Just a quick note to let you know that Diary of a Smart Chick hasn’t gone anywhere in spite of it being a bit quiet around the blog recently. I’ve been gearing up to go on a short trip and it’s gotten a little bit too hectic to stay on top of updating all of the blogs. I’ll be getting started again right away when I return from the trip so come back to check up soon!

There are some wild predictions floating around about the predicted growth of Android-based mobile phone handset sales. Analysts in the industry are saying that there will be more than ten million of these handsets sold before the year is over. That’s a 900% increase! Is it possible?

It’s probably true that there will be a large increase in Android-based handset sales between this year and last year. That is because there are more companies offering these phones and the increased availability combined with the slow start of sales when the product launched could lead to a large percentage difference in sales.

But will there really be ten million handsets sold? We’re already almost halfway through the year so some major sales would have to take place in the last half of 2009 to make that happen. I’d be surprised if sales go that high but it’ll be interesting to see how close they get. There are definitely some interesting new handsets on the horizon.

Tags: android, google, mobile, phones, predictions, Technology

Networking is one of the most important things that you can do to grow your business and improve yourself professionally. Although today’s networking takes place primarily online, there are a lot of places where you can go to meet business contacts in person.

Examples of places where you might make new business contacts include:

• Conferences. Business associates have been connecting with each other at industry conferences and conventions for a long time and it’s still one of the best places to meet people.
• Ongoing education classes. Stay on top of your industry while meeting other people who are also on top of the game.
• Meetups, Tweetups, etc. There are a lot of online platforms where you can connect with people and then meet in real life at organized networking events.
• Singles professionals nights. If you want to mix business with pleasure than singles mixers are a good palce to start.

Those are just the basics. You can meet people in airplanes, office supply stores and random events as well.

Where do you go to meet new people in your field?

Tags: associates, business, contacts, Friends, kathryn vercillo, meet people, networking

There’s a reason that they call them smartphones. Today’s advanced mobile phones serve as mini-computers that can take a lot of things off of your mind. You hardly have to remember anything on your own because you can program your phone to remember things for you.

The most obvious example of this is phone numbers. It used to be that people memorized the phone numbers that they called most often. Most people today memorize one or two numbers in case of an emergency and simply let their phones remember the rest.

The fact that we rely on our phones to remember things could mean that we’re thinking less than we used to. We simply don’t have to stretch our brain muscles so much anymore because we’ve got a world of helpful information at our fingertips.

If we’re not thinking as much as before then we run the chance that we’re losing our ability to utilize common sense. A lot of people are lost without their phones – they can’t calculate tips or find their way around a strange location without mobile applications to guide them.

Is your cell phone doing your thinking for you?

Tags: cell phones, kathryn vercillo, mobile phones, society, Technology

I was just compiling pictures of canopy beds for a design article over at Houzz.com. I’ve never had a canopy bed but I used to really want one when I was younger. I can think of a few reasons that I’d still like to get a canopy bed.

Canopy beds seem great because:

• They’re playful. They just look like a lot of fun. Entering a room that has one feels exciting!
• They create a safe place. If you have to spend the night alone then it’s nice to get all tucked in. A canopy bed enhances that.
• They’re romantic. If you’re not spending the night alone then the flirty enclosure of a canopy bed could help set the mood.
• They’re private. If you have to share a room with others then a canopy bed could be a great way to shut them out when you’re ready to sleep.

Although I don’t have one, I can see some great reasons to get a canopy bed. Do you agree?

Tags: bedroom, bedroom design, beds, canopy beds, decor, design, houzz, Interior Design

Creative Commons is a really great site. It allows artists and writers to copyright their work and to clearly lay out rules for other people to use that work. As someone who publishes content on a near-daily basis, I really love the opportunity to use creative commons to find work that I can publish.

For the most part, I don’t publish writing although you can certainly find writing to publish through the Creative Commons site. I like to do my own writing and don’t typically feel the need to have other writers fill in for me in that respect.

However, there are a lot of other things that I don’t do myself that it is great to use Creative Commons for in order to add to my site. The main thing that I use it for is to find Flickr photos that I can use on my blogs. These photos are easy to search for through the site and the rules for how they can be used on a blog are super clear. Video and music can also be added to a site in the same way.

