The Bluebird Patch

This post was inspired from our last college tour to University of Tennessee at Knoxville.  Go Vols!  Spring season is upon us and if you have a college-bound high school student like me, you know what that means. It's time to book the first campus tour of the year.  Your bags are packed, your  campus tour has been scheduled months in advance, you mapped out your route, and all the pit stops along the way. The only thing missing is to download all the must-have-apps to make sure your road trip doesn't end up in disaster.  There are five categories of apps I like to keep on my on my phone, especially when I go on road trips. 

For years, families have come to YouTube, watching countless hours of videos on all kinds of topics. Now, thanks to their new kid-friendly mobile app, parents can rest a little easier knowing that videos in the YouTube Kids app are narrowed down to content appropriate for kids. Some of our favorite features about this app are: Timer : Let the app be the bad guy with a built-in timer that lets you limit kids’ screen time. The app alerts your child when the session is over, so you don’t have to. (You’re welcome. ;) ) Sound settings : Sometimes you need a little peace and quiet! You have an option to turn off background music and sound effects, so your kids can keep watching while you catch a breather. Search settings : If you’d rather limit your children to just the pre-selected videos available on the home screen, you can turn off search. Product feedback : The goal is to improve YouTube Kids all the time, so if you see something you don't like ...

Groundbreaking app puts financial future in the palm of your hand United Way of Greater Atlanta has launched Money Game 2 app . The app is the re-launch of Money Game, a free mobile application providing a new way for people to become engaged in a subject that some may consider boring – financial wellbeing. The new version of the app uses financial trivia to motivate users to learn how to become financially self-sufficient so they can do more than live from paycheck to paycheck. And the education doesn’t stop there. Users can obtain financial education certification – often a prerequisite for home buying or starting an Individual Development Account (IDA). “ According to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, two in five adults say that they are now saving less than they were a year ago and 39% do not have any nonretirement savings,” says United Way of Greater Atlanta President Milton J. Little Jr. “Our Money Game 2 app has a reach beyond the classroom setting and...

Research indicates that more than 2,000 children may be reported missing in a single day and 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys will be sexually victimized before adulthood. This is why on Halloween night it is critical you don't go out trick-or-treating  without  verifying sex offenders in your neighborhood.  You can check this information online (click here if you live in GA) or if you are visiting  unexpectedly  a different  neighborhood  you may want to download Offender Locator Lite app by ThinAir Wireless . This is a FREE app that lets you u tilize the GPS function on your iPhone to find registered offenders living near your current location. You can view registered offenders who live near your friends by simply selecting a name from your iPhone contact list.  Enter your home address or any address to find registered offenders living in that area. Enter the name of any registered offender in the U.S. and find out i...

ChoreMonster   makes chores fun by engaging and rewarding your kids! ● Kids earn points by completing their chores ● Earn rewards like ice cream, an hour of Xbox, or a camping trip ● Win monsters at the Monster Carnival (over 250 available, more being added monthly!) ● Parents manage their children’s chores and the rewards they can earn ● Takes the tension out of household chores How does it work? For Parents Quickly and easily create scheduled chores with point values. When your child says they're done, you approve and they get the points. Add rewards that your kids “purchase” from their point collection. A reward can be anything from money to a camping trip. Watch your kids willingly and enthusiastically do their chores, without the need of chore charts. For Kids Sign into the ChoreMonster mobile or web app, designed especially for kids, and see their chores for the day. Review all the possible rewards they can get and how...

I don't think people are aware how much they are addicted to they cellphones. Cell phone dependance is an addiction like any other. According to the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) excessive use is often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives. Withdrawal symptoms often include feelings of anger, tension and/or depression when the phone or network is inaccessible. Kevin Holesh, an IOS developer has created a genius app that can help you nudge me in the right direction by automatically tracking your daily iPhone use and giving you a warning when you're on it for too long. “ When I first started using Moment, I was spending 75 minutes or more on my phone  every single day. I currently have my daily limit set to 40 minutes, so after 40  minutes on my iPhone for the day, I get an annoying buzzer telling me to look  away from the glowing box in my hands. That's a good amount of time for me  right ...

