Oh happy day! I have been waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon since it hit the world by storm in June, 2007. But, as much as I wanted to buy it back then, I held out because 1) at the time, it had a hefty price tag and hefty monthly charges 2) The practical side of me usually trumps my impulsive side so I generally wait for at least the second generation of any new technology 3) I wasn’t ready to jump ship quite yet from Verizon. So what did I do? I bought the iPod Touch instead so I could still have those amazing apps and “pretend” I was just as cool as my friends sporting the iPhone. But,  it just wasn’t the same.

So here it is…the day the iPhone is actually available in stores and I still sit here iPhoneless? What’s up with that? I’ll tell you what’s up with that. It’s because practical me has taken over once again and sees iPhone 5 on the horizon and whispers… “Kath, just wait. It’ll be here soon. It’s going to be so AWESOME! You can hold out. You’ve waited this long.” It’s times like this I really hate practical me. Sigh!

My husband and I caved and bought our 13 year old a cell phone for Christmas. We agonized over the decision, but for our particular circumstances…two parents working…son with diabetes…we decided it would be OK to “take the plunge.” However, after seeing all the horror stories of kids getting into trouble with these little technological gadgets, we wanted to minimize what features he had access to.

Well, of course with modern technology, 99% of the phones out there have all the bells and whistles. That is…except for one. Yes, it’s the one you would normally buy for your aging parents. Clearly displayed on the keys are 911, ICE (in case of emergency), and very large numbers for those not so spry peepers. Despite our desire to keep our son safe, even we couldn’t resort to “geeking him out” with such a contraption. So we bought him one of the less expensive LG phones and made a few minor adjustments with the help of our knowledgeable Verizon rep (whom I’m guessing had kids of his own). Anyway, we turned off our son’s ability to send & receive pictures or access the Internet, but allowed him the ability to text.  Currently, he only knows about 10 people with cell phones, mostly family, and we weren’t too concerned about him “sexting” with grandma. Now, that’s just plain creepy.

Oh yeah, and the next service we’re adding…the locator function. It basically turns your child’s cell phone into a GPS so you know where they are at all times. If they enter a “forbidden zone” or if you just want to make sure they got home safely, you can have a text message sent to your cell phone. So watch out, kid. Big Mother’s watching!

Spranq, a Netherlands based company, has figured out a cool way of saving ink. They developed a new font, aptly named “ecofont,” that uses up to 20% less ink than a traditional font. Essentially, when the letters are viewed at a large font size (like the diagram above), it looks like somebody riddled the letters with holes. But at a normal size type (font size 9 – 10 looks best) you can’t tell the difference AND you get the benefit of saving money and the earth by using less ink when printing. The font is free and can be downloaded for both Windows and Mac platforms directly from Spranq’s Web site.