Macro Lens for Cell Phone Cameras

A year ago, I saw some nifty little camera lenses that you could attach to your cell phone’s camera.  I swooned.  I fell in love.  I coveted.  (Read that to mean that I tried to convince my hubby that we needed — yes NEEDED — to buy them.)

That was a year ago.

Do I have said nifty lenses for my phone?  No.  Rats.  Can you see my sad face?

Imagine my delight when I came across this other little nifty camera lens that attaches to your cell phone via a rubber band.

A rubber band? you say.

Yes, indeedy.  A rubber band.

So, it will fit any size or shape of cell phone. Sweet.

Merely slip the rubber band over your phone. Position the lens over your camera opening. Voila! You can take micro pictures.

Wanna photo of arachnids, ants, or potato bugs?  You got it.

Want up close and personal pics of flowers, a pencil eraser, the freckly on your left kneecap?  No problem-o.

This little invention costs only $15.  Did you catch that?  Only 15 smackeroos.  You can’t miss with this little gadget.  It’s not bulky.  It’s not expensive.  You can have loads of fun with it.

This is a perfect stocking stuffer for that hard-to-buy-for person on your list.

And while you are ordering one, you can send one my way if you are so inclined. That would certainly make my day.

Google Image Chart Editor

I love to travel.  So it wouldn’t surprise you, now would it, if I said that I want to visit every state in the Union?  I didn’t think so.

I was so delighted to find Google’s Image Chart Tool Editor.  Using that little editor, I made this little map in a matter of minutes.  It shows all of the states that I have visited.

Guess I need to visit the eastern United States, huh?  (Help me convince my husband . . . )

This image chart tool does more than create nifty maps.  You can create bar charts, pie charts, Venn diagrams, line charts, QR codes (whatever they are!), radar charts, and Google-o-meter charts.

Wanna check it out?  I thought you might.  Here’s the place to go:

http://imagecharteditor.appspot.com/

You can make your own or use one that has already been created.  This is a pretty cool place!  Go there and spend some time playing, creating, and having fun.

Doodle Buddy

So I got an app for the iPad for the little kiddos.  Of course I had to try it out to see if it was appropriate for them.  Of course.  What I didn’t expect was that I would be so enthralled that I didn’t want to let the kids have the iPad to play with the app.  Shame on me!

The app that had me so captivated was Doodle Buddy. It is a drawing app.

You can have a blank screen for your drawing.  Or, you can have backgrounds such as a beach scene, a brick wall, a winter scene with a snowman, a mountain, a sand dune, a or a barnyard. Or, you can import one of your own photos.  Sweet!

Here are two pictures — one using the barnyard scene and one using the a beach scene.

You can add stamp designs to your background: smiley faces, a frog, lady bug, daisy, soccer ball, footprints, jack-o-lantern, snowman, gingerbread man, car, teddy bear, fish, dog, or cat.  Every time you use a stamp,  there’s a fun sound.

When you first download the app, you get Doodle Bucks to get more packs — more stencils, patterns, dinosaurs, cars, a princes pack, space pack robot stencil, bugs, flowers, Christmas trees.

It also has a few stencils.  You can follow the stencil with your finger and draw a perfect circle, triangle, square, heart, star or flower.  Like these.

You can add text to your drawings.

You can select a brush, a stick of chalk, or a glitter pen to draw with.

You can easily change the color of your drawing tool.

You can also smudge what you have drawn.

And a downright fun thing about this app is that you can draw with more than one finger at a time.  Wheee! (That’s from one-year-old Simon.)

This app costs only $0.99.  Check it out — especially if you have little ones in your family!

A Secret Trick for GMail Users

There are many freebies on the Internet.  Freebies makes the world go ’round.  (And you thought it was love . . . )

However, with some of those freebies, there is a big drawback — you have to give your e-mail address to get that freebie.  Once you give your address, you are inundated up the wazoo with spam from whomever gave you the freebie.  I guess it’s a tit-for-tat situation: I give you my freebie and you give me your e-mail address. We’re even Steven.

Sometimes that stinks.

But, if you use Gmail, there is a secret trick that you can use.  Wanna know what it is?  I thought so.

But first a little history.  Not much.  Just a snippet.  (Knowing this will help you understand the little secret trick that I am about to share.)

When Google was expanding to Europe, they ran into a little snafu.  ‘Gmail’ was already being used by a rival service.  That meant there were trademark issues around using ‘gmail.’ To get around those issues, Google created @googlemail.com  Everybody was happy.

And this is where, my friend, this little trick comes in.

Use the @googlemail.com alias!

Let’s say my regular Gmail address was ms. smartypants@gmail.com.  My alias would be ms. smartypants@googlemail.com.  Messages sent to that e-mail address will reach me.

Then, I can set up a filter in Gmail that will sort messages to that address into a separate folder.  (Read that to mean a spam folder.)

