Tech

How to Use the Zombie Booth App

What will they think of next. Now there is an app to turn a picture of your face into an interactive Zombie that bites, snarls, and looks like something evil that just came out of the ground.

Check out our video to find out the Zombie Booth app works. It takes just seconds to make a hideous Zombie out of a perfectly beautiful woman. It will definitely scare little children and tiny dogs so beware.

When you use the app you have to make sure to not open your mouth and don’t smile too much. Put the phone close to the person’s face for it to work the best. It’s especially fun to use when you are at a party.

Zombie Booth 3D is available for the iPhone, iTouch, iPad at iTunes.com for $0.99 (7/24/11) and for Android Smartphones at android.com for Free (7/24/11) or through the App store or Android Market on your phones.

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The ShopSmart Magazine Summit with Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon is an engaging speaker as evident yesterday at the ShopSmart Magazine, Consumer Reports Summit. Greg and I were invited guests. The day began in a small conference room with about 40 attendees and a panel of experts in the shopping community – Stephanie Brocoum, Vice President of Marketing RueLaLa.com, Ben Kaufman, Founder and CEO Quirky.com, and Matthew Weathers, Vice President of Product ShopSavvy.mobi. The panel was officiated by Lisa Freeman, Editor-in-Chief, Shop Smart magazine.

“Consumers are empowered and businesses are listening.” Stephanie of Ruelala.com

The panel covered social shopping and influence customers are having to drive traffic and sales to sites. Word of mouth marketing is at it’s best when someone makes a purchase or discovers a new a site, and tells their friends. They tell their friend, and they tell their friends, and so on and so on. Some of these sites represented grew large just through viral “word of mouth” from customers without a lot of marketing or advertising on their part. The bottom line, have a good product or service and let the public spread the word.

Another big topic of conversation was how consumers love to brag about their purchases or as Matthew Weathers said, “everyone believes they are a bargain shopper.” If a site like RueLaLa.com has a designer handbag at an awesome price at 11 am each day and it sells out in 15 minutes then the shopper feels they have snagged a bargain and wants to share it. It’s like, ha ha, guess what I got and you didn’t. Because 95% of their customers are women you know this drives the other women crazy and they have to get in on the next deal so they aren’t left out.

After lunch we went to a larger room. The 40 of us got to sit in the front of the room in reserved seats while the rest of the room filled in with Consumer Reports employees. All in all there were around 400 people in the room. There were cameras and video equipment and the stage was set with the Consumer Reports backdrop. Within a few minutes Jeff Bezos came to the stage and it began.

Jeff answered questions about representatives from Consumer Reports on best practices, scams, how to protect yourself online, and was generally engaging, very personable and at times, funny. It was a delight to hear him speak.

Amazon.com had 9 billion in sales in the 1st quarter and has transformed the way people shop, said Jeff Bezos.

Amazon is long-term oriented to help you make purchase decisions. That is why they allow negative comments. They might lose you in the short term but they build your trust and you will keep coming back. Trust is everything in business.

Jeff sees mobile shopping as the next thing that is coming to retail.

I was 1 of the 15 people to ask him a question and I got to ask 2. I asked if they would be bringing more features and coupons back to the Amazon Moms program (representing the Moms out there and readers who gave me the question) and if Amazon would be dropping states who had the new affiliate tax (representing the bloggers out there).

His answer on the Amazon Moms program is that they love moms and he is a family man himself with 4 kids under the age of 11 and that they are always working on new ideas for this program. He didn’t have any specifics to tell me and didn’t know what the Amazon Mom team was working on.

The answer for the affiliate question is unfortunately yes. He said that people who make a living off of the Amazon affiliate program would most likely pick up and move to another state. It’s not the best solution but it is a choice they might have to make. He also said that most Amazon affiliates usually have other affiliate programs they are working with so doesn’t affect their whole income.

Amazon is always working to improve their service and he said that “the best customer service is that the customer doesn’t need to call you in the first place.” Amazon wants to raise the entire bar on customer service. Will it ever be perfect, no, but nothing ever is.

After Jeff’s talk I grabbed a couple of other bloggers, Mercedes from Common Sense with Money, and Erin from Frugal Living @ About.com, and we headed to the line to talk with Jeff. After a short wait we got a picture with him. It’s like we all dressed for the day because we matched so perfectly 🙂

The day continued back in the smaller conference room with the original 40 attendees and another panel. This time we heard from Ron Lieber, Columnist and Editor at The New York Times, Meg Marco Executive Editor Consumerist.com, and Tracey Thomas, Attorney from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Ron spoke on how everyone has the right to a free credit report and the right to freeze their credit. Freezing your credit report is the best weapon to protect against identity theft.

