1. February
    24

    AT&T Team USA Soundtrack

    TEAM USA FANS!  The 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver are in full swing. AT&T is supporting our athletes with the exclusive AT&T Team USA Soundtrack featuring songs from top artists like 3 Doors Down, The All-American Rejects remix by Chad Hugo of The Neptunes, Mariah Carey, Gloriana, Green River Ordinance, Honor Society,  Hoobastank, Puddle of Mudd, Rascal Flatts,  Sugarland and Train.

    The soundtrack songs are available exclusively via download from the iTunes Store, and AT&T wireless customers can snag ringtones and answer tones through AT&T MEdia Mall (AT&T App Center). And, best of all, all proceeds from content purchases between now and March 1 will go to the U.S. Olympic Committee to benefit Team USA.*

    Check out music videos and info on how to download here:  http://soundtrack.att.net/.

    *All proceeds from the purchase of participating ringtones and answer tones from February 12, 2010 through March 1, 2010 will be donated by AT&T to Team USA. All proceeds from the purchase of musical compositions from February 9, 2010 through March 1, 2010 will be donated by the record labels to Team USA. For more information about Team USA, visit www.teamusa.org. Standard data transport charges apply (and are not included in proceeds paid to Team USA).

    Posted by Calm, Cool & Connected in Just for fun, Uncategorized Tags:
    Comments (20)

  2. February
    15

    Staying fit with my RunKeeper Smartphone application

    Hey! I wanted to share with you a great AT&T Smartphone app, the RunKeeper.  I use this application when exercising especially on my Saturday morning jogs. Check out my video where I show the handy features that are helping improve my workout.

     

    Get the Flash Player to see this content.

    Do you have any Smartphone applications that are helping you stay fit?

    Posted by Calm, Cool & Connected in SmartPhone, Uncategorized
    Comments (3)

  3. February
    11

    Our Sweet Little Valentine

    Fiona by Cory 2.8.10When I see this picture, I can hear Frank Sinatra singing “My Funny Valentine.”  This Valentine’s Day is like no other before it, because with Fiona around, every day is Valentine’s Day. While we make our plans to surprise each other in some small way, we conspire as to what we’re going to do for our little valentine: What will she wear? Where will we take her? What should we get her?

    We plan on visiting family this coming weekend to share our little valentine in person versus through the cameras on our phones as we so often do. Though Sunday is Valentine’s Day,  for us, every day before and after will still be Valentine’s Day.

    And if you are at a loss for what to get for your Valentine (or better yet, would like to “gently suggest” a Valentine gift for yourself!), check out or share the following link, to get a new red phone – FREE on att.com through Monday, February 15: bit.ly/Free-Red-Phones!

    A two year service agreement is required.  Other restrictions apply. A $30/month data plan required for all Smartphones.

    cory.bennett  cory.bennett

    Posted by Cory in Cory, Photos, SmartPhone, Uncategorized Tags: , ,
    Comments (11)

  4. February
    8

    Text4baby Update (Guest Blogger)

    As you may have read in last week’s post, I am one of the new mommy-to-be bloggers who will be posting on Calm, Cool & Connected from now through Mother’s Day. I was invited to join the blog for the next few months to share my experience as I prepare to become a mom for the first time. Part of the preparation process is being informed. AT&T just announced its support of the new Text4baby service, so I thought I’d check it out. Text4baby made it easy to sign up: After texting “baby” to 511411 and providing my due date and zip code, the text messages began!  It started, of course, with a welcome message that wished me a happy and healthy pregnancy.  Now I receive a new text message each day with a reminder (take my prenatals, schedule a doctor’s appointment) or advice about my pregnancy (don’t smoke or drink).  The texts also provide links to other resources, like the Center for Disease Control to check on getting a seasonal flu shot or H1N1 vaccination or a number to call to find an OB or nurse practitioner. These texts coincide nicely with the start last Monday of the four Prepared Childbirth classes my husband and I are attending each week at our hospital. Between the messages on my smartphone and the classroom learning, I feel better prepared as I approach this life-changing event. Spending time each day, even briefly, learning and thinking about my soon-to-be son is calming. Work and deciding what’s for dinner can gobble up mindshare rapidly – but a quick focus on what’s growing in my belly helps ground me and balance priorities.

