High Tech Safe and Fun Halloween

Halloween is right around the corner and while people are busy picking out costumes, pumpkins and candy to hand out, it’s important to remind children and parents about the technology at their fingertips to make the night fun and safe. Along with the intake of candy, cell phone use routinely goes up on Halloween. There are many apps, videos and features to have fun while staying connected via calling, texting and utilizing locator tools. Below are a few tricks and treats:

Safety First

• Make sure wireless phones are fully charged
• Pre-program contact information of parents, neighbors and emergency services into your and your child's speed dial
• Establish boundaries - Families should have in place a familiarized route for children to follow while out on the town. AT&T's FamilyMap allows parents to easily and immediately locate a family member's whereabouts from their mobile phone or PC so they can keep a close watch
• Set alarms with Halloween-themed tones as a reminder for trick-or-treaters to text or call home periodically

Have fun with several apps for Android devices!

• Halloween Soundboard apps allow you to play spooky sounds from your smartphone. You can connect it to a wireless Bluetooth speaker to take this up a notch
• Download Costumes for Halloween- and browse costumes to get ideas of what to where. Shake your phone to see what the app picks for you
• Ghost stories give you a good scary story to tell
• SpecTrekis an augmented reality ghost hunting game. Walk or run around using GPS and your phone’s camera to find and catch virtual ghosts.

If you have to use iOS: http://mashable.com/2011/10/26/iphone-apps-halloween/

Happy Halloween!