Is my kid ready for a cell phone? 7 essential questions to ask yourself first
We love when parents ask us “how do I know if my kid is ready for a cell phone?” It means you’re conscientious, caring, and involved — and of course, want to make sure that you’re raising a kid to make good choices, and not who...
A very smart AirPods trick I learned from a very smart tween.
We’ve said this many times here that some of our best iPhone tricks come from the digital natives in our lives, which is exactly where I got this simple, but very smart AirPods trick. You may be thinking “Are there really AirPods tricks?” and well, I...
If your kids are gamers, here are 8 tips for raising kids to have good gaming etiquette
My teenage son and his friends are avid online gamers, so I recently broached the topic of good gaming etiquette for kids and teens with them. “What?” they asked, “You mean like when people tell you to go kill yourself when you mess up?” Ouch. I knew this kind of...
How to get rid of that unread email count badge on iPhone. Because we have enough stress these days!
I know I’m not the only one who wants to get rid of the unread email count badge on my phone that taunts me loudly in BRIGHT. RED. NUMBERS. Every so often, a friend on social media gleefully (like a Mr. Burns kind of gleeful if you ask me) will prompt friends...
Is the new iOS 15 Focus Mode feature helpful for parents? I tried it to find out.
Lately I’ve heard some mixed opinions about the Focus feature on the latest iOS 15. If you haven’t updated your iPhone yet, Focus mode is similar to the Sleep mode introduced with iOS 14 with even more detail and more ways to customize your notifications...
44 cool things you can do with the Amazon Echo: From productive time-savers to just plain fun.
I received an Amazon Echo for Christmas a few years ago, and I have to admit at first I was a little skeptical. What is all the buzz about anyway and what can I actually do with an Amazon Echo? I wasn’t sure it could really do more for me than Siri or my phone,...
10 of the best summer tech posts on Cool Mom Tech right now
As we mentioned on Cool Mom Picks, our team is off on a little break this week. Don’t we all need one these days? (The answer is yes. Yes we do.) But hey, before we took off, we wanted to put together some of our very favorite summer tech posts — which...
4 clever tech solutions that turn handwriting into digital text
We recently had a mom reach out on our Out Tech Your Kids group on Facebook, asking for the best tech to help turn handwriting into text. Like so many kids today, her daughter is using her finger to write on a school issued iPad, and the messy handwriting is causing...
A brilliant tech trick for when you can’t remember all those sort of important numbers
If you’ve ever searched and searched for your frequent flyer numbers (God help me) or insurance card numbers or the numbers that you need every now and then but don’t really need to memorize, then I have the coolest tech trick for you. Related: A cool...
15 new iOS 15 features that parents will get (very!) excited about: FaceTime, ScreenShare, Focus, Health, and more
Each time there’s a live streaming Apple Event to announce the new products and updates, we watch diligently to see what’s new for parents and families, or which advances and improvements will actually make our lives a little easier, more organized or more...
The iPhone trick I can’t believe I hadn’t been using before now
I’m not sure about you, but even with an iPhone 12, which is not the biggest iPhone out there (hello, 12 Pro Max friends), I’m a two-handed keyboard user. I generally peck with my right pointer, and add a little left-hand thumb action now and then. And...Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz
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.)
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