Big Phone? Use Bottom Notifications with Metro

If you look at the current landscape of the smartphone world, you will notice that they are trending to the larger Phablet size.  The recent reports that the all mighty iPhone has a Phablet in the works is proof of this.  As a Phablet user myself, I find the most annoying part about having a Phablet is the way you have to access the notifications.  Making the long reach from the bottom of the phone to the top an be an uncomfortable thing.  I have started using Metro Notifications to get around this. Metro notifications uses the Windows Phone type of notifications that show up as a large bar on the phone that can be swiped away.  The initial configuration is set that the notification show up on the top of the phone.  This can be modified to show the notifications on the bottom. 

To configure the application for bottom notifications do the following: 

-  Open the Metro Notifications app.

-  Go to the notifications option.
-  Change the position to bottom.

This option alone makes using a Phablet much more efficient. 

Over 30 School Tools

For thirty somethings that are in school trying to add to their resume and move to higher income brackets going for more schooling is the answer for many.  Making the school experience successful  for an adult with obligations such as work, house duties, a spouce and children is a hard thing to do.  As I finally received my degree at 35 , I took a hard look at what it took now, versus what it would take someone fresh out of high school.  There is a significant difference, so the approach that adding school to a busy adult's life, needs to be handled in a very special way.  I will detail some of the tools that I used to manage my school life in a way that I could still take care of some of my home duties.

The first would be a Phablet (phone /tablet) .  Not an iPhone not a regular smartphone. When the girls need to get to dance , the boy needs to get to football practice and the wife's van needs servicing, time is a premium. The key to this is to use google docs so that you do your homework where ever you are. Having a   large phone can  a parent it is hard to nail down open windows of time during the week.  The key is to be able to work on tasks in those stolen moments.  Some examples of stolen moments:

- Waiting for kids to get out of extra coricular activities like dance or sports.
- Waiting in the grocery checkout line.
- In the bathroom (yep). 
- Pretty much any time that you would normally play candy crush saga, replace it with homework.

The next thing that I would suggest is to buy a tablet.  A tablet can be very useful as you can use it for reading most text books and access your schools website.  The benefit I have found over a laptop is the speed of access.  Since accessing your tablet is no different than waking your phone from sleep,  you can get to work quickly.

Finally I would purchase evernote premium.  Evernote is a note program that becomes your hub for all of our information.  I am going to go more into this in later blogs, but the true benefit of the software is the flexibility of it. This makes managing the information overload that comes with being in your 30s and in school more manageable.