Pilar, Author at Cool Mom Tech

Toca Boca Monster Mashup – Get it while it’s free!

That kids always want to play with their food is no secret, and now they can (digitally speaking anyway), thanks to one of our all time favorite developers, Toca Boca. (Cue loud cheers.) The funky Swedish developers have just come out with a messy monster edition of...

If Tim Burton created an app, Sir Benfro’s Brilliant Balloon would be it.

by Pilar | Fun Apps for Kids

While Tim Burton has yet to get into app development, I’m pretty sure if he did it would be this one. Light Emitting Daves, Timorous Fizzles, mustachioed Brackle McSturdys, and Eggbutt Snaffles sound like things sprung from a beautifully eccentric mind, and...

The digital board book: Planes, trains, and rhombuses

by Pilar | Educational Apps For Kids

Board books are a staple in every new parents’ library, even if we know that they end up mostly as chew toys. So I love that DADA Company came up with a virtual version of the board book that’s equal parts interactive story, animated illustration and...

Know how your kids love stickers? Woudn’t it be great if they couldn’t stick them on your furniture?

by Pilar | Educational Apps For Kids

Not sure what it is about children and their love for stickers, but I do find they end up everywhere but in the six-dollar sticker book that the kid begged and pleaded for in the store checkout line. So how great that DK, one of the best sticker book publishers, has...

A memory game app that doesn’t get boring so fast. Huge!

by Pilar | Educational Apps For Kids

Memory games are a great idea–in theory. Those brightly colored cards with rounded edges that fit snugly in grabby little palms are supposed to develop memory, recognition and visual identification skills, so what’s not to like? At least until someone...

Ikea’s got nothing on these new digs from Toca Boca.

by Pilar | Fun Apps for Kids

Swedish app developer and CMT favorite Toca Boca has done it again. They somehow read my lingonberry and minimalist furniture-loving mind, and channeled it into a shiny new app released today that your kids are going to love, the same way they love every Toca app....

Gube: Like YouTube. Except safe for kids.

by Pilar | Fun Apps for Kids

Justin Timberlake dressed as a cup of soup. Michael Bolton vamping as Captain Jack Sparrow. Both are a YouTube hoot. The idea of my kids coming across either one while clicking through to what they think might be age appropriate is not. Enter Gube. Think of it as...

DuckyTube: Like YouTube only, you know. With ducks. (Not really.)

by Pilar | Fun Apps for Kids

My kids have a serious iPhone habit, and yes, I suppose you could call me the ultimate enabler since the kidcentric apps on my devices vastly outnumber the ones meant to help adults make a decent mixed drink (ahem). And then there’s YouTube. Both kids have...

Go ahead, play with your food.

by Pilar | Fun Apps for Kids

I’m usually the one on kitchen duty, but today, my kids served up some fried sausages, microwaved pears, boiled carrots, and um, pureed sardines. Good thing I wasn’t the one eating any of it. Toca Boca, one of our favorite app designers, is all about...

Domo Animato, Mr. Roboto

by Pilar | Fun Apps for Kids

There’s nothing my kids like more than being read to at bedtime. Whether they’re dog-eared or digital, calming, whispering affairs that encourage them to catch their forty winks are the usual go-tos, and Robot Blue From Planet 22 is no exception. In clever...

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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.