Tech Table Thursday, November 14, 2013
November 14, 2013
Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.
Diana: And I’m Diana.
Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.
Diana: We promise, it’ll be easy to digest.
Justin: It’s Thursday.
Diana: That’s right.
Justin: And here on the Tech Table we’re going to talk about a theme Thursday. We always do this. We always do a different theme on Thursday. And this one scared my mom more than anything else.
Diana: Aww.
Justin: Yes. How do you keep track of your children in busy places? Mom always thought that she was going to lose me.
Diana: Yeah.
Justin: Yeah, she always said, you know, I was an only child and I had a hard enough time bringing you into the world, I don’t want to lose you now. So…
Diana: Yeah.
Justin: Yeah, so she always kept an eye on me. I mean, to the hilt. And that was before we had any technology to help out with that.
Diana: Was she one that like, you know they have those things that almost look like leashes?
Justin: No, I was a kid before they had those.
Diana: Oh, really?
Justin: Yeah the only thing we had back then…
Diana: She could have just used a regular leash.
Justin: Thank you Diana, that’s great. The only thing we had back in my day were the finger snaps and the look, the eye.
Diana: That still works, right?
Justin: It does, yeah. But my mom, her methodology was just making me really afraid of everyone else.
Diana: Oh, no.
Justin: So I wouldn’t want to leave her side and run off. And it worked, I have not been lost.
Diana: That’s right, you’re here.
Justin: That’s exactly right. But there’s a lot of technology these days that you can use to help keep track of your children in busy places. You know, some of them are more intuitive than others but before you go shopping at a busy place with your children which is simple…
Diana: Yes, and this is very appropriate right now because we’re all starting our holiday shopping.
Justin: Right, exactly. You need to take a picture of your kid when you go shopping with what they’re wearing that day. And just take a picture of that.
Diana: Like using your phone might be an easy way to do that.
Justin: Exactly. And that way if you get separated, it makes it easier for store security to identify your child when they know what they’re wearing.
Diana: See exactly what they’re wearing.
Justin: Exactly what they look like at that moment. So if you remember that, I mean, that’s kind of a low tech way to help keep track of your kid. What’s another one?
Diana: Well, a lot of kids these days have phones themselves. A lot of them even have smartphones.
Justin: Yeah, they do.
Diana: So if they do have a smartphone, you can actually use GPS to track the phone and we might have talked about this before, the Find My Phone for Apple devices. I’m sure there’s other Android options too but you can track with your GPS.
Justin: Right. I’ve talked to a lot of kids, you know, when I pull out, I’m like, hey look at my new phone I got and they’re like that looks like my old phone. I’m like, oh, great, at least you’re ahead of me kids. Alright, so yeah, you can use that app for Apple Devices, and then there are lots of new products coming out for the Christmas season. And Diana, I have no idea how to pronounce this, what is this word?
Diana: Alright, I think it’s Filip?
Justin: Well, it looks like Filip but it’s F-I-L-I-P.
Diana: I think I see another L in there.
Justin: Oh, is there another L?
Diana: So F-I-L-I-L-P?
Justin: Let me get my good eye out apparently and look at those again.
Diana: It’s a smart watch and we’ve seen these start to come out now on the market…
Justin: Right.
Diana: Where it kinda looks like something from Get Smart, right?
Justin: Yeah, right. It’s interesting. It’s a smart watch for kids 11 and under and it tracks location and allows kids to call parent’s phones.
Diana: Yeah, so it’s kinda low tech but it’s really cool for security. And there’s another app or product…
Justin: Product.
Diana: Yes, product. By Guardian and it’s called Beloved which is spelled B-E-L-U-V-D…
Justin: Charming.
Diana: And it’s another child location tracker. It works by bluetooth and it has a really long battery life.
Justin: Cool, alright, so that will help keep track of your children.
Diana: And the FBI has an app too.
Justin: That’s yeah, you know, that’s interesting. I’ve not seen that, I wonder how it works.
Diana: I haven’t looked at it either. They have it for Android and Apple.
Justin: Yeah, so that’s really cool. So you know, if the old fashioned just hanging onto your children doesn’t work and you, you know, they’re running around the store like crazy monkeys which happens, I’ve seen it.
Diana: I’ve seen it.
Justin: I’ve seen it, you know. You can use one of these pieces of technology to keep track of your kids. So until next time…
Diana: Take care.
Justin: Tech Table is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s Country Radio. You can visit us online at askmpa.com.
Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com.
Justin: Thanks for listening.
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