Category Archives: technology

a fond farewell to google reader

As most of you have already heard, come this summer Google Reader will be no more. Personally I’ve never used Google Reader in my life because I’ve always used things like NetNewsWire to keep all of the blogs I read organized, but I can see how annoying this is for everyone that has grown to love and depend on it. After doing lots of research I have found some alternatives for you so that you can still enjoy Your Modern Couple from the comfort of your own sofa :)

First up is bloglovin. I’ve had bloglovin for a while, but have never had the need to use it, so after fiddling with it the other day it is a very nice alternative to Google Reader. Your blogroll is to the left with your unread count in parenthesis. When you click on a blog a feed of unread posts appears on the right and voila! You’re back in business. You can search for any blog name at the top and keep all of your favorites organized. It’s nice and simple.

The App is very much like the website, very straightforward. When you open it your feed is instantly brought up with a small button in the upper left that once clicked will list all of your favorite blogs and their unread count. Nice!

I personally like a feed reader with a little more oomph. So after doing lots of research I came across feedly. Feedly can be accessed through your Google login information and it is just so pretty. And functional! To the left you have several categories of your choosing with your favorite blogs organized under each one. The middle area is your feed which you can view as a list without photos, photos and a small blurb, larger photos and a smaller blurb, or as a full post. Then to the right you can see your entire blogroll while having the ability to search for more. When you click on a blog it will even share with you some other blogs that you may be interested in. Dangerously addicting.

Here is how it looks if you click on one specific blog. It’s basically the same exact setup, except it will only focus on that one blog rather than mixing all of your blogroll together.

The App is what truly won me over. It is just so seamless and organized. And color coded! Love that.

Once you click on a blog to read it will list the unread posts with small photos, a title, along with likes, the author, and how long ago it was posted. Then once you click on a particular post the full post appears which you can read in the app or safari. You can bookmark it to read later, and you can share it with social media. So fun!

So although our beloved Google Reader has bit the dust, there are still several options for you to have a wonderful blogging experience. Personally I don’t care which route you decide to take, as long as you keep reading ;)

Follow us on bloglovin.

Follow us on feedly.

craigslist made easy

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If you love perusing Craigslist as much as me, then you know how annoying and tedious it can be. Individually clicking on each ad to see larger photos and the description, just to be disappointed that the title misled you. So then you go back to the list to try it all over again. Well those days are long gone! I don’t remember when or where I found out about CraigsEasy, but I do know that I haven’t looked back since.

So this is what old Craigslist looked like:

intimidating, no?

You search for something just as you normally would and once the daunting list of ads pops up you click your “easy” button and voila:

And then once you find an item you like you click the title just as you normally would and it takes you to the full add:

I just love how quick and seamless it is! Browsing through large images rather than tiny thumbnails is so much easier. And if you’re really crazy [like me] you can go through each one and open it in a new tab so that you can see everything at once! Oh and once you’re done looking at the items you have searched, just click the back arrow in your browser and it will take you back to your original Cragislist search [pre-easy button]. Then you can search another item, click easy and you’re good to go! I know this may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but if you’re scouring Craigslist for hours on end like me, then this is a huge timesaver!

Go to CraigsEasy.
Drag and drop the “Easy” button onto your toolbar. [Just like the "Pin It" button for Pinterest]
Go to Craigslist.
Type in your search item, click search.
Once your results pop up, click your “Easy” button.
Browse giant images to your hearts content!

It really is that easy! Do any of you know any cool tricks like this to make thrifting/shopping online easier? Or was this old news and you’re totally bored right now? :)

wedding wednesday: there’s an app for that

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After we got engaged [being the tech geeks that we are] we started looking for wedding apps, and guess what? They’re all pretty lame. I just wanted to find something to help me stay a little organized, make things easier for our guests, keep track of things on the go.. you know the usual. Yesterday our lovely photographer showed me a little app called Appy Couple, and my life changed. It’s a great little App to help your guests keep up with all of your wedding information without having to ask you lots of questions. Location, dates, registry, wedding party, weather, things to do around town, you name it and this App has it.

via

I started playing with it and setting up all of our info [well.. the info we're ready to share with the internets at this point] and discovered that 1. it’s totally FREE, and 2. once you’re all setup they give you a wedding number which you can give to your guests so that when they download the app on their iPhone/iPad [sorry adroid-ers not yet..] all they have to do is enter their email and our wedding number and the App transforms into a custom wedding App for Derek and I. What? I know. Let’s have a look.

When your guests enter the app they’ll be directed to your homepage, from there they’ll find anything you want to share with them including information about the bride and groom, photos, a guestbook for writing you messages, info about each event, learning about the bridal party, seeing a countdown until the big day, sharing photos, and even looking up your registry.

When they click “Our Story” they can learn about the bride and groom, how you met, the proposal, and whatever else you’d like to share with your guests.

Once they click on a photo [or story] they’ll land on something like this. Where they can read your story and learn more about you. They can also leave you comments.

You can upload photo albums to share with your guests which they can also comment on and make full screen. This is great for the uber excited moms who like to share everything with everyone on the fly.