For that freebie, I enter in my ms.smartypants@googlemail.com address and get that freebie.  Then, all of the mail that I get in response to getting that freebie will go to my spam folder and my inbox isn’t deluged with spam.  Sweet, huh?

Here’s secret trick number two.  (I know the title of this post is ‘a secret trick’ which numerically means ‘one’ secret.  But I’m feeling generous.  Here’s a second one.  Aren’t I nice?  I think so, too.)

Let’s look at my original Gmail address: ms. smartypants@gmail.com.  You can add the plus sign (+) and another word and then messages sent to that address will get sent to your original Gmail account.  So, here’s an example of another type of alias that you can create:

ms.smartypants+cool@gmail.com
ms.smartypants+wayout@gmail.com
ms.smartypants+rad@gmail.com

You get the idea.

I know some people just make up something for the required e-mail.  Anybody who is anybody knows that the system is just looking for an @ sign.  It doesn’t care what comes before or after it.  As long as it has the @ sign, you’re good to go.

But what happens in the situation that they will send you a confirmation to your e-mail account that you have to respond to before you get your freebie?  If you put in jibberish for your e-mail address, you’re up a creek without a paddle, mate.

So if there will be a confirmation that you need to respond to, use one of these two secret tips.  When you get  your confirmation e-mail, respond to it, get your freebie, and then never look that folder again.  Unless you are going in to delete all of the messages  you get.

Now.  Go out there.  Sign up for all of those freebies to your heart’s content — and don’t worry about having tons and tons of pesky email.

Itsy Bitsy Spider and Me

I didn’t know that this kiddy song could be so much fun!

Itsy Bitsy Spider is a children’s app for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.  In my humble opinion, it is best used on an iPad because you have more screen real estate to enjoy and play with this interactive application.

This app won the 2010 Parent’s Choice Gold Award from the Parents’ Choice Foundation.  Support like that says a lot.  Like it is viewed as an educational application because you learn about the environment, animals, and nature.  The fly that buzzes around will tell your child where rain comes from, how a rainbow is made, what makes a plant grow, and how many legs a spider has.

Children learn to count to ten by poking a squirrel who stacks nuts. When the squirrel has ten in a pile, they fall off the roof of the house so you can start counting again.  Kids can find musical eggs on a scavenger hunt and then play a tune on the ones that they found.  They can stack hats on the spider’s head.  They can even record themselves singing!

I loved touching the wind to make it blow and the cloud to make it rain.  The frog hiding in the grass and the snail are fun to touch to see their reaction.  And I lost track of how many times I made the little girl splash in the puddle of water.  Vicarious living there if you ask me!

This application kept me entertained for almost half an hour.  If it will keep an old biddy like me occupied, just think how young children will love this app!

Is it worth the $1.99?  You betcha!

Edit YouTube Videos

Sometimes you want the whole YouTube video.  Sometimes you don’t.

What happens when you don’t?  Use TubeChop that’s what!

Go to TubeChop.com. Paste in the URL of the video you want to chop.  Slide the fuschia pink slider beneath the video to the section that you want.  Click Chop It. And there you have it.  A snippet of only what you want.  How cool is that.

Here’s an example using video of the effects of the horrid tsunami that recently hit Japan. I just wish that I could embed it like a YouTube Video.  Guess I can’t have everything,  huh?

Tsunami damage in Japan

Photo Sharing on Steroids

I recently came across a nifty new technology.  (Well, it’s new to me . . .) As I read about it, I thought, “Huh! What a great idea!  I’m surprised that somebody didn’t think of it sooner.”

And then I did a wee bit o’ research.  Found out this technology has been around for 5 years.  Ahem.  Where have I been?  (Answer: pondering the meaning of life and leading strategic military maneuvers against hordes of encroaching dust bunnies . . .)

Where was I?  Oh yes. New technology.

You’ve got a digital camera, right?  Right. Got a Facebook account where you share your digital photos, right?  Right.

Got a Flickr account to share photos with Grandma Bertha, your second cousin twice removed in Des Moines, and your best friend LeRoy, right? Right.

You make photo books with Shutterfly and snapfish depending on who is having a good sale, right?  Right.

You print your photos at Costco or Walk-Mart, right? Right.

You take movies and upload them on YouTube, right? Right.

You have an account with Zenfolio, right?  No?  Don’t know what Zenfolio is all about?  (Don’t worry.  Neither do I.)

And you want an easier method for all of that uploading, right? Right.

Then have I got the memory card for you!  Eye-Fi has a memory card with built-in Wi-Fi capabilities. Did you catch that?  Built. In. Wi-Fi.

Pop the card into your camera.  Specify up to 32 different networks.  Then, when you snap all of those special Kodak moments (and those quirky odd moments and all others in between), the card automatically transfers  your photos and videos to their specified destination.  Now how cool is that?

