Techish

WHAT I’M WORKING ON: V-Day, Travel Hacks, HIRING, and true tech+life helpful takeaways

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HOW TO "UN" ADDICT YOURSELF FROM YOUR SMARTPHONE: Over the past few years, I've done stories on devices that shock you off your phone, safes that lock them away for you, and a ton of apps to track and limit your time on them. But, the problem of tech addition is growing, and it's still something we're all talking about. Recently, a parade of tech big-wigs, including several former Facebook employees, have argued that "we’re no match for the sophisticated machinery of engagement and persuasion being built into smartphone apps. Their fears are many: They’re worried about distraction, productivity, how social networks alter our emotional lives and relationships, and "what they’re doing to ... Read more

ON THE RADIO: Downloading these 6 apps will change your life

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Heard on KGO Ronn Owens show this morning! BUILD BETTER HABITS FABULOUS App This app promises to help you reset your habits and transform your life with evidence-based coaching in just 19 days. Fabulous is a science-based app, incubated in Duke's Behavioral Economics Lab, that will help you build healthy rituals into your life, just like an elite athlete. Fabulous can help with things like: increased energy levels, more focused, weight loss, better sleep, and building healthy habits and routines in your life. I like that it combines a lot of other apps into one: Take your fitness and diet to a new level by using our integrated coaching feature: 7-minute scientific workouts, Zen and ... Read more

NEW YEAR: Best 7 Minute Workouts on the Planet!

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The best 7-minute workouts on the planet are the ones you’ll actually do. This is what I know for sure after testing out more than 30 of them over the past few months. That and yes, they really do work. Adding in short blasts of high intensity interval (HIIT) training consisting of various strength, cardio, core, and flexibility exercises whenever I have a spare seven minutes in my day, have helped me get stronger, leaner, faster, and to feel better overall. WHAT TO LOOK FOR My favorites are all free, though you can subscribe for more features to most of them as well. But free works just fine. They’re all available on iOS and Android (except for one). They’re all built around the ... Read more

GIFT GUIDE: Send fantastic gifts right this second with these apps!

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Nothing like waiting till the last second, amiright?! Maybe you're busy with work, or still haven't found the perfect present. Or maybe you're just a prolific procrastinator. Whatever the issue, here are a handful of apps that can help you send a super thoughtful gift right this second! You're welcome. Giftagram (iOS, Android) The Giftagram app lets you send actual presents, without needing the recipient’s physical address. That’s a big help for so many of us these days who want to send something nice, but don’t have home addresses and want to keep it a surprise. Gifting categories range from birthday presents for “him,” wedding and graduation gift ideas to gift ideas for all the major ... Read more

AMAZON ALEXA: 12 awesome new skills to try right this second

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https://youtu.be/XnGl6Y7AwiY Did you just unwrap a shiny, new Amazon Echo device? Or maybe you already have one (or a Dot or Show or any number of Amazon’s connected devices) and you’re getting a little tired just streaming endless hours of Holiday music and asking silly questions)? You might already know that Alexa can convert teaspoons to tablespoons, time the food you put in the oven, and tell jokes you can repeat at work. But she is capable of so much more. She now has more than 25,000 skills at the ready — everything from ordering a pizza to booking a vacation and all kinds of other surprises in between. Here are ten of my favorite Alexa tips and tricks. FEED THE DOG Okay, ... Read more

APP HAPPY: These apps will save your a** this holiday and beyond (KGO Radio segment)

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Every Tuesday at 11:45 I talk apps with Ronn Owens at KGO radio. Here are the apps we talked about today. Be sure to comment and leave suggestions via Facebook, Twitter, and the comments section here. Jolly Holidays! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr1IHaPgDLM MoviePass: If you go to a lot of movies, or just need a little time away from the inlaws during the holidays, MoviePass has got your back. MoviePass (sign up here) is a theatrical subscription service, that lets you see unlimited movies in over 4,000 theaters in the United States for one low monthly fee. Check your favorite local theaters to make sure they take it, then just sign up and head to the theaters! Reviews are mainly ... Read more

HOW TO: Find hard-to-get, out-of-stock gifts without getting ripped off

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https://youtu.be/gwl4nBB6mkE It happens every year. That one must-have toy — for kids and adults — sells out even before the Halloween candy hangover wears off. This year, it’s the iPhone X, SNES Classic, and those quirky little robot Fingerlings toys. Last time I checked, these must-haves — and a handful of others — were already out of stock across the board, with waits for new arrivals a month or more away. How can you make sure you have the most coveted gadget in hand by the holidays? Cozy up and read on for a few insider tricks to score the  hottest gadgets — eveN if they’re sold out. Get it right now You can pretty much always find what you want on eBay, even when pre-orders ... Read more

HOW TO: Score awesome gifts on your own social media feeds!

