Mom loved her LG Tone+ ™ Bluetooth® Stereo headset for Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day and graduation are right around the corner. So what tech gifts for dads, grads and other loved ones topped wish lists this summer?

Phil Seibel, tech writer for the Brainerd (MN) Dispatch, traveled two hours south to the Twin Cities on May 9 to share his tech gift picks with KARE 11 (NBC affiliate) Sunrise reporter Bryan Piatt. Phil and Bryan showcased the hottest tech gifts for moms, dads and grads during three live shots from the Minnetonka Verizon store. Phil’s May 10 “Tech Savvy” column in the Brainerd Dispatch touted his KARE 11 appearance and shared all his tech gift recommendations. Thanks for making the trip, Phil.

You can catch all of Phil’s recommendations on KARE11 Sunrise and in his Tech Savvy column in the Brainerd Dispatch.

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The post Tech Gifts for Dads, Grads – and Minnesota Media appeared first on Verizon Wireless Midwest Area.

Meet Heather Hill. A busy mom, entrepreneur, social media enthusiast, businesswoman – and farmer. Heather is one of 20 bloggers across the nation leading a farm voice movement to tell people the true story of life on the farm. With a home base of operation at Hill Farms in Indiana, she took up the cause of telling the farm story in 2010.

Since then, The Real Farmwives of America have launched a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. The group also rallied at the Statehouse recently to promote agriculture pulling in even more bloggers and voices to help spread the word.

Verizon has had the pleasure of working with a number of Hoosier women in The Real Farmwives circle – Heather via 3 Kids & Lots of Pigs blog, Lana via Walking the Off-Beaten Path blog, Cris via Goodeness Gracious blog, Marybeth via Alarm Clock Wars blog, Jennifer via My Front Porch blog, and Amy via A Latte with Ott, A blog.

Like the rest of us, they all use tech in their personal lives – tablets, phones, jetpacks and other wireless accessories that make our lives easier and more productive.

As a fifth generation farm family, Heather’s farm is about corn, soybeans, wheat and pigs. Her mother-in-law, a recent convert to a smartphone, assists regularly at the farmer’s market in Greenfield using her iPhone and Square credit card reader to sell locally produced meat from Hill Farms.

Heather said the women who connected on this initiative all had personal blogs. With initial assistance from the soybean alliance to get their blogging voices and sites honed, they branched out to own their own brand in social media. “What’s unique about us is we’re not a random ag group. I know all these girls personally. We truly are a group of friends.”

And like the regularity of the seasons, they have tooled their social media platforms using an annual editorial calendar and links to their personal blogs to keep the non-farm audience updated. From tips on food production to product labeling, they provide everything from home-grown recipes to photo albums of the first spring calves being born.

“We really did this to connect to others … to let people know where their food comes from. Almost immediately, people began interacting.”

As for tech, Heather says it’s essential to what The Real Farmwives of America do. “What we do can’t happen without it. Social media is critical to telling our story. It’s the world we live in.”

If you want to keep up with the Real Farmwives of America, check out their blog here.

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The post The Real Farmwives of America Bring Rural Life to Social Media appeared first on Verizon Wireless Midwest Area.

Those who are parents know when their little one is in need of a nap. The “little angel” starts showing their “dark” side. When this happens, Mom and Dad know the sooner their child gets some much needed sleep, the better.

Yet, as adults, we often shortchange ourselves when it comes to getting enough “Zzz’s.” According to a Better Sleep Council survey, about half of Americans say they don’t get enough sleep. And, almost 80% of Americans agree that a lack of sleep causes problems like difficulty concentrating and increased stress.

May is Better Sleep Month, and there’s no better time to look to wireless technology to help you improve the quality of your sleep and, ultimately, the quality of your life.

Verizon Wireless offers smart accessories that not only enhance your fitness regimen, but also help you track your sleep patterns:

Fitbit One™ Wireless Activity plus Sleep Tracker helps the user increase activity, eat smarter, and evaluate your sleep patterns. During the day, it tracks your steps, distance, calories burned, and stairs climbed. Come nightfall, it measures your sleep cycle to help you see how to sleep better; and it can even wake you in the morning without waking your partner.

UP by Jawbone® is a revolutionary system (wristband + mobile app) that tracks how you sleep, move and eat and gives you meaningful, personalized insights so you can make lasting improvements to your everyday life.

In addition, the following mobile apps are available on your smartphone or tablet to track, analyze and help you get that much needed quality sleep:

Sleep Time, free on iPhone, Android, features a smart alarm clock that analyzes sleeping patterns and wakes users up at the lightest phase of sleep to ensure they’re refreshed and ready to face the day. The app includes calming music to help users fall asleep, and a gradual alarm to help users wake up.

