Tips and Tricks

If you're like us, you're deep into back-to-school shopping , but there's probably one purchase you might not have thought of yet: children's blue-light filtering glasses . Blue light from our computers, iPads, and every other device we …

With some of us still in summer vacation mode, and others of us heading back to school, the one thing we all have in common is that we're taking a crapload of photos of our kids. I realize we do this every day out of the year, but vacati…

There is a chance that you've seen your iPhone ask you to turn on Low Power Mode when it gets to 20% battery life, but what you might not have known is that you can toggle it on and off manually when you're out and about to help you save…

If you spend any time on Instagram, then you've probably seen feed photos popping up in Instagram Stories . And no, I'm not talking about screenshots! Finally, you can post clickable photos from public feeds (either yours or someone else…

I've become extremely diligent about using a moisturizer with an SPF that I slather all over my face and hands on a daily basis, but I had absolutely no idea that staring into my phone and computer could be causing skin damage. Well, tha…

Thanks to comedian Chelsea Peretti, Netflix is about to get a whole lot of movie and TV requests. She recently discovered a link on the Netflix site that allows you to submit your suggestions for what you'd like to see offered. Related: …

So, we were all a little freaked out about the story that an Amazon Echo had recorded a private conversation in a user's home, then sent that conversation to someone else. Because, oof. Beyond embarrassing, this is a major privacy breakd…

Back a couple of years ago, Liz and I addressed our email pet peeves in one of our first Spawned podcast episodes. It was actually Episode 4, to be exact. Aw. Sniffle! Well, apparently, the debate about how to sign-off on your emails is …

We declutter our closets, and rotate our kids' toys, but what about all those apps on your phone right now? Or the notifications pinging you every few minutes? Do I even need to bring up how many photos you have on your phone? Related: 6…

As Twitter has just informed all 330,000,000 of its users in an apologetic but so far underreported post, you should really change your Twitter password right now, this very second. Not to be alarmist -- but out of an abundance of precau…

I recently upgraded from an iPhone 7 to an iPhone 8+, and as much as I love the bigger screen, it does take a bit of time to get used to. If you're like me and have gone up an iPhone size, you'll want to use Reachability Mode to help mak…

If we didn't know before, we've certainly learned very recently that Facebook knows a whole lot about us. But today I discovered that they're assigning us to marketing categories, which are chosen based on the data gathered from your Fac…

You might remember a few months ago when Apple announced that they are purposely slowing down your iPhones to prevent them from shutting down. This after we all thought we were going a little crazy when a new iPhone (and iOS) would launc…

As someone who is pretty constantly tethered to her smartphone, it's no surprise that I feel as though I'm addicted to it. The challenge for me is that I use my phone for work, but I also enjoy looking at social media (and apps, and...) …

Back in 2017, we covered a story about hackers using Facebook quizzes to steal user data . And now, here we are in 2018 with the Cambridge Analytica scandal , where over 50 million users had their information pulled thanks to a personali…

Let me start by saying that we here at Cool Mom Tech are hardly germaphobes, however, if you knew what was growing on your iPhone and tablet screens, not to mention your ear buds (yep, just think about that for a second), you might be mo…

If you're like us, you find yourself using Google to check the same recipes and ratios over and over again. How much water for brown rice? What amount of butter do I need for that pie crust again? That's why we're loving this clever iPho…

Leave it to the kids to figure out cool iPhone tricks before we do, especially where emoji are concerned. Turns out, there's a fun way to insert emoji into your texts without toggling back and forth between keyboards -- something that ca…

If you've been concerned about the amount of screen time your teens might be consuming, you've actually got some cause. According to a new study, teens who spent more time on their devices were less happy than those who invested more tim…

Last week on family vacation, atop the San Jacinto Mountain with the scenic Coachella Valley behind me, of course tons of selfies were taken. As is the law these days. When it was my turn to pull out my phone, I realized I couldn't get a…

Thanks to Twitter user Red Long , who describes himself as blind in his bio, I found a terrific tip to use a feature in your Twitter accessibility features to help your visually impaired readers. However in digging deeper, turns out ther…

It might seem counterintuitive to use technology to get sleep, especially since so many sleep experts remind us all that tech before bed is a major offender. Over the years, we've featured some fantastic sleep gadgets and sleep apps to h…

Over the holiday break, I took my family on a trip to Sedona, Arizona and the Grand Canyon, and thanks to my fantastic iPhone 8+ camera with Portrait Mode, I've got some fantastic photos. But, as I quickly discovered after some trial and…

If you're like us, then you've got a ton of fingerprints on your computer and way too many photos on your smartphone. But to start 2018 with a clean slate (or at least, a clean screen), we're sharing 20 tech to-dos to help you get more o…