It’s important to respect the Creative Commons rules and the boudaries set forth by the creators of the content when using the site. If you can do that, you can get a lot of great content to enhance what you’re already putting out there.

Is anyone else using Creative Commons? What has your experience been with it so far?

Tags: copyright, creative commons, creativity

I was recently reading about the fact that Windows Mobile 6.5 is designed to have voice recognition software. It’s a really cool idea because it means that people using mobile phones with this service will be able to do hands-free texting, web surfing and dialing. Despite the fact that I think it’s cool, I doubt it’s something that I’d use anytime soon.

What’s the reason that I wouldn’t make use of a service that makes sense to me like this? Well, it sounds ridiculous but I just feel so silly using anything with voice recognition. I’m not comfortable speaking to my phone. I know other people are totally fine with turning on their phone and saying “call home” but I just can’t bring myself to do it because it just feels too weird.

What causes this strange feeling? It’s got to be some sort of self-consciousness but that doesn’t exactly make sense because I feel silly doing this whether I’m with other people or just alone. So what is it then? I’m not exactly sure but I do know that I don’t feel comfortable using voice recognition. Do other people also feel weird about it or is this one trend that I’m just really behind on?

Tags: Technology, voice recognition, windows mobile, Wireless

I am one of those people who pretty much ignores every “deal” that I’m offered. What I’ve learned is that I rarely need what’s being offered and the “deal” almost always turns out to involve too many terms and clauses to make it actually wortwhile.

Despite this, I do know that there are some amazing promotional deals out there. For example, cars made with new technology (such as hybrids when they first started to come onto the market) are often promoted with assistance from the government so that you can get terrific rebates and tax breaks when buying them. If you’re in the market for this type of thing at the time that it’s being offered then you can save a lot of money using those promotions.

Sometimes I do wonder if I miss out on good deals like this because I so often have turned a deaf ear to any sort of sales promotion. For the most part, I think that I probably benefit even if I miss out sometimes because I’m not getting sucked into the many bad promotions that are out there. Nevertheless, I think there are probably some people getting perks that I miss out on because I won’t listen to what’s being offered.

Do you pay attention to promotions?

Tags: money, Personal Finance, promotional deals, save money

Most people do the work that they do in order to earn an income. And the majority of people wish that they earned more than they do for the work that they are doing. However, there are things that matter more to employees than earning money does.

Some of the top things that employees care about more than the amount of money that they’re making are:

• Job security. People want to know that they’re going to continue to have the job in the future. This is especially true during the recession when people are really worried about potential layoffs.
• Job mobility. People like the idea that they have some freedom. They want to be able to change positions within the company or to relocate to do the same job from a new place.
• Respect in the office. There are many aspects to this. Employees want praise. They want to be trusted. They want their voices to count in the development of the company.
• Benefits. Employees may do a job that doesn’t pay well if it gives them other perks and benefits.

Wages do matter. People need to make enough to maintain their lifestyles. But money isn’t the most important thing that a job can offer to employees which is something important to keep in mind if you are an employer!

Tags: business, employees, employment, income, money, pay, wages, work

I frequently read blogs about coupons, frugal living and how to save money. Reading about these topics helps inspire me to reduce my own spending so that I can live a simpler life. Some of the most popular blogs related to this topic are the blogs of coupon queens, women who have turned the use of coupons into an art form that also seems to earn them an income.

There are a lot of tricks used by these coupon queens to get the most for their money with coupons. Ultimately, though, these tricks seems to boil down to three basic things. Coupon queens concentrate their efforts on searching for and saving as many coupons as possible (using coupons for everything), stacking coupons which means using multiple coupons for the same purchase, and always looking for new information about the best ways to save money.

People who want to learn to save money with coupons but who don’t want to invest the time and energy to go ahead and become coupon queens should find that working on these three tricks will help them to save the kind of money that they want to save through the use of coupons.

Tags: coupon queens, couponing, coupons, Frugal Living, Personal Finance, save money