Zact Mobile Services

I participated in a campaign for Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Zact. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating in this campaign. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family.

When I was a kid, there was not as much technology for my parents to worry about. Like most kids, at one point I got a record player that allowed me to play the records for the read along books (remember those? - we did find them with CDs for my kids). Then, I was upgraded to a stereo and eventually had a Walkman. When I was a teenager, I asked to have a phone in my room, which I got...of course, it wasn't my own line, just my own extension so I could talk for hours with friends (we didn't have call waiting or anything fancy back then, wonder how many people tried to call the house and got a busy signal while I was on the phone).

Now, as a parent, we are faced with so much more technology. I want to be able to allow my kids to experience technology, but I want for it to be on my terms and in my control. The kids have a laptop, that sits in the family room. There is a family iPad, that is also kept in the family room. They each have an iPod, but we load the music and have to log in to allow them to download even the free apps.

The iPods have been nice, because they have given them access to e-mail, iMessage and FaceTime, which they use to reach out to grandparents and friends. It also is a nice way to check in on them when either of us is not home or when they are spending the night at a friend's house. I can send a quick iMessage and see how they are doing. Of course, they are reliant on having WiFi access to use them, so they don't work everywhere.

As my son enters Intermediate School this year, the question that seems to be looming out there, is when do we get him a phone? This would allow him the ability to call us or send us a text to check in...whether he is at a friend's house, sports or elsewhere without us. It would also allow him the flexibility to be able to text with those friends that have phones but not an iDevice.

As a parent, I have concerns with a phone. I have no precedent to say what is the right age for a cell phone. I have heard horror stories from other parents who suddenly had huge cell phone bills because their children racked up hundreds, or even thousands, of text messages in a month - far exceeding the confines of their plans. I have concerns with them having web-enabled devices and finding the wrong content by mistake (hopefully not on purpose). I worry about them using the phones at all hours. I worry about the spam/telemarketers and others that will try to contact them. I worry about them losing a phone.

As you can see in the infographic above, Zact mobile services conducted a survey that found 73% of U.S. parents are concerned about the lack of parental control of a child’s activities on mobile devices.

One of the things that I like about Zact is that the phone service can grow with your child. When the kids are younger, if you want you can limit them to a select group of contacts and make it only available for calls. With time, you can add in texting and/or open up the group of contacts. You can limit apps and web access. You can restrict access at certain times of day - bedtime, dinnertime, homework time, or whatever time you want to restrict.

You can make all changes from your own phone. Zact uses the Sprint Nationwide Network and requires no contracts. You can share minutes fully between all the phones on your plan, with just a $4.99 / month line maintenance per device.

Some other features:

Never Overpay Guarantee

If you don’t use all of your monthly plan, we’ll credit you back to the plan that fits you best and automatically lower your next bill.

Customize

With Zact, you can build your own mix of talk, text and data and adjust it anytime, right from your phone.

Parental controls

Set curfews, usage caps and app/contact list restrictions right from your device.

You can check out more about parental controls and the services on their website, www.Zact.com.

We haven't yet decided when we will get him a phone, but I am certainly intrigued by the services that Zact offers and will continue to explore the option. They offer some 'packages' which are essentially recommendations or you can choose to 'Zact-Size' your plan. I really think that we can do as well, or better with a Zact plan, than if we add him to our plan. It would cost us $20 / month to add him to our plan, on Zact even with the $4.99 fee, we could get him 100 talking minutes, 500 text messages and 250MB of data. I think that the data might be high, since he would still use WiFi at home.

What do you think? Does your child have a phone? How do you monitor their usage?

No compensation was received for this post. I participated in a campaign for Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Zact. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating in this campaign. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family.

Navigating Technology with Children

Yesterday, I joined my son on his class field trip. Since the bus was leaving right after school started, I drove him to school. After dropping off my daughter at daycare, we were getting back in the car to head to his school. My son started to get in on the 'wrong' side of the car. I made a comment that in a few years, when she no longer uses a booster seat, he'll easily be able to sit on either side of the car. Then, I said but by then, you will almost be old enough to sit in the front seat, I think. It's either 12 or 14. His response was, "I think it's 12, the year before you can have Facebook."

As a parent, one of the challenges that I face is when to let kids have what technology (and where)?

When I was a kid, I can remember that my parents tried to keep things 'even' and our 'big' Christmas gifts aligned to this approach. I can remember my frustration with the fact (seems rather minor now, but it was a big deal to me at the time) that I got my stereo when I was a freshman and got my CD player as a junior, yet my brothers got both as freshman. What I failed to recognize is that although the CD player was 'newer' technology. It wasn't yet a standard part of packaged stereo systems when I got my first stereo, but by the time my brothers got them you couldn't buy a packaged stereo without a CD player. Not only that, my first CD player was a single disc player and they got changers.

With the way that technology is evolving today, I expect to have that type of experience amplified in my children's life.

