Meeting with the Microsoft Office 365 team, I got the feeling that I was their perfect target market. I run the household, use many different brands of technology and need a better and more efficient way to do it all. They spoke of Canadian families’ frustrations about not being able to use programs across different platforms and how frustrating it is when calendars can’t sync, or numbers and financial data aren’t easily accessible. We are a new generation – multitasking and managing life from multiple locations. We manage caregivers, aging parents and our kids. We have great communication with teens with the advent of texting. Grandparents are on Facebook and Skype, and people learn better English with the help of autocorrect. (sometimes!!) We need to be productive and connected between all different devices at home and in the office, on PC and Mac.
With the new Office 365, Microsoft has solved a ton of issues for families and I am pretty impressed.
The rundown:
* Includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access
* One license for the entire household to use Office on up to five devices
* An additional 20 GB of SkyDrive cloud storage, three times the amount available with a free SkyDrive account
* 60 free Skype world calling minutes per month to call mobiles, landlines or PCs around the world
* Future upgrades, so you always use the latest time-saving technology
* Automatic save to SkyDrive, so your documents — and even your personal settings — are always available from virtually anywhere and on your favourite devices
* As you will have a microsoft acct, you get 60 mins/mth of skype long distance free
* At CA$99.00 for an annual subscription, Office 365 Home Premium costs the equivalent of CA$8.25 per month.
2. Text Bands. Now kids only have to bump fists in order to pass notes. The text bands allow the message to appear on a friend’s wrist with a light bump. You can type up to 10 characters and each band can hold up to 24 messages at once. (Turning the band off will delete all messages). Now that’s a heck of an improvement from note passing. Hallmark.com
3. ABC Sigg Water Bottles are BPA and phthalate free. You can recyclable them at the end of their lifetime, and the nonporous interior lining in the bottles ensures that it remains taste and odor neutral. Know what that means? You can put grape juice in it (or something stronger for Mom) on the weekend and send it to school with milk on Monday. www.mysigg.com
4. Fun, Fictional Flash Drives – From The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Looney Tunes to skateboard USBs, students can transport files with their favourite characters. Unfortunately, they do not come with your very own Princess Leah hologram. You’ll have to hit the rides at Disneyland for that. www.staples.ca
5. The Madbox from Land’s End is the coolest lunchbox we’ve seen in a while. Five kids from Madison, WI set out to build a better lunchbox and Land’s End liked their idea so much – they produced it! It comes with an adjustable ice pack that focuses the cold to the food that needs to stay cold and leaves room temperature food alone. No more soggy crackers. www.landsend.com
got a rock-sold back-to-school pack and even preschool shoe labels. www.mabelslabels.com
7. New for the fall, the Native ‘Jimmy’. From the makes of our favourite summer show comes the Jimmy, just in time for fall. These durable and funky boots will look great with this season’s signature trench for kids. www.shop.nativeshoes.com
8. The Lunchkin reusable sandwich bag. In Hermes orange, or course. Wait. That’s for me. Well, if you want uber-cute, they’re available in crabs, sailboats, soccer balls and school apples too. And they’re great for the environment. And cool. Need we say more? www.raspberrykids.com
9. Any flower-lover would eat every bite out out of this adorable PVC-free grab-and-go lunch purse. But be careful. Unless you snag a couple you may have a fight on your hands, as we guarantee you’ll want one too! I think I may grab one and use it for a funky back tie clutch… www.lavishandlime.com
