Nature is the Word

I stumbled upon this site the other day and it continues to fascinate me. The best science and medicine info is located at nature.com. Whether you are looking for life science, physical science, chemistry, earth, environment or clinical practice research, this is your website.

For example, there was an article about how a paraplegic was using their mind to control a robotic arm. Also there was an article how volcanic eruptions are uncovering scientific findings. Find science news and learn something new at nature.com.

http://nature.com

Choose My Plate

Are you looking for an interactive way to eat healthier? Have you been wondering where do I start down the path of a balanced diet? If so, you need to discover Choose My Plate. The new site was rolled out to inspire a healthy conscious by the United States Department of Agriculture and promoted with first lady Michelle Obama .

For example, here a tip of the day. The website says, “One way to make half your grains whole is to read the ingredient labels on food packages and choose foods with “whole” in the grain or flour name of the first 3 ingredients.” Whether you are a teacher or a parent, this website has some great tips! Start eating better today.

Choose My Plate features:

• Fruits & Veggies Video Contest
• Healthy Eating on a Budget
• Game: Blast Off My Planet
• SuperTracker
• 10 Tips Nutrition Education Series
• Sample Menus and Recipes
• Dietary Guidelines
• Partnering Program

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

Getting Cozi (Review): Organizing A Growing Family, Digitally

I am fortunate enough to have young kids, ages 4 (Luke, soon to be 5 by the end of April), 3 (Caleb), and 5 months (Hannah… or “Babes” as Luke calls her). I love my growing family! And the larger my family grows, the busier I seem to get.

It’s become clear to me that as busy as I think I am right now with family activities, I’ve only reached the tip of the iceberg. My oldest is in pre-school 3 times a week, karate 2 times a week, and starts all-day Kindergarten in the Fall (and I’ve heard a rumor about soccer in the Fall, too). Caleb starts pre-school next year, and Hannah will be right on his heels.

I reflected on this growing challenge one Saturday morning with my wife, Tara. She suggested we find some way to organize a family calendar, digitally. Enter, Cozi (http://www.cozi.com/).

Cozi organizes your family life into 4 sections:

• Calendar
• To Do Lists
• Shopping
• Journal

Family Calendar Feature
The calendar is easily the best thing about Cozi. You can assign each person in your family a color code, then build out the calendar as you would in Outlook or Google Calendar, only with events color coded for who is involved. Recurrence is setup (just like Outlook), making it easy to populate your calendar quickly and thoroughly.

There is a single, linear view for the calendar (scroll up and down), which honestly makes it easy to navigate, even though it has no view or navigation variety. It is also easy to organize the calendar by individual.

Family To Do Lists Feature
It’s easy to organize several To Do lists for each individual setup in the calendar. For example, when my wife and I visit her parents each Sunday I have a checklist I can go by to make sure I don’t forget to bring anything important. You can also have shared To Do lists, and lists for individuals.

Family Shopping List Feature
This works exactly the same as the To Do list feature, complete with the ability to email a list to anyone.

Family Journal Feature
The idea of this feature is nice, but it’s not something I use much. Without the ability to socially share the funny story Caleb told, or the fact that Luke just broke a board at karate, or the cute picture of Hannah, it’s a bit cumbersome and unnecessary.

Best Feature
Organizing the calendar by individual makes it easy to see who is busy and who can help!

Biggest Bummer
Push notifications are not yet setup. I use the app on my iPhone 100% of the time. Preferably, I’d like to receive calendar notifications like I do from iCal, with just a couple of the important notes about the event pushed through as a reminder.

The app does allow for email and text message notifications, but the convenience of receiving push notifications is a big miss.

Overall Score: 8/10

Bottom Line on Cozi
The developers have correctly identified 4 primary areas of a family’s life that are in need of organization and coordination. But more features can be added to make Cozi even better. For example, the Shopping Lists can be evolved on the model of Grocery IQ, while the Journal could allow for social sharing (or allow you to toggle that feature off, depending on your family’s feelings about privacy on the web).

