Scraps of My Geek Life » Facebook

Tag Photos With Links Using ThingLink

Michele — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:16:12 +0000

Have you ever had a photo where you thought, “wouldn’t it be great if I could tag photos with links?” With ThingLink you can.

Why Tag Photos With Links?

Here are a few examples of why you would want to tag photos with links:

Group Photo – You take a group photo at a blogging conference and you want to tag the person with their blog.

Family Reunion – You take the big group photo of all 200 of your relatives and you would like to tag each person with their Facebook Page.

Review Photos – You review a lot of products and take a lot of photos of those products. You would like to tag the photos with the link to Amazon or maybe to a video review of the product.

ThingLink Example

Here is a photo that I tagged with a Facebook Page and YouTube Page link. I tagged this one in ThingLink and embedded it in my post which is one way of creating ThingLink tagged photos.

A second way to tag your photos with links is to install ThingLink on your blog which will enable you to tag all your photos right on your blog. Just be sure you log into your ThingLink account when you are tagging your photos.

ThingLink offers both free and premium accounts.

Let’s Talk About Why You Tag Photos With Links!

What other uses do you have to tag photos with links?

Disclosure: Not paid. Just writing because I thought it was a cool tool!

Photos are screen prints or from press kit.

Tag Photos With Links Using ThingLink originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Facebook Monsterizer and Twitterize Yourself

Michele — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:21:37 +0000

I’ve been playing with the Visual.ly Infographic website and created these two.

Twitterize Yourself!

Facebook Monsterizer

create infographics with visual.ly

Facebook Monsterizer and Twitterize Yourself originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Kodak Moments Facebook App Offering $5 Photo Book Sale

Michele — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:37:27 +0000

I wanted to share a great deal that I became aware of today. Kodak is offering a 5×7 softcover photo book for $5 (+ free shipping) when you create it using the Kodak Moments Facebook app.

I have not used the Kodak Facebook app yet, but after reading the offer blog post on Kodak’s 1000 words blog, it look really easy and I definitely plan to take advantage of this deal. I will probably create a book from my favorite photos from our trips to the beach.

The 5×7 sized softcover book comes with 14 pages. You can add pictures from your Facebook albums and captions to match. The offer is good through the end of March.

What 5×7 book will you create?

Disclosure: I’m receiving nothing in exchange for this. Just thought it was an awesome deal and I would pass it on.

Kodak Moments Facebook App Offering $5 Photo Book Sale originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Safely Social Monitor Increases Parents Awareness Of Child’s Activity On Facebook

Michele — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:00:22 +0000

As a parent, I wish I had the time to watch all 4 of my children 100% of the time, but it physically isn’t possible. I rely on tools to help me when I can’t be there and Safely Social Monitor is a free service that helps me watch what my son is doing on Facebook.

I do have my son’s password and I set up the account for him. I have friended him and I periodically go online and check who he is friending and his privacy settings, but I can’t be there 100% of the time to see every update that he makes. That is where Safely Social Monitor comes in.

Safely Social Monitor is part of a trio of Familyware including Safely Locate and Safely Drive software services that will increase parent’s awareness of activities when they are not with their child.

Safely Social Monitor Works

Safely Social Monitor provides both an overview of your child’s Facebook account including friends, pictures, average age of friends and more and a weekly email with all of your child’s status updates.

If your child publishes an update that is questionable, you will receive an alert via email, which I received last month. The update mentioned sex, but it was used in the context of sexual abuse victims, so the update was ok. But I was glad that I received the email because it gave me the opportunity to ask my son some questions and find out how much he knew about sexual abuse and we discussed what to do if you are ever in that position. This is a conversation I may not have had if Safely Social Monitor hadn’t made me aware of the update.

Sign up for a free Safely Social Monitor account at the Safely website. Safely provides Safely Spotlight, has a free digital parenting guide with tips and advice, available on the Safely Facebook page. Follow @Safely on Twitter.

Disclosure: This review of Safely Social Monitor is a compensated post sponsored by Location Labs. All opinions of Safely Social Monitor are 100% my own.

Let’s Talk About Safely Social Monitor!

Are your children on Facebook? How do you monitor their activity?

Safely Social Monitor Increases Parents Awareness Of Child’s Activity On Facebook originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Future of Technology Companies; Surviving!

