“Safety” collection
Explore essential technology and practical strategies designed to enhance personal and household safety in both physical and digital spaces. From emergency preparedness equipment to health monitoring tools, these reviews focus on keeping your loved ones protected.
HTD Tech Briefs
View all →July 27, 2010
Wrapping Up the AT&T “Lose the Laptop” Challenge – A Retrospective
We are now in the final days of voting for the AT&T Lose the Laptop Challenge. It has been an interesting four months writing about different topics and how they relate to the HTC Tilt 2 smart phone. You can see all of my articles on the Lose the Laptop site here. But I thought that it might be a…
Read more →July 13, 2010
Laptop Got Stolen? Send PREY Out to Find It, for Free!
I'm sure that many of you have heard of the Find My iPhone service for MobileMe that helps you locate missing iPhones or iPads. Or the equivalent on Windows Mobile phones called My Phone. And I'm sure you know about LoJack that helps you locate stolen cars. LoJack also offers a service for computers as well, for a price. There…
Read more →June 4, 2010
Cast of Dads “Memorial Day” Podcast #21 – Education, Family & More
On Memorial Weekend, the Cast of Dads got together to record Episode #21 and it was one of those shows where we were so into the subject matter that the 30 minutes just flew by before we knew it. We always seem to have lively conversations, sometimes we are a bit crazier than others, but this time around, we really…
Read more →May 28, 2010
Keep Track of your Kids through Social Media & a Cell Phone, But BE CAREFUL!
I have always been a big proponent against the use of Social Media by children, especially when they are in elementary school. Interacting with Social Media is not something you want your kids doing at an early age, at least not until they can really understand its implications. However, as they grow older and more independent, loosening up the reigns…
Read more →April 28, 2010
The Ford Sync – a “Knight Rider” for the Rest of Us
Remember way back in the 80's there was a TV show called Knight Rider where one of the two main characters was a car that talked to you and responded to your voice commands? Of course K.I.T.T. (the name of the car which stands for Knight Industries Two Thousand), did a lot more than just answer commands, he drives "himself",…
Read more →April 20, 2010
My First Days with the 2010 Ford Flex – Beginning to Explore the Technology
I have not had a new car in over 10 years. And, I had always thought that American Cars were lagging behind foreign autos in so many ways: design, styling, features and especially, technology. My perspective has now flipped about 180 degrees, especially around the technology factor. Here's why… This is an on-going series about the 2010 Ford Flex. Ford…
Read more →April 5, 2010
“Car Seats & Common Sense” Discussed by Some Punchy Dads on Cast of Dads Podcast #14
The Cast of Dads were in rare form for this podcast titled "Car Seats & Common Sense". Maybe it was something in the air or something we drank but geez! But we were still able to offer our "sagely" parenting advise throughout the podcast. I guess that once and a while, we can let what little hair we have down…
Read more →March 29, 2010
SchlageLINK Gives You Security & Access, Even When You Aren’t Home
Keys are a pain! I have so many keys on my keychain that I feel like a locksmith and I'm not even sure what keys go to what lock. But you can't just throw them away, right? And, keys get lost. To top it off, they are simply and completely low tech. Also, the more people you have in the…
Read more →March 4, 2010
Are You Prepared for Disasters? The Cast of Dads Discuss This in Episode #11
With the recent tragic disasters striking around the globe recently, when the Cast of Dads got together to record Episode #11, we spent a majority of the show talking about the serious subject of family preparedness when a catastrophe strikes. It's a touchy subject to discuss, actually, because when you listen to others, you realize how far behind you might…
Read more →February 23, 2010
Cast of Dads: Podcast #10 – “Kids Online & How To Do It Right”
In this tenth episode of the Cast of Dads podcast we discussed a very important topic that all parents should seriously be considering, that of educating your children about the various social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. This is particularly personal to me as my oldest daughter (a "tweenager" – pre-teen) is starting to ask more about various social…
Read more →February 22, 2010
Cell Phones, Tweens, Texting & Conversations – Child & Family Cellular Safety Thoughts
If you are a parent of a tween (a pre-teenager), you have probably hit the stage of your child wanting a cell phone. My wife and I broke down (or were gradually worn down) about a year ago with our oldest and she got hers when she was about 10. She wasn't (and still isn't) allowed to take it to…
Read more →February 9, 2010
Special Thanks to Life360.com for the Blogger Spotlight & a Critical Family Service!
Life360 is a site that deals with ensuring the safety of your family and protecting your assets (people & property). Obviously, this is something very important to me and my wife so as a service on its own, it definitely deserves a thorough discussion. However, in this case, I wanted to mention something else: one of their editors contacted me…
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