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


10 reasons I missed my LGG4

I’m sure most of you have heard me moaning like a little girl about the death of my LGG4 followed by the long wait for it to be repaired & returned and some of you may possibly wondering why I keep banging on about the phone. Well yes partly I am a bit of a phone obsessed geek but the phone itself is genuinely the best phone I’ve had the pleasure of owning so far! So much so I decided to share with you 10 reasons I love it so much!

 

  1. Screen size – The LGG4 has a 5.5 inch Quantum 2K IPS (2560 × 1440 resolution 534 PPI) display. Something I never thought would bother me was screen size (considering I once had the Virgin Lobster 485 teeny tiny phone) but after using the G4 for 8 months then reverting back to smaller screen size for a month I seriously appreciate having a larger screen again. The images are so crisp and clear on the G4 anything smaller just doesn’t compare!
  2.  Memory – In this day and age with so many apps and games you need a decent amount of memory on most phones and 2GB really didn’t cut it. I could just about download facebook, twitter, instagram & wordpress but then couldn’t receive emails unless i deleted them constantly at least on the G4 with 32GB I never run out of memory & if I did there is a Micro SD slot to expand the memory further.
  3. Camera quality! – OK I may not be great at taking photo’s but I honestly love taking them and having them to look back on especially with the girls constantly growing and learning. Whilst I’m still learning my way around camera’s it really is noticeable how amazing the G4 camera is all round! Izzy was as pleased as me as she absolutely loves the front camera to take a good selfie!LGG4
  4. Signal quality – The LGG4 picks up my wifi 11 floors down and a good few yards away in the college opposite us yet my old HTC One X and even the Samsung Galaxy Young I have used over the last month I can barely get a wifi signal in my own kitchen! As for calls and texts my signal rarely fails on the G4 which eases a lot of my anxieties whereas the galaxy young rarely had signal.
  5. Phoning the fish! – I turned off my Smart Hub whilst I was without the G4 as I just didn’t have the memory to install it on the galaxy young and since the Mr’s phone is dying a slow death it literally takes hours to download anything even using wifi (his signal is pants!) I genuinely couldn’t be bothered to set it up on his phone. Now the G4 is back I plugged it all back in so we could continue phoning the fish. With the added Power Outlet I won the fish tank light and pump are now both using a power outlet and I even got round to installing the app on the Mr’s phone too.
  6. Google apps – Although the galaxy young also had Google apps and the capability to sync ONE Google account and the lack of memory meant it didn’t sync regularly or receive notifications properly. I have 3 Gmail accounts I like to keep on top of so only being able to sync one account was hell especially as I wasn’t able to sync my blogging Gmail account meaning I was late replying to a few emails! Now I have all my accounts synced up and get notifications again I can keep on top of it all much better. I can also use the calendar again which is extremely important for me to have since I forget EVERYTHING!
  7. Blogging tools – With the G4 I have the space to keep a range of apps including WordPress and Quick memo+ meaning I can write out posts as they come to me and save them to go back and edit them later. I can check all my social accounts regularly and chat to other bloggers again although admittedly I’ve done very little of this so far as I’ve been busy filling the phone up with apps and syncing my accounts when I’m not busy with life.
  8. Gaming – Oh how I missed playing games in moments of boredom! With lack of space, a tiny screen and awful signal I couldn’t play a single game. The graphics are amazing on the G4 and I am loving playing games such as reckless racing 3, crack attack and word dash again!
  9. Music – The G4 sound quality is great and I love listening to music when I’m on public transport or walking somewhere alone and I couldn’t wait to download all my favourite songs again ready for a moment of freedom 😉 haha!
  10. Youtube – I never realised just how much I relied on youtube until it was unusable on the galaxy young. Eva asks a ton of questions and some times the easiest way to explain things to her is by showing her educational videos and I missed being able to quickly show her a video. My crochet has been neglected slightly too as I was using my phone to watch tutorials.

So there are ten reasons why I missed my LGG4 (and hated the Samsung Galaxy Young). If your phone was damaged what would you miss most?

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!!