This picture illustrates well what many of us do in our living room on weekends or late at night. We browse the Web, answer emails, blog, write reports or read a book on a couch thanks to our tablets and laptops. The couch was not designed for these tasks until now. Continue Reading
Technology touches every aspect of our life. Here is a company that makes our life better. Withings redefines how we use technology at home by creating smart products and smart phone apps to take care of yourself and your loved ones in a fun and innovative way. Because we reached swimsuit time, I taught that you might be interested by tools that can help you look and feel better on the beach.
Two years ago, my husband bought me the predecessor of the WS-50 scale because I was concerned at 9 months pregnant about how fast I would lose the pounds. Being a geek, he bought us something more than a scale. Jerome got the Wireless Scale WS-30. He bought us cutting edge technology that automatically tracks the weight, body mass index and fat-lean ratio of every member in our family. Continue Reading
credits: ad by Liftmaster
Our smartphone touches more and more aspect of our life. Manufacturers use the technology to help us control appliances in our house. I already told you about how everyone in my home use their iPhone or iPad to control the music playing from our Sonos music system across my home.
We are all familiar with the connected home. A simpler idea is for the garage door. Liftmaster — which desperately needs to bring his Web site to this century — lets you open or close your garage door from anywhere with your smartphone.
Samsung is not the first company you play with the idea of Internet for your fridge. Now, they are bringing the idea to the laundry room. Samsung launched the WF457 washer and dryer series that is equipped with smartphone control. What it means for me is more freedom. When you are playing in the yard with your kids and you are not sure if you select the right water temperature or you want to know if you have time to go for an ice cream cone before the end of a cycle you can check/do it from your iPhone instead of running to your laundry room. Where I see the most value is that Smart Care detects and diagnoses errors and sends an immediate alert to your smartphone. No time is wasted. I would like that my dishwasher alerts me on my smartphone when one item blocks a spray arm.
credits: Winter Wake-up
There is also the alarm clock. When mine broke a few years ago, I did not replace it. Instead, I switched to the embedded alarm clock. App developers tried to improve on it. Most of them do it by integrating the weather report. Alam Clock Pro is one of the most like apps in that category.
But I want an app that can do more that tells what is the weather today. I wish for more innovative ideas. I found one with Winter Wake-up. Living in a cold climate, I plan to use it this winter. For days where the roads are icy or when it snowed all night, this alarm clock app will wake you earlier than usual to give you time to defrost your car windows or showel the snow.
I see many ways where smartphone apps can make our life easier. What about you? Have you seen a cool home tech app lately? Which apps do you use to simplify your daily chores? Which one do you wish for?
Attention interior design enthusiasts: your days of tearing pages from magazines and trying to remember where you saw the perfect lamp for your living room are over.
Olioboard is a digital tool that allows you to create, save and share interior design moodboards and palettes to build your perfect room. If you’ve ever used Polyvore to create stylish outfits, or Pinterest to collect decorating ideas and products, you’ll love Olioboard’s drag and drop functionality. Save your room and add furniture pieces, paint colours and drapes as you find must-have items.
Olioboard also has a strong community aspect. Found the perfect purple pillow on someone else’s board? Grab it for your own! You can also get feedback on your creations from other users, or share your board to your social networks.
If re-decorating or renovations are part of your list of 2012 resolutions (and even if they aren’t!) check out Olioboard to put your plans into action.
SOURCING:
+Photo: “I’m All Ears” by ZemanDesigns on Olioboard
+ Photo: “Purple Haze” by DennisCid on Olioboard
+ Photo: “Living Room” by Poulkat on Olioboard
Today, I want to share my new music set up. For months, I lived almost without music and it was getting boring in my house. It all changed when the PR agency of SONOS sent me a free Play:3 Hi-Fi speaker system with a bridge. I got rid of my updated sound system one year ago because I found that the components took too much space. I do not use CDs anymore and I rarely listen to commercial radios. Therefore, I did not see the point of keeping a full sound system in my living room. I had to listen to music on my laptop or from the TV; none of which was ideal. Now, I have a wireless music system that truly fits my lifestyle.
Where should I start on all the positive things that I can say about the SONOS wireless music system? As a mom, what I need is to be able to control the system from anywhere in the house. SONOS uses my iPad or my iPhone as a controller. It also works on Android. We even installed the easy to use SONOS app on the iPhone of our babysitter. When she takes care of my son, she can access our iTunes music library or stream music from local radio stations or from the music services that we subscribe to. She loves it! SONOS is simple to setup and to operate. It delivers good quality sound and gives me access to the music I like when and where I want it.
The true power of SONOS comes from its multi-room capability. For that to work, you would need multiple speakers and the bridge. In return, you can play the same music in multiple rooms or your family can enjoy different tracks in every room. You decide how to group the rooms on the spot. Their sync function is awesome. You can add or drop rooms from your room grouping and still be in sync. I can use my iPhone to start playing and my husband can use his iPad to shut it down.
You can save your own playlists and build listening queue as you go. I like that I can replace the queue with one button. Playlists can be assign to room or room groups. A cool thing is that you can save playlists that mix your own music with tunes from music services. Another thing that I like is that you control the sound level per room or you adjust it for the room group.
The Play:3 speakers are powerful enough for an urban dwelling and regular size rooms. If you need more power, you can opt for the Play:5. I can hear the Play:3 speaker located in the living room when I am cooking. But I felt that adding a second speaker in our open kitchen/dining room would deliver a better sound experience. And it did! My husband listens to my wish and bought me one Play:3 for Christmas for our kitchen/dining area. You can say that SONOS really simplifies his Christmas shopping by sending me a sample. If we had two more speakers — one for the master bedroom and another for my son’s bedroom — I could claim that I have the ultimate wireless music system.
SOURCING:
+ Play:3 speaker system by SONOS $299 USD at Sonos
+ Sonos Play:3 in white $329 CAD at Future Shop