If you had told me five years ago that I would be cuddling with my computer on a regular basis I probably would’ve dismissed you as crazy. Sure, I was already making a full-time living off of web writing which meant that I used my computer all of the time but I considered it a tool of the job. I certainly didn’t think of it as something to cuddle up with.

These days I cuddle up with my computer all of the time. What changed? A lot:

• Laptops are more cozy to cuddle up with. The biggest difference between then and now is probably that I use a laptop more often than I use my desktop. Sure, I have a LTR with my desktop computer which is where I save and store everything. But I can pull my laptop into bed with me, take it on vacations, have it there at all times. It’s much easier to cuddle up with it.
• Social media. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time on social networking sites five years ago. Sure I was active on a few but not like I am today. These days, social media makes it so that my computer is a friend. Or rather it gives me access to friends which makes it appealing to cuddle up with it. At the start of a new day or the end of a long one, it’s nice to pull my computer into my lap and reach out to the world beyond its screen.
• It’s my main source of entertainment. Five years ago I had a television set and preferred going to the arcade to play video games. These days my computer is my main source of entertainment. I love Internet TV and streaming movies. It’s no longer just a work tool; it’s my companion for an at-home movie date. And it’s not bad for playing video games with either.
• My personal blogging has grown. I used to only blog for clients. These days I blog for myself as well. I certainly prefer to journal in a notebook but I do have to admit that the confessional style of blogs is appealing as well. It gives me more of a connection with my computer than I had years ago.

Tags: change, computers, society, Technology, web 2.0

One of the things that I really love to learn about is what might happen with technology in the future. I like finding out about concepts that may or may not become real products but that do point to the potential for technological changes.

So I have to admit that I was excited this morning to learn about a concept phone that might use Coke (yes, the soda) for its power.

The info:

• The phone uses fuel cell technology based on sugary water. There’s not much water more sugary than Coke!
• It’s eco-friendly. Much better than batteries and totally biodegradable.
• It’s useful in parts of the world where other eco-friendly technology isn’t going to work. For example, solar powered phones aren’t viable everywhere.
• The phone is just a prototype right now. It’s not actually on the market but it could be something we’ll see developed in the future

Tags: coke, mobile phones, Technology

I have always been a PC person who wanted to become a Mac person. Maybe I’ve just been lured in by the hype around Mac. I certainly don’t have strong reasons for wanting to become a Mac person other than that the people in my life who have them swear that they never have any problems with them. I’ve had terrible problems with my PCs over the years and when both my desktop and my laptop computer recently died on me I decided that it was definitely time to make the move to Mac. I didn’t really have the money to spend but I also knew that it was worth it to get some good computers since these are the tools of my trade. I went whole hog and bought both a new iMac desktop and a MacBook Pro laptop. And I’m loving both of them.

In fairness, though, I have to say that I would probably have loved a new PC if I’d gotten a high-quality one. All of the PCs that I’ve gotten in the past were on the cheap end. The last several were all HP products and I can tell you from in-depth experience that HP laptops are not worth even their lowest prices. My HP desktop did last a long time but my laptops had to be reformatted more than once and I had to buy new power cords for them every year or so because they burned up from overuse. Frustrating. So any new computer that didn’t have such problems would probably have made me happy. It didn’t have to be a Mac. It just so happens that what I decided to get was Mac and I was glad with my decision.

What I love about the new computers (besides just the fact that they’re new) includes:

• The facial recognition feature in iPhoto. I don’t like everything about how you organize pictures inside of iPhoto but I do love this feature. I’m also going to like the tagging feature (descriptions of photos) once I start using it. It’ll be so much easier to find the images that I want to find now!
• The photo booth. This is a ridiculous little program that shouldn’t be a reason to love a computer but it’s totally a major reason I’m having fun with mine. It allows you to take photos with your webcam camera. But more than that it lets you actually change the effects on the photos before you take it so you can see on the screen what weird shapes you’re making. The photo above is me and my brother in the middle with my dad on the side and my sister sticking her hands in the scene. I can’t tell you how many hours I could spend playing with this feature!
• The little things. I think that it’s really the little things that I like. I like the easy method of ejecting discs with a button. I like the functionality of the design of the machine itself. I like the Magic Mouse that came with my desktop computer (although I’m still adjusting to the tiny size of the wireless keyboard it came with). These little touches are what make these computers so much better than my HPs.
• The idea of the Time Machine. I haven’t used it yet but I think I’m going to like it.
• The fact that there is still more to learn and do. It seems like these machines have a lot of neat functions that I wasn’t using before so I’m looking forward to continuing to play with them.