Whether you have a snoring sleep partner, or you’re guilty of snoring yourself, Anti Snoring FREE, free on iPhone, may be your solution for a good night’s sleep. The app will whistle when someone begins snoring to encourage a change of position and – finally – a quiet, restful night.

Deep Sleep with Andrew Johnson, $2.99 on iPhone and Android, helps users slip into a relaxed state as they prepare for sleeping. It includes soothing instructions for breathing and relaxation, and is proven to help users fall asleep quicker and stay asleep longer.

So, stop tossing and turning—or counting those sheep. It’s Better Sleep Month, and with these tools, you’ll be on the right track to a more rested and happier you.

The post Embrace Better Sleep Month with Technology for Improved Rest appeared first on Verizon Wireless Midwest Area.

The Kentucky Derby may be known as the greatest two minutes in sports. However, the period leading up to those two minutes is known as the most exciting two weeks in Louisville. Beginning with the largest annual firework show in North America, Thunder Over Louisville, and including everything from bed races, boat races and the Pegasus Parade, the latter half of April in Louisville is filled with events rich in tradition and is full of life. With the world’s eyes on Louisville during this time, the media from all over the area needs to be able to cover each second of that week flawlessly. Verizon Wireless loaned Summit Media Corp. of Louisville several devices to help us cover these festivities. Summit Media owns four of the top radio stations in Louisville, one of which was the host station for Thunder over Louisville. Covering events during the Derby, for the most part, means our radio shows are broadcasting remotely from the studio. Reliability – both for the network and the devices we use during this time is huge.

Being the promotions and marketing assistant, as well as one of the social media captains, I have a ton going on and much of it is time sensitive. I need to be able to take clear pictures with a device and post them instantly on our social media sites. Out of all of the devices that Verizon loaned us, I used the Droid DNA the most. This device made my job easy and helped make our group of stations social media content leaders. We often have giveaways for tickets, prizes, etc., on our social media sites as well, so I need to monitor these sites fairly often without having to wait for information to load. The 4G Mobile Hotspot was also an essential device for Summit Media during Derby – it allowed everyone to have wireless internet access on their computers. When we were broadcasting from Churchill Downs on the backside of the track, this device allowed us to have internet in the middle of a field, which is amazing to me.

Some of the apps that I relied on while using the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 were the Facebook Pages Manager (to monitor each station’s Facebook page), Twitter (to post live tweets from Churchill Downs during Derby and Oaks, which is a famous race that takes place the day before Derby) and the Comrex ARC (to make wideband connections to Comrex hardware codecs).

On top of the reliable devices that were loaned to us, Verizon also brought in a boost of their 4G LTE network during Thunder over Louisville, the Derby and Oaks. They did this by bringing in COWS (cells on wheels) and COLTS (cells on light trucks). With thousands of people coming to Louisville from all over the world during this week, most people would expect some delay on their mobile devices. Verizon helped ensure that this would not happen.

Which horse was my pick for the Derby? I bet on Revolutionary across the board. I also bet on some other races, eventually leaving the track $25 ahead!

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The post Verizon Helps Radio Stations Capture Kentucky Derby Magic appeared first on Verizon Wireless Midwest Area.

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High-speed internet access for mobile devices and the latest innovative products and solutions, along with local phone numbers to residents and businesses, is now available for residents of four Iowa counties. Verizon Wireless has expanded wireless service in Northwest Iowa, launching network operations in Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola and Sioux counties, including, in part, the towns of Sioux Center, Orange City, Rock Rapids, Rock Valley, Sibley, Sheldon and Hartley.

With the new service, Verizon added its award-winning 4G LTE network, which has expanded rapidly across Iowa since the initial launch in Council Bluffs  (along with Omaha, NE) on Aug. 18, 2011.

The growth of the 4G LTE network has enabled innovative solutions that consumers and businesses across the country take advantage of in their daily lives, such as the Verizon 4G LTE Router.   A wide array of 4G LTE devices from smartphones, tablets, to jetpacks and more are available at new authorized retail locations in Sioux Center, Rock Valley and Sheldon, Iowa.

For more Verizon Wireless news specific to Iowa, subscribe via RSS to news by state. Or, subscribe to the entire Verizon Midwest blog via RSS, or by entering your email along the left side of the blog.

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The benefits of Verizon’s 4G LTE are well known: faster speeds, reduced latency and better in-building penetration. For some, this means downloading movies in minutes and songs in seconds to their smartphones or tablets. For others, it’s an essential service to power their businesses.

To Tracey Sipple, a speech and language pathologist based in rural Seymour, WI, it’s just that – her key to business success. Tracey works for a company that provides speech therapy to students in underserved areas via video streaming on the Internet. A reliable connection is crucial to her job.

For those in major cities, this is no problem. But those in more rural areas know, sometimes it’s not as easy as it sounds.

“We are at the end of our phone provider’s DSL line and don’t get the speeds needed for me to video conference,” shared Sipple. “We looked into different options and Verizon’s HomeFusion was the perfect fit.”

