Liz Gumbinner, Author at Cool Mom Tech

File this under chartreuse

I am in desperate need of storage around my house, and I’d imagine anyone who has caught a glimpse of the piles teetering over my desk would agree. So I was browsing one of my favorite browsable online catalogs this weekend and ooh, lookie what I found! The chartreuse file cabinet at CB2 is just my speed — the right balance of affordable, practical, and slightly hip, with its funky green powder-coated steel exterior. It will add a nice burst of color to a neutral desk. But above all, it will add a nice burst of oh, so that’s...

Instagram Photo Books: It was only a matter of time.

Posted by Liz Gumbinner | Photo Gifts

Ever since discovering the Instagram iPhone app, I’ve become completely obsessed; so much so that it’s all I really use to take photos of my kids anymore. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to share them with friends and family, other than emailing them individual photos every now and then–and now, I’ve found the answer. I’m almost as much in love with the new Instagram Photo Books from Keepsy as I am with the Instagram app itself. If you already have an Instagram account, you’ll use it to allow Keepsy to connect to it. Then Keepsy will...

Piquing our Geek: The Original Egg-Bot

Posted by Liz Gumbinner | Tech Toys and Random Fun

You have to be pretty hard core about your Easter Eggs to invest $195 in a machine that makes them look awesome. But that’s just what the creators of the Egg-Bot were thinking when they invented this open-source robot that applies computer controlled motion to help you create beautiful, artful, amazing eggs. You control the bot with the freeware illustration program Inkscape, and it doesn’t seem all that hard to set up. You can watch a video of it in use via Martha Stewart who became a fan it after it debuted at Makers Faire in NYC. Are we...

RSS5000 – The holy grail of feed readers

Posted by Liz Gumbinner | Social Media

For the last few years, I’ve read my favorite blogs and websites on Bloglines, a free service that organizes all your feeds in one handy place. Since it was taken over and revamped by Merchant Circle, I just haven’t had the time or the energy to re-enter all my blogs. And while many folks love Google Reader, I admit that it completely overwhelms me. Well, I think I just discovered the holy grail of feed readers. (Seriously. After I started using it, I texted Liz twice to say you have to get this!) RSS5000 is a handy, smart iPad...

Herman Miller does it to me again

Posted by Liz Gumbinner | Home Office

When holidays roll around, I definitely start thinking about how I can wrangle the chaos in my home to something, shall we say, a little more guest-friendly? Piles of papers away, cords hidden, bookshelves prettied up. One of the things that needs a shot of new around here is the big messy desk at the center of our living room. (Friends, you know of which I speak.) When I saw this one from Herman Miller I got all sweaty in a happy way. Introduced in 2008, the Herman Miller Airia Desk is such a gorgeous mid-century inspired classic, with...

iLove the iPig

Posted by Liz Gumbinner | Audio

In my own experience, so many of the cute tech gifts out there that are obviously aimed at tweens and teens don’t seem to pack as much punch or power for the price as I believe they should. Basically, you end up paying for the pretty design as opposed to the actual technology. But that’s definitely not the case with Speakal’s iPig–just one of the slew of cool gifts we’ve got on our Cool Mom Tech Holiday Gift Guide. This little pink piggy isn’t just a looker–it charges and plays your iPod thanks to five speakers and a 15W...

Desk chairs at DWR, now 15% more comfortable

Posted by Liz Gumbinner | Home Office

As the old joke about Design Within Reach goes, the name makes no sense at all when you consider the prices. But it’s still one of my favorite shops guaranteed to leave my drool marks on my laptop screen, as I imagine the fabulous, perfectly perfect home I’ll have. One day. But while I can get a platform bed elsewhere cheaper, I don’t want to skimp on my desk chair–ergonomics and all–and DWR is a good resource for the top of the line stuff. Especially this weekend during their semiannual sale, which gives you an excuse if you’ve been...

IKEA to the media organization rescue!

Posted by Liz Gumbinner | Art + Decor

I blame the current state of our living room on my sigOth’s addition to oh, pretty much anything with a controller and an on-off switch. In other words, the gaming addiction is killing us. The Wii controls are different than the PS3 remotes are different than the special edition Washington Redskins PS3 remotes and of course he needs all of them. We can’t shove it into a shallow drawer anymore, so mostly it ends up all over the coffee table. To say nothing of the games themselves. So I hit the Brooklyn IKEA recently and ooh, lookie what I...

How to Get to Inbox Zero: A girl can dream, right?

Posted by Liz Gumbinner | Tips and Tricks

I have more problems managing my inbox flow than you can imagine. Seriously, you don’t want to know how old some of the emails in my inbox are. (Okay, 4 years. Just in Gmail. My other account goes back to 2002.) So after much urging by kindred spirits on Twitter, and as a last ditch effort before declaring total email bankruptcy, I finally gave the new beta of Gmail Priority Inbox a shot. And wouldn’t you know it? It’s a major major help. If you’ve noticed that little tab at the top of your Gmail that says “Priority Inbox:...