Liz Gumbinner, Author at Cool Mom Tech

The Apple product warranty you may not know about…but should

by Liz Gumbinner | Gear, Helpful Services

Turns out the Apple One-Year Warranty is way more flexible than you might realize. Or as the store associate told me on a recent visit, “you got Beats headphones that are not working or coming apart in any way? Just bring it in and we’ll give you a new...

Attention space fans: The Vans x Space NASA collection is stellar!

by Liz Gumbinner | Fashion + Accessories

Our space-loving kids — and their space-loving parents (ahem) — are going want to do zero-G flips for the newly launched collection of Vans x Space sneakers in partnership with NASA, released in advance of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing next...

Why the new MacBook Air has family written all over it: The features we’re excited about

by Liz Gumbinner | Computers, iPads + Tablets

We’re so excited watching Apple’s big announcement today about the brand new MacBook Air. With the title of Apple’s most affordable MacBook (the price tag starts at $1199) we imagine lots of parents are going to be considering this for their families...

Find your own town on this amazing, interactive Native Land map

by Liz Gumbinner | Educational Apps For Kids, Websites Worth a Bookmark

I just stumbled on this incredible Native Land Map shared in honor of Indigenous People’s Day and — wow. What a worthwhile educational site to explore today, especially if you sit down and do it with your kids. The map covers North America, as well as...

The best new iOS 12 features for parents – parental controls, time trackers, new apps and more

by Liz Gumbinner | Best Apps, Tips and Tricks

We always get kind of excited for each new iOS update (yeah, we’re geeky that way) and the new iOS 12 update is no exception. We’ve been looking forward to it since we heard about all the new iOS parental controls in particular that Apple was promising...

Sales and discounts: 9 of our best tips for saving money when you shop online

by Liz Gumbinner | Tips and Tricks

If you plan on hitting up the Labor Day sales this weekend — or sales any day, honestly — our best advice: Do it online! While there are always some great deals in store, if you’d rather chill with the family, or do basically anything besides...

iPhone trick: How to lock and password-protect notes in your Notes app.

by Liz Gumbinner | Productivity Apps, Tips and Tricks

Raise your hand if you know how to lock your notes on the Notes app on your iPhone. And now…here’s me not raising my hands.Honestly, I never even realized you could do it at all! So leave it to my 11-year-old daughter to show me a cool iPhone tip I...

One visit to this website can change the entire school year for a U.S. kid in need

by Liz Gumbinner | Causes and General Do-Gooding

When we first discovered Daymaker, we fell instantly in love with the organization’s use of tech to easily allow good samaritans — as in, you and your kids — to anonymously fulfill the holiday gift wish lists of kids in need. Now they’re doing...

How kids can get artful with coding: The fun new sketch pack from Wonder Workshop.

by Liz Gumbinner | Tech Toys and Random Fun

I’m always happy when companies find a way to take their kids’ toys, games and activities and add components or extensions that keep them fresh for kids to play with. One of the best tech companies at this: Wonder Workshop, whose robots we’ve called...

The new parental controls and screen time management tools coming to iOS 12. THANK YOU, APPLE.

by Liz Gumbinner | Best Apps

No judgments, parents — we too have admitted (often) that it can be hard to manage kids’ screen time, especially when our kids get older and we’re not attached at the hip. Well Apple gets it too, and in today’s big iOS 12 announcement,...

Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz

Kristen Chase + Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks

We started Cool Mom Tech in 2010 to help make our increasingly digital lives easier, more organized, more meaningful, and more fun, however old your kids may be.

We love that it's grown to become the go-to source for millions of parents who want commonsense info about tech delivered with a smile.

We even have the privilege of sharing our tips + tricks with The TODAY Show, CNN, HLN, GMA, Nightline, newspapers and magazines around the country, and our favorite -- regular parents who stop us at PTA meetings and ask us how old kids need to be to get a smartphone, and whether they really need to panic about Snapchat.

(Answer: It's complicated.)

We're so glad you're here! And we hope we can help you too.