Your guests can also leave you little messages which can be private or public depending on what they chose. Be careful though, even if your phone is on silent it will still make a champagne pop sound when you leave a note. Which may or not make you jump across the room.

My favorite part is how interactive the events section is. Here your guests will be able to find any information they could ever need about each event.

Once they click on an event they’ll be able to see the date, time, and address. If they click on the address it will take them to Maps so they can route their travel. When they click on Travel it will take them to expedia to make travel arrangements. When they click on places it will show them local tourist attractions nearby.

And when they click weather you guessed it.. it will show them the local weather of the wedding venue. Perfect for outdoor weddings, or December weddings [ahem!]

While looking at an event, your guests can also view information about the theme for that day along with the dress code.

The guests are also able to view your registry which is super handy when they’re on the go. A list of stores where you’re registered will pop up and when they click on it it takes them directly to your registry page. Genius!

And of course the obligatory countdown. Because who doesn’t work better under pressure?

There is also an area where your guests can send you messages or ask you questions privately. This is a great feature that allows your guests to communicate with each other and make travel plans, etc. I just love this because most of our guests are traveling pretty far to be apart of our day.

Back on the homepage your guests will find all kinds of information about your bridal party, parents, or whoever else you’d like to add to your Key People.

Once they click on a person their bio will appear so that your guests won’t be sitting there thinking “who is that girl??” or “is he single?”

So there you have it. This is so far the coolest wedding app I’ve come across, and I can’t wait to share our live version with our guests. Oh! And if your guests don’t have an iPhone/iPad, there is also a coordinating website with all of the same information. So everyone wins! If you’re more modern when it comes to digital invitations, RSVPing, etc. then you’ll really love this App. If you wanted you could go totally paperless and send your save the dates, invitations, and have everyone RSVP completely through the App. We’re a little more traditional though so we won’t be sending out the App info until our physical invitations are out, but it’s definitely a great way to stay organized if that’s your thing. Have you seen any great wedding Apps lately?

PS: if you’re in the wedding party, you’ll be getting an email inviting you into our App soon. Yay!

friday finds: garage sale hunter

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You know I love me a good garage sale. But I hate driving around aimlessly trying to find the best ones. I usually just do the creepy slow drive by where I quickly analyze their loot and decide if it’s worth a stop. Which depending on the neighborhood, it usually isn’t. I always tell Derek that they should have some sort of database that lists all of the local garage sales so that we can map them out.

Well guess what? It’s called Gsalr.com and guess what else? They have an App! You just type in your zip code and a map appears with little flags at every garage sale happening that week.

When you click one of the flags, the details about that sale pop up letting you know if it’s an estate sale, things they’re selling, how long they’ll be open, etc.

You can even add each sale to your “Trip Planner” and it will map out your entire route for you starting with your home address. Genius!

Seriously? This is the greatest thing since Padmapper. Unfortunately I need to have a garage sale myself, so I’m not really in the market to actually go garage sale-ing [yet]. But I’m pretty excited that someone has finally come up with a tool to make my little addiction that much easier.

PS: if any of you are A. having a garage sale in SA and will let me sell my things at it, or B. want to buy any of my things let me know, living in an apartment does not allow the luxury of having your own garage sale. Boo.

Happy Weekend! We have a big trip to Ikea planned for Saturday and lots and lots of organizing up ~~our~~ my sleeves.

Running 101: Nike+ GPS App

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I’m sure you saw that wonderful little post from the girl about my half marathon. While I was running I used the Nike+ GPS App on my iPhone 4 (or 3GS) to help me keep track of my distance and hand me my jams for the duration of the race. I’ve been using the Nike+ with my iPod Nano and it was cool, but this really took it to the next step.

The iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS have a built in receiver that communicates with the transceiver in your shoes. The Nike+ shoes have a spot for you to place the transceiver or you can buy a little adapter pouch that you can use with any shoes. This tracks every step you take, how long it takes between strides and the phone tracks your location. All of this put together gives you some really cool data to help you better your runs.

You can choose how you want to track your run. You can choose basic, or you can set a distinct time, or a specific distance like a few miles.

Once you decide what kind run your going to do, you can then choose your music, location, and “Cheers.” It will link with facebook and post your status as your running if you choose to do so. People can comment on the post and the App will “cheer” you on.

Start running and you can change songs, check your distance, pace, and time. Once your done you can hit play/pause button and end the workout.

At the end it displays your stats, and you can then review your route info. You can view it in 2 major ways… 1. Where you hit a certain Mile, and 2. How fast you were going at what point in your run in relation to WHERE you were. Were you going up stairs, running up or down a hill, get caught at a traffic light?

Then once it’s all over it keeps track of each run and interfaces with the Nike+ website to save all your run data.

It’s a very cool, very techno-savvy way to train and stay fit. You can be certain that I will be using this more. I highly recommend you try it. It’s a relatively cheap app and the transceiver for your shoe is is $20. Pretty awesome way to keep track of your progress. Have you tried any other training apps? Have you used the Nike+ with the iPod Nano?

dk