    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?!

    Posted by Calm, Cool & Connected in SmartPhone, Uncategorized Tags: ,
    Comments (2)

  5. February
    5

    Super Bowl Fun!

    Hey! With the Super Bowl  just around the corner, I wanted to share with you how my family is using U-verse to enjoy the Big Game.

    Get the Flash Player to see this content.

    Geographic and service restrictions apply to U-verse services.  Check to see if you qualify at www.att.com/uverse.  Access to HD service requires $10/mo. HD Premium Tier available for an additional $5/mo. Total Home DVR functionality is available on up to 8 TVs, and requires a receiver for each additional TV at $7/mo.

    becky.woodworth  becky.woodworth

    Posted by Becky in Becky, TV, Uncategorized Tags: ,
    Comments (37)

  6. February
    4

    Welcome Our New Moms-To-Be!

    Oh, baby, do we have some exciting news to share!

    AT&T announced today that it is supporting a nationwide effort to help connect expecting mothers and families with weekly tips to support healthy pregnancies – and healthy babies – via text messaging.  It’s called text4baby, and it’s now available at no charge to expecting mothers across the country.

    As part of the effort to inform expecting mothers about text4baby, we are happy to announce that the stork has visited and left us with two new mommy-to-be bloggers! Please join me in welcoming Laura and Nicole, who will be guest bloggers on our site from now through Mother’s Day! Like our already fabulous group, each will share personal stories on how they use technology to stay calm, cool and connected while preparing to welcome a new baby into their already busy lives. Cool, right?!

    Stay tuned for posts from our new guest bloggers. In the meantime, please check out the bios of our new mommy-to-be bloggers below to learn more about these expecting ladies! Of course we want to hear from you too, so remember to leave comments and ask questions often!

    Laura HernandezLaura Hernandez

    Hello, my name is Laura, and I am a wife and working mom who has been with AT&T for 13 years. I am a mom who is about to be a mom for the first time – sounds confusing. I have a stepson with a disability who lives with us, and my husband and I are expecting our first child together in May. My stepson is completely dependent on technology to communicate, so if we want to communicate with him when we are not at home, e-mail and texting is the way to go.  I use technology in every aspect of my life. Aside from using my Blackberry to stay connected to work issues, I use Navigator to get around my new city of Dallas, and I use multiple smartphone applications to manage grocery lists, get restaurant reviews or find important locations, like the shoe repair, tailor and, yes, even clean bathrooms. As two working parents juggling the demands our stepson presents us, we use technology to coordinate social schedules and yoga classes and to keep our friends and family up-to-date on happenings in our lives. More recently, I have used the internet to track how my pregnancy is progressing. 

    Nicole Anderson

    Hello, 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 Nicole Andersonchanges 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?!

    Posted by Calm, Cool & Connected in SmartPhone, Uncategorized
    Comments (5)

  7. January
    29

    There is an App for That (Guest Blogger)

    I am amazed at the apps available today.  Not just for work – but for our time outside work. For those who are practically minded there are apps that help you maintain your car, track your bills and ones that even act as personal assistance. There are sport apps that help improve your golf swing or track the results of baseball and football games.  For travel bugs, there are language translators and assistance with the conversion of money.  Concerned about keeping your mind active after massive amounts of time watching Barney with your kids? You can use your mobile phone do Sudoku and brain teasers to keep your mind active.  Even the White House launched an app that can be used to access streaming video of President Obama’s upcoming State of the Union address.