He went on to say that you should never use debit cards online to make your purchases. Once the cash is out of your account it is very hard to dispute and get any of it back. If you use a credit card you can dispute the purchase even before you have to pay the bill. You have 60 days to dispute a purchase.

Another suggestion was to use a fraud alert to warn you if something is happening with your accounts. This requires a company to ask for more information before opening an account while freezing your account locks it down and takes longer to open.

You can get your free credit report at one site only, annualcreditreport.com

Once this engaging panel was over we broke up into smaller groups and went on private tours through some of the Consumer Reports testing labs.

It was a wonderful day. We learned so much about the current shopping environment and where things are headed. We enjoyed hearing all of the guest speakers and each one had valuable information to give out. Meeting other bloggers was definitely a bonus too.

Best Time of Year to Shop For These Items

I was just reading the Consumer Reports magazine and saw the interesting chart they have in it for the best time to buy items throughout the year. I thought I would pass it along to you.

Remember, as they say, the “best time to save money isn’t generally when you will find the best selection”. I also think that you have to shop out of the box-style and buy when the items are cheapest, not necessarily when you need them. Like buying a winter coat when Winter is over or buying a lawnmower when Summer is past. However, sometimes it is best to shop at the height of the season because of the sales be offered by the stores.

It’s like buying groceries to save lots of money. My friend Treasures says, “buy what you need when you don’t need it” meaning, buy the groceries when they are on sale and when you have a coupon, not when you are out of that item and desperately need it. Of course, if you need it then buy it but if you can plan your shopping trip then wait until the items are on sale, just like this list suggests.

January: bedding, carpeting, computers, cookware, linens, swimwear, toys, treadmills, winter clothing

February: humidifiers, indoor furniture, treadmills and exercise equipment

March: digital cameras, humidifiers, all kinds of electronics, Winter coats and sporting gear

April: computers, digital cameras, lawn mowers

May: athletic clothing and shoes, carpeting, cordless phones, lawn mowers, small electronics

June: camcorders, carpeting, computers, indoor furniture, swimwear

July: camcorders, indoor and outdoor furniture, swimwear

August: air conditioners, backpacks, dehumidifiers, lawn mowers, outdoor furniture, snow blowers

September: bikes, digital cameras, gas grills, lawn mowers, shrubs, trees, and perennials, small electronics, snow blowers

October: bikes, computers, digital cameras, gas grills, lawn mowers, and winter coats

November: baby products, bikes, camcorders, gas grills, toys, TVs

December: bikes, camcorders, gas grills, home appliances, toys, TVs

I am sure there are more things you could think of to add to this shopping list. What is the best time of year to buy? When there is a sale I say.

The iPhone Is Perfect for the Smartphone Newbie

If you haven’t purchase a Smartphone yet you will want to take a look at what I have to say. I too was a Smartphone newbie just a little while ago and this is my story of why I finally upgraded and purchased the iPhone 4.

You haven’t taken the plunge and bought a Smartphone for one reason or another. They are too expensive, you have to buy a data plan, too hard to learn and on and on. I was one of those holding out with my 5-year old LG phone. It was fine for what I used it for, calling (not that much either), texting, and occasionally taking pictures and sending them via email or text.

But, for me, as a full-time blogger, I couldn’t hold out any longer. I needed a way to keep up with my readers and email in real-time and I also wanted to be able to post pictures and videos as I took them on Facebook or YouTube. When I finally gave in I did a lot of research. I spent almost a year holding out even though I have been a full-time blogger for 3 years. I use Facebook, Twitter, Whrrl, and Foursquare on my computer and yet I held out. One big reason for me was one, the price of the monthly data plan and two, the fact that I work at home most of the time so when would I use it.

During my test it came down to two phones, either the Droid or the iPhone 4. I use Verizon as my provider and the iPhone wasn’t out yet. Two of my sons have the DroidX and after using theirs I found I liked it and it seemed simple enough. When you get older it gets harder to learn new things and I didn’t want something that would be difficult and, I wear reading glasses to see small text now and those screens are tiny.

When the iPhone 4 came out I decided to go have a look at the Verizon store. I have the Apple iPad and as soon as I tested the iPhone I was hooked. It was exactly like the iPad, just smaller. If you have an iPod Touch it will be exactly the same except with phone and Web features.

