Tips and Tricks

For awhile now, Facebook has been using ranking to order the stories in your news feed, which means you might be missing a lot of updates and posts from your friends and favorite pages. We can't tell you how many times we've heard from r…

Think about the last email you sent off in haste. Maybe it had a ridiculous typo. Or, worse, you spilled out all your anger or hurt feelings across the QWERTY instead of taking a breath -- or a night's sleep -- before hitting send. Ugh. …

If you're like us, you're counting down the days to a summer vacation, whether it's a weekend at the grandparents' place or something bigger. Either way, hopefully it means sleeping in late (kids willing), lazy days, catching up on books…

When I finally broke down and got my daughter an email account ( all my friends have one! actually does work sometimes) we had the long, requisite discussions about safety, etiquette, and responsibility. But wow, it turns out there's so …

I was going through my settings on Twitter recently to tweak something, and I never realized it, but there's a way to turn off your Twitter notifications during pre-set hours only. And if I just discovered this for the first time, then I…

We are always looking for ways that we can live a greener lifestyle with our families, but trust us, we know how overwhelming it can be. As we've discovered over the years, it's the small things that can really add up -- in effort and at…

When my friend Anna , who is my go-to source for everything related to time management mentioned Boomerang for Gmail , I figured it was worth a shot. And wow...consider my life changed. If you're a Gmail user who finds yourself sometimes…

Spring cleaning fever has hit hard at my house and this week I've purged closets, vacuumed under furniture, and checked the expiration date on every canned good and spice in my pantry. Goodbye, can of beans that expired in 2012. Now I'm …

Hold the phone! No, seriously. Hold the iPhone, because there's something new(ish) and neat and cool happening with its Message app that you'll definitely want to hear about if you haven't yet. While this fun feature has been around sinc…

Do you have some basic tech chore to do -- say, deleting old digital photos -- but you just never seem to find the time to get to it? It's like permanently etched in your to-do list, and every time you scroll through your loaded smartpho…

I'm always a bit leery of apps the moment they ask to have access to my location. Sure, it makes sense with Google Maps , weather apps and certain social apps that help me locate a specific store or get a restaurant review. Those kinds o…

Truth be told, I abandoned my BlackBerry for the iPhone specifically because of Instagram. And, believe me, I was quite the keyboard-over-touchscreen loyalist. But the lure of the obvious fun of sharing square photos -- with filters! -- …

I've often wondered if I've had a bit of a smartphone addiction, seeing as how my iPhone often functions as my third arm. Or second brain. As a busy work-at-home-mom who runs her own business, my smartphone allows me freedoms that I woul…

We are so excited about (and kind of in awe of) so many of the things that computers are doing for our kids, but the reality is, sometimes we need help managing their screen time. So many readers have written to us thanking us for tips l…

If you're like me and watch Netflix on your computer or use it to browse easily and add titles to your queue, then you will want to add the new God Mode bookmarklet to your browser right now. This makes it so you can actually see all the…

Sure, Spring Break is cool when you and the family are jetting off somewhere fun, but what about those of us who decide to stay close to home? Are we not entitled to enjoy some rollin' good times, too? Short answer: Yes! Indeed, we are. …

As a full-time working mom, one of the toughest things for me about going back to work after having my babies was, well, going back to work. You're reacclimating to a work schedule on a paltry amount of sleep that would constitute tortur…

As much as I love my iPhone and how much it really helps me as a parent, it can also be a huge distraction. Don't get me wrong, as someone who runs a business and works on a computer all day long, I really do love how much freedom it giv…

If there's one thing that will throw off my whole zen vibe, it's seeing that "you're out of memory" alert pop up on my tech devices when I try to download an app or take a video. I almost want to turn to my gadget and say: You're the sma…

Ready for the best tips to help you spring clean your tech? Hey, it doesn't even have to be spring. The way we are constantly putting our hands all over the faces of our smart devices, you would think we were John Travolta at the Oscars.…

A few months ago I updated my will, and while I was figuring out which child would inherit my prized handbag collection, my smart lawyer asked me about my social media accounts: Who would I want to handle them after my death? What would …

Around here, we're all starting to wonder whether TV will continue to be relevant to our kids who are growing up in the age of online media. In fact, next to playing Minecraft, my tweens' favorite way to spend their screen time is watchi…

Ever wonder how to unsend an email, say... you hit send on an email, and then realize you had a typo, sent it a little too soon or included the wrong information? Or worse, wrote something and accidentally sent it to the last person you'…

New year, new you. Of course, we've all heard (and probably said) this catchy line each time January 1 rolls around. But instead of promising to completely overhaul our lives with major changes, we're starting small and smart with this r…