Calm, Cool & Connected

As busy AT&T moms and dads, we know life can be hectic… now we're blogging about it on a new blog, Calm, Cool & Connected. Join us as we share our advice and experience on how to get organized and stay connected to family and friends. We're interested in hearing from you, so feel free to leave comments and ask questions, but first, please be sure to read the Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy.

  1. July
    28

    Pantech Ease

    Life has been insane with the daily ins and outs of my life. With my recent divorce, keeping in touch with my parents has become more important to me now that I’m a single mom. My parents have stepped back into my life to help out with the tweens and play a more active role in all of our lives, but staying connected has been an issue at times.  

    My dad, a  master electrician and historian has recently grown to love his Pantech Ease. He likes using the Ease to check and send email on the go. As well as responding to text messages from his six daughters. The Pantech Ease comes with so many great features like large fonts, large buttons, user friendly apps, and more that make the mobile phone as easy-to-use as possible.  The Pantech Ease has AT&T GPS Navigation and comes with a free 30-day trial. It also includes other handy applications such as a tip calculator, a pedometer, and video recording options.

    Get the Flash Player to see this content.

    Everyone in the family communicates differently and accommodating those needs has been trying for my parents. My son Chris is a texter, my daughter Natalia is a talker, my youngest sister Emily, well she’s a photographer. My oldest sister Angela utilizes Facebook, while I’m a Twitterer. Keeping up with all of us at times can be a trying task! So my parents were in need of a cell phone that can accommodate all of us with “Ease!”

    *Free 30 Days available to new subscribers. Compatible phone required. Standard data and messaging charges apply during the first 30 days and ongoing use. You must cancel within 30 days or be automatically subscribed at a cost of $9.99 per month for unlimited routes. Click for more details on AT&T GPS Navigation.


  2. June
    24

    Samsung Strive Winner!

    Congrats to Rebecca for winning the Samsung Strive in our recent giveaway!

    Rebecca commented:

    “This Samsung Strive will help keep me calm, cool and connected,because it would bring me up to date in phone technology and replace my old phone flip phone its so hard to text with has no camera,and drops calls :0( My teenage son teases me about my antique cell phone.”

    Congrats Rebecca!

    Thanks to everyone who entered! We’ll have more of these giveaways in the future so check back to see what other cool prizes we’ll be giving away.


  3. June
    18

    Father’s Day Gift Idea: Pantech Ease

    Just in time for Father’s Day, the Pantech Ease will be available Sunday, June 20 for new and existing AT&T customers online and in AT&T stores nationwide. Now the entire family can stay connected, from the novice to the pro, with this quick messaging phone from AT&T. It offers menus and features designed for users seeking an “Ease”-y to use mobile device.

    While the device has features that appeal to those looking for simplicity, it is not just a basic phone. Features include a streamlined, targeted menu, easy-to-use buttons and specialized tools such as Readout mode and Voice Mode.

    When switched to Easy Mode, AT&T customers can enjoy the AT&T mobile browser which combines full HTML browsing with unique customization features.  To help keep you connected, the AT&T address book syncs contacts to an online address book making it easy to access and manage contacts.

    To learn more, visit www.wireless.att.com.


  4. June
    11

    Twitter Party Tonight

    Please join us tonight from 9:00 to 10 p.m. EDT for a Twitter Party with Resourceful Mommy. With Father’s Day around the corner we’ll be chatting about how technology helps us stay connected with loved ones – especially Dad.

    As part of tonight’s Twitter Party some amazing prizes will be given away including the new Samsung Strive and Palm Pre Plus.   Tell us what you think about these devices!

    For Official Rules click here.


  5. May
    18

    Text Messaging with Family: Delilah Guest Blog Post

    The AT&T’s Unlimited Data & Messaging plan is the perfect way for me to stay in touch with my large family. My teenage and adult children keep themselves very busy, and a text message or two during the day keeps us all connected. You can see their personalities emerge in their words, and it often makes me laugh out loud, and at the same time, feel connected if we’re away from each other for hours through the day. I can call my teenage daughter three times in ten minutes, all of the calls going to voicemail; I can text her at the same time, and get a reply in 10 seconds!  Go figure! Texting is the way they often communicate, it’s that simple.     So the best way to stay in touch is often with a text message, sending or receiving a picture via text, and using our AT&T phones to do so.    And all of it can happen along with all the data I want to use, for about a dollar a day…that’s the cost of the AT&T Unlimited Messaging and Data Plan, just $30 a month.

