IGIST By L.S Larson – Book And App Review

We received IGIST by L.S Larson to review, an innovative new immersive children’s reading experience. The IGIST book and augmented reality app work together to create an entirely believable and compelling new universe.

IGIST front cover

A story aimed at children and teens 10+ that champion science, curiosity and exploration. Encouraging children to find out more about the amazing world of science and technology through a new reading experience.

IGIST

IGIST Back Cover

According to the one teacher on Earth who believed in her, Emi had a chance. The space academy of her dreams was more than a reach. The Intergalactic Institute of Science and Technology (IGIST) hadn’t admitted and earthling in decades. The bygones left on Earth would lead a boring existence if, and only if, they were lucky enough to evade the plague.

IGIST app screenshot

Emi always thought she was different, not because her only friend growing up in Rockland was a drone named Sadee, but because she was very determined to become a revered scientist like her late mother. But even a passion for science and good old-fashioned grit could not prepare Emi for the challenges that await in a wide, strange galaxy under the auspices of the Star League.

Our Thoughts

We really enjoyed IGIST, Emi’s character is so determined to reach her dreams. Whilst my phone doesn’t work with the AR, we can still use the app. As you read the book the app awards points and badges. Eva has really enjoyed reading IGIST and using the app. She thinks there should be more books with apps like this.

A great read for STEM-interested girls and boys. The main character, Emi is driven by her desire to break barriers and get into the most renowned science academy in the universe. IGIST does for science what Hogwarts did for magic.

You can either read the book on its own or with the app.

Improve Finances And Reduce Stress Using Technology

Want to improve finances and reduce stress using technology? I love technology and always welcome anything that reduces stress and helps improve finances due to my own mental health. Here is some advice* to improve finances and reduce stress levels using technology.

Improve Finances Using Technology

 

Use Technology To Reduce Stress And Improve Finances

A recent study has revealed that 14 million people worry about their finances every day. A shocking statistic which rings true for many. Mental health concerns affect many Brits. Whilst you shouldn’t pin everything on how much money you have or haven’t got, it’s difficult not to get stressed about money when the cost of living continues to rise. However, there is good news for the millions of stressed Brits worried about their finances. The key to taking control of your money is to reduce your stress levels. Technology is a great tool to help alleviate stress and there are such great mental health apps available to help you achieve just that.

Utilising technology

Wherever you turn, you’ll find yourself surrounded by some form of technology. Your home is probably full of gadgets such as smartphones, tablets, voice-activated home assistants and game consoles. Whilst over-use and over-exposure to technology has been linked to stress, there are ways in which you can effectively use technology to boost your mental health and reduce your stress levels to allow you to make smart financial decisions.

When stressed, individuals often make poor financial choices, such as purchasing high priced goods to make themselves feel better, only to instantly regret it when the item arrives, thus increasing stress. However, technology can be utilised in these times. If you’re staring at your online bank account and are worried about the balance, ask your voice-activated home assistant to play some calming music, such as whale music which is known to reduce stress levels.

Reading technology

Reading has been proven to reduce stress levels. Before you make any spur of the moment purchases, grab your electronic reading device and lower your stress levels. You can reduce your stress levels by as much as 68% by taking time out and enjoying a couple of chapters of a good book. Just six minutes of reading can make you feel calmer and more relaxed. Be sure to carry reading material with you wherever you go.

Debt and technology

Gadgets allow individuals to check their bank balance wherever they are and at any time of the day. This can be both a blessing and a curse. Students are often knee deep in debt which can cause them much stress. If you’re a student looking to consolidate your student loan, be sure to use organisational software first to get everything in order. That way you can review your finances with a clear, stress-free head.

Stress is a factor which people across the UK and around the world contend with every day. We face a lot of stress especially when it comes to sorting out finances. However, technology is a great tool to use to stay calm, reduce stress levels and stay on top of your finances.

