Check out some of these apps to help your green thumb.

• If you have a busy lifestyle and forget when you last watered your garden or flowers, the My Garden Lite App will keep track for you. This app will alert you when your plants are thirsty.
• The MyGarden Appis the mobile version of the MyGarden.org website. It allows you to manage your garden, add messages, find gardeners and plants, and lookup info on plants, trees, perennials and shrubs.
• To keep a journal of your garden’s growth, the Gardener App is a nice garden journal. It has a planting schedule and information about each plant you selected for your garden.
• If you have limited space and choose a container garden  the Garden Squared App will help you determine what would be best to plant in the amount of space you have.

Best wishes for a fruitful spring and summer garden – pun intended!

Apps Included in the Smartphone App Pack:

• NFL Mobile (Premium): Keep up with the latest NFL updates, games, drafts and trades.
• Verizon Video: Watch full episodes of your favorite TV shows on your Verizon smartphone, as well as live news, sports and more.
• Ringback tone subscription: Personalize what your callers hear when they call you.
• Visual Voicemail: No more calling your voicemail to hear your messages. Click on your app and go. View and listen to your voicemail messages in the order of your choice. Reply to your voicemail messages via voicemail, call back or text. Save your voicemails forever.
• VZ Navigator: Turn your phone into a powerful GPS Navigation System. View upcoming overhead signs on your phone, virtual city views, freeway views, satellite views and more. Your GPS is updated every 60 seconds using information from 1.8 billion traffic probes throughout the U.S. With spoken alerts you get real live updates on traffic jams and detours.
• Usage Controls: Monitor and manage your minutes, data and texting. Manage your kid’s texting and usage. With Usage Controls you can monitor your plan and save money by helping to prevent overages and extra charges every month.

Wisconsin residents can visit your nearest Pearce Wireless to have the App Pack added to your device. You can even ask our staff to show you how to use each app!

Tough As Nails
Defend your phone. With a KEVLAR fiber back plate the RAZR Maxx has a tough back that limits dents and dings. Corning Gorilla Glass reinforces the front and limits scratches and scrapes, keeping your phone tough as nails.

MotoCast
Stream your music, documents and access pictures on your Droid RAZR Maxx from your home or work computer anywhere with Verizon Wireless’s 4G LTE Speeds.

Picture Perfect
Capture memories with an 8.0MP rear facing camera that will enhance every detail and every moment with ease and clarity. With your 4.3” touchscreen you can view and edit your pictures and enjoy every fun moment you have at your fingertips. It also includes a front facing HD Webcam great for Video Conferences, Skype, video recording and self-pictures. It’s absolutely picture perfect!

Have questions about the DROID RAZR MAXX? Post them here, or if you’re in/near Wisconsin, visit a Pearce Wireless near you!

With iPhone and iPad apps like Awards Hero: Oscars Edition, you can view 2012’s entire nominee’s list with full-screen trailers, movie info and connect up with your Facebook.  Awards Guide: The Oscars is a similar app but also includes an awesome database with all of the Oscars History dating back to the inaugural year 1929.  It is an easy way to see who won what or just see what else your favorite actor has been nominated for in the past.

And when you are all done with the Oscars, there are multiple ways for you to enjoy your favorite award-winning movies with apps like Blockbuster, Netflix, Hulu and Redbox. For movie reviews, the IMDB app is one of the best. All of these apps are totally free!

Home Phone Connect is a device offered by Verizon Wireless that allows you to operate your home phone on a wireless signal and SAVE MONEY in the process. The Verizon Wireless Home Phone Connect plan is only $19.99 per month with unlimited minutes and free long distance.

You don’t even need to buy a new home phone; you can use your existing phone. Instead of plugging your phone into the wall, you just plug your phone into the Home Phone Connect device.

Many local home phone carriers’ plans are well over $40 per month. That’s not including all the other goodies that you may want, such as Caller ID, 3-Way Calling, Call Waiting and Call Forwarding.  Each one of those services may cost you more.

With Home Phone Connect, the basic number Caller ID is FREE. If you want the name instead of the number, it’s only $2.99 per month. As another free service, you can share your name ID with other users so it doesn’t come up “Wireless Caller.”