    BTW, I picked up a few shortcuts for those of us that are bit slower at texting. While a full keyboard has made it so easy to text, I still look for shortcuts. U R right, I do.  Look for the shortcut clues that come from your teens – they’re a great source of them! LOL.

    About Delilah

    Delilah, the most-listened-to-woman on radio in the U.S., embraced the medium when she was a middle-schooler in Reedsport, Oregon, reporting school news and sports on KDUN-AM, a small station in her hometown. Today, her soothing voice, open heart and love of music has expanded her audience from the folks in Reedsport to more than eight million people on over 200 radio stations in the U.S. and Canada.

    Her distinctive blend of story-telling, sympathetic listening and encouragement – all scored with adult contemporary soft rock – makes her top ranked in most markets among women 25-54. Delilah says her show is a “safety zone where listeners take off their armor, slip into a ‘Mr. Rogers’ cardigan, sit around the electronic hearth and share their secrets.”

    She adds that her audience is “just like me and the two women working on the show, who were once listeners. We are single parents who work hard to strike a balance between family and work life. We also enjoy our friendships and remember to laugh as much as possible.”

    This blog entry was sponsored by AT&T.  For information on Deliah and AT&T please click here http://www.delilah.com/pages/att.html


  6. April
    20

    Winner of White BlackBerry Bold Giveaway!

    Congrats to Diane V. for winning the white BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000 signed by Rascal Flatts in our March giveaway!

    Diane commented: 

    “The BlackBerry Bold 9000 would keep me calm, cool & connected because I would be so HAPPY to win an AT&T phone. I do not have a smartphone and I feel I would be much smarter and my life would be easier and complete. Oh please pick me!! ”

    Congrats Diane!

    Thanks to everyone who entered! We’ll have more of these giveaways in the future so check back to see what other cool prizes we’ll be giving away.


  7. April
    19

    Timing My Contractions with an Application

    Before deciding on a guest post this week, I read through the comments on my last Calm, Cool, Connect blog post and found the perfect suggestion for connecting technology with my last month of pregnancy – thank you!  I had not thought to download an application for timing contractions. 

    Naturally once I searched “pregnancy” on my phone, a plethora of options came forward.  I opted for Contraction Master , which seemed worth the $0.99 investment.  Childbirth class taught us to wait for 5-1-1, contractions lasting for 1 minute, 5 minutes apart for at least 1 hour.  And now I have the perfect tool to track the timing and frequency of my contractions.  My husband walked by as I was downloading the app, and commented that he needed it on his as well.   This app will definitely eliminate the guesswork and provide a history of the contractions that can be emailed or at least shown to my nurse and doctor when I finally do arrive at labor and delivery.

    I also downloaded the What to Expect app.  Even though I only have a few weeks left, it’s calming to read that if I went into labor now, the baby is considered full term.  And fun to know that moms expecting boys experience more of an increased appetite in the third trimester.  Does that excuse the incredible sweet tooth I’ve developed as of late?

    Nicole Anderson

    Nicole AndersonHello, everyone! I’m Nicole, an AT&T employee and soon-to-be-mom of a baby boy. My husband, Justin, and I are expecting our first child at the end of April. It’s been a year of big changes for us, as I relocated with the company last April from the San Francisco Bay Area to Dallas. Thankfully, my husband was able to maintain his career, working remotely from Dallas. I’m jealous he gets to go back to California every month or so, especially during the summer to beat the heat! Just as we started getting settled in Dallas – learning the neighborhood, what road led where, and I was getting up to speed on my new job – we found out we were pregnant! It has been an exciting, if overwhelming, journey for us. Critical during our relocation was the use of our smartphones. If we got lost, or if we needed to find a restaurant, e-mail our realtor or send a quick text, our smartphones didn’t let us down. Now with the text4baby program, I can get quick and informative baby advice sent directly to my phone. With all the hecticness in our work and lives, these texts create a quick moment to reflect on the big change coming in our lives and learn something about the new life we are forming. I look forward to sharing this experience with you through my blog posts, and learning more about how to use technology as a new mom. Is there an app that helps your baby sleep through the night?!