Do you think you could Improve Finances And Reduce Stress Using Technology to?

*In collaboration with Chrissy Gladstone.

 

Bytesize Box – UK Subscription Box Launching August 25th!

Bytesize Box is being launched August 25th in the UK. I discovered Bytesize Box recently and found it completely different to any other subscription box we’ve heard of so far. I am always on the lookout for new and exciting subscription boxes for the girls to try and I’m certain they will absolutely love Bytesize box!

Bytesize Box – What is it?

Bytesize box is a monthly subscription box of practical electronics you and your child can build together. The idea is to encourage children to learn about the environment, sustainability and recycling through electronic projects.

Bytesize box introduces recycling to children in a fun way based on their core values, sustainability, fun and learning! Recycling is something we should all encourage our children to do but it can be tough. Bytesize box encourages children to play and learn as they recycle making it much more interesting and fun for children.

Bytesize Box – What’s inside?

Each month you will receive a Bytesize Box containing 1 or 2 experiments revolving around the theme for the month. Each experiment requires something to be recycled to finish them off such as a plastic bottle, cardboard box or both! Every experiment will turn into something fantastic for you and your child to play with! Bytesize Boxes include full instructions on their website alongside videos to help build the experiments. Most experiments use a small computer which can be customised further by adding more components, changing the code or even rebuilding it into something else entirely!

Subscribe to the email list

Bytesize Box are currently building an email list of people interested. I’ve signed up myself as I know both girls would absolutely love Bytesize Box. The free recycling and activity pack in the welcome email are fantastic. It costs nothing to sign up and well worth doing for the fun activity pack which shows you 3 fun ways to recycle bottles! You can sign up here for free and get your free download straight away!

Trying A Box

Bytesize box will be launching August 25th and all customers who try a box will be entered into a prize draw to win a 3D Printer! The cut off to order your first box is August 31st. Bytesize Box costs just £19.99 with free P&P!

Eva’s Thoughts

Subscription boxes like these are great but I do like to find out what Eva thinks of them. Who knows better than a child when it comes to children’s subscription boxes? Eva’s first reaction was ‘WOAH! That is SO cool!’. She wanted to do the activities right away! Unfortunately we need to finish off our milks first so we will be doing one of the activities this weekend! Keep an eye out on my Instagram to see what we make!

Do you think Bytesize box is a fantastic idea too? Is it something your kids would love?

Out-Smarting A 2 Year Old With SmartMotion

The Samsung SmartThings SmartMotion!

I reviewed the Samsung SmartThings Starter pack and won it last year. I still use the SmartPlug’s to control the Pump & Light on our fish tank (Can you Phone the Fish?)which is an absolute life saver especially if we aren’t home & forgot to turn on their pump!

I also use the  Multi-purpose sensor to send me a notification on my phone if something comes through the letterbox. 

 

The SmartMotion Sensor however I hadn’t really managed to come SmartMotionup with a good use for yet.

Izzy has recently started getting out of bed and coming in to the living room at night. She plays a bit of a game with it making sure to cover the monitor with a blanket or teddy so we can’t hear her sneaking out of bed.

She rarely wants something, she just wants to know what we are up to and with Eva making sure to keep her awake after we have put Izzy back to bed, we become yo-yo’s trying to get her to stay in bed. If we manage to catch her at her door she will generally go back to bed and go to sleep. If she gets any further though she thinks she’s winning and keeps trying.

Secret weapon: SmartMotion

Now it’s set up in the girls room so when they pass their chest of drawers (the range is pretty good too!) I get a notification on my phone. So as Izzy gets out of bed we can race her to their door and get her back into bed quickly and stop her little game. We’ve been using it for the last week now and she has learnt rather quickly WE KNOW and she cant (yet) find away to open that bedroom door without setting off the sensor Muahahah!

 

Now she will actually call through the monitor ‘poo bum!’ or ‘Melp pweeeeaaaaase’ when she wants something and doesn’t get up and down just because she can.

