Tech Savvy Mama

Parenting in the Digital Age

Keeping in Touch With Loved Ones: Microsoft LifeCam VX-5500 and Wireless Mobile Mouse (plus giveaway!)

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Have you noticed all the great giveaways this week? Yes, dear readers, it is share the love week on Tech Savvy Mama in honor of Valentine’s Day. Today I have another great giveaway courtesy of Microsoft- a prize package containing a Microsoft LifeCam VX-5500 and a Wireless Mobile Mouse 3000.

Having a video camera connected to our home computer is essential. With grandparents who live in California, Little Miss Techie and Captain Computer spend a fair amount of time doing video chats to keep in touch with their Paw Paw and Kung Kung (Chinese for grandmother and grandfather). The video chats help maintain a connection to grandparents who live over 3000 miles away and ensure that they are never farther away than the computer screen. My parents have watched their grandchildren open presents, put on puppet shows, seen new haircuts or evidence of Captain Computer’s latest injury, and listened as Little Miss Techie has read her favorite books to them. The video camera helps to eliminate the physical distance between grandparents and grandchildren.

While our old video camera has always met our video chatting needs, it was a treat to try the LifeCam VX-5500. I love the LifeCam because it is a compact little device that can fit anywhere on my overcrowded desk (or on top of my flat screen monitor) and lets us chat online with text, voice, and video. It has an impressive list of features that include 3 interchangeable faceplates that allow for customization, 3x zoom, ability to work with many types of messaging programs, and is always in focus. Oh, and the 3 year warranty is also a very nice feature when the kids get super excited and the camera just happens to tumble off whatever surface they have shaken it off of!

Being a mom on the go who is constantly connected to the computer, Microsoft also sent me a couple of Wireless Mobile Mouse 3000s. I threw one in my laptop bag and immediately dazzled everyone upon pulling it out for the first time. It’s compact, the colors are amazing (I love the red garnet and pink topaz!) and it has to be one of the most comfortable mice I have ever used. I also like that it functions as a wireless mouse but has a snap-in receiver that plugs into your USB port to help conserve battery life. Of course it has tons of other fabulous features but really, the colors had me at hello.

So if you’d like to win the ability to video chat with loved ones from afar with a LifeCam VX-5500 ($59.95) and want to bring sexy back your computer workstation with a new Mobile Mouse ($29.95), here’s how you enter to win this amazing prize package:

  1. Leave a comment telling me who you would like to chat with and if you’d like the Red Garnet or Pink Topaz Wireless Mobile Mouse.
  2. Write a post linking to my site and giveaway then leave an additional comment with your permalink.
  3. Twitter about the contest (I’m @techsavvymama on Twitter) and leave another comment.
  4. Add me to your blogroll and leave an additional comment letting me know!

Huge thanks to Microsoft for sharing the love with Tech Savvy Mama readers and providing products for this wonderful giveaway!

And other great Tech Savvy Mama giveaways this week:

  • Disney on Ice tickets for DC Metro readers.  You have until Midnight Wednesday to enter.
  • 6 copies of System Mechanic to help speed up the performance of your PC.  Click here to enter!
  • My new favorite photo editing software, Play With Pictures is offering a full version to the first 10,000 who download the trial.  Check out this post for more details!

Fine print: To be eligible, enter by completing the above tasks and leaving your comments by Saturday, February 14 at Midnight. One person can enter up to four times by completing each of the tasks as outlined above. Winner will be chosen at random by random.org and will need to reply with their mailing address 48 hours to claim their prize. Products will only be shipped within the United States.

Thanks for reading Tech Savvy Mama through your feed!

Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
©2012

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Miss Vicki says

    Oh.h.h.h I want to see my sweet Grand babies faces and to hear their excited voices as they tell me of their day at school. I have two little girls who live hundreds of miles from me that I miss terribly.
    And I luv, luv luv the pretty pink mouse, but wouldn’t spit at the pretty red one, though! haha..afterall, its Valentines, and we’re spreadin the love!
    Thanks!
    Miss Vicki
    imasingr@wildblue.net

  3. Terri Fisher says

    We have family in South America, Chile, to be exact, that we often will Skype (love that invention!) so the LifeCam would be PERFECT for viewing all of my little nieces and nephews as they grow up! The grandparents live in Ohio, so if we could get them on board with Skype, we could use if with them, as well. And, I have to agree with you, I love the pink topaz mouse…I saw that in Staples the other day and thought it would be great in my boy-filled environment…it would really stand out as Mom’s mouse! Thanks for the great giveaways!

  5. galugo says

    I’m glad someone is keeping us up to date on all of this! As I head to Florida for my dad’s 70th birthday, I am thinking I should get a videocam so that the grandparents (and uncles) can keep in touch with our brood. My neighbor just got one and described how great it was for her parents (who live in Thailand) to actually see her son blow his birthday candles out at his party. Good technology! As for the mouse, I’d go for the red. Many thanks!

    P.S. Any chance that you or your hubby might do a review of netbooks and what their true capabilities are? I am so curious about them. They look great, so I know there must be a catch.

  6. Smiling Mama says

    So fun! Well, secretly I want the pink mouse BUT because I’d most likely have to share with my hubby, I’ll say red. We’d talk to relatives in California, Ohio and Pennsylvania. And, I added you to my blogroll (actually have to sincerely apologize, I thought you were already there!!)

  7. Katrina E. Kugel says

    My boys would LOVE the camera to keep in touch with Grandparents in California, nephews in Minnesota and a beloved uncle in Brazil. Thank you!

  8. graceunderautism says

    Hubby is leaving for training in a few weeks and then to Korea for a year (Air Force). He has a camera built in to his laptop, but I do not. I’d love for him to be able to see me and the kids.
    I like the pink topaz mouse. It’d go nicely with my pink cell and camera. 🙂

  9. Jen says

    I would give this to the grandparents who live in Texas so they can see the kids more. I like the pink mouse but would have to go with the red b/c my husband might have some issues.

  10. hazel says

    I’d like to chat with my sister and I’d love to get the red garnet mouse!
    mitanari[at]yahoo[dot]com

  11. DBN says

    I would love to have this so that the kids can talk to my Dad that lives out of town. He is the only grandparent that lives out of town and I think he feels left out of the every day stuff the other grandparents get to see.

  16. Anonymous says

    MFJ:
    I would chat w/ my best friend that lives in another state. I would choose the red garnet.
    watson(at)zerostreet.net

  17. ProjectHope7 says

    Wow..what an opportunity! I would love to win this set to chat with my children in California and Massachusetts and Florida, and my dear dear friends all over the usa, and in China, Hungary, Finland, Turkey and beyond!
    And then I would learn to use it so I could have a web seminar or web cast, which I would love to learn how to do!!
    Cathy b

  20. pmom says

    my 2 & 1/2 yr old loves to chat with her granny and i love to chat with my mom 😉
    I like the color Pink so Pink Topaz wud be my choice…
    thanks !!!

  23. Maureen says

    My sis and mom and family live pretty far away. I would love to see them more often.
    I’d love a garnet mouse but wouldn’t mind the pink either!

  24. amweeks says

    We would sooooo love to chat with my MIL and FIL! The kids would love to chat with Grammy & Pappy, and quite frankly (and this is embarassing), they always seem to have way better technology than we do! I mean, we’re the technology generation and it seems my FIL is always explaining his latest & greatest gadget to ME! Just once I’d love for them to be the ones thinking “very cool!”!

    And I’d prefer the Red Garnet Wireless Mobile Mouse.