a snap of the text you want analysed.

First thing you should do is check for any characters the app got wrong. There’ll probably be a couple, but not many. In my experience, kerning in the original text or glare off the page are the most likely causes for error. You can edit the text in situ to fix any problems, then choose from a variety of built in options as to what to do with it:

You can tweet the text, or post it to Facebook.
You can stick it in an email or SMS.
You can search for it using Google.
You can copy it to Evernote.
You can just copy it to paste into any other app you want to use.
And a particularly nice touch: you can select to translate from the source language to another (powered by Google Translate).

Or you can do nothing for now. The OCR-ed text will stay in the app’s history, and a snap of the original image in your Camera Roll, until you’re ready to come back to them.

Here’s an example of how it performed on the blurb from the back of a text book we had lying around:

Original Scan of Book Blurb — Original Photo of Book Blurb

I cropped to the first paragraph only, and it got just two characters wrong. Not bad.

I can see a multitude of uses for this app – from quickly grabbing contact details from advertisements before calling/mailing, to translating menus when travelling, or instant note taking in libraries.

The Monster at the End of this Book

My oldest son was given the book of this story for Christmas a few years ago and he really enjoyed it.

The Monster at the End of the Book This Christmas, I decided to download the iThing version to entertain the kids while we were on the move visiting family, and both boys (now aged 5 and 1) were crazy for it. So much so, that I splurged and bought the sequel (Another Monster at the End of This Book…) too.

The basic premise of both books (and I don’t think I’m giving much away here) is that Grover reads the title of the book, freaks out about there being a monster at the end of the book, begs the reader not to turn the pages so that he can avoid meeting the monster, and attempts to thwart the reader in progressing through the book by putting up a variety of obstacles (heavy walls, tied ropes, and the like). In the sequel, Grover is accompanied by Elmo who is incredibly keen to see the monster, so wants the pages turned as quickly as possible.

The app follows the same basic story as the physical book. The contents of the speech bubbles appear one word at a time in sync with the voiceover which may be a bonus to kids of a learning-to-read age. Instead of a simple page-turn to progress, there are interactive elements related to breaking down the barriers put up by Grover, as well as bonus interactive elements on the pages (tickling monsters’ bellies and the like). If you don’t tap the screen pretty quickly, you’ll be prompted on what you need to do to move the story forward, usually with a comment along the lines of: “Don’t touch there! That’ll turn the page!”

There’s a bubble at the top of the screen just for parents. When you tap, a popup suggesting activities related to what’s on the page appears – speculate what other crazy obstacles Grover might put up, mime different emotions for each other to guess, talk about a time your child was scared of something.

For a short story (12 pages), there’s a lot to this app. We’re still finding new elements each reading even after a month. Highly recommended.

<a href=”https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0375805613/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwsharonmurp-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0375805613″>the book of this story</a><img src=”https://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=wwwsharonmurp-21&l=as2&o=2&a=0375805613″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” />

Repak Recyclemore App

There’s no finer time than now, with Xmas behind us and a new year ahead, to have a bit of an auld clean out. And thanks to the fine people at Repak, it’s easier than ever to figure out what we can recycle and where, across the length and breadth of Ireland.

The new Recyclemore app, available for
iThings and Android, allows you to search for facilities by type, area and the material you want to rid yourself of (though the link to the search page is misleadingly labelled as a search “By Address” function on the home screen). Searching by material type is particularly handy for the stuff handled by a limited number of centres, such as that damnable white polystyrene. Once you’ve identified a facility that handles what you want to dispose of, you can view full details of that facility, including all the materials it accepts, their opening hours, contact details, and their location on a map (if you’re using GPS you’ll even get a route plan).

You can also go pot luck and just search for your nearest facility based on your current location. Again, you can view the facility details once selected, to see what you can recycle there and when.

And if you are without an iThing or an Android Thing, you can always pop across to the recyclemore website and get all this info and more the old-fashioned way.

Happy spring cleaning, y’all! 🙂