This could also be useful for potty training too as I will be woken up if she leaves her room to head for the toilet/potty. Samsung SmartThing’s Motion Sensor finally has a purpose. It also let’s me know the room temperature which means as the colder months draw in closer we can make sure there room is kept at a good temperature too!

How do you outsmart your kids when they are playing around at bedtime? Do you have a sensor? A video baby monitor? Do you have a SmartHub at home? Which one? Let me know 

🙂 Keep Calm and Carry On Linking Sunday


August MS515B Bluetooth Speaker Review

You may have spotted my post offering a one day only early Christmas deal with a 40% discount on a set of August MS515B Bluetooth Speakers. Sold on Amazon for £29.95.

For sharing August Lab’s early Christmas deal I was given an awesome discount on the bluetooth speaker myself & ordered them first thing Thursday morning when the discount codes went live.

Friday morning we received our email letting us know our parcel was being delivered later that day!

This made me pretty excited as A) I LOVE opening parcels 😂😂 & B) I love listening to music! Especially when cleaning & these can easily be moved around room to room without disturbing the music!

Our parcel arrived around about 4.30pm and we quickly got the box opened up to have a look inside.

August Bluetooth Speaker

I checked the manual and got them plugged in to charge up & was really impressed by how easy they are to set up. They come with a USB lead with a split lead to charge both speakers at the same time. The speakers connect by a lead included in the box. They also have an AV in lead so you can plug them in to devices without bluetooth. So you can literally use them with anything!

I quickly got my phone connected via bluetooth to test them out and was amazed by the sound quality. They are pretty loud too! For small speakers they really do have some power. Anything with bass (when up loud) makes them jump across the side a little which really amused Eva.

We had them set up in the kitchen and the sound filled the room & we all ended up dancing in the kitchen whilst I cleaned & the Mr cooked for the girls. 

The Mr loves music too and has play-lists saved on his youtube. He eventually got bored of typing in each song on my phone. He decided to connect his phone to the speakers instead and took over with his play-lists for a good hour.

We are seriously impressed with the quality of the bluetooth speakers. Especially for only £29.95 (Unless you used my discount code 😉 ) delivered the next day even though we chose the free delivery option!

I can see these becoming one of our new favourite toys. As Eva has seen them I cant give them to her as a present. Instead I have said we can all share them.  I can see the girls using them in our room and me using them around the flat when cleaning to save having the sound system on which we currently have no remote for & have the bass up high which can be a bit much at times! 🙈🙊

I love that the girls can connect using the Tablet as well as us using our phones & pc/laptop and as they are rechargeable we can take them anywhere. I’ve yet to find a problem with them. I like that I can skip forwards and back a track using the button on the back of the main speaker.

*This is a sponsored post & I received a large discount on the speakers in return for sharing the 40% off discount post and an honest review.

Revival and Return Of The LGG4

I wrote about the death of the LGG4 previously on the blog. After writing the post I messaged LG to double check if the phone was under warranty. I was over the moon to hear that it was infact still under warranty and a repair was quickly booked in by Ben from LG’s customer service. The phone was collected on the 3rd of February and taken away by DPD

I have had to borrow a phone so I can still contact people and I wont lie, it is absolutely driving me insane! I miss my daily selfies with Izzy, actually recieving notifications, being able to use the internet without waiting 6 months for a single page to load.. oh and it turns itself off and on about 30 times a day. Rather helpful.. not!

I received an email on the 6th titled ‘Repair to ASC’ but the rest of the email didn’t translate to much, I recieved another one of these email’s on the 12th and began to wonder when/if the phone was coming back and messaged LG again and was asked to forward the email’s I had recieved on the 15th as several other customer’s said the same thing. I got an automated response on the 16th to say they had received my forwarded emails and then heard nothing until the 20th when I recieved a text message from LG letting me know DPD will be delivering my parcel by the 23rd!!

