Monthly Archives: February 2012

Faves

FAVE BABY GEEK: A whole bunch of great sites and stuff for new #parents

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I often like to marry two of my loves, my son and tech. Because of that you get to read posts like this. Enjoy a few of my FAVE parent online resources. Have one to suggest? Email me at ilovefaves@gmail.com.

Petit Couture

For the parents of little girls, this is a great site. Submitted by FAVES reader Joe Chernov (@jchernov), Petit Couture is a fashion-forward children’s brand run by mompreneur Rebecca Kaykas-Wolff, committed to Fair Trade practices.

BabySteals.com

I’m hooked on BabySteals.com. They offer crazy good deals everyday at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. They also have an iOS app and will send you reminders when a new deal goes live. I’ve purchased everything from discounted Baby Legs to a diaper bag to fashionable bags to hold dirty clothes.

The Wonder Weeks iPhone App

Why is Baby K so crabby today? Could be because he’s in the midst of a developmental milestone. The Wonder Weeks gives you a pretty accurate prediction of when you can expect your little one to go through major life changes. There’s a site and an iOS app. If you want to know when they’ll actually move out of the house, you’re on your own.

Baby Legs

I’m mildly to severely addicted to purchasing Baby Legs legwarmers and socks. They make diaper changes a cinch and protect little knees when on the move. I say most of this to make myself feel better for owning so many pairs. While the site is great, the Baby Legs Facebook page is even better because they load you up on discounts. I have yet to pay full price for pair. Fist bump for savvy shopping!

Krinklz Baby

What little guy or gal doesn’t love the sound of crinkle paper? I know mine can’t get enough of it. Krinklz Baby create custom made toys or sends ready-made items that are as functional as they are cute.  Don’t judge Krinklz by their website (my tech friends will understand), just go straight to Etsy.

Hey new parent. Why are you still reading this? Go get some sleep. ;)

Fave Pop Culture

FAVE POP SOCIAL: @taylorswift13 responds to fan with cancer’s Facebook prom invite, trumps with date to ACM Awards

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Taylor Swift is taking Kevin McGuire from New Jersey to the Academy of Country Music Awards. The 18 year old has been battling cancer since the age of 13.

“Why you gotta be so…” Darn nice? Even if you’re not a Taylor Swift fan it’s tough not to enjoy this fairytale Facebook story and more than 122,000 people agree. When Kevin McGuire relapsed after being declared cancer fee on April 24, 2010, his younger sister took things into her own hands. Knowing her brother adores Taylor Swift she started a Facebook event page to get Ms. Swift to go to prom with Kevin.

Unfortunately, Taylor already had other plans. So sad. Right? Wrong.

Since Taylor couldn’t go to prom, she invited Kevin to be her date for the 2012 Academy of Country Music Awards on on April 1, 2012 (and no it’s not a joke).

She wrote, “I was wondering the ACM Awards are coming up. Would you be my date?”

How cool is that? Looks like Facebook is good for more than just reenergizing Betty White’s career.

Kevin McGuire talks about Taylor Swift – video (From KSDK)

Fave Fun Fact Faves

FAVE FACTS: 14 of the most recent major #tech milestones

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It’s time to celebrate. In the past 30 days there have been quite a few major tech milestones. Here are the ones I think warrant a little extra attention.

So many social networks and tech companies, so little time. Here goes:

  1. The iOS app Clear sells 350,000 copies in 9 days
  2. Skype hits major milestone as 32 million people sign on at once
  3. Facebook sends 60 million monthly visitors to 3rd party mobile apps. Wowzer! I’ll take some of that link love.
  4. Twitter hits 500 million registered users, according to Twopcharts
  5. Apple prepares to hit 25 billion App Store downloads and celebrates with $10,000 prize
  6. Twitter opens ad platform to 10,000 Small Businesses
  7. Apple sold more iOS devices in 2011 than it sold Macs in almost 30 years
  8. Pinterest now has over 10.4 million registered users, 9 million monthly Facebook-connected users, and 2 million daily Facebook users
  9. MySpace announces one million new users
  10. Yahoo!’s C.O.R.E. creates 13 million story combos a day and gets to a million clicks
  11. Reddit’s community is now 35 million strong
  12. Flickr turned eight years old
  13. LinkedIn hit 150 million registered users
  14. The Daily amassed more than 100,000 paid subscribers on the iPad



Upcoming milestone: Oreo is about to turn 100 years old.

photo credit: Pixel Fantasy via photopin cc

Fave tools Faves

FAVE TOOL: Publish and sell your cookbook as an #iPad app and eBook with @BakeSpace’s Cookbook Cafe

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Changing the face of culinary publishing? That’s what Babette Pepaj of Bakespace is doing with the new Cookbook Cafe.

 

If you’re a foodie with a craving to cook up your own ebook of delish dishes (trying too hard?) here comes your answer. The newly launched Cookbook Cafe from the pros at BakeSpace lets anyone create, market and sell their very own cookbook as a native iPad App and interactive web-based ebook.

Targeted towards grassroots cookbook authors, this is an amazing resource for independent authors and nonprofit organizations.

Each author determines his/her own price — from giving a cookbook away for free to selling it for a price ranging from $0.99 to $9.99 (in one dollar increments). Each cookbook is acquired by the end-user as either a free download or in-app purchase on the iPad, or as a simple download/online purchase on the web. BakeSpace.com collects a commission only when an author sells a book for profit or fundraising.

Of course, it’s not only for you social do-gooders. Commercial brands can also use Cookbook Cafe to create and market cookbooks themed around specific ingredients, types of recipes, events, etc. At launch, they boast an impressive partnership with brands Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Driscoll’s Berries, Chobani Greek Yogurt and Sabra Hummus.

Chomping at the bit to get started? Go ahead and:



Want to learn more about Cookbook Cafe? Here’s Babette to give you the scoop:

Gives new meaning to awesomesauce, huh?

I’m thinking about creating a baby-led weaning cookbook and sharing all of Baby K’s FAVE foods.

 

Fave IFTTT

FAVE IFTTT: 10 automated #social tasks to make your life easier

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ifttt puts the internet to work for you by creating tasks that fit this simple structure: if this then that. You either create your own “recipe” or use one another user created.

Make the web work for you

 

What does a recipe mean? An example might be “if I post a video to YouTube then a link to the video should go to a Dropbox folder.”

In order to use ifttt, you need to sign up for ifttt beta and click the confirmation link sent to you via email. Now on to the stuff you really came here to read. Here are 10 social tasks to help simplify your life:

  1. When Facebook profile picture changes, update Twitter profile picture.
  2. Send Google Reader feed to Evernote
  3. Get an SMS alert before any event starts on your Google Calendar
  4. Autosave Instagram photos to Dropbox
  5. Post new Etsy listings to Twitter
  6. When the official #foursquare blog is updated, send me a text  [Full disclosure: This is a recipe I created.]
  7. When Free Music from Amazon is released, send me an email
  8. Add YouTube videos to Storify
  9. If I upload a photo to Flickr tagged ‘tweet’, post a link to Twitter
  10. Save my email attachments to Dropbox

Feel inspired? Create your own recipes on ifttt.

photo credit: jenny downing via photopin cc