Michele — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:25:33 +0000

The future of technology. With Steve Jobs stepping down from Apple, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of technology, in particular the future of technology companies.

Future of Apple

First order of business, will Apple survive without Jobs? I know that Apple will survive. My hope is that Jobs has put enough of his “whatever it is that makes him a tech god” into the company. I am both a Mac and PC geek, but gosh darn it, Apple sure does know how to make technology sexy. I hope they continue to go above and beyond what all imagine they will do. They have forced other tech companies to think outside the box and make a product that people want. I believe that will continue.

Predicting the Future of Technology

Predicting successes and failures in the future of technology is no easy task. A few months ago if you asked me if Netflix was going anywhere I would have said, “no way.” They have positioned themselves to take streaming media head on and have mastered the DVD rental realm. But today, I’m not so sure. Netflix was a service I never imagined living without. Now I’m hoping I can figure out a solution so I can get rid of my Netflix service.

I find it easier to predict the future of technology in general than in companies specifically. (Yep, easy way out!) There doesn’t seem to be an easy formula for tech companies to succeed. What works for Facebook (completely changing it’s service without much notice), obviously doesn’t work well for Netflix.

Some companies can create demand for a new product (Apple and the iPad) where others are better off sticking with upgrading their current products (Microsoft and it’s tablet a few years ago.)

Secret to Surviving

I do know that if a company is going to survive the fast changing tech world, they need to be ahead of the technology changes and have a plan to weather the storms. As I tell my kids, making mistakes and failing are not bad. You need to learn from those mistakes, make changes and move on. Failing means you learned what doesn’t work. Now figure out what does work!

Disclosure: This post was written as a ChicaAmbassador for Chicalogic. I am compensated for my participation. All opinions are 100% my own.

Let’s Talk About the Future of Technology!

Which tech companies do you think will survive the future of technology? Which tech companies will not be around in the future of technology?

Future of Technology Companies; Surviving! originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Verizon FiOS Widgets; Twitter Talk During Your Shows

Michele — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:09:04 +0000

How many of you tweet while you watch TV? Come on…raise your hand! :::::raising hand::::: Did you know that if you have Verizon FiOS, there are widgets to see what people are saying on Twitter about the show you are watching. You won’t have to take your eyes off the screen to see the Twitter stream.

Using Verizon FiOS Twitter Widget

So, let’s say you are watching your favorite reality show and it’s the last episode. It is so much fun to see what everyone is saying about the show while you are watching. So, let’s bring up the Twitter widget on our Verizon FiOS box.

There are quite a few different types of widgets available from Verizon FiOS in categories like sports, news, social networking, games and more. I am going to show you Social Networking widgets today so that is where we will start.

We choose Twitter first and launch it.

This is what the TV looks like before the Twitter widget is launched. We are watching Wizards of Waverly Place today, but you would be watching your favorite reality show finale.

And when the Twitter widget comes up, you see a stream of Twitter comments about the show you are watching.

You can refresh the stream to see the new comments. You can sign in to Twitter and update your own status from the Verizon FiOS widget.

If you want to let everyone on Facebook know you are watching your favorite reality show finale on Verizon FiOS, you can do that too. Bring up the Facebook widget and sign in.

Then you can update your status, find out what everyone else is doing and even look at pictures.

A few other fun widgets available on Verizon FiOS TV are traffic….

and “Hot on TV”…..

and the weather.

You can access so much from the comfort of your couch with Verizon FiOS services.

Want to know how to use your smartphone as a Verizon FiOS TV remote? Check out my other Verizon FiOS TV post.

Verizon FiOS Availability

Verizon FiOS is not available everywhere, so please check the availability in your area.

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a brand team campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Verizon FiOS.Verizon will send me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate. All opinion are 100% my own.

Let’s Talk About Verizon FiOS!

Do you have Verizon FiOS? Do you use the widgets? What are your thoughts?

Verizon FiOS Widgets; Twitter Talk During Your Shows originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

7 Free iPhone Apps I Use Daily

Michele — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 01:00:54 +0000

Since Verizon starting offering the iPhone, I’ve had a lot of questions about which iPhone apps I use. I realized that I don’t write much about my iPhone apps even though I am an app junkie. I look at the new apps in the store almost every night before I fall asleep (yes, I’m not kidding!)

So, here is my list of 11 iPhone apps that I use most days. I am not including the apps that come with the iPhone like mail and Safari because that’s not any fun and you all know those.