Return of the LGG4

I was so damn relieved after having to put up with the tiny Samsung Young I had borrowed for over a month that restarts, doesn’t give notifications, rejects the SD card and is generally slower than me first thing in the morning! I couldn’t wait until the 23rd and was so happy when I got a text giving me an hours window for the delivery.

I spent a while checking out the window for a DPD van and when I finally saw it arrived I may have squeeled and bounced a bit, even Izzy get excited and we bounced down the hall to wait for the buzzer where a bit more bouncing happened. Yes I did end up hurting myself as I forgot my balance is so off lately but I am a bit of a geek and get over excited haha!

As soon as I got my lovely phone back I plugged it straight in to charge and got it booted up, instantly relieved to see it worked and turned on..YAY!!! I read the slip inside which stated the mains board had been faulty and had been replaced. I’m so happy it was under warranty and I was able to get it repaired and cant wait to get back into blogging properly (it’s much easier to do EVERYTHING on the G4) and get chatting with other blogs too!

Surprise delivery

I completely forgot I had won extra SmartThings from TheInsiders and was pleasantly surprised when a surprised delivery arrived for me this morning!

I won 3 items which were a multi sensor, a motion sensor and a power outlet. I’m really pleased with them as I love using them around the flat. Now all I need is my LGG4 to return from being repaired so I can connect them all and continue using them!

Surprise delivery

I have to say I absolutely love being an Insider and having the opportunity to take part in their product campaigns and the last two have really appealed to my geeky side. I can’t wait to see what campaign they run next!!


 

Can you phone the fish?

I hardly expected ‘ Can you phone the fish ‘ to be something I’d hear twice a day. Thanks to the Samsung Smart Things Power Outlet it is now a regular occurance in our home.

 

To be able to put up our Christmas tree this year we had to rearrange the living room, as part of this we moved the fish tank onto a bigger sturdier table as I was beginning to panic daily at the way the smaller table bowed in the middle especially with both girls constantly leaning on it! Having moved the fishtank and bigger table the Mr realised it was going to be awkward to turn off the fish tank’s pump whilst the fish were fed and begun trying to think of a way to solve it.

Eventually I realised the Smart Things Power outlet could come in useful here allowing us to keep the new changes as I can turn the pump on and off via the Smart Things app as needed. I told the Mr he could do it on his phone too since the app allows you to share your account with several devices.

Can you phone the fish?

The Mr isn’t a great fan of technology though and still hasn’t installed the app, admittedly I keep saying I will install it and set it up for him but keep forgetting to do it! Instead every morning and every night the Mr turns to me and says ‘can you phone the fish’ 😂 it makes me giggle every time he says can you phone the fish as well as making it easier to turn the pump off and on.

Im absolutely in love with the Samsung SmartThings starter kit from The Insiders and slowly finding more ways to use it around our flat to make our lives easier. Im quite tempted to attach the presence sensor to Eva’s school bag next since it keeps getting lost in school at least that way we can beep it to try and locate it faster and save a ton of stress.

I wish there were more Power Outlet’s too so I could have the Kettle boil when Eva is almost home so the Mr can make himself a coffee without having to call me to put the kettle on… Hmm perhaps 2 Presence Sensors would be better so we could attach it to the Mr’s Backpack as he take’s it shopping.

I seriously hope I get to win my starter kit as I think I could quite easily get carried away buying extra’s for it!

Do you think Samsung SmartThings could be useful in your home?

SmartThinking with Samsung SmartThings

Last week I revealed the Samsung smartThings package sent to me from TheInsiders, I explained how I had used the SmartThings Power outlet to control the table lamp in my living room. It was so simple to use via the SmartThings app on my phone.