Tags: apple, mac, move to mac, new computers, smartchick, Technology

One of the trends that I’ve been following lately is the development of solar power technology for cell phones. I recently wrote an article about this for DialAPhone which reviews all of the different solar cell phone options that I’m aware of. It covers the following ten options:

1. Solar cell phones. These are handsets themselves that are solar-powered.
2. Solar cell phone sleeves. These chargers go around the cell phone.
3. Solar backpacks. These gather energy to power many small devices including cell phones.
4. Solar USB panels. This is one of the newer options out there.
5. Solar clothing. Swimsuits are particularly popular although I don’t know how practical this is.
6. Solar straps. These wrap around your wrist and gather the sun’s energy for your phone.
7. Solar cell phone accessories. Solar-powered phone speakers are an example.
8. Solar panels for buildings. This offers power for phones indoors.
9. Solar cell towers. This is a big-scale project for solar cell phone power.

If this topic interests you then I hope you’ll read the full article that I did on each of these options by followign the DialAPhone link above. If you know of any other solar cell phone options that I’ve missed then please let me know in the comments here!

Tags: cell phones, mobile technology, solar cell phones, solar power, solar power cell phones

I love to write top ten articles. Coming up with creative ideas for top ten articles guides my research and allows me to focus on interesting aspects of an industry. One industry that I particularly love doing top ten posts about is the cell phone industry. (In fact, you can see a list of my top ten articles in the top ten style for this topic right here.)

The most recent article that I did for this industry in that particular style was an article on 10 Great Jobs for Mobile Phone Lovers. This is a terrific example of a top ten article that’s fun to research. Off the top of my head, I was able to think of a few jobs that fit the bill (testing cell phones, designing handsets, etc.). However, I didn’t know of ten jobs so I got to spend some fun time researching the different positions that might come about that would be mostly cell-phone-focused. I learned about some interesting ones (like answering questions as an expert using text messaging – what a cool at-home job!)

I think that this is the best part of being a freelance writer / blogger if you take your research seriously. You get the opportunity to explore many different topics of interest. You get to research them completely and learn new things. It’s the perfect job for someone who really just wants to be a perpetual student!

Tags: cell phone jobs, cell phones, mobile phones, research, writing

I frequently write articles about mobile phones. These articles touch on a number of topics. I do reviews. I write news. I do in-depth feature articles about various issues. And I also do a lot of “top ten” style articles.

If mobile phones interest you and you like “Top Ten” articles then you might be interested in my Top 10 top tens on this topic:

1. 10 Health Problems People Claim are Caused by Cell Phones
2. 10 Companies to Help You Make Mobile Payments
3. 10 Celebrities Who Don’t Bother with Cell Phones
4. 10 Reasons a Person Might not Get a Smartphone
5. 10 Best Applications for Mobile Facebook Users
6. 10 Ridiculous Mobile Phone Apps
7. 10 Signs that It’s Really Time to Ditch your Landline
8. 10 Sites for Free Mobile VoIP
9. 10 Best Movies About Mobile Phones
10. 10 Rude Things People do on their Cell Phones

Cast your vote - Which is your favorite of these articles?

Tags: cell phones, kathryn vercillo, mobile news, mobile phones, top ten

Parents today have to worry about how their teens and tweens are going to be using modern technology. Learning to monitor their kids’ social networking sites and to make sure that they don’t get addicted to computer games is all a part of being a parent in modern society. Mobile phones are another thing that parents have to monitor and worry about.

The most common problems that parents face when it comes to kids and cell phones are:

• The fight over when to get one. A lot of kids start to want their own cell phone when they’re still in elementary school. Parents have to decide when they think it’s best to make this move.
• Excessive use of the cell phone. Parents may be upset by huge cell phone bills caused by kids who go over their minutes. Alternatively, they may just not want their kids on the phone as much as they are.
• Text message threats. Bullying via text message is an increasing problem among teens and tweens. Parents have to worry about their kids bullying others or becoming a victim of this type of bullying.
• Teen sexting. Kids who engage in teen sexting may not only be putting themselves at risk in their relationships but may actually be breaking the law.

