by Liz Gumbinner | Tips and Tricks
While it was announced on May 30, a lot of parents still don’t know that the FTC announced refunds are now available for unauthorized in-app purchases on the Amazon Appstore. That means you, kids, and your itchy little in-app purchase-happy fingers. This is all...
by Liz Gumbinner | Tips and Tricks
I’m grateful to my daughter who (much to the chagrin of tweens and teens everywhere, I’m sure) tipped me off to a trick I wasn’t aware of: Kids can easily download new apps to their devices without your knowledge, if you have Apple Family Sharing in...
by Liz Gumbinner | Father's Day Gifts, Tips and Tricks
If you missed the boat on photo gifts for Father’s Day or Mother’s Day…no, wait! You didn’t! We all live in the land of the smartphone cam, after all, and if you’ve got a camera — especially that dandy iPhone 7S — and a place...
by Liz Gumbinner | Father's Day Gifts, Gear + Hardware
We love excuses to shop for cool new tech, and we love excuses to shop for the cool dads in our lives. Put them together…and we’ve got some really creative, fun ideas for cool tech gifts for Father’s Day. Whether he’s a traveler, an adventurer,...
by Liz Gumbinner | Best Apps, Educational Apps
There are so many cool educational channels on YouTube for tweens and teens, but I don’t think that a lot of parents think to open our YouTube app when we look for educational resources for our kids. But we should. Let’s put it this way: when I ask my kids...
by Liz Gumbinner | Life and Home
It’s amazing how far home tech design has come, even since we started this site six years ago. What once may have looked sleek and amazing — a baby monitor, a humidifier, even a lawnmower — now looks clunky and dated compared to what’s...
by Liz Gumbinner | Gear + Hardware
I’m still making good use out of my trusty, late 2013 MacBook Pro, but what I’m not making good use out of is the original power adapter and cord. It frayed (as with so many Apple cords over the years, sigh) and I immediately replaced it. Only —...
by Liz Gumbinner | Educational Apps, Best Apps
We’re all for loading up our kids’ tablets (or uh, the ones they steal from us) with apps that help keep them entertained while hopefully imparting a little more educational value than “how to shoot birds.” Especially as summer creeps closer,...
by Liz Gumbinner | Social Media, Tips and Tricks
As someone who’s not on Snapchat (what? I’m old!) I admit I’m excited about the novelty of the new Instagram 3D facial filters, as anyone who follows our @CoolMomPicks Instagram Stories can tell today. I put together the quick, Cliff’s Notes...
by Liz Gumbinner | Internet Safety
We all issued a collective gasp around here this week, reading about the online game called Blue Whale, A.K.A. The Suicide Game. And of course right away I was hoping it was a big hoax. When I checked out the details, I was kind of hoping it was some awful...