    My husband writes computer software — for fun.  Go figure…  The last time I wrote a computer program it was in graduate school and it was in Assembly Language.  This was just shortly after the Jurassic period.  I remember clearly when I erased my back up file, around 3 AM, for a key project.  That was when I determined that I, indeed, had a more colorful vocabulary than I realized — even if I did not actually say the words out loud.  More importantly, I found   I did not have the passion I needed to be a really good programmer.  Without passion, your job is just work.  I am glad that there are opportunities for programmers with a passion, like my husband, who can use their creativity to create applications and share them with others.  Sometimes they are silly, but sometimes they are very useful.

    There are apps on cell phones today that help people with Autism communicate and ones under development that may help older people anticipate when a fall is likely so they can prevent injuries.  This means that older people may be able to stay in their own homes longer rather than go to a assistive care or a nursing facility.  There are applications like Dragon that enable you to dictate your emails – useful to people with conditions such as arthritis and those over forty who do not have their reading glasses!  The work being developed today that is often offered at no cost by online good citizens who just want to help their virtual neighbors, is truly inspiring.  Many applications are accessible for people who have  vision loss like me and there are groups that talk just about those applications. 

    For those trying to juggle home and work, you can find healthy recipes and menu planners for shopping. And on the lighter side, or hopefully lighter side, you can find several programs that count or track calories or carbs. There are applications related to wellness as a whole and, I am told, ones that will help track your workouts as well. I should probably check into those…

    Of course, there are games for kids of all ages. The handset vendors I’ve met say these help people to use a keypad more quickly and efficiently.  I am skeptical.  I think they are really just for fun. And, if my observations are correct, they are there to help people waiting in airports pass the time without becoming belligerent.  For kids, there are educational applications that teach things like phonics and counting. There are even apps that provide a virtual experience of things we ACTUALLY did like skee ball, board games and spin art.  The only application that I have not been able to find is one that will soothe the overtired toddler.  But then, there is a nap for that…

    Susan PhotoAbout the author: Susan Mazrui, who just celebrated her 15th anniversary with AT&T, has two daughters, Sarah (23 years old) and Nicole (3 years old).  Sarah works full-time and goes to Law School part-time.  Nicole is a part-time preschooler whose current career aspirations include medicine and firefighting.  Married to Jamal, a brilliant software developer and civil servant, Susan enjoys listening to books, described videos and international travel.  Susan and Jamal also have a Cavapoo named Ginger (1 year old).  Ginger initially aspired to become a guide dog for Susan but later decided to become a watch dog as she thoroughly enjoys people watching and really did not want to work that hard.

    Posted by Calm, Cool & Connected in Applications, Guest Blogger, Just for fun, Organization, Shopping, Uncategorized Tags:
    Comments (2)

  8. December
    31

    Relaxing Mom (Guest Blogger)

    I find the title “Working Mom” somewhat redundant. What mom doesn’t work?  I have tried to spark interest in changing the title to “Relaxing Mom” but for obvious reasons it never quite caught on.   “Queen Mum” caught on but seems to be limited to say Royalty and mothers of Sweet Potato Queens.  It certainly doesn’t apply to me or anyone I know. Maybe I just travel in the wrong circles…

    As a mom of two, Sarah and Nicole, I have come to appreciate my work at AT&T more than people who have never had children could possibly understand.  For example, when I want my cell phone to let me know who just called, it tells me reliably and NEVER asks why.  Ever tried to get your children to tell you who called?  Usually, you are lucky if you know someone called.  I love having my own cell phone.  I can set a reminder to pick up my dry cleaning.  If I think of something I need to add to the grocery list while waiting for my train after work, I don’t need to find a way to write this down, I can put it on my phone. Better yet, I can call to have pizza delivered. I am embarrassed to say that I can even speed dial it.  The very best part is that I have the tools I need to organize the unimportant things in life, the appointments, the e-mails, the daily chores of running a household in a way that works with my (involuntarily) active lifestyle.  Now, I can focus on important things like visiting my three year olds imaginary Jamaican house and shaking my sillies out. 