What is interesting to note about these common problems is that they aren’t that different from what parents and their kids have been battling over for ages. Parents have to figure out how to set limits, monitor their kids’ behavior towards others and allow their kids to grow into sexual adults. The technology may be different from the past but the battles are the same.

Tags: cell phones, kathryn vercillo, most common cell phone problems for parents, Parenting, Technology, teens and cell phones

I used to be really opposed to stereotyping anything based on gender. However, over the years, I’ve learned that a lot of the stereotypes that we make provide interesting insight into the differences between men and women. I don’t necessarily think that the stereotypes are all true but they offer generalizations that can lead us to draw some conclusions about different things. This is most true about relationships but it’s also true about other things. For example, there are some stereotypes about shopping habits that are based on gender.

One area of this that interests me is the difference in how men and women shop for consumer electronics. The way that they shop for smartphones, for example, is quite different. Surveys indicate that men are more likely to buy these devices than women are. However, women are more likely to take into account all of the different factors that go into the phone in order to make the best selection.

Women are more interested in all of the different features of these phones. They want a phone that has a good camera, a great text message plan and tons of multimedia features. For this reason, they tend to be pickier about smartphones than men are. It takes them longer to make a decision about these phones and it may mean that they get more confused or frustrated when buying one. As a result, more men have smartphones than women at the current time.

Looking around at the people I know, I’d have to say that these things seem to be true. Most of the women I know either don’t have a smartphone or they took a really long time to choose one. Most of the men that I know do have a smartphone (and frequently upgrade to new ones) but they don’t actually use tons of the features that the phone offers. Hm, interesting.

Tags: gender, kathryn vercillo, men women, mobile phones, shopping, smartphones

It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between cell phones and laptops. Mobile phones that were once getting tinier and tinier have started to get bigger again so that people can use them in place of laptops for a lot of daily functions. At the same time, there are notebook computers that are getting smallers and smaller so that they can be carried everywhere like a phone is. Will the phone and the laptop be one and the same some day?

Cell phones are increasingly capable of doing many of the things that you would do on your laptop. People are even writing entire books on their mobile phones. However, there are some things that limit people from using mobile phones as true computers. One of the major problems is battery power. You can plug a laptop in anywhere and use it. This may not be true of your mobile phone. Plus a laptop battery often lasts longer than a cell phone battery. Scientists and engineers are working hard to create technology that will improve battery life of cell phones. If they are successful in doing this, will laptops become obsolete as they are replaced by mobile phones that can provide all the same functions?

I’m tempted to suggest that laptops will continue to exist but that desktop computers will disappear. I have two laptops and a desktop and I almost never use the desktop. The laptops are just more convenient even when I’m working at home. If I can use my mobile phone as a mobile computer and I can use my laptop like a desktop then what do I need a desktop computer for? Unless, of course, I want a big screen desktop for gaming and watching Internet TV. In that case, maybe I do need a mobile phone, a laptop and a desktop but I no longer need a television!

Tags: cell phone technology, mobile phone batteries, mobile technology, powering cell phones, Wireless

If you have your own website then it’s really important that you know what your website says about you. Many people create a design that they like only to learn later that it’s sending the wrong message about them and their business. It might be worth it to take a survey of others to find out what message is really coming across with the website that you’ve created.

There are a few ways that you could do such a survey:

• Ask your family and friends to share their opinions with you about your website. The downside of this is that they may not be honest because they won’t want to hurt your feelings.
• Put the word out on your social networks that you’re seeking feedback on your website. You reach a broader audience than family and friends this way.
• Post an ad online looking to trade website feedback. This is a good way to get feedback from other people who have websites.
• Pay people to take a survey about your website. You can advertise a job online giving money to people who take your short survey.

The survey should give you an idea of what you need to improve on your website so that it says what you really want it to say about you. Since most visitors won’t spend long on your website you really want to make a good first impression!

Tags: business, kathryn vercillo, survey, web design, website, what your website says about you