A mother bought her 13 year old son an iPhone 5 for Christmas this year. But he couldn’t open it until he signed this contract:

Dear Gregory

Merry Christmas!  You are now the proud owner of an iPhone.  Hot Damn!  You are a good & responsible 13 year old boy and you deserve this gift.  But with the acceptance of this present comes rules and regulations.  Please read through the following contract.  I hope that you understand it is my job to raise you into a well rounded, healthy young man that can function in the world and coexist with technology, not be ruled by it.  Failure to comply with the following list will result in termination of your iPhone ownership.

I love you madly & look forward to sharing several million text messages with you in the days to come.

1. It is my phone.  I bought it.  I pay for it.  I am loaning it to you.  Aren’t I the greatest?

2.  I will always know the password.

3.   If it rings, answer it.  It is a phone.  Say hello, use your manners.  Do not ever ignore a phone call if the screen reads “Mom” or “Dad”.  Not ever.

4.  Hand the phone to one of your parents promptly at 7:30pm every school night & every weekend night at 9:00pm.  It will be shut off for the night and turned on again at 7:30am.  If you would not make a call to someone’s land line, wherein their parents may answer first, then do not call or text.  Listen to those instincts and respect other families like we would like to be respected.

5.  It does not go to school with you.  Have a conversation with the people you text in person.  It’s a life skill.  *Half days, field trips and after school activities will require special consideration.

6.  If it falls into the toilet, smashes on the ground, or vanishes into thin air, you are responsible for the replacement costs or repairs.  Mow a lawn, babysit, stash some birthday money.  It will happen, you should be prepared.

7.  Do not use this technology to lie, fool, or deceive another human being.  Do not involve yourself in conversations that are hurtful to others.  Be a good friend first or stay the hell out of the crossfire.

8.  Do not text, email, or say anything through this device you would not say in person.

9.  Do not text, email, or say anything to someone that you would not say out loud with their parents in the room.  Censor yourself.

10.  No porn.  Search the web for information you would openly share with me.  If you have a question about anything, ask a person – preferably me or your father.

11.  Turn it off, silence it, put it away in public.  Especially in a restaurant, at the movies, or while speaking with another human being.  You are not a rude person; do not allow the iPhone to change that.

12.  Do not send or receive pictures of your private parts or anyone else’s private parts.  Don’t laugh.  Someday you will be tempted to do this despite your high intelligence.  It is risky and could ruin your teenage/college/adult life.  It is always a bad idea.  Cyberspace is vast and more powerful than you.  And it is hard to make anything of this magnitude disappear – including a bad reputation.

13.  Don’t take a zillion pictures and videos.  There is no need to document everything.  Live your experiences.  They will be stored in your memory for eternity.

14.  Leave your phone home sometimes and feel safe and secure in that decision.  It is not alive or an extension of you.  Learn to live without it.  Be bigger and more powerful than FOMO – fear of missing out.

15.  Download music that is new or classic or different than the millions of your peers that listen to the same exact stuff.  Your generation has access to music like never before in history.  Take advantage of that gift.  Expand your horizons.

16.  Play a game with words or puzzles or brain teasers every now and then.

17.  Keep your eyes up.  See the world happening around you.  Stare out a window.  Listen to the birds.  Take a walk.  Talk to a stranger.  Wonder without googling.

18.  You will mess up.  I will take away your phone.  We will sit down and talk about it.  We will start over again.  You & I, we are always learning.  I am on your team.  We are in this together.

It is my hope that you can agree to these terms.  Most of the lessons listed here do not just apply to the iPhone, but to life.  You are growing up in a fast and ever changing world.  It is exciting and enticing. Keep it simple every chance you get.  Trust your powerful mind and giant heart above any machine.  I love you.  I hope you enjoy your awesome new iPhone.  Merry Christmas!

xoxoxo

Mom

As phones become more and more powerful, I do believe parents need to set guidelines for safe and responsible usage. Furthermore, I also believe that parent’s, now more than ever, need to foster their children’s skills for face to face interactions - so many interactions are remote these days. 

Although you may not agree with every point this mother has listed for her child to agree to, we must recognize that each parent-child relationship and family values are different.

RunKeeper is one of my favorite apps to use on a smartphone to track my workouts. I’ve tried various other apps such as Endomondo, but always return to RunKeeper because of the overall better user experience. 

Version 3.0 of RunKeeper for iOS was released today and my initial impressions are that it’s much more aesthetically pleasing. I believe the developers have changed the code and made GPS tracking more accurate and hopefully a bit more power efficient. 

Over the past few years, RunKeeper has introduced many new features such as coaching and social integration, but they’ve realized that the user interface and user experience are key to making their users (such as myself) happy. For those of you looking to keep track of your cardio workouts - GPS or manual entry are allowed - RunKeeper is worth testing out. 2013 is just around the corner and I know plenty of you are resolutions to get into shape this year…this might help you keep your resolution for more than just 1 week. 

Cisco is just not happy with the way things are going in the consumer router sector. Cisco has been known to buy brands and then shut them down or sell them off…I think they’re simply tired of the unpredictable consumer market and would just like to stick to business sales. 

Here it is…one of two devices soon to be released by RIM next year. It looks like the back of the iPhone 5. 

20 years ago the first text message was sent. That message simply read: “Merry Christmas”. 

It comes as no surprise that text message numbers have dropped recently. iMessage, BBM, WhatsApp, Viber, Line, Skype, and countless other messaging apps have become increasingly popular in the recent months and years. With everyone paying a premium for data, users are likely to cut back on text messaging plans (which carriers profit nearly 100% from) by using data based services.  

When it comes down to it, do you want an iPad or an iPad Mini? It’s not priced to compete directly with the likes of other 7” tablets on the market (e.g. Nexus 7). 

It’s been about 7 month’s since the “new iPad” was released and now we have a new “new iPad” (4th generation). It’s actually much improved over the previous generation iPad and for owners of the original and iPad 2, this is the upgrade you’ve been waiting for. Just know that it comes with the lightning connector so if you have invested a lot of money in accessories with the old 30 pin connector, think twice before buying one.