    Now, with Sarah, my 23 year old daughter (no that is not a typo) texting has been a great way to stay in touch.  She works full time and goes to law school.   A quick e-mail or text message is a great way to say “Hello” and to let her know that I understand and respect her time.  She does often call on her way from work or to class and, now that she has a real job, it is not only to ask for money.  You can ask her and I think she’ll tell you that texting is good for many things but not to request monetary support.  I know if she doesn’t become an attorney, she may become a great lobbyist!  Sarah is one smart young woman.

    I know that I am very blessed with great kids, a wonderful husband and a great job.  I may never receive the title “Relaxing Mom” but thanks to all of the new technologies today, I can settle on “Happy and Less Stressed Mom”.

    Now back to Jamaica — or at least as close as I am likely to get until after we help pay off college for my youngest…

    Susan PhotoAbout the author: Susan Mazrui, who just celebrated her 15th anniversary with AT&T, has two daughters, Sarah (23 years old) and Nicole (3 years old).  Sarah works full-time and goes to Law School part-time.  Nicole is a part-time preschooler whose current career aspirations include medicine and firefighting.  Married to Jamal, a brilliant software developer and civil servant, Susan enjoys listening to books, described videos and international travel.  Susan and Jamal also have a Cavapoo named Ginger (1 year old).  Ginger initially aspired to become a guide dog for Susan but later decided to become a watch dog as she thoroughly enjoys people watching and really did not want to work that hard.

    Posted by Calm, Cool & Connected in Uncategorized
    Comments (3)

  9. December
    28

    Samsung Mythic Winner!

    Congrats to Elizabeth for winning the Samsung Mythic in our December device giveaway!

    Elizabeth commented:

    “I like the scrolling feature – would be great to give as a gift ….or keep for myself!”

    Congrats Elizabeth!

    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.

    Posted by Calm, Cool & Connected in Contests, Uncategorized Tags:
    Comments (0)

  10. December
    23

    Traveling with Family and Friends this Holiday Season

    Each season brings change and the holiday season is no different! Work, home, life in general has been fluid lately, so for this season’s gifts to the kids, I packed them up and we headed out of town for a much needed mini-vacation.

    I’ve done holiday travel before, but haven’t seen anything like this. We were at the airport over two hours early, but the lines were so long that we missed our flight out and ended up having to traverse all over the U.S. in order to reach our final destination. To keep ourselves occupied, in touch with the world outside of the airport, and notify loved ones of changes and updates to the flight schedules, the kids and I pulled out our phones and tackled applications ranging from Southwest Airlines Mobile, Facebook, news channels, to games and videos.

    Stephanie HolidaysFinally we made it to our final destination, Busch Gardens! It had TONS of activities for all of us and since I could not bring my entire network of family and friend to Florida, I brought Florida to them, taking pics of all of the events and activities and posting them so that we had everyone involved!

     Which application did we use the most during the trip? Facebook, of course! With the Facebook application on my Smartphone I can stay connected to everyone on the go. All my friends and family can follow my every move, enjoying the pictures I post and receive my updates on my status. It’s so exciting to follow others as well and makes keeping in touch so easy… just got engaged, just moved, had a birthday, adopted a puppy… it’s all right there. Whatever or whoever it may be, I love to know what’s going on and keeping track of my loved ones.

    Christopher, my 11 year old son stays connected via both Facebook and Yahoo Messenger. He utilizes his cell phone to log in and post updates on his account… updating his whereabouts and posting snippets of his adventures.  As a Mom, I LOVE this because he can be tagged in pictures that were taken along the trip and instantly viewed by his friends, connecting them all together as we enjoy our excursion. His friends leave the craziest messages and I think that it builds a special level of connection between them all, bonding them closer as a group.

    Stephanie Holidays IIHappy Holidays and I look forward to sharing with you all again soon!

    stephanie.turner  stephanie.turner

    Posted by Stephanie in SmartPhone, Stephanie, Travel, Uncategorized Tags: , ,
    Comments (3)