SmartThinking

I was sat for a while struggling to think of ways to test the other SmartThings and I had no suggestions. (hardly surprising after a 2yr break from blogging and a slow start!) Then a delivery driver annoyed me by posting a card through without knocking last week, he gave me an idea of how to use the SmartThings

Missed Deliveries

I’m sure we have all had it in the past where a sneaky delivery driver tries to silently push through a missed delivery card. I guess it saves them the few minutes it takes for you to answer the door and sign for a parcel. Its happened to me several times, some I’ve caught out and managed to get the parcel. Others I’ve missed and ended up having to collect from a sorting office. I was trying to think of a way to catch him out using the SmartThings. Living in a tower block of flats I wasn’t keen on the idea of attaching anything on the outside to alert me of their presence so the Multi-Sensor was out of the question.

SmartThinking Motion-Sensor

Motion Sensor

Eventually, I decided to try the Motion Sensor. I figured if I attached it to the inside of my letterbox, I could probably set it up to send me a notification on my phone if anything came through. At least this way I will know as soon as the card is put through the door. Then I can get to the door before they jump in the lift!

Letterbox Motion Sensor

Setting Up

I attached the monitors and synced them to the SmartThings app This really is simpler to do than I thought it might be! I chose to be alerted whenever the letterbox opens and closes. Then I set the notification tone to the noisiest one I could find. Now, whenever I receive letters or ‘Miss’ a delivery I receive a notification saying ‘You’ve got mail!’. This has helped us out loads this week as we have begun ordering presents ready for Christmas. I have already managed to catch a delivery driver before he got in the lif,t, so I’m really pleased!

Easy To Use

I have been majorly impressed by how quick, simple and easy it has been to set up & use the SmartThings and control them via the SmartThings App. Admittedly I get notifications whenever the door is opened and closed however as I have a 5yo daughter who has recently begun to try answering the front door alone it has actually been more useful than annoying. It also lets me know when my 16mo daughter is trying to post toys and pegs out the door too!

More SmartThinking Needed!

I’m still unsure how to use the SmartThings Multi Sensor and Presence sensor so if any of you have any idea’s you’d like me to try I’ll give it a go! Otherwise I shall hopefully have something figured out by next weekend!

Samsung SmartThings

I previously posted here that I had been selected to test the Samsung SmartThings starter kit thanks to The Insiders!

So after a few weeks of having the Samsung SmartThings and trying to work out what to do with them, I eventually braved opening the parcel to see what The Insiders had sent me.

SamsungSmartThings
Samsung SmartThings Starter Kit

Inside the Samsung SmartThings Starter Kit

  • SmartThings Hub
  • SmartThings Multi-Sensor
  • SmartThings Motion Sensor
  • SmartThings Presence Sensor
  • Smarthings Power Outlet
SmartThings Plug

Setting Up

The Hub itself is a simple design. It connects to your router enabling all your Things to wirelessly connect allowing you to control them via the SmartThings app.

It is easy enough to set up the hub and connecting the SmartThings app to it is done by entering a short code that is supplied in the box.

Once you have connected the hub and set up the SmartThings app your ready to go!

SmartThings Power Outlet

The first thing I tried was the SmartThings Power Outlet to control our table lamp in the living room. To do this I plugged the lamp into the Power outlet which goes into your usual Plug socket.

I then went into the SmartThings app and Added ‘Living Room’ as a room. Then I had the option to turn the outlet on and off.

I was instantly impressed I could just simply use my Smart phone to turn the outlet on or off, set a timer or set it to interact with another product such as the Presence sensor or Motion detector. This means the possibilities are almost endless allowing you to use your imagination to come up with all sorts of useful ideas. After playing around with the app I also discovered you can see what the power usage is of the Power outlet.

Having Fun

I considered testing out all the Things and sharing the results all in one blog post. Instead I thought perhaps I could make this even more fun. Since I will be testing this for a few weeks I’llask my readers for some suggestions! So, What would you do with the Samsung SmartThings? What Should I test next and what should I try to do with them? Leave a comment with your suggestions and ill try them out!