7 Free iPhone Apps Used Daily

Twittelator Free

Twittelator Free is a Twitter app. I have tried most of the free Twitter apps and this one works the best for me. I like that I can do everything I need to without having to access many screens. Price: Free (but there is a Paid version too)

Facebook

I love the Facebook app so much that I almost exclusively check Facebook on my iPhone. I like that I can sync my Facebook friends with my contacts too. Price: Free

Instagram

I nstagram is my newest obsession. Below is a sample of a picture taken with Instagram and I added an Instagram filter. The filters are underneath the picture. You can scroll to see more.

Instagram makes just about every picture look awesome. Then you can add a note, a location and share on several sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr right in the app. And if that wasn’t enough, you can friend people and see their Instagram pictures in your stream and “like” them or add comments. It is quite addicting.

Friend me on Instagram, I’m ScrappinMichele.

Here is an Instagram Tips Free App too. Price: Free.

Path

I have not quite figured out the purpose of Path, but I like it because I can see a picture and add who was there, where I was and what we were doing. I do not share my pictures with anyone. It is more for my own purpose. You can add friends, but not many people I know are using it, so I think the true potential of the app is when you add friends. Price: Free.

IntoNow

IntoNow is a fun app. You open it up and let it listen to what you are watching on TV. It will find the show and you can share it with your friends. You will also get links to more information about the show. So far it has never been wrong. I even try to fool it during commercials and it always knows it’s not a TV show. I’m not sure how it works, but it’s fun. Price: Free

SparkPeople

I start out every morning putting my breakfast in SparkPeople with all intentions of tracking my food. Some days I make all the way, but most days, I never make it past breakfast. I’m working on this!! You can track your food, water, weight and exercise all from the iPhone app. Price: Free

WeatherBug

WeatherBug is the first app I look at after my alarm goes off. That way I know how to tell the kids to dress when I go into their room to wake them up. I also use this when I travel so I know what to pack or how much warmer it is where I am than at home. Price: Free

4 Bonus iPhone Apps Used Daily

CCal

I use Google Calendar to keep all my calendars on my dozens of places synced. For some reason it wasn’t working well with my iPhone calendar, so I downloaded CCal which syncs directly with Google Calendar. There are a lot of added features that the iPhone calendar won’t do. Price: $5.99

MobileRSS

MobileRSS is what I use to read blogs. I rarely read them on my desktop. I either use my iPhone or iPad and I use the MobileRSS app on both. I like that I can directly send any post to Evernote or in an email. Not the link to the post, but the whole post. I send myself posts that I want to either remember or that I want to follow up on or comment on later. MobileRSS syncs with my Google Reader account. Price: $2.99 (There is a free MobileRSS version)

GoodReader

GoodReader for iPhone is where I keep PDF or Word files that I want to read. I have purchased many PDF e-books and I use GoodReader on my iPhone and iPad to read. I can also add notes and organize them into folders. Price: $2.99

Momento

I use Momento for Scrapbooking. You pull many of your social feeds into Momento and you can add notes or pictures directly within the app. Then I can look at any day and see what I posted on Facebook, Flickr, my blog, etc. It’s fun to go back a year and see what you were talking about. Price: $2.99

Let’s Talk! What apps do you use every day? Leave a comment and let me know. I’m always looking for new apps.

Instagram Catapults to 1 Million Registered Users (mashable.com)
Momento 2: The Best Diary Writing App Just Got Better (iphone.appstorm.net)
New iPhone App Identifies Live TV Programs (technorati.com)
Path Finally Adds Comments to iPhone App (mashable.com)

7 Free iPhone Apps I Use Daily originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

A Positive Facebook Game, A Better World

Michele — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:28:11 +0000

I’m not a big fan of most of the Facebook games because they involve a lot of stealing of other people’s stuff and just gathering more and more. ToonUps has created a positive Facebook game, A Better World. The idea is to do good. The more good you do, the more “Do Good Gold” you earn. This is a game I am getting addicted to.

You start the game by naming your character. I am ScrappinMichele (friend me if you’d like in the game). You can make some modifications if you’d like. Here I am:

I’m not sure what is up with my ears. Maybe I have ear muffs on because it’s so cold. LOL! You can decorate your house. You get a few basics to start with. I gave some of my stuff away to friends to share the wealth. I like to play the Thump the Thoughts game.

