The estimated reading time for this post is 8 minutes
Q. I’m a big fan of your blog, I’m trying to become more tech-y and your articles have helped a lot. I’ve gotten much better since I’ve started reading The Wonder of Tech but I want to use tech even more to keep up. I was wondering what tech you use in your daily life to see if there something I should be using.
Can you do an article about the tech you use in your daily life? I need some inspiration!
A. Excellent question. You’re right, The Wonder of Tech is all about fun and useful tech to make your daily life better. I use plenty of tech in my daily life so I’m happy to share that with you. I’ve written about most of the tech I use in my everyday life, but not all of it. This gives you a rundown of my go-to tech that works for me.
What works for me may not work for you. I consider and research my tech carefully to determine what’s a good fit for me. But you may have different needs that your tech should serve. I hope what I use does inspire you to make your tech help you in your daily life!
Gadgets
Gadgets and devices are the foundation of tech. If you use tech as a tool, you want to be sure that the tool is a good fit for you. I tend to prefer tech with large screens.
MacBook Pro 17″ (a/k/a The Beast)
The computer I use is a MacBook Pro 17″ (late 2011) running Yosemite. I’ve upgraded my memory to 16GB as I tend to keep a lot of tabs open at once.
My computer is an example of how the latest tech may not always be the greatest for you to use. I like big screens so I’m very reluctant to replace my computer as Apple doesn’t make a 17″ laptop any more.
iPhone 6 Plus
I’ve been using the iPhone 6 Plus for nearly five months and I’m a big fan of Apple’s biggest phone. The larger screen size and longer battery life make a big difference in my daily life. I no longer take my iPad with me everywhere I go. I even wrote and published an entire blog post on my iPhone 6 Plus when I was traveling in March.
People often ask me if the phone is too big but I haven’t found that to be the case. I haven’t dropped it yet (though I’m fairly certain I just jinxed myself by saying that…), and yes, the 6 Plus does fit in my pocket. But I have big paws so people with smaller hands may prefer a more petite phone.
Apple Watch Sport 42mm
This is my third week with my Apple Watch and I am truly using it all the time. The ability to read and respond to text messages from my wrist has been incredibly handy.
The Activity tracker app is also interesting and has helped me stay more active. I’m required to stand at least one minute per hour for 12 hours to meet my goal. That definitely has made me get up from the computer and move around more (which is a very good thing!).
=> See my initial impressions of the Apple Watch: Getting Started with the Apple Watch
Entertainment/Information
Every day I listen to podcasts, audiobooks and music while I drive, exercise, walk the dog, and do anything not requiring too much concentration.
Audible
By listening to Audible, I’m able to read audiobooks at a much more rapid pace than if I had to sit down and read. Audible has Daily Deals that can save you money and help you discover new books. Don’t miss Audible’s Great Courses collection so you can learn while you listen.
⇒ Check out, Audible: My Favorite Way to Read a Book
Podcasts
I listen to podcasts daily using the Overcast app. Podcasts help keep me updated on tech, give me info about my favorite TV shows, and inform me about interesting subjects.
Some of my favorite podcasts:
Tech
- Today in iOS
- The Cell Phone Junkie
- Pop Tech Jam
- TechCrunch
- MacOS Ken
- Kindle Chronicles
- iMore
- Oh So Pinteresting
- MacCast
Non-Tech
Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech for an upcoming review of the Overcast app.
Apps
Zite
Zite is still my go-to app. I read it daily for information about tech and other news. Last year Flipboard bought Zite but so far hasn’t shuttered the app. I hope Zite continues to be available!
⇒ See, Zite – My Go To App!
Timehop
I’ve been checking this daily to see adorable photos of my girls from years past. How quickly they grow up!
⇒ Don’t miss Timehop: Get a Daily Blast from Your Past!
Scramble
Scramble is a fun, free app lets you compete against others in a Boggle-like game. You can challenge players one on one or join tournaments to play against others in real time. Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech for an upcoming review of Scramble.
Computer Tools
Chrome
Chrome is my browser of choice because of the availability of extensions. I can do so much in the background because of Chrome extensions.
⇒ See, 15 Fantastic Chrome Extensions to Make Your Life Easier
Memory Clean
Keeping a large quantity of tabs open on my computer requires a lot of memory. Even with 16GB of memory, I can run low after a while.
I use Memory Clean to clear out my memory and help my computer run more smoothly. Check out Memory Clean, available for free in the Mac App Store.
Gmail
I use Gmail as my email service because of the many tools I can use with Gmail such as
iPhone Tools
I’m on my iPhone throughout the day so I use shortcuts to make my life easier.
Do Not Disturb
Do Not Disturb is scheduled to turn on every night at bedtime and off every morning. Before Do Not Disturb was available, I would often forget to turn off the ringer at night or turn it on again in the morning.
