I work from home and it can get really quiet around here when the kids are in school.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.   I do get lonely though and I feel a little disconnected when there’s no sound around me so I like to have music or a TV show on in the background while I’m working.  I don’t watch TV but hearing it makes me feel less alone. The TV is actually in another room. I can’t even see it.

I was when I received an App-Enhanced Docking Station from Acoustic Research to review.   I ripped the box open, set it up, and was listening to music within minutes of getting the delivery from FedEx.

When I plugged my iPad in to the docking station for the first time, I was prompted to download the free Dock Plus app from the app store.  Dock Plus brings the ultimate in functionality to the docking station.  The app allows me to listen to local FM stations, set my favorite stations, and play and control my iPod/iPhone/iPad music library.  It’s also an alarm clock and has a snooze function.

My 5 year old daughter loves to dance and so she’s always asking me to play songs that are on my iPhone. I love that I can plug my iPhone into this docking station and blast the music super loud so she can dance all over the house and still hear the music!

The Acoustic Research iPad Docking Station:

• Charges your iPod, iPhone or iPad
• 5 adapters included for iPod, iPhone and iPad
• Rotates 90 degrees for two portrait and landscape viewing options – I love this!
• Comes with a remote control
• Emits high performance sound
• Will enable you to view iPod/iPad video content on your TV
• Comes with an iPad, iPod, iPhone, and iPhone 4 adapter

Here is a very brief (20 second) video demonstrating two features: rotating and song switching.

You can buy the App-Enhanced Docking Station on Amazon.com or on the Acoustic Research website.

Disclosure: I was provided a unit for review purposes, free of charge. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by compensation.

Review: Acoustic Research App-Enhanced Docking Station for iPad – On My Things I Use Everyday List is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!

Target is offering some great deals this coming week including electronics trade-in’s, free gift cards with a purchase, and gaming savings.

This week, Target® guests who trade in a working iPhone 3G or 3GS at any Target Mobile location between February 6th and February 12th can receive up to $200 credit toward the purchase of an iPhone 4.* The Electronics Trade-In service is exclusively offered at 846 Target stores that offer Target Mobile centers. Guests can bring their new or used iPhones, iPods, cell phones and video games and receive credit good for any Target purchase, including great deals on video games and the latest tech gear beginning February 6, 2011.

Great Deals on the Latest Tech Gear

• Free $20 GiftCard with purchase of a 32GB iPod Touch – $295
• Free $10 GiftCard with purchase of any iPod nano – $145
• Save $30 on a Flip Video MinoHD – on sale for $149.99 (regularly $179.99)
• Save over $100 on a Garmin nüvi 255W Portable GPS – on sale $94 (regularly $199.99)

Gaming Savings for the Entire Family

• Free $50 Gift Card with purchase a PS3 160GB game system – includes built-in Wi-Fi, Blu-ray and one wireless controller – $299.99
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3, Xbox 360) on sale for $49.99 (regularly $59.99)
• Receive Just Dance for Wii for free with purchase of Just Dance 2 for Wii
• Free $5 GiftCard with purchase of Mario Sports Mix for Wii – $49.99

* iPhone 3G or 3GS trade-in - In order to take advantage of this in-store only offer, guests must trade in a working iPhone 3G or 3GS and sign a two-year contract with AT&T. Guests may receive up to $100 credit for an iPhone 3G 16GB and up to $200 credit for an iPhone 3GS 32GB, offering great cost savings on a new iPhone 4 16GB priced at $199 or an iPhone 4 32GB priced at $299.

Enjoy these Target savings and let me know what you buy and/or trade in in the comments below.  I love to hear how people save money and get new, fun stuff!

Disclosure: I was not compensated for sharing these special Target savings with you.  All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.

Upgrade your Electronics with Target’s Trade-in Program – beginning February 6th is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!

I love music and all of my favorite music is on my iPhone which is fine when I’m in the car because I can use the FM Transmitter but at home, it wasn’t very easy to listen to music from my iPhone.. that is until I got a Memorex TagAlong™ Portable Boombox.  The TagAlong Portable Boombox moves with me from room to room so I can bring my tunes with me.  Naturally I have the fun, kids music playing on it when I’m downstairs with them, the relaxing music plays when I’m in the office, and I have a ‘sleepy time’ music playlist and I play via the TagAlong when I’m in bed.

The Memorex TagAlong Portable Boombox is small, lightweight, and easy to carry (note the convenient handle) and is available in black and white.

Memorex TagAlong Features:

• The TagAlong Powers and charges your iPhone & iPod devices.
• Line-in jack to connect other audio devices
• Digital FM radio with station presets, includes FM antenna
• Option to use with 4 AAA batteries (sold separately)
• Includes AC adapter

Learn more and buy the Memorex TagAlong at Amazon.com.

The Memorex TagAlong has an MSRP of $59 but can be bought at Amazon.com (link above) for $49 now.

Disclosure: I received a Memorex TagAlong Portable Boombox to try out for this review.  My opinions are 100% my own. You can read my full Disclosure Policy here.

Take Your Music With You With The Memorex TagAlong Portable Boombox for iPod & iPhone is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!

HTC has introduced another phone, the Aria that brings superb functionality, quality, productivity, and social networking features to moms and teens, without a huge price.  The phone casing has a ‘sure-grip’ texture which is great for busy moms as we as we don’t always have the best grip on things, right?  The 3.2-inch display makes viewing web pages, photographs, emails, and videos, a pleasure.   On the back side of the Aria is a 5-megapixel camera that doubles as a VGA video recorder and speaker. On top of the phone is the power button and a 3.5mm headphone jack and on the bottom is a microUSB jack.