HomeFusion is a service from Verizon that offers a reliable alternative for residential broadband in areas with limited broadband choices. Using a small antenna on a rooftop, it harnesses the power of 4G LTE and brings it into the home.

For Sipple, HomeFusion offers the fast speeds she needs for video conferencing, and flexible data packages to best fit her needs. Most importantly, it allows her to do what she does best, help students.

“Research shows, therapy sessions that would normally take 60-minutes on-site can be accomplished in 30-minutes from a remote location,” said Sipple. “Students are naturally comfortable using technology and require a much shorter warm-up period so that therapy can begin almost immediately.”

Tracey spends six hours a day, three days a week assisting students with their speech impediments. Thanks to Verizon HomeFusion, she doesn’t spend time worrying about her Internet connection, she can focus on what really matters: her students.

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The post Verizon HomeFusion Powers Speech Therapist to Help Students appeared first on Verizon Wireless Midwest Area.

Verizon Wireless has been a strong advocate for hands-free driving practices as a manner to avoid distraction on the roadways. While it may be hard to escape the allure of a new text message or email while on the road, the reality is far too many lives are ruined by inattention caused by phone usage while driving. Our friends at GizmoFusion and WNWO in Toledo recently took up the charge on promoting safe driving with recent posts regarding the It Can Wait campaign centered on eliminating texting while driving.

Featured in the GizmoFusion post is a startling set of data from various traffic safety organizations:

(Click to see full-size)

For information about apps that can help you avoid the distraction of driving distracted, check out the GizmoFusion blog post here. To see WNWO’s coverage on the It Can Wait campaign, as well as a link to sign the pledge, click here.

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Warm weather across the United States traditionally marks the beginning of the busy season for buying homes. Realtors and potential buyers alike see the return of the sun and begin the process of reviewing the market and neighborhoods for the best real estate available. However, in this new digitally connected world, there’s no need to jump in the car and drive the streets looking to see what’s available. Instead, there’s an assortment of apps for house hunting that can allow you, from the comfort of your couch, see the curb appeal of homes across the country.

Verizon’s own Zack George recently sat down with WNWO anchor Brittany Patterson to discuss some of these apps for house hunting that can help you prioritize your efforts and make the most of your weekend drive-around. Apps discussed include Zillow, Realtor.com and more:

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The post In the Market for a New Home? Consider these Apps for House Hunting appeared first on Verizon Wireless Midwest Area.

Looking back at the past 10 years, it’s pretty amazing to think about how far technology has come in such a short period of time. We live in a ‘smart society,’ where consumers and corporations, alike, are adopting mobile technology at an unprecedented rate. As wireless technology continues to evolve, it’s our responsibility as a company to educate businesses and consumers on how they can leverage it to enhance their ability to interact with the world around them.

Verizon recently hosted an Emerging Technology Tour in Plymouth, Michigan, where we invited business professionals from various industries to learn more about the broad applications of mobile technology and how machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions can help improve productivity and profitability from an operational standpoint.

“As more businesses begin to utilize mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, it’s our goal to help them determine what platform is right for their company,” said Eric Spadafora, Verizon’s director of business sales for Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky.

To help businesses learn more about the operational opportunities mobile devices provide, Verizon brought representatives from the four major smartphone providers (Android, Apple, BlackBerry and Windows) to speak one-on-one with event attendees.

The event also showcased presentations and demonstrations of M2M technology developed by some of Verizon’s Michigan-based solution providers:

Maximus Security, based in St. Clair, showcased how its mobile IP surveillance towers, complete with two-way communication and real-time video streaming, can be remotely controlled by those in the construction, law enforcement, property management and agriculture industries to maximize security efforts.

Real Green Systems, a software and marketing company for the service industry, located in Walled Lake, demonstrated how their high-tech mobile app and tablets can be used in conjunction by service companies to schedule routes, track job statuses, improve customer service and internal communication and reduce the time it takes to process paperwork.

Farmington Hills-based Illuminating Concepts has developed Intellistreets, a wireless intelligent streetlight complete with a sound system, emergency audio and visual notification, digital signage and two-way communication capabilities. Primarily used for event management and sustainability purposes by municipalities, campuses and entertainment venues, the product can be remotely controlled through a web-based application. It significantly conserves energy and reduces carbon emissions through its control system.

Kennedy Industries, a company based in New Hudson, has experienced tremendous growth in the municipal, industrial and commercial marketplace providing customers a custom SCADA solution to remotely monitor their equipment 24/7.

Verizon is committed to ensuring our customers are equipped with the most up-to-date technology and understand how to leverage its potential. If you were unable to attend this high-tech event full of a variety of mobile M2M solutions, check out the below clip for an inside peek at some of the wireless technology that was showcased.

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