If you have a hectic family schedule, Cozi can help organize it for you. It’s easy enough for the entire family to use and free of charge, but not yet feature rich. Let’s cross our fingers in hopes the developers will ramp up soon!

Best Email Signatures

Promote things you care about and make a better use of your emails. WiseStamp creates the best email signatures. The site will enable you to make mail signatures with most email source providers (ESP)s like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail. The site features templates and apps you can choose from to spruce up your email signatures. Choose from social to business apps that will add panache to your signatures.

The site says, “Dynamic Email Apps to bring that extra professional look-and-feel to your email signatures and make them work for you! Show your latest blog post, the items you sell on Etsy or eBay and many more from the variety of Business Email Apps!” I tried WiseStamp and I liked how it seamlessly added a toolbar to my ESP. Thanks to CIA Mike for the lead.

http://www.wisestamp.com/

Wish Wall – More Social Discounts

How do you buy new clothes? Are you a window shopper? Why not use the Internet to influence what and how you buy? Wish Wall suggests products you might like. You create wish lists of these products and share them with your friends. All your wish lists then tally up for rewards. Connect your Facebook account and get digital coupons based on what you are sharing.

Wish Wall is a combination of Pinterest and digital coupons.
http://www.wishwall.me/

Killer Apps for iPhone, Android and Windows Phones

Looking for the hottest apps on the web? Whether you have an iPhone, Android or Windows smartphone, then you need to check out this website. First you choose, you platform and then get hit with reviews and tips on the best applications to load up your phone. What else could you ask for if you can’t live without your Smartphone?

http://www.appstorehq.com/

Who Say – Celebrity Social Agrregate

Twitter is like one big interactive digital trading card because when a celebrity tweets back at you it’s priceless. If you are looking for another source of photos and videos directly from celebrities, then you need to check out Who Say.

Who Say follows music, sports, films, authors, comedy and virtually anyone in the entertainment industry. This site takes the official Twitter, YouTube and Facebook pages and brings them all under one umbrella so you don’t have to search all over these social networks to find them.

Who Say aggregates celebrities social sites under one umbrella.
http://www.whosay.com/

iPhone Case Combines All Your Credit Cards Into One

Looking for an iPhone Case that will make your life easier? The article says,”iCache Geode is a (rather handsome) iPhone case that lets you replace all of the loyalty and credit cards tucked away in your wallet in one fell swoop.”

I found it interesting that, “once you create an account in the companion app and load up some info, the Geode can display the barcode of any saved loyalty card on the small e-ink display on its rear end. Furthermore the display has a rewritable card mounted just above it. Once your credit card information has been registered with the Geode, the included Geocard’s mag strip can be rewritten on the fly, effectively turning it into whichever credit card you want it to be.”

Thanks to cia_mike for the story…
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/13/icache-geode/

Sync Credit to Social Media

American Express has a new social media function built right into their credit cards called Sync. Connect your American Express with Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare get discounts directly applied to your account. Are you comfortable sharing your shopping habits with social media giants? Is this the future of coupons? Now digital savings are just applied to your account.

Steps with Amex Sync
1. Connect to social media
2. Sync you American Express
3. Offers load on your card – no coupons needed

https://sync.americanexpress.com/

AOL Kills Instant Messenger

Leading Hands began because of an incident with AOL instant messenger. Last month AOL stopped supporting Instant Messenger. This act is truly the end of an era just like when Netscape died.

Instant messenger represents a standard function of the Internet that is now taken for granted. Facebook just has instant messaging built in. Most websites you visit offer instant message or chatting with customer service as a necessity.

Texting is the most popular way to communicate among teens so no wonder instant messaging seems obsolete because it’s not an app that is built right into your phone. Instant Messenger (or other apps equivalent) need to be loaded separately.

AOL Instant Messenger is gone, but is forever in our digital DNA.

http://www.slashgear.com/aol-kills-instant-messenger-14218403/
Thanks to Mike for the lead.