Lose The Laptop Challenge

In the beginning... God created the heavens and the earth.

Oh wait..

wrong story. Umm, in the beginning, this iPhone and general smartphone lover was given an HTC Tilt 2 to play with for 4 months for this cool concept called the Lose the Laptop from AT&T. I was a bit skeptical at first. But as time went on, my Tilt 2 and I had some fun adventures. We saw some places, we recorded some things, we took some pictures, we emailed some folks. Ok, I can admit.. we fell for each other in a big way.

The Beginning 

Before I converted to an iPhone lover like a lot of the civil (brainwashed??) society, I owned several Windows mobile phones. I believe I owned 5 different ones over time. Now if that does not tell you that I once really love Windows Mobile phones, what does?? Read my post Can the HTC Tilt 2 reclaim me as a great WinMo lover? as I started my new relationship with the Tilt 2 to see if it could win me back. Enter Smartie (aka The Tilt 2)...

After talking for a bit and feeling each other out we wanted to spend some more time together. We decided to...

Travel 

I wasn't certain at first if Smartie and I were ready to travel together but we decided to give it a try. I had a couple of trips planned already before I met him. I wasn't sure that I wanted to let Smartie come, but I did anyway. We took a nice long trip to San Jose, CA. Smartie entertained me on the airplane. It sang to me, it read to me, it helped me get some work done. Oh yeah, this was the start of a beautiful friendship. I could definitely see this going somewhere.

I also let him tag along while my kids and I had a pretend vacation in the house. They seemed to like Smartie, and Smartie liked them.

Getting in good with the kids was a good sign. :) I decided that I was indeed really digging my new friend and I wanted to take him more places. Not really exotic places, after all... we just met each other a few weeks before. But we took a little road trip to Galena, IL.

Galena is beautiful, plenty of places to walk around and get to know each other. We started falling for each other... hard.

Since Smartie and I had to travel right after he arrived in Chicago, I decided that it was time to take him site seeing in some of my favorite places around the city. We went on a nice walking date around some beautiful areas in Chicago and took some pictures.

We would definitely be going more places together.

On Being Social

Like the start of any good relationship, eventually you want your new love to meet your friends. We needed to just stop hanging out with only each other and be social. We went to some nice parties, we talked, we tweeted, we decided to become Facebook friends, we sent off some photos. This was going well. He shared the shame addiction to social media that I do. WOW! He helped me entertain the kids and setup playdates with friends mom's on Facebook. I think I love him. :)

Shopping

So what do you do when you decide that you want a new love to hang around for a while??? You make them go shopping with you!! If they can take the heat, then you will probably last a while. LOL! First we had to make sure that he was well equipped to handle shopping with me. We souped him up with some apps from the Marketplace. Then, it was time to hit the pay dirt!

He was really cool with shopping and even allowed me to get a pedicure while we shopped! HEAVEN!!! I got a new bag and some pretty toes at the same time. :)

We also ordered some movies for date nights at home using Netflix.

Gotta love it.

In Love

And now here we are about 4 months into our relationship and we are pretty inseparable. Smartie and I go everywhere together. We do just about everything together. We just click. He understands my need to keep up with what is going on right NOW. This is super easy. He will update me whenever I need him to. We have so much in common. It is really refreshing. We even made a great video chronicling our relationship so far. Have you seen it?  If not check here.

I think that he has a good chance of being The One. Sigh....

Please click the blue VOTE button above and vote for me! Let's take this out with a bang and win that $5000 for July!!

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Kris Cain is a mom to 2 sets of twins who is struggling to stay sane while balancing her life and wearing many hats. You can read more on her addiction to gadgets and the internet on her blog, or follow her on Twitter.

July 30, 12:56 pm

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This has been an exciting, but also very busy four months. I must say that coming up with a post idea week after week has been quite a task! I realized that I never did a video! Doh! I wanted to make sure to fix that this time, and I wanted to do something fun. I put together a little slideshow showing some of the things that my Tilt 2 and I have been through together. I hope you enjoy "As the Tilt Turns". No, I have no idea why that name came to mind. :) Please click the blue VOTE button above and vote for me! Lets take this out with a bang and win that $5000 for July!! 

Kris Cain is a busy mom to 2 sets of twins who is struggling to stay sane while balancing her life and wearing many hats. You can read more on her addiction to gadgets and the internet on her blog, or follow her on Twitter.

July 27, 3:13 pm

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I got a couple of challenges that I am working on from my last post. Good stuff! While I get those together, let's talk about "Googlizing" your life and your Tilt 2. I am all about keeping organized. (Wait.. watch out for the lightening.) Ok, ok... maybe that is exaggerating. But I have to know where I am supposed to be, when, who I am calling, and what I need to bring with me. My calendar is organized. My house? That's a completely different post!

I have been a huge advocate of using Google products for a long time. Yes I am helping them take over the world! Hey, they deserve it as far as I am concerned.

And having a Gmail account is a MUST if you are mobile a lot and need to keep up on what is going on in your life. Whether you have an iPhone, Android, or Windows Mobile phone, you can sync your info and keep up to date.

I have written a few posts on the subject, one of my favs being Using Google Calendar to Organize Your Busy Mom Life. Even though I discuss my iPhone in the article, the same principles apply to the HTC Tilt 2!! You can carry your email, contacts, and calendar around with you and using over the air syncing they stay up-to-date. 

Getting setup is easy as pie. Visit Google's Sync page to learn how to setup your phone for syncing. I cannot tell you how awesome this is. When I am and out and about and someone asks me if I am available to do something on a certain day, I can check my default Google calendar immediately from my phone, and even setup an appointment so that I don't forget.