The added expense isn’t something I was looking forward to paying but I was able to get a 12% monthly discount on the plan. I am not sure why. Maybe it is because we have been with them for so long. It never hurts to ask if there is a discount so ask and see. Always ask if there is a military or senior citizen discount if you are eligible too. I like the fact that the Verizon data plan gives you unlimited time and downloads. The AT&T plan is limited but I did find that now they are lower the price of the iPhone to attract new customer. In the long run the unlimited plan is better though because you will be paying less over time.

What I like about the iPhone 4 is that it is made well, feels very sturdy in my hand and is easy to fit into my pocket or inner pocket in my purse. I also like how it recognizes my touch very easily. It is actually much better than the iPad. The iPad does recognize your touch but when typing I found I make a lot of mistakes on the iPad. Maybe because of the larger keyboard, I’m not sure. I am a touch typist and I thought that would be simple, but it is not. With the iPhone 4 I just use one fingers and I fly through the keyboard with ease.

Just touch an icon to open an app (application) and you’re on your way to doing great things with your new Smartphone. If you don’t know how to use an app you can go online at the Apple App website to learn about it or just start playing around with the icons within the app. That’s how I learned. Of course, you will stumble your way through the process but we learn best by making mistakes.

There are certain features I love about the iPhone that made it easy for me to transition. The alarm feature is really neat. Just set it and pick a sound and it will come to life like an alarm clock to remind you of that important date or time. We were in a crowded show when I learned about that feature and I set it to remind us to meetup with a vendor. I had forgotten about the appointment and at the right time it came to life.

The camera and video features are great too. It may have replaced my regular digital camera because now I don’t have to take two things with me. The iPhone 4 has an 5 megapixel camera so it takes great pictures. And, the videos are super clear. I recorded a video and then uploaded it directly to YouTube without even having to put it on my computer first. That feature makes it super convenient. You can attach a picture to a text message, email, or upload directly to Twitpic.com for Twitter or Facebook.

Check out some of the photos I have taken with my iPhone 4’s camera.

Click on each picture to open it in a new window to view it larger.

The first picture I saved smaller and the second picture of the roses is a larger file so may take longer to view.

There will probably be some extra apps you want to install and you do it directly through your iPhone. Just use the App Store and use the search to find what you are looking for. I have apps like Facebook, ESPN ScoreCenter, Flashlight (very handy), Whrrl, Shopkick, and more. I will be sharing all about apps, how to get them, and what my favorite free apps are so stay tuned for that in a new post.

There are so many features to cover with the iPhone that I couldn’t cover them all in the short time I had for the video. I tried to cover some of the basics. Once you learn the basics you can go on to use more features. I am happy with my iPhone 4 purchase and I am glad I spent the extra time searching out the right phone for this Smartphone newbie.

Pros:

Sturdy and durable
Touch screen recognizes your touch easily
Keypad is very easy to use and it shows the keys larger as you type
The screen enlarges easily to make the text more readable
apps are easy to find and install
photos are clear and bright, easy to send and upload online
video are clear and easy to upload to YouTube

Cons:

Extra expense of the monthly data plan
Phone itself is pricey

[rating:5]

Disclaimer: this iPhone 4 was a personal purchase and I was not compensated for this review. All opinions, as always, are 100% my own.

Verizon Wireless Trade-In Program and Hopeline Helps Domestic Violence Victims

If you are upgrading or getting a new phone you will want to read about the Verizon Wireless Trade-in Program. Depending on the age and condition of your phone, it may be worth something. You could earn a Verizon gift card. If it is not worth anything you can still put it to good use by donating it to the Verizon Hopeline to benefit domestic abuse victims.

Regardless of carrier, Verizon accept all devices and models – even the iPhone from AT&T. By using the Verizon Wireless Trade-In Program, you are disposing of your device in a simple and easy way.

HopeLine collects wireless phones, batteries and accessories in any condition from any wireless service provider. The phones are then refurbished or recycled in an environmentally sound way. Refurbished phones, complete with 3,000 minutes of wireless service, are provided to local domestic violence organizations or local government and law enforcement agencies for use with their domestic violence clients.

In just 4 simple steps, you can determine the value of your device and receive a Verizon Wireless gift card!

Just click through to the Verizon site to start the process. Pick your phone type, model, and condition and you will find out if it is worth anything of value on the next page and how you can redeem it for a Verizon gift card.