A TINY WINDOW ONTO A WIDER WORLD Researchers at MIT have partnered with The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values to create a new mobile app called “20 Day Stranger” that allows you to have a different sense of connectedness to a wider world. It's a mobile experience that exchanges one person's experience of the world with another, while preserving anonymity on both sides. You'll never know who it is or exactly where they are, but it will reveal enough about someone to build your imagination of their life... and more broadly, the imagination of strangers everywhere. The new “20 Day Stranger” app reveals intimate, shared connections between two anonymous individuals. For 20 days, you and a stranger will experience the world in your own way, together. For 20 days, you get continuous updates about where they are, what they are doing, and eventually even how they are feeling, and them likewise about you. But you will never know who this pers...

PBS KIDS has launched a new, free app designed specifically for parents that will give them the "super power" to engage with their kids in the digital medium as never before: PBSKIDS Super Vision .  The new app is a first-of-its-kind tool that parents can access conveniently from their mobile phones anytime, anywhere, to see what their kids are watching, playing and learning on pbskids.org , and help them make the most of their children's PBS KIDS screen time.  Now available on iPhone and iPod touch, PBS KIDS Super Vision offers a connected web experience that enables parents to see remotely what their kids are learning in PBS KIDS games and videos, help manage their kids' time on pbskids.org and build on that learning away from the screen through real-time updates, educational tips and activity ideas that are related to their children's interests.    "PBS KIDS uses the power of media to spark children's curiosity. Connect...

If you are a parent and you've lost a child for a split second you know how fast panic can set in. Let's face it, losing track of a child is a parent's worst nightmare and unfortunately no matter how good we are, situations like these are bound to happen. You go to a park, or a store, stop to look at something and all of the sudden you loose track of your child. You heart starts racing, we start calling them at the top of our lungs (at this point we don't care how crazy we might look we just need to find our cub, I mean kid) and everyone starts looking at you like you have lost your mind. If you can relate to this then you might be interested in a trying out a new app called “My Buddy Tag”, the latest child-safety device that helps parents keep track of their children while on-the-go. My BuddyTag App, together with its bluetooth tag and wristband with personal ID, helps parents track their kids when out and about. BuddyTag App will sound a...

AskMD is a symptom checker and health history portal you can use to better understand and track not only your own day-to-day health but that of your friends and family members as well. The app also lets users enter symptoms, answer relevant questions, share consultations with health care providers, and maintain a general health and symptom history for multiple people. Whether it's your joint pain, a parent's Diabetes or your spouse's cholesterol, this iOS-exclusive app uses clinically-proven research to help you get from wondering what could be wrong to what you can do about it. AskMD recommends qualified physicians covered by your insurance, and arms you with the information you need for your doctor's appointment, which you also can share privately with your physician or others you choose. So, take the guesswork out of getting better. AskMD is available to download for free on itunes.

DEEP SLEEP MP3 As a busy mom who blogs on the side, I often tend to go to bed late at night, trying to catch up with housework and blogging duties. The problem is that when I go to bed, it takes me a long time to fall asleep. Don't you hate feeling very exhausted, yet your brain refuses to shut down? It happens to ma all the time so when Andrew Johnson sent me message to see if I wanted to review his Deep Sleep MP3 recording I immediately said yes! I need to fall asleep FAST! For the last 16 years he has been working with individuals and groups teaching relaxation and coping skills. In 1996, he trained in Clinical Hypnotherapy with the London College of Clinical Hypnosis. Andrew is at his happiest when he is teaching people why they should relax, how they can relax and why they should practice relaxation techniques. A good night’s sleep is essential for both your physical and mental health. However for many people this basic requirement for health and wellbeing d...

START TAKING CONTROL OF YOU IMPORTANT PHONE CALL  CONVERSATIONS TalkNotes Plus from MobileAppTek is a cool new business app that allows you to enter and review notes during a call. When you receive a call, the app provides additional information on the caller beyond the caller name, like company, department, matter, special note on contact, as well note on the last conversation. TalkNote Plus also allows turning the speakerphone on or off, as well as hanging up. Meanwhile the subjects of previous conversation are visible, with full details just clicks away. A quick menu is provided for the note list, that allows call, SMS, email to contact associated with the note. Tweets and FaceBook posting could also be generated. The email send would include all attached sound and picture files. TalkNotes Plus is also great for busy parents who are constantly juggling life, work, kids and all the extracurricular activities they are involved on a daily basis.

