Gear + Hardware Archives | Page 2 of 23

The new Apple Watch Pride edition bands are out and they’re gorgeous!

by Liz Gumbinner | Fashion + Accessories, Gear + Hardware

Welcome to May, the month in which top brands lets everyone in the press in on all their new products supporting and celebrating June’s Pride Month. Some of these products…well, it feels like pandering TBH, but in the case of Apple, they’ve been a...

We’ll be waiting at the mailbox for these USPS x CASETIFY phone accessories

by Caroline Siegrist | Gear + Hardware

We’ve been fan of CASETIFY’s fun iPhone case mash-ups for a while now, and so I was so happy to see them announce their new collection with — yep, you guessed it — the United States Postal Service. This new USPS collection celebrates the folks...

11 cool features we’re looking forward to in the new iOS 14

by Caroline Siegrist | Gear + Hardware

Apple’s all set to release the new iOS 14 sometime this fall. And since an operating system update is the only way I’m marking time these quarantine days (Kidding! Mostly.) I was pretty stoked to explore the new features in their preview. And wow,...

This Baby Yoda speaker is giving us the little spark of joy we needed today.

by Kristen Chase | Gear + Hardware

Did we mention that we have the coolest readers? Eric (aka EricSketch on Twitter) has been reading our site for quite some time now, so when we spotted this Baby Yoda Bluetooth speaker in his Twitter feed we were like “HOLY MANDALORIAN!” Let’s just...

The top 10 Cool Mom Tech posts of 2019

by Cool Mom Staff | Gear + Hardware, Link Roundups

We’re going into our 10th year of Cool Mom Tech and our 2nd year of our Out Tech Your Kids Facebook group that’s almost at 4500 members! We know, we can’t believe it either. Every year, we share our 10 most visited posts on Cool Mom Tech. From tech...

12 practical tech gifts that are still pretty darn awesome | Holiday Gift Guide 2019

by Liz Gumbinner | Gear + Hardware, Holiday Picks, Holiday Tech Gifts, Life and Home

There are some folks on our lists who love tech gifts, but prefer the more practical tech gifts to the gaming systems or the entertainment consoles. Or hey, maybe they love both but just have some specific needs this year. If that’s the case, I’ve got you...

12 tech gifts you should probably just buy for yourself already | Holiday Tech Guide 2019

by Kristen Chase | Gear + Hardware, Holiday Tech Gifts

We’ve got lots of cool tech gifts for big kids and teens, not to mention some awesome STEM holiday gifts for kids as part of our Holiday Tech Guide, but what about us? We love tech too! Except sometimes, the tech gadgets we want aren’t super gifty. But...

10 of the coolest tech toys and gifts for tweens and big kids | Holiday Tech Guide 2019

by Cool Mom Staff | Gear + Hardware, Holiday Picks, Holiday Tech Gifts, Tech Toys

Next up in our Holiday Tech Guide 2019, we’re sharing the coolest tech toys and gifts for tweens and big kids. We know that they can be tricky to shop for, so we’ve done the research for you (not to mention asked our own tweens and big kids their honest...

Apple Event 2019: Here’s the quick and dirty on the iPhone 11 Pro, Apple Arcade, and everything else they announced

by Kristen Chase | Gear + Hardware

On Tuesday, Apple hosted their big Apple Event 2019 and announced some pretty exciting new products and services. If you had time to watch it live, this time streaming on YouTube (whoa), then you’ve probably heard all of this before. But if you’re like me...

5 of our favorite, fun educational apps to get elementary students excited about learning this year.

by Liz Gumbinner | Back to School Tech, Best Apps, Educational Apps, Gear + Hardware

Last week, my daughter Sage and I had a great time talking with the crew from News12 (NYC, Long Island, Westchester) about our favorite fun, educational apps for grade schoolers that help your kids make the most out of screen time. I’m glad I had the opportunity...

How to set up a family account for your Kindle library. Yay for sharing books!

by Kate Etue | Gear + Hardware, Tips and Tricks

My daughter and I have the same taste in books, generally, so we love sharing anything good we’ve read lately. That’s typically been much easier to do with hardcopy books than digital ones, but now you can set up a Family Library for your Kindle library....

Easy tip for more mindful screen time: Download these lock screen wallpapers for your phone

by Liz Gumbinner | Gear + Hardware, Social Media

This weekend, inspired by the Cool Mom Picks book club video chat about How to Break Up with Your Phone, I decided to try one of author Catherine Price’s tips to help me be more mindful about my screen time, and more aware of how much I pick up my phone. She...

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.