Pilar, Author at Cool Mom Tech

Printing Instagram photos gorgeously (and easily) with Plywerk.

Cutting, matting, mounting, spraying adhesive that ends up peeling later–printing Instagram photos yourself then framing them can be a pain in the rear, but a professional framing service can be spendy. Hooray for alternatives! We’ve covered services like...

Unroll.me: How to clean up your inbox with a minimum of hair-pulling-out.

by Pilar | Tips and Tricks

I’m usually not one for New Year’s resolutions, but, in the spirit of getting more done in 2014, I decided to tackle my email–like so many of you who ask us how to clean up your inbox when it’s overrun with more emails than anyone can keep up with....

3 completely silly, non-educational, totally fun apps that let kids be kids on their holiday break

by Pilar | Fun Apps for Kids

To us, the holidays are a time for throwing the rules out the window a bit. We eat too many cookies, the kids stay up too late, and if their typical screen time doubles (or triples) while we all enjoy a little down time, so be it. So here are 3 of the silliest,...

CamMe Selfie App: A cool way to take group photos and actually be in them too

by Pilar | Photo Apps

Why would a parent consider a selfie app? Let us count the ways. First off, the eleventy bazillion visitors you’ll want to capture memories with this holiday. However, unless you have a camera shutter remote for your DSLR or phone (hint hint, Santa), that group...

The new Toca Mini app: It’s a small world after all.

by Pilar | Fun Apps for Kids

Cute? Funky? Funny? That’s entirely up to you in this new colorful world from Toca Boca, one of our favorite developers of kids’ apps, and it’s all created with kids’ wild imaginations in mind. Toca Boca just released its latest iOS treat, and...

Biggest Price Drop: A discount site for finding savings on the good stuff. The really good stuff.

by Pilar | Helpful Services

As a parent, I think it’s my responsibility to save money where I can (kids are expensive!), but only on things I really want. That’s why we love finding great coupon apps and money-saving tech tools that make things easier. Besides, I never remember to...

Piquing our Geek: Draw your own video game with Pixel Press.

by Pilar | Games + Gaming

My second grader is crazy into made up games he creates and customizes himself. Everything from blueprints for Star Warsian buildings to trains crafted from Toca Builders blocks are on his roster of perpetual projects, and creating his own video game is definitely at...

Build-your-own computer kits for kids, all designed by another kid. Minds blown.

by Pilar | Tech Toys and Random Fun

We all know STEM is a big deal in schools these days. The combination of science, technology, engineering and math is what kids are living on a daily basis, so a 10-year-old entrepreneur named Ethan Saadia wants to encourage even more kids to really get into computer...

Flips: Headphones that turn into speakers. Whoa.

by Pilar | Audio

As a family of frequent travelers, we have a lot of headphones at the ready, just waiting to be thrown into our carry-on bags or in the car. But we’e never seen anything like this before. Billed as a hybrid headphone/speaker system, Flips headphones are designed...

Hit the road with the Toca Cars app

by Pilar | Fun Apps for Kids

Creative, quirky, playful, rule free and devoid of in-app pop ups (hooray!)–all reasons why Toca Boca is one of our most favorite app developers for kids. So lets rejoice for the new Toca Cars app! Taking a cue from more complex games like Minecraft (ahem, Toca...

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.