And because Google sync uses PUSH technology, any changes that you make replicate across your Google/Gmail account and all your devices instantly. Change a phone number in your contacts while on your PC? It will carry down to the Tilt 2 instantly!! Setup a dental appointment on your phone while standing in the office? It will be on your calendar when you log into your PC!

Not only is this an excellent way to keep organized, but it KEEPS EVERYTHING BACKED UP!!! So, if the unthinkable happens and you lose or break your Tilt (Nooooo!!!!!!) you don't have to worry about losing all of your information.

Now if only I could get it to organize my garage...

Please click the blue VOTE button above and vote for me! Let's take this out with a bang and win that $5000 for July!!

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Kris Cain is a mom to 2 sets of twins who is struggling to stay sane while balancing her life and wearing many hats. You can read more on her addiction to gadgets and the internet on her blog, or follow her on Twitter.

July 14, 9:52 pm

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We have arrived at July. It's summer, it's hot, it's vacation season! It is also the last month of the Lose the Laptop challenge. Summer is the time of being out and enjoying the weather, hanging out with family and friends, laying on the beach, soaking up the sun, and relaxing. And frankly, it is too hot to carry a bunch of stuff! That's where having a cool smartphone like the HTC Tilt 2 comes in handy.

I must say that I will be sad to see the Lose the Laptop Challenge end. Even though I have not won so far  (hint hint hint), it has been soooo much fun!!! We have gone through shopping, social media, and travel. You can click here to read my old posts on those subjects. My phone has gone on a couple of mini vacations with me, helped me buy a new bag, and helped me keep up with my friends.

This month has no set theme. We are free to review what we have learned about our Tilt devices, teach you some new things, and explore what else we can do with the Tilt 2 device. And umm... explore what we can do with $5000!! Well, some may be thinking about all the great things they would buy, the vacation they would take, or the money they would stash away! Unfortunately, my dreams are not that great. My dreams consist of paying bills and getting my 10 year old Jeep fixed. $5000 would take me a long way towards that 'dream'.

We just passed the fourth of July and the theme was all about freedom!!! Well I hope to one day have financial freedom to get $5000 and immediately make plans to blow it! Until that freedom is achieved right now I will just have to worry about the freedom of not lugging my laptop around everywhere. :) The HTC Tilt 2 is an awesome phone to help with that goal. As we have talked about already, you can shop, email, blog, tweet, photograph, watch, browse, IM, post, and do more with your Tilt 2.

I am all about smartphones. And I love the gadgets, as you probably know if you clicked over to my blog. :) I post a lot about phones, I love testing phones, and this one is no exception. And you do know that it's an HTC right?? HTC has cranked out some AMAZING phones over the years. They do NOT disappoint. Full featured, responsive, and snazzy. Yes, I did say snazzy. :) But hey... it is what is it! Actually, it's actually a pretty sexy device. Yeah, a phone can be sexy.. you didn't know? :) A phone is sexy when you don't mind pulling it out of your pocket and showing it off. When you don't sneak off to the corner to make a call because you don't want your friends to see the old "normal" phone that you are using. And when you can whip it out and say "oh, I'll look that up for you!" when someone asks for directions, or if there is a pizza place nearby.

Yeah, the Tilt 2 is definitely a cool phone. I've told you a lot about it, but I am going to ask you... do you have any questions that you want answered about the Tilt 2? Want me to test something for you and post about it? Or do you want to give me a challenge? If so, email me at kcain AT littletechgirl.com or leave a comment below and tell me about it, and I'll put it in a post. :) Perhaps you want me to compose a whole post just using the Tilt 2?? Or create a video of something fun?. Oh, and umm, be good! :)

As you think up a challenge for me, click the blue VOTE button above and vote for me! Let's take this out with a bang and win that $5000 for July!!
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Kris Cain is a mom to 2 sets of twins who is struggling to stay sane while balancing her life and wearing many hats. You can read more on her addiction to gadgets and the internet on her blog, or follow her on Twitter.
 

July 7, 9:55 pm

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So here we are on the last day of June. Wow!!! This month has flown by. We are wrapping up with the this month's theme of shopping! What have we learned so far? There are a ton of great apps that you can "shop" for in the Windows Marketplace. You can find games, social networking apps, news apps, productivity apps, shopping apps, and more. Both free apps and paid apps, fun apps and serious apps.. it is all there.

Some great shopping apps include tip calculators, grocery list managers, and more. Also, remember that some of your favorite websites for shopping and comparison pricing might have mobile versions available so that you can shop on the go. The ones that I used include Amazon, eBay, Pricegrabber, and Google.

We also learned that pedicures are wonderful and relaxing. :) Shopping WHILE getting a pedicure??? Pure awesomeness! Of course you can apply that to any time when you are waiting for something to happen...sitting in the dentist office, docs office, waiting in line for tickets to an event, riding the train. Any occasion when you can kill some time, make it good and use your Tilt 2 to shop!

Also, shopping for movies to add to your Netflix queue while out is awesome!!! I have done this a couple of times while talking with a friend and they mention a movie as a "must-see". I whip out my phone, open the Netflix app, search for the movie and add it to my queue. In a few days, it arrives at home. :) You can also view movie previews right from your Tilt via the Netflix app. And the quality is not bad at all.

Of course it's not only by using the the phone apps that your Tilt can aid in shopping. You can also use the camera to take photos of items that you are thinking about purchasing for your home such as furniture, send it off to your sweetie, and ask for an opinion. Tease a friend by taking a pic of an expensive item that you know that want in their favorite store and send it off along with a "na na na na na na" LOL! Of course that is silly, but this can be applied in many useful ways!

So, as we think about closing out June while shopping, can you please click the blue VOTE button at the top of this page to vote for me? We can both win a $500 Amazon gift card and you could win your very own HTC Tilt 2!

June 30, 5:11 pm

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