With Android you get seven home screens which enables moms to have a different screen for each child.   For example, you can have a screen just for your toddler’s apps while your older child can have a screen of her own with apps she’ll enjoy.  Now if only you could clone the Aria when you’re at a restaurant and your kids are cranky and you want them both to be occupied. Maybe next time.

Social moms will appreciate the included FriendStream app, which is an app that aggregates your Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates.  If that doesn’t sound exciting to you, just wait until you try it out.  Having all of your social networks mashed up in one place is a huge time saver.. and great when you’re in the carpool line.

HTC Aria - seven homescreens

Music and Multimedia Entertainment

• Aria users can watch YouTube or MMS videos and have the option of subscribing to MobiTV and AT&T’s Mobile Video app giving users plenty of video entertainment choices.
• The Aria includes an FM radio app and Android’s music playing app.  Plug in your headphones, play your favorite music, and go for a walk - or simply turn up the tunes and tune out the kids for a few minutes.
• Check the weather, email, and see what your Facebook and Twitter friends are up to with the free and included apps.
• Inside the Aria is a pre-installed 2GB microSD card that can be swapped out as needed.  Take lots of photographs & videos?  No worries.

The Mommy Insider website on the HTC Aria

Phone Functionality

• Watch out moms.. even tiny toddler fingers can navigate the small icons on the Aria.
• When you’re in the car you can use Aria’s speaker phone or bluetooth capabilities.

Camera & Video

• The Aria takes great photos making it a good alternative to searching for your digital camera every time you want to take a quick snapshot.
• The Aria has a VGA recorder instead of an HD recorder but that shouldn’t be a big deal to most users as the quality is still great and serves the purpose which is most likely shooting a 30 second video of your child singing a silly song or your kids running around the yard shooting Nerf guns.

Web

• What else is there to do when you’re waiting in the carpool line at 1:00 but surf the Web?
  The Aria allows users to easily find websites and look up search terms such as “find a mommy’s helper now!” and you’ll get quick, easy to read, results.   Some image-rich web pages may take a few seconds to come up but mobile versions load fast.

The HTC Aria is slim

Battery Life

• Despite the fact that the Aria is a small phone, the battery offers up to six hours of talk time. In actual full-day usage (phone calls, emails, Web surfing, social networking, taking photographs, etc), I usually had more than 35% of battery life left by bedtime whereas with my iPhone  I am down to about 20% by day’s end.

Other useful features

• Calendar
• Google maps
• Voice guided GPS
• Memory expandable up to 32GB
• Contacts can including social network status, pictures, and auto-populate from social networks
• Create music playlists
• Talk on the phone and access data simultaneously

Conclusion

The HTC Aria is a great phone for busy, connected, social moms as well as for teens.   The Android platform offers users lots of productivity, social, and entertainment features.  The Aria’s compact design allows the phone to fit in any diaper bag pocket or your favorite clutch for those rate and muh needed date nights.   As tempted as you might be though, don’t text the babysitter 10 times during your dinner date!  Oh, and speaking of.. I found that I had less typos on the HTC Aria than I do on my iPhone.  I’m not sure if that’s due to the size of the letters or the way the phone reads the touches/taps but I appreciate not having to go back and correct tons of spelling errors.

You can buy the HTC Aria at the HTC website or at your local AT&T store.

Disclosure:  The Mommy Insider was provided with an HTC Aria from Waggener Edstrom Worldwide on behalf of HTC for review purposes.  The opinions in this review are my honest opinions and you may experience different results.

HTC Aria review and why it’s great for social moms is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!

After days of dreaming about the iPad, reading about it, and listening to podcasts devoted to the iPad, I finally got to try it out. Yes, it’s about the coolest device ever. Not what I would call a gadget, but a utility, the 1.5lb iPad serves many purposes including photo viewing, it’s an ebook reader, a music player, and you can even watch full TV episodes right from the iPad.

I have an iPhone, an iPod, a MacBook White, and a MacBook Pro and still feel that the iPad is a necessity and will own a wi-fi + 3G 32 or 64GB iPad soon.. I hope.

I’m not going to get too detailed here as this isn’t a review of the iPad.. you’ll find lots of iPad reviews via Google, so I’ll just tell you what I think in a nutshell.  The iPad is PERFECT for moms like myself who are on the go, need to check and respond to email quickly and at odd times, want to share photographs of their beautiful kids while at the soccer park, want to entertain their kids via a tv episode, movie, or game during long road trips, and you want to get and stay organized.

Here is what the iPad can be used for/as:

• an eBook reader
• a photo viewer/ digital frame
• a video viewer
• a TV viewer (limitations)
• a web surfer
• an email device
• a game device
• a calendar
• an organizer
• a note taker
• a digital recipe book

For a price tag starting at just $499, you get all of that!?  Yes!

Go to apple.com to learn more about the iPad or to buy one.

I got to touch an iPad! is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!

What you get:

• FLY Fusion™ Pentop Computer
• FLY Fusion™ Notebook
• 13 FLY Fusion Games
• MP3 Player
• Memory Expansion Slot
• FLY Fusion Installation CD
• FLY World™ Application
• Rechargeable Battery
• USB Cable
• Quick Start Guide
• Reference Card

Get the Fly Fusion digital pen computer for $9.99 here.

Today only! Leap Frog FLY Fusion digital pen computer $9.99 down from $79.99! is a post from: The Mommy Insider. It looks like you are reading this post in your favorite RSS reader. Don't be shy..hop on over to check out our current giveaways, coupon codes, and to share your comments!