Of course the memory card acts as a memory card and stores the photos and videos that you take.  Of course.  (It comes with either 4 GB or 8GB capacity.) Of course you can also transfer them to your computer if you want.  Of course. Of course you see how this is way cool and you want to run out and buy one right now.  Of course.

Me, too.  So, I’ll see you later.  I’m pulling out my credit card so I can buy a whole gaggle of them online.

iCrayonMaker Makes Kids Happy

Okay, all of you iPhone totin’ parents!  Whip out your iPhone, connect to the App Store in iTunes and download a fun lovin’ app for your children.

Which app is that? you ask. Why iCrayonMaker, that’s what!

With iCrayonMaker, your children can have loads of fun drawing on your iPhone.  They can choose from four different drawing styles: crayon, chalk, glitter, and felt marker.

To select the color that you want to draw with, tap the color of the crayon that you want. (In this picture, you’ll notice that the hot pink crayon is selected because it is slightly higher than the rest of the other crayons.)

Then you tap inside the circle and start swirling your finger around.  This will fill in the circle.  When it gets to be the color that you like, tap the Crayon Draw tab at the bottom of the screen.  This will take you to a blank screen where you can start drawing.  Now, draw away!

When you want to change the color of your crayon, tap the Crayon Marker at the bottom of the screen to go back to your ‘box’ of crayons.

There is an undo feature that lets you undo your last three strokes.  (I wish it had more undo levels . . .)  There is an erase feature that erases everything on your screen so you can have a fresh start on a different drawing.  If you want to change the style of your crayon, simply tap the Change feature.

Once your kiddo has finished her drawing, you can send the picture to Facebook.  (How cool is that?)  You can e-mail it to someone through e-mail — like grandpa, a sibling, or a friend.

You can also save it to your phone’s camera roll.

The only drawback (to me) is that it doesn’t change orientation when I rotate my phone. I would like a horizontal screen.  Having this capability would give a wider screen to draw on.  (Maybe my fat fingers just need to go on a diet.  Hmmm, maybe?)

Here are two of my fabulous artistic renderings.  Watch out Rembrandt.  Here I come!

This fun little application will keep children — and read that to mean mother, too — happily and busily occupied for quite some time.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Create a PDF of an HTML Page

Sometimes I stumble across some technological gem that causes me to say, “Shazam!”  Today’s find is one of those shazam moments.

PDFcrowd.com is a nifty site that turns web pages into PDF files.  Simply copy the URL and paste it into the address box on PDFcrowd.com, click convert to PDF and you have your file.

If, by chance, that page has links, the links in the PDF file work.  They take the reader to the linked page.

Yes, yes, I know that you can have links in PDF files that actually work.  What warms the cockles of my heart is that with PDFcrowd you don’t have to do any coding.  You don’t have to insert any HTML.  PDFcrowd does all of the work for you.  Guess I’m lazy that way.

Wanna see PDFcrowd in action?  I made a PDF of the front page of the New York Times. Check it out. See what I mean.

Use this to send PDFs of a web page through e-mail to a friend or acquaintance. You don’t have to worry about what operating system your friend uses.  Or what browser she uses.  Or even the device (computer, phone, iPad, whatever) as long as the device can read PDF files.

Now THAT is sweet!

Mini Technology for Maximum Fun

Today’s fun comes in a small package.  Small but amazingly creative and wonderful.

Have you ever wanted to expand the capabilities of the camera on your cellphone?  Like being able to take up-close and personal photos of a delicate flower, a spider’s web, the wart on your friend’s elbow?  (Well, maybe not the wart.) The results you get probably won’t win any photography contests.  You’ll look at your picture, sigh, and then click the trash-it button.

What about getting a fish-eye pic?  Or wide angle?  All a no-go with a cellphone camera.  Until now.

Thanks to some very creative folks, you can now purchase a fisheye, macro and wide angle lens for your cellphone.  These lenses do not discriminate against cellphones.  They will work with ANY one that has a camera.

How?  How in the world can you attach a lens to a cellphone? you ask.

Boy, I didn’t realize that you were so skeptical.

By a powerful magnetic ring, that’s how.

The wide angle/macro lens sells for $20.  That’s the price of a trip to the movies with nachos, popcorn, and a drink.  The fisheye lens is $25.  Bundled together you get them for $40.  What a bargain if you ask me! You can find them here if you are interested.

And, if you are into photography this next item is such a fun lil’ item.  A mini camera that is a 1/16 scale model of a your real-life DSLR camera — detachable lenses and all!

With the holidays coming up before you know it, you can start dropping hints that this would make a great stocking stuffer.  Great for the photographer in your life (ahem, that’s you, my friend). Display it on your desk (but be careful not to lose it in the clutter).  Hang it on a chain around your neck.  Use it for a claymation movie with your GI Joe figures.  You can find it here.