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The holiday season is officially in full gear and it's the most mobile shopping season yet. But is it really possible to swipe, scroll, and tap your way through a stress-free holiday? Yep, it sure is -- especially if you know how to train your social media feeds to do most of the work for you. You know those ads that pop up when you’re scrolling through your Facebook or Instagram? I used to just ignore them, but then my mom got the whole family those Bombas socks that kept popping up in her news feed. She liked them because you buy a pair and they donate a pair to a homeless person. And it was the perfect “something for everyone” gift. It also got me thinking about my own holiday ... Read more

HACK THE HOLIDAYS: tech tools to do all the hard stuff for you!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_PPPqPOQ7I&t=10s *This story originally ran in USA Today, as part of my syndicated series for USA Today and Gannet. I just used an eyebrow brush to brush my teeth. Nope, not an accident. It was pretty genius life hack, if you ask me, since I forgot my toothbrush on a work trip, had only three hours to get any sleep (so no time to hunt a real one down). And it worked quite a bit better than the free plastic one the hotel offered up. See — we harried, hurried, busy working parents are pretty darn resourceful when we need to be. Cue the holidays. Every year I love to think that I’ll have enough time to organize, plan, cook, clean, decorate, shop, mail ... Read more

THIS IS THE BEST: iPHONE X + Animoji Karaoke = winning the internet

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HgYkXFIyqo Okay, the iPhone X might be the best smartphone to land on planet earth all that jazz, but seriously? Animoji Karaoke wins the internet. Thanks to writer Harry McCracken, using the new Animoji for ultimate lip-synching battles might be the best thing I've seen all year. Not even kidding. Bohemian Rhapsody is the best, but it's followed pretty closely by a bunch more. Here are my favorite so far. What's yours? Be sure to share your own creations and add to the fun via our social media channels! Smash Mouth All Star https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Nwu3RqZyo   Despacito https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp9AE9SAYvg   The ... Read more

FIX IT: The iGlitch driving you nuts? Here’s how to get your “I’s” back on iOS

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Have you noticed that overtime you try to text an "I" it's replaced by a question mark, or an "A?" It hasn't happened to me, but I sure saw it a lot this past weekend on people's posts to Instagram and other social. Here's the quick fix. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement Tap . For Phrase, type an upper-case "I". For Shortcut, type a lower-case "i." Funny. Annoying. Weird. And of course, it's what everyone's talking about. ... Read more

HACK THE HOLIDAYS: How to find, use, and pay for the Holiday Season’s most coveted gear

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The Holidays are coming at you fast. Did you save? Make a list? Check it twice? Of course not. We live on the eve of Amazon drone delivery. Everyone is expected to take care of life in time we once wasted staring into space at stop lights. In the face of unreasonable modern expectations, we offer these hacks to help you do it, use it, and even pay for it. Don’t give up and buy everyone a bottle of gin. You’ve got this. Get the Ungettable Gear You know it’s coming, the first question at every holiday party. “Did you get an iPhone X?” Apple co-founder Woz may not be buying but everyone else is. Preorders sold out in 10 minutes and the line keeps getting longer. With Apple (maybe) ... Read more

THE BEST: Fun (and frightening) apps to celebrate Halloween!

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The scariest part of Halloween these days might just be how much we’re all spending on it. American’s are shelling out more than nine billion dollars for all the costumes, candy, decorations and parties this year, according to the National Retail Federation. If the high cost of it all gives you the creeps, these apps deliver big fun for free. SPOOKY SELFIES My new favorite app for not too gross and slightly sexy Halloween selfies is the free Photo Lab app (iOS and Android). I've been playing around with it all morning and wow, it's packed with photo fun generating - awesomeness. It has more than 800 awesome effects for your photos, and it's super simple to use. There's No need for ... Read more

Did you just butt-dial me? How to end those annoying butt, pocket, and purse dials for good.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFF3Pe3QVM8 I cannot figure out why my parents both pocket-dial me so much. It happens a few times every week. And while their butt-dials are mostly sweet — I get to eavesdrop on a tiny snippet of their day — I can’t help but wonder why this still happens as often as it does. In all fairness, I butt-dial an awful lot of people myself, too. And it's not just me. It turns out some 30% of calls to 911 are accidental, according to a study by Google researchers of San Francisco emergency calls, which was echoed in other locations. Accidental emergency calls not only strain the 911 system, they’ve even popped up in some high profile court cases in recent years ... Read more

iFrustrated: iOS 11 killed my battery life. Here’s how I finally revived it and you can too:

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An hour after upgrading to iOS 11, my iPhone 7 Plus phone was at 30%. It was 11am and I had barely used it. An hour later, another update came out - 11.0.1. I updated again, so then it made it until about noon. If you just upgraded your iPhone there's a really good chance you're noticing a serious battery drain problem too. According to security research firm Wandera, early updates of iOS 11 took an average of one hour and 36 minutes on average to drain iPhones completely, compared to the iOS 10 update, which took about four hours. I scoured Apple’s help site, and the internet for the fix and only came up with the same old no-real-help advice. Like, “look at what apps are using ... Read more

HOW TO: Host a Super Cool Virtual Book Club

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This fall bring us tons of highly-anticipated novels from some of the most well-known authors and public figures out there—Toni Morrison to Hillary Clinton—which means it’s the perfect time to start a book club. But any busy mom like knows will tell you right now, in-person meetups can be a pain. The fix? Host a virtual book club. They’re a great way to discuss the latest reads, without any heavy lifting. In time for National Book Month (October), here are five pain-free ways to host a virtual book club: 1. Pick the place: Create a WhatsApp group chat for discussions. Designate a time for people to chat, and if they can’t make it, no problem! People can just scroll up to see what they ... Read more