For me, one challenge is that unlike you get a bicycle at age 5, because that is when I got mine and that is when you are physically ready to learn the mechanics of riding, there aren't clear guidelines or experiences in my life to support what is the right age for technology. The first family computer at my house was one that my dad had brought home from work. I seem to recall that it was around my junior or senior year that we got it. I went off to college with no computer and relied on my roommate's computer and the computer lab for writing papers and checking e-mail (of course, only my classmates had e-mail - so I didn't get many - as an aside, I had over 80 e-mails come in while off from work yesterday to join the field trip). I got my first cell phone when I was working as a co-op. The plan didn't come with minutes and I paid the monthly fee to provide the safety of having a phone for my 1 1/2 hour drive from my hometown to my apartment for work.

The field trip yesterday made me think even more about it. There was an hour long bus ride for the field trip and many kids brought along 'technology' to pass the time. I saw Gameboys, iPods, iPads, and iPhones in use by this group of third graders. They were playing games and singing songs, fully entertaining themselves with their technology.

The reality is that our kids are growing up surrounded by technology - not just at home, but at school too. I remember there being one computer in my sixth grade class, I remember learning to program the TRS80 in junior high math class (there was one lab), I learned to type on a electronic typewriter (somewhere between manual and word processor), and I remember blue ditto copies of papers and overhead projectors using clear sheets that the teacher wrote out ahead of time. Now, they have computers at every level. There are a few in the classroom and a computer lab and a mobile computer lab. The teachers have touchscreen smart boards that they project on.

I want to balance the simple of being children with the reality that they need exposure to technology to be caught up with classmates. I like that technology can give me peace of mind. I like that my son, with his iPod and access to his friend's wireless network is able to send me iMessages to 'check in' when he is at a friend's house, so I know that things are okay. I want to take advantage of the great learning applications that are out there, but balance that with keeping them safe from all of the bad stuff that is lurking out there.

So, when is the right time to allow children access to technology? When is the right time to allow them to have their own technology? When is the right time to allow them to 'take' their technology with them (to their room, to a friend's, to school, on the go)?

So far, we have made a few moves in the world of technology, but I expect many more questions will come up soon.

The kids share a laptop that sits in our family room. It is a place for them to play games, research a report for school, and send e-mails to Grandma and Grandpa.

The kids each have a digital camera that they got when they were about 4. It is interesting to see what they capture on their cameras and to see things from their level. The nice advantage here is that we don't have to print any of them - like we did when I was a kid. Their cameras also allow them to capture video. Watching their videos also shows a lot about them and their viewpoint.

We gave them their first CD player that they could use when they were about 5. It is a little 'boombox' style player that sits on the bookshelf. We gave them books with read-along CDs to go with it.

My son got his first iPod a few years ago and when it broke, was upgraded to an iPod Touch. Now, he has a docking station with speakers so that he can listen to his iPod now instead of CDs. I think that he was seven.

The first question at hand is when does my daughter get her first iPod. Does she get his old one and he get a new one or do we buy the new one for her?

When do we allow them to have a cell phone? Do we have them take our house phone (which is a cell phone hooked up to an xLink), when they need it or do we get them their own? This is a mix of responsibilities - not losing a costly cell phone, using the phone responsibly, etc.

Do we allow them to join Facebook at 13, as long as we are their Friends?

Do we stick with a family room approach for the laptop or do they eventually get their own laptops or are allowed to take the shared one up to their rooms?

What has worked for you? How do you navigate technology with your children?

This post shared at Works For Me Wednesday - although I guess this is more of a backwards Works for Me since I am seeking input.

My Favorite Game Apps

I have a new addiction on my phone - Word Feud. Okay, it's not that new, but I still love it. A game in the style of Scrabble, you can play with friends or against random opponents. I am a geek you see. I love to play word games and other mentally challenging games (I really love a "board" game that I have called Mindtrap. My husband doesn't enjoy it, but it is such a great game that causes you to push the limits of normal thinking and think outside the box.)

What is nice is that you don't have to give the game constant attention. You can actually take up to 72 hours after your opponent's turn to play your next word. I have had games with some friends take as long as two weeks to complete.

My son recently got an iPod Touch and now plays games against us and some friends. This can be a great way to build his vocabulary. Whenever someone plays a word that he doesn't know, we have him look it up in the dictionary. I have also asked him to check a word in the dictionary if he is not sure that it is a word before playing. Now, he has attempted to play words adjacent to other words and found some two letter words that are accepted by the game, but not necessarily words that we know or would use.

I know that there is a free version of the app available for iPod, iPhone and the Droid. That is what we have. I have to deal with advertisements, but they don't bother me that much.

Speaking of free games for the Droid, iPad, and iPod, we have another game that we thoroughly enjoy and find challenge in - Unblock Me. In this game, you have a red block that you need to slide out an opening on the side of the board. The other blocks that are blocking it in can either move left and right or up and down depending on their orientation. This is a very spatial type of game that you either love because of the challenge or find frustrating. My kids like to play it a lot - although, my four year old generally asks me for help. She's still learning, so I help her out and have her watch what I am doing.

