Gadzooki

Five must-have home management apps

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Trying to take care of yourself is hard enough. But it’s even more difficult when you’re also trying to keep track of the innumerable tasks, appointments and other needs of your family members.

Thankfully, mobile technology is catching up with modern home management needs and is unveiling new tools to share some of the workload. A number of cheap or low-cost applications can be installed onto your mobile phones and tablet PCs to make many daily routines easier and more efficient. Here are five home management apps that can help you manage your home better while freeing up more of your time. [Read more…]

HTC ChaCha: For Certified Facebook Addicts

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HTC Chacha

Or maybe that should be “HTC ChaCha – if you get one, then you’re a certified Facebook addict”. Even the least technologically inclined person I know is aware of two things. One, that there is such a thing as Facebook. Two, that there are so many kinds of mobile phones in the market that your head will swim trying to figure out which one to buy.

Luckily for you, if you think in terms of Facebook statuses, and if you take photos/videos with posting on Facebook in mind, then you don’t have to think twice when it comes to buying a new phone. HTC has solved the issue for you by releasing HTC ChaCha. For the lack of a better name, I call it the Facebook phone.

See the image above? You can’t miss the magnifying glass highlighting the blue square button with the universally recognizable “f” within its borders. Facebook button. On a mobile phone. What else will it do but send everything and anything that you want to your Facebook account at a mere press?

It’s not all about sending photos and updating your status, though. This phone was really designed for people who just can’t live without Facebook. As buggy as Facebook chat can be (although I have to admit that it has improved lots), people still use it a lot. The HTC ChaCha has a built-in Facebook chat widget which allows you to get in touch with your Facebook contacts much like you would using a computer.

This phone does other things that well, one could expect from a “normal” mobile phone. You can make calls, send text messages (QWERTY keyboard FTW!), browse web sites, and send/receive e-mails. However, one really cannot deny just how Facebook-centric the ChaCha is. From the product description: ((HTC ChaCha))

Your friends are your life, so you want to be close to them. That’s why HTC ChaCha comes with a load of Facebook widgets that bring you closer to them. Like a clock with a Facebook stream of updates as a ticker, and a Calendar widget so you never miss your friends’ birthdays and events. You can also follow your special favorites and all their news with the Friend Stream widget. With HTC ChaCha, you’re no longer a friend – you’re a super-friend.

I am sorry, but “super-friend” just cracks me up. I do use Facebook like crazy, but I don’t know…is it just me or is this a little too much? It’s either brilliant or it’s a pathetic way of encouraging overdependence on social networking. How do you call it?