There are tons of benefits to Home Phone Connect, but there may be a couple of drawbacks.  If you have a fax machine, Home Phone Connect won’t work with that, but you can use “efax” if you have internet. The only other possible problem would the signal strength in your home.  Dead areas are almost a thing of the past, but they still do exist in some remote places. You’ll want to have your Pearce Wireless rep. check your address for signal strength prior to activation, and make sure you set up your device right away in case you need to take advantage of the 14-day worry-free guarantee.

• M.A.S.H. Valentine takes the classic MASH game and gives it a Valentine’s Day/Dating spin. Find out who will be your Valentine crush, what he will give you for Valentine’s Day, and what you will do that evening. MASH will also predict whether you and your Valentine will become happily Married, Acquaintances, Soulmates, or Happy (get it MASH?)!
• Tom’s Love Letters: New from the creators of the Talking Tom app is the Tom’s Love Letters app for Valentine’s Day. See Tom as he’s falling in love with Angela, and create neat cards to send to loved ones. (iPhone & Android)
• Save a flower and pick the petals using the Loves me, Loves me not? 3D Free Android app instead. If you want a similar app for a Windows phone, try Love Petals. The premise is the same, but you can also put it into prank mode to have a little fun with your friends!
• Games: There are many game apps related to Valentine’s Day from Valentine Slots to versions of Memory and Bubble Blast decked out in hearts.

With the thousands of Valentine apps out there, you’re bound to find one you’ll love (pun intended)!

• WIFI: When wifi is active, your phone scans for available wifi connections constantly, which will drain your battery, so disable wifi when you’re not using it. Likewise, if you’re in an area where you won’t get a signal, put your phone in airplane mode. This will keep your device from using extra battery power to search for a data connection.
• Bluetooth: If you’re not using your bluetooth device, don’t make your phone search for it.
• GPS: GPS constantly runs in the background. If you’re not using navigation, you may be able to shut this option off. When you need it, you can quickly turn it back on.

Check your phone’s screen settings. Having the phone set to maximum brightness uses more battery power. To get more out of your phone’s battery life, dim the brightness or backlight of your screen a bit.

Use the battery mode & battery saver features. You can control the syncing of your device. For example, many phones have a nighttime saver option that makes your phone stop syncing data after 15 minutes of inactivity during off-peak hours (10 p.m. – 5 a.m.). You can even customize the settings to set your own off-peak hours.

If you still have issues with battery life, ask your cell phone sales rep for assistance. They can recommend even more things to try based on your specific device or let you know what options are available for extra batteries, travel chargers, etc.

Created in PicSay. Time: 2 minutes. My brother's dog sends the cutest holiday greetings!

It’s just a few days before Christmas, and you haven’t started working on Christmas cards. Forget about scrambling to find current addresses, address envelopes, sign cards and stop at the dreaded post office…just use your smartphone! There are plenty of apps available to help you, including the two below that are free, fast and simple.

1. PicSay is a free app that allows you to edit photos on your phone. You can crop images, brighten the image, adjust the color, add word balloons and add your own text. You can then send your completed picture with the holiday greeting of your choice via email or text message. You can also post it directly to facebook or twitter. You can do even more to your photos with the paid version.

2. Doodlr is completely free app for electronically creating and sending greeting cards. You can use one of the ready-made designs or create a design of your own from scratch. Add your own photos and text for a personal touch. These cards can also be sent via text message or email, as well as shared via facebook and twitter.

Created using PicSay and Doodlr. Time: 3-4 minutes. The photo was taken at our Withee store after a check presentation to LeRoy Butler for his breast cancer foundation on 12-6-11.

Charlie Brown Christmas App Screenshot

Car Travel – If you’re traveling by car with the entire family, use your smartphone/tablet to keep the kids from asking, “Are we there yet?” 100 times. Many popular apps have special versions for the holidays, such as Angry Birds Seasons, Bubble Blast Holiday and Christmas Memory. New this year at $6.99,  the app for “A Charlie Brown Christmas” has gotten a lot of love from kids and adults with its interactive scavenger hunt that incorporates dialogue and music from the original show. Your passengers can start the family game-time in the car, too, with apps for Uno, Scrabble and more.

Air Travel – If you’re flying this holiday season, a must-have is My TSA for iPhone. For Android users, the app is available via mobile web at www.tsa.gov/mobile. It tells you what you can and can’t bring through security, as well as security wait times and airport statuses.

Lists – Whether a packing list or a to-do list, plenty of apps are available to keep you organized. Just a few options are: Evernote, Astrid Task/Todo list and Taskos To-do List.