Saving Money on Your Phone Bill: Losing the Land Line

When the phone company nearly doubled our monthly bill for the same service about a month ago, we went looking for options.

A few weeks ago I asked about options, but we finally did it: we dropped our land line for cellular.

I was worried about a handful of things in making this decision:
1. I didn't like the idea of the kids using the cell phones to talk to family and friends.
2. I was worried about 911 from cellular service.
3. I didn't like the idea of the kids being home with a babysitter now or on their own in the future and there not being a phone at home.
4. I didn't want to have to change all of my contact information at the oodles of places where I have my home phone number listed.

I found a resolution for each that I was pleased with.

To me, there is still too much unknown on the impact of cell for me to be comfortable with my kids using the cell phones to talk to everyone. We did some research and a little bit of trial and error and found a system to allow us to use our home handsets to make and receive calls on our cell phone. We wound up going with the XLink and made our purchase about two weeks ago.

Simply pair your blue tooth cellphone to the XLink and plug your handset into the XLink. Then, you can use your regular handset to make and receive calls on your cell phone. A great way to take advantage of all of those Unlimited Night and Weekend minutes.

We had some concerns at first with how it would work, but as we have learned more - like keep the cell phone close to the XLink, not just in range - we found that the XLink works rather well. There is a slight delay between pick up and connection, but not more than a couple of seconds. There are even some advantages that we got with going to the XLink and cellular. We never had caller ID on our home phone, but now we are able to program our phone book into the phone and have caller ID on each of the handsets. We also didn't have call waiting on our home phone, but with the cell phone, we do have call waiting and with the addition of Caller ID, we now know whether to stay on the call we are on or switch over to the other one. This is pretty important to me since so many people that call us are long distance and the last thing I want to do is put them on hold to click over to a solicitation or other random call. You can even transfer the phone from the handset to the mobile if you need to head out. Overall, we have been pleased with the XLink.

We called and found out that 911 calls from cell phones route through the sheriff's office instead of our local police, but are then rerouted back to our local police. We weren't thrilled with this but were happy to know that the call would get to the right location. But, then I learned that the phone company maintains a "heartline" (or something like that) dial tone on the line once it is cancelled - let's you call them or 911. We plugged a corded set into one of our home phone jacks, so now we have a phone that can be used to call the local 911.

We ultimately decided to get a dedicated cell phone for our home and had our home phone number ported over. The process to port over a land line to a cell is a lot longer than I expected - they had said 24 - 72 hours, but it took most of a week (Sunday - Friday). Now that it is done though, we have a phone that stays in our house at all times, is answered by the regular answering machine and has our old home phone number on it.

Sure, there was an initial cost to purchase the XLink and because we wanted phones throughout the house, we also bought a new cordless phone system that allowed for multiple handsets to work with one base. We also added an additional cell phone to our cell phone plan, which will be a new monthly expense. Even so, our net monthly savings will be about $40 compared to the recently increased phone bill. We will pay for the XLink and the new cordless phones within the first couple of months and everything beyond will be pure savings.

Update: The group at XLink was kind enough to extend a $5 savings opportunity to my readers. To take advantage of this savings, head here and use coupon code 'busymom' at checkout.

This post linked up at Frugal Fridays and Super Savings Saturday.

Welcome to the 21st Century

We did it, we finally did it. We took the leap and we now have texting as part of our phone plan. Not only do we have texting, we now have Blackberries, so we can surf the web and read e-mail.

Call me old-fashioned, but I was fine with a cell phone that I could use for, well, calls. I didn't even have a camera on my phone.

My husband though, had this obsession that we needed to have texting. Evidently, a number of his friends inquire regularly, "did you get my text". To which, he had to reply, "no, we have texting blocked". This was a source of frustration to him.

So, anyways, if we were going to add texting, then we probably needed phones with a QWERTY keyboard to allow for us newbies to be successful at texting and lest we hurt our fingers hitting the same key multiple times. Once you got in the QWERTY keyboards, most of the phones had HTML browsers, but a few didn't. If we had internet, it only made sense to have HTML browsers (I've never used, nor had the desire to use, the internet on my phone, but I suppose as with anything now that it is readily available and part of my plan, I will use it). Of course, then the question was does the phone have a push e-mail - don't know much here, guess with push that it automatically gets sent to your phone instead of you having to log in to retrieve it.

We wound up going with the Blackberry - for the QWERTY keyboard, the HTML internet browser and the push e-mail. It also had a decent in-store discount (no rebate required). They get you on the accessories though - Car charger, memory card, etc.

I will have to let you know how we like it. I guess I will have to explore the features and things I can do with a phone with texting, I think there is a way to use my phone for Twitter, I want to check out CellFire coupons and more.