Want to make the world a kinder place? There's an app for that. Kindr is a technology company dedicated to making the world a Kindr place. Founded in 2013 at Stanford University, Kindr is turning social media inside out – creating a new model that emphasizes a focus on others rather than self. Stemming from a core belief in using technology for good, the company built an iPhone app that makes it fun and easy to give compliments to friends and family.  Through a partnership with the Huffington Post, the Kindr app also provides a “Good News” feed featuring the inspiring acts of kindness that take place all over the world. By leveraging the power and ubiquity of mobile devices, Kindr encourages users to make a habit of being kind, creating a virtuous cycle of kindness that helps people live happier, more meaningful lives. What Kindr Knows: Kindness creates happiness:  "People who engage in kind acts become happier over time. When you are kind ...

FOOD + HUMANITARIAN = FEEDIE Celebrity chef Mario Batali has teamed up with non-profit  The Lunchbox Fund   to launch  Feedie , a philanthropic app for foodies.Feedie is an app by The Lunchbox Fund that transforms your passion for sharing food photos into actually sharing food for those who need it. Simply sign up via Facebook or Twitter, and visit a participating restaurant.  When you use Feedie to take a photo of your meal and post it, the restaurant makes a donation to The Lunchbox Fund—a non-profit organization that provides daily meals to schoolchildren in South Africa. Your post thanks the restaurant and spreads the Feedie message! http://www.wethefeedies.com/

Losing a pet is one of the most most tragic, traumatic, and emotionally devastating experience a pet owner can face. As a volunteer at a local animal shelter. I constantly see people coming over asking if they can leave a flyer of their missing dog (or cat). The reality is that m illions of dogs and cats are lost every year and only a small percentage ever return home. This is why I love Finding Rover so much. This new app can track lost dogs using facial recognition

Social Media Needs a Big Fat Internet Eraser™ Attention parents of the world. If your child is a social media maven and can text and send embarrassing “selfies” at the speed of light, I have bad news for you. The more you tell them no, the more likely they'll go right out and do it. Safety and privacy are the biggest concerns of parents in the digital era. Personally, I'm always concerned of the broader impact online activity might have on a child’s reputation. Parents need to take an active role and do their homework if they want to protect their kids from online behaviors that might put them at risk. I was chosen to be one of the first persons to try a new social media platform that gives you complete control over your social media. BackPeddle is a new app that allows you to choose how long your photos, videos and texts live online by setting a customized expiration date.    The simple truth is that at the end of the day, most of kids (and adults) are uploading...

Get your family and home ready for a tornado with the official Tornado App from the American Red Cross. The tornado warning app puts everything you need to know to prepare for a tornado – and all that comes with it – in the palm of your hand. With interactive quizzes and simple step-by-step advice it’s never been easier to be ready. From your mobile phone, call "** REDCROSS " (**73327677) and we will send you a link to download the app to your phone or you can download them directly from the  iTunes  or Google Play  app stores.

Need a scholarship? I have great news for you! Chris and Bryson, two  Coca-Cola   Scholars, launched  Scholly , a mobile app that helps high school students, current undergraduates, *and* graduate students find scholarships for college! The Scholly App is designed to ease the scholarship search process, Scholly aims to fix the outdated search methods that require filling out long, tiresome forms and then fail to deliver relevant results. Scholly’s adaptive matching engine promises to deliver smarter, targeted lists of scholarships. Find scholarships you qualify for in minutes. No sign ups or long forms asking for your personal information and you can even see  samples of scholarship winning essays right in the app! To download Scholly please visit:  http://www.mysch olly.com/ Word on the street is that the app is already getting fantastic reviews!

We've all taken pictures of food and posted them on Instagram. But now, if you want to share your food with those who really need it, @ManosUnidasONGD has created a filter for your pics: the money you pay for downloading the app will go to programs against hunger. #FoodShareFilter is the first supportive filter for Instagram created by the spanish NGO Manos Unidas that allows you to share your food, but share it for real. Because the money collected goes to the fight against hunger.  "We wanted to get closer to younger people. With this in mind, we started to think about food porn and the way people upload their pics on Instagram," says Nerea Cierco, digital creative director at DDB Spain , the agency that created the filter. Available through Google Play and the Apple Store in both Spanish and English, the FoodShareFilter, applies a message about their mission against world hunger and publishes it to Instagram.   How does it work?   1. Downloa...