⇒ Learn more at Do Not Disturb – The iPhone Feature You Should Be Using
Control Center
I swipe up from the bottom of my iPhone screen to access Control Center to turn on the flashlight, control audio, access the camera, turn on Do Not Disturb and more.
⇒ Find out about using Control Center in 13 Super Shortcuts for Your iPhone – in Control Center.
Siri
I use Siri now even more now that I have my Apple Watch. For some reason, Siri seems to understand me better using my Watch than my iPhone.
Today Widgets
I swipe down from the top of my iPhone screen every morning to see the weather, read the news and see the traffic in one place. Today widgets are so handy I don’t even have to unlock my phone to get this information.
⇒ See, Today Widgets – A Handy New Tool for Your iPhone
Social Media
I’m using Pinterest more and more as my go-to search engine. When I’m entertaining, I’ll get recipe, theme, invitation and more ideas from Pinterest.
I recently painted numerous rooms in my house and got inspiration from Pinterest. I could save the paint colors on a board and see images of rooms with paint colors I was considering.
Don’t miss ⇒ What’s New at Pinterest — Smart Feed and App Pins!
RiteTag
The RiteTag extension shows me as I type the strength of hashtags on Twitter. Sometimes a minor tweak to a hashtag can make a big difference in how likely your hashtag is to be found on social media. RiteTag gives me this information without me having to take another step.
Must read => RiteTag – A Handy Tool to Make the Most of Your Tweets!
Buffer
Buffer lets me schedule posts, add images to my tweets and shows me which posts were the most effective. As of last week, Buffer includes Pinterest so I can schedule my pins as well.
Check out => 2 Easy Steps to Greatly Increase the Chances of Your Tweets Being Read!
Blogging
Flickr
Flickr is a main source of photos for me to use on this blog. I use Advanced Search to find images available for modification free via Creative Commons.
=> See, How You Can Find Very Interesting Flickr Photos to Use for Free!
Flickr also lets you have 1TB (1000 GB) of storage space for free so I store a lot of my photos there as well.
PicMonkey
PicMonkey is my go-to site for editing images. I can layer images, add fonts, change colors, add effects and resize images in PicMonkey. I pay for a Royale account to be able to use all of the features of PicMonkey.
Don’t Miss => 4 Top Tips to Use PicMonkey Like a Pro!
CommentLuv
Comments from readers are always appreciated at The Wonder of Tech. To reward fellow bloggers for commenting, I use the CommentLuv plugin that gives commenters a link back to their blog posts.
Triberr
Triberr is a must-use site for any blogger. You join tribes of fellow bloggers in your niche to share each others’ articles on Twitter. Triberr has helped me meet many bloggers and get the word out about Wonder of Tech articles.
I can always tell that Triberr works because when my article doesn’t appear in Triberr my traffic is much lighter.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics tells me in real time how many people are on my website, which articles they’re reading and which countries they’re from. I also can usually tell which source is sending me the traffic.
Clicky
Clicky is another analytics program that gives me a heat map so I can see which parts of articles readers are most interested in.
WordFence
The WordFence plugin helps keep my site secure and notifies me when someone logs into my site.
Pingdom
Pingdom notifies me when my website is down. That shouldn’t happen for very long but I can be on top of the situation more quickly when I know about it because of Pingdom.
Your Thoughts
What tech do you use in your daily life? Do you have any tips about tech that can help people in their daily lives? Do you use any of these tech tools in my list? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Look at you with all the gadgets. 🙂 – I definitely will give Zite a try. I use many of the same. The one I use religiously that wasn’t listed above is Canva. Most days I can’t believe it is free.
Thanks for sharing Carolyn.
Hi Steven, Yes, I highly recommend Zite, I just worry that some day it will disappear. When Flipboard bought it nearly a year ago, Zite was supposed to go away and the tech be used by Flipboard. So far that hasn’t happened yet. Yippee! I will say that when I recommend Zite, people generally circle back to tell me how much they are enjoying the app.
Great suggestion! Canva is a fantastic, free photo editing website. I have used it often, but I tend to do my final editing of my Canva images on PicMonkeybecause I have more flexibility with fonts, sizing, layering, etc. on PicMonkey. But Canva has tons of inspirational backgrounds, layouts, stickers and images so I keep going back to it.
I’m glad Canva works so well for you, Steven. Thanks so much for sharing your excellent recommendation!
Hi Carolyn,
Interesting list!The only techy I would recommend is Yoast for improving SEO. My most useful gadget is my Nikon D3200 with 55mm, 105mm and 300mm lenses! I like my Samsung laptop, but the hard drive is getting slower, so I’m considering taking a screwdriver to it and installing a solid state drive. I’m still considering how to save all my software without reinstalling it all. I’ll probably make a mirror copy of my HDD. I’m getting used to my Android tablet, which I will use for showing people photos. I keep getting faulty micro SD cards, hopefully the next one will be fine!
I use Google Chrome, the best thing about that is right click to search for a word or phrase and you can get the URL of a picture easily too.