  8. March
    26

    Twitter Party Tonight!

    Please join us tonight from 9:00 to 10 p.m. EDT for the rescheduled Twitter Party with Resourceful Mommy. We’ll be chatting about everything from how to use our smartphones to keep our busy lives organized to how technology can help new parents!

    As part of tonight’s Twitter Party some amazing prizes will be given away including the new Motorola BackFlip™. Check it out here, and let us know what you think!

    What feature would help keep you calm, cool, and connected if you had a BackFlip? Is it the never-before-seen QWERTY flip design? Or the PC-like web browsing? Or that you can sync with Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter from the home screen?



  9. 26

    White BlackBerry Bold Giveaway! (Closed)

    You may have seen your favorite celebs carrying the white BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000 smartphone, while at awards shows, grabbing coffee or at the hottest clubs.

    The smartphone offers a full-QWERTY keyboard, as well as voice-guided GPS with turn-by-turn driving directions, local business search and more (additional charges apply). Plus, never miss an opportunity to capture the moment with the two megapixel camera, which features a built-in flash and 5x zoom.

    Here is your chance to feel like a celebrity in your own right  – we are giving away the white BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000 smartphone signed by top country artist Rascal Flatts!

    Here’s how to enter:

    1) Leave a comment here and tell us how the white BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000 will help keep you calm, cool and connected. Your e-mail address and phone number must be accurate in your comment so we’re able to contact you. Make sure you double check. (Your contact information won’t be published.)

    2) You also can enter by writing a post on your blog answering the same question. Just be sure to leave a comment here linking to your post so we know where to find it.

    No purchase necessary to enter or win. Void where prohibited. This sweepstakes runs from 12:01am ET Friday, March 26 to Monday, April 5, 2010, 11:59 pm ET. It is open only to individuals who, at the time of entry deadline, are legal residents of the United States and are 18 years or older; one entry per person. Wireless service is not included with the phone. The winner will be notified via phone on or about Wednesday, April 7, 2010. For complete contest rules, including eligibility, click here.


  10. March
    19

    Staying Connected in the Delivery Room

    It’s hard to believe that my guest blogging is one month old and that I’m heading into the final 5 weeks of my pregnancy!  In preparation, I’ve been checking out what to bring to the hospital and packing my bag.  All the books refer to bringing coins for the payphone, extra film for your camera, address lists and phone numbers, and my personal favorite, a cassette player to listen to music!  Clearly, the pregnancy books are filled with good health advice but obviously a little outdated when it comes to technology. 

    When we toured our hospital’s labor and delivery wing, they pointed out the docking station where we could hook up our smartphone or mp3 player to play our songlist during labor.  The hospital is wirelessly enabled so you can send emails of your great news right away, and of course my smartphone already has all the phone numbers and contact info that I need to share the event.  I can even text photos, and post up to the minute updates on Facebook. However, I may decide that just for a few moments, I’ll enjoy the birth of my son with my husband, and hold technology at bay until the amazement has soaked in a little and I can imprint the memories of the phenomenal experience in my own mind’s eye. 

    In the meantime, I better figure out what kind of soundtrack to select to usher in the birth of my son – feel free to send any playlist recommendations my way!

    Nicole Anderson

    Nicole AndersonHello, everyone! I’m Nicole, an AT&T employee and soon-to-be-mom of a baby boy. My husband, Justin, and I are expecting our first child at the end of April. It’s been a year of big changes for us, as I relocated with the company last April from the San Francisco Bay Area to Dallas. Thankfully, my husband was able to maintain his career, working remotely from Dallas. I’m jealous he gets to go back to California every month or so, especially during the summer to beat the heat! Just as we started getting settled in Dallas – learning the neighborhood, what road led where, and I was getting up to speed on my new job – we found out we were pregnant! It has been an exciting, if overwhelming, journey for us. Critical during our relocation was the use of our smartphones. If we got lost, or if we needed to find a restaurant, e-mail our realtor or send a quick text, our smartphones didn’t let us down. Now with the text4baby program, I can get quick and informative baby advice sent directly to my phone. With all the hecticness in our work and lives, these texts create a quick moment to reflect on the big change coming in our lives and learn something about the new life we are forming. I look forward to sharing this experience with you through my blog posts, and learning more about how to use technology as a new mom. Is there an app that helps your baby sleep through the night?!