See those red nasty thoughts. You earn points by thumping them. Much better way to take out your frustrations. It’s a fun game and it brings out the competitor in me. I want to thump more and more bad thoughts away.

You can leave thoughts of gratitude and visit your friends that play the game also. The more you play, the more you earn and the more you can spend. The premise is the same as many of the other games on Facebook, but I like that this game involves doing good instead of killing and stealing.

You can check out the game, by going to the A Better World Facebook Page.

Disclosure: I am receiving a gift card from Likeable Media in exchange for testing and writing about the game.

A Positive Facebook Game, A Better World originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Your Privacy on Facebook Protected with safego by BitDefender

Michele — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 02:42:59 +0000

: Image via CrunchBase

Personal security is an important issue whether locking the doors to your home, relying on your car’s security system to deter intruders, or ensuring you computer’s antivirus protection is up to date. With all of the recent news about Facebook privacy, it is even important to safeguard your social network from prying eyes and e-threats.

BitDefender is looking to protect your Facebook account by creating a robust application that will protect users from prying eyes and e-threats while also allowing you to safely access shared pictures, videos, and files. safego is designed to curb threats to personal privacy, spam attacks, and malware distribution campaigns that have been found to occur through this popular social networking platform.

How does it work?

Installing safego provides:

Privacy protection- You’ll be warned when you should modify your Facebook privacy settings so that personal information isn’t exposed.
Automatic scanning- Just press the “scan now” button to get a snapshot of your Facebook security status.
24/7 protection- Your account is protected even when you’re not logged into Facebook.
Protection for your friends- You’ll have the ability to warn your friends about infected links in their Facebook accounts.

Since safego is in BETA version, BitDefender invites you to be a part of this new product by sharing your opinion during this final testing phase. Direct feedback will be used by the company to make final tweaks.

Here’s how you can help:

Visit BitDefender’s safego Facebook app page to take a look at safego
Submit any feedback via email to safego@bitdefender.com

For more information about keeping yourself and your family safe online, visit BitMoms.com, a community dedicated to providing free resources and a place for parents to seek advice about keeping children safe on the internet.

Disclosure: I am sharing this information as a BitMom Blog Network Member. No compensation was received for this post, however, I do receive a stipend to attend a blogging conference of my choice.

Protecting Your Privacy on Facebook with safego (mizzinformation.com)
BitDefender safego protects you from Facebook dangers (downloadsquad.com)
BitDefender’s New Facebook App Warns Against Security and Privacy Threats (readwriteweb.com)
Security Concerns? Try BitDefender’s New Safego Facebook App (allfacebook.com)

Your Privacy on Facebook Protected with safego by BitDefender originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Tracking Santa the Geek Way

Michele — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:26:15 +0000

Even at 42, I love to track Santa on Christmas Eve. I remember as a kid listening to the radio and getting so excited as Santa went from country to country. We used to get out maps and the encyclopedia to see where all the different countries were. My kids have it a little easier, but no less fun. I’m not even sure if you can hear his whereabouts on the radio anymore. I’m sure some stations are updating us, but I think it’s a lot more fun to track him the GEEK way!

@noradsanta - Norad will be tweeting Santa’s location
NORAD Santa Tracker -The official NORAD Santa Tracker website. NORAD has been tracking Santa for over 50 years (yes, same ones who were on the radion back when I was a kid).
Facebook Page - NORAD’s Facebook fan page
Google Earth 3D Santa Tracker – Track Santa in 3D. They have video for some locations too. Here is a direct link to the page to download Google Earth.

iPhone Apps

All 3 are 99 cents. I have not downloaded any of these because we set up one of our computers in our home as the official Santa Tracker computer and it displays Google Earth all day. It keeps my kids busy while we wait for Christmas Eve to be over and they know they need to go to bed as he gets closer to the United States. I included these in case you are traveling today and can’t be near your computer. I wouldn’t want any geeks out there to miss out on tracking Santa.

Santa Tracker 2009
Santa Tracker: Countdown & Journey GPS 2009
Santa Track

How will you be tracking Santa this year?

Track Santa Right From Your Computer With Norad Santa Tracker (inquisitr.com)
How To Track Santa Claus This Christmas (lockergnome.com)
Fun, Free Online Christmas Activities with Santa (ckwebb.com)

Tracking Santa the Geek Way originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.