I’ve just started using a camcorder that sticks to my car windscreen, that’s quite good. I make videos for ex-pats to see on Facebook! The picture software I use is Windows photo gallery and Photoscape, even though I have Photoshop and After-shot on my computer. I like quick and easy! I get less techy all the time, I don’t think I have the patience that I used to have to learn new things. I’m always experimenting though, especially with photography!
Hi Mike,
That’s great you’re on Chrome. Check out Image Search by Google extension. When you right-click on an image you have a menu option to search Google for the source of the image. Very handy! https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/search-by-image-by-google/dajedkncpodkggklbegccjpmnglmnflm
Super suggestion about Yoast. Yoast didn’t work with my old Thesis theme so I never used it. Now that I’m on Genesis, I could try Yoast but I’d have to go back and enter keywords for my 800 articles I’ve already published and I’m not able to spend my time that way. I wish I had stared using Yoast from the beginning of my blogging career.
A friend of mine just replaced his hard drive with a solid state drive and is very happy with the results. I hope you find a good micro SD card, Mike. I’ve never had a faulty one but I imagine that’s very frustrating.
Very cool you’re using a dashcam to record videos for ex-pats. Soon you’ll have a YouTube channel!
Hi Carolyn,
This post having all top tool informtion, some tool I also use regularly. I like canva online image editor tool regularly for make new images for my post. I think this is also a great tool.
Before couple day I bought one premium tool Ninja Blaster, this is awesome tool for facebook group sharing, by this tool we can share post into unlimited facebook group any specific particular time. great article.
Regards
Mohd Arif
Hi Mohd, Great to hear from another Canva fan! Yes, with Pinterest being such a powerful site, that’s excellent you’re making creative images on Canva.
Thanks for the Ninja Blaster suggestion. I hadn’t heard of that for Facebook and I’ll have to check that out!
Hi Carolyn,
My son has my 17″ MacBook Pro now. The only reason I made the switch was because I was carrying it with me everywhere, and it was just taking up too much space (and a bit heavy). But it’s still awesome.
I am using many of the same tools and apps you are using, but one I have just started using is Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock for my iPhone. It’s amazing and wakes me up when I’m ready. I have just been testing it for a few days, but it’s been making a huge difference already.
Hi Jens, Yes, the 17″ MacBook Pro isn’t nearly as portable as smaller, thinner, lighter Macs, which may be why Apple doesn’t make them any more. In my ideal world, I would have a smaller MacBook too for when I’m on the go. For now, I use my iPad and iPhone if I don’t want to haul my laptop with me.
Thanks for suggesting Sleep Cycle. I had heard of it but haven’t tried that yet. I’ll have to check that out!
Hi Carolyn,
That’s a cool list you’ve put together.
I can see we share the same Apple strategy. I’m using the Macbook Air (+external monitor at the desk), iPhone5 (sooo, last year!) and old iPad occasionally. Interesting you like the 6+, I could not make my mind up about that. And the Apple watch – can you actually see things on that, especially compared to your 6+?
On the blogging front, I’m using Canva and Pixabay for images/graphics. I’m with you on Wordfence – great deterrent to unwanted visitors!
Google Analytics…hmmm…just did a post on that…I prefer Clicky most of the time…
Thanks again for sharing your list!
– David
Hi David, Yes, we are aligned when it comes to our tech! I’m a big fan of the 6 Plus. When I see the iPhone 6 I think it looks small. Yes, the 6 Plus has spoiled me.
I haven’t had any difficulty reading text on the Watch. I have the text set to large and the white font on a black background is easier to read.
You and I also have similar strategies with images for our blog posts but we use slightly different tools and sources.
Great to hear from a fellow Clicky fan. I found your article on Google GAS fascinating!
Hey Carolyn you came to my blogging niche blog. But, you may not know that I also run a tech blog.
I love to make my blog readers know about the features of new tech gadgets.
Carolyn you’re making use of Macbook Pro, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Sports Watch which are my favorite. I wish to buy all of them someday soon.
Technology helps us in staying connected with people and we definitely need best gadgets for handling our blogs easily.
Hi Mohit, That’s great you’ve got a tech blog too. I really admire people who can keep up with more than one blog at once. It takes all I have to keep up with tech and The Wonder of Tech!
Thank you for visiting and taking the time to leave a comment here, Mohit.
I use a of tools from the list but there are some that are completely new to me. And seriously, two consecutive days and it feels like every blog is read has triberr in the recommendations. I need to check that.
Anyways, thanks for this post. The tool that helps you check the strength of hashtags is going to be really helpful. 🙂
Hi Manpreet, I’m a huge fan of Triberr. Anyone who has a blog and is committed to it should be on Triberr. It’s a game-changer, both with the traffic it can drive to your blog and with the relationships you can form with fellow bloggers.
Yes, check out RiteTag to see the difference using the proper hashtags can make.