Tried to teach Ginger how to use the iPad today...

... But she didn't get it. Maybe a net book would be better for her...

Home Thermostats & Doorbells

Since I am an engineer, my wife thinks that I have the tendency to overthink things. A recent discussion led to the topic of advanced thermostats. This company has a few interesting ones. I like the idea of connecting it to a home-automation system so that it turns the yard lights on at the same time that it goes into night-time and day-time power saving modes. The other feature I'd like to see is a built in panic alarm that calls you if the temperature drops below or above a certain point to protect your pets in an emergency or allow a remote control to tell it to warm the house up, we're on our way home.

I also looked into advanced doorbells, this one rings your home phones with caller-ID that indicates which of many possible intercoms is ringing and allows you to speak with the person before running to the front or back doors.

What I'm iPadding...

... in no specific order and with no specific reviews. (Ratings are from iTunes)

The best discovery this week is being able to skype and make phone calls from it. The user experience is like having a conversation with a picture frame with a disembodied voice of the person in the picture.

AIM for iPad, v1.0.2, Seller: AOL (4+)
SoundHound, v3.2.0, Seller: Melodis (9+)
Beat the Traffic HD, v1.0, Seller: Beat the Traffic (4+)
Whistle Phone, v1.10, Seller: Vail Systems, Inc. (4+)
fring, v3.0.0.7, Seller: fringland Ltd. (4+)
Eye Chart Pro, v1.0, Seller: Manu Lakkur (4+)
Urbanspoon for iPad, v1.0, Seller: Wanderspot, LLC (4+)
Pocket Pond, v2.0, Seller: JOHN MOFFETT (4+)
Ancient Frog LE, v1.13, Seller: James Brown (4+)
uHear, v1.0, Seller: Unitron Hearing Limited (4+)
Hearing Check, v1.0, Seller: RNID (4+)
foursquare, v1.7.4, Seller: Naveen Selvadurai (4+)
LinkedIn, v3.1, Seller: LinkedIn (4+)
ScanBizCards Lite Business Card Scanner, v2.71, Seller: Patrick Questembert (4+)
Skype, v1.3.1, Seller: Skype Software S.a.r.l. (4+)