The New York Times published an article by Nick Bilton on March 9 announcing that in late April, Facebook will unveil a new location-based feature.  This location feature will be opt-in.  Twitter also has released a location feature.  While the location features can be fun, remember to keep safety in mind when using it.  You don’t want to have unscrupulous people tracking you down or have those people visit your empty home.

~mary anne

In another battle with Cablevision, Channel 7 (ABC) has elected to pull its programming from Cablevision while negotiations are continuing.  To complain, ABC is directing you to saveabc7.com while Cablevision is directing you to email ABC to complain.  You should be able to watch your favorite shows via abc.com or hulu.com.  Since it appears that the Oscar broadcast will not be available to Cablevision customers, you can visit the official Oscar site to check on the results.

~mary anne

I finally did it! I bought a new cell phone. My last phone was nine years old! What did I buy? A Palm Pre Plus from Verizon. I have always liked my Verizon service and I felt it was time to have unlimited texting, mobil email, and web access. I now have the phone for two days and am comfortable with the email, texting, and web access and yes, I can also make and receive phone calls and retrieve my voice mail! Now comes the hard part. . . . The new WebOS requires some investigation before I move my contacts, calendar and to do list over. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will have conquered most of my new toy!

~mary anne

This week (February 21-27) is National Eating Disorder Week.  If you or a loved one is affected by this, visit the NEDA website.  There is help and hope.

Thanks to staffer Marissa Antosh for this information.

~mary anne

I love Broadway and it is so nice to peruse the offerings on playbill.com.  You can check out what’s playing on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in London.  Free membership gives you access to discounted theatre tickets, restaurant offers, and merchandise.  Playbill.com lists performance schedules, ticket prices, show run times, theatre information, advisories, synopsis, and more.

For more local entertainment, check out moviefone.com.  Easy to use to fine theatres, titles and sometimes purchase tickets.  There is a coming soon section and a new DVD release section.

Thanks to Kathy Leeds for these great suggestions!

Interested in knowing how your state tax dollars are spent?  Visit CTSunlight.org, “an electronic tool constructed by the Yankee Institute for Public Policy–so that the citizens of Connecticut can look at every line item of state government spending. . . .”  You can look at Payroll, Pensions, and Checks to Businesses and People.  The information contained in this site “was provided to the Yankee Insititute by the State of Connecticut Comptroller’s Office in response to a Freedom of Information Request.  All data contained in the database is reported as received by the State of Connecticut.”

The New York Times has an article by Michelle Higgins that talks about some nice airfare search sites:  Kayak.com, Fly.com and Momondo.com.  I searched for flights from JFK to Rome, Italy (yes, I can dream) and I really liked the results from both Kayak.com and Fly.com.  Momondo.com was a clunkier tool to use and it was not easy to find how to restrict my search to non-stop flights.  I sent them a “feedback” asking how to do this and we will see how long it takes to receive an answer.  I’ll keep you posted!

~mary anne

There are times when I see the cutest videos or great instructional videos on YouTube and want to keep them but can’t easily download them to my computer.  David Pogue recently tweeted about keepvid.com which I tried and liked.  It worked well with QuickTime and it’s a keeper!  Check it out!

~mary anne

Small wireless devices are great and I certainly love mine.  But, my library card is the most amazing access point!  Come visit us to get your card and experience all the great things it offers.

In yesterday’s New York Times,  Roy Furchgott has an article detailing how you can now watch your home TV on your iPhone!  You need the Sling Player app ($30) and a Slingbox.  My brother-in-law has a Slingbox and just loves it!  His son (my nephew) uses it to watch the family’s home television on his computer at college.  Now you never have to miss a show!

~mary anne