Piper: The ultimate toy for budding engineers who love Minecraft. In other words, our kids.
As you can see just from browsing our site, Minecraft and STEM toys rank high on our list of the coolest stuff for kids that's both fun and educational. So when we heard about Piper, which brings together coding, engineering, and Minecraft all in one cool toolbox, we...
What’s the best protective case for an iPad mini? Reader Q&A
So you know I turn to you guys every time I have a question where I am out of my league. My 3-year-old is getting an iPad mini from his great-grandmother. I can't win this war, so I'm embracing it. But I need help with a case! He is 3, so it needs to be bulletproof....
Get a cool coding education with the Robot School app
I have a sneaking suspicion that my children are smarter than me. One clue is that they really enjoy coding, which is definitely not my forté. Fortunately, there are tons of great resources out there to help them learn more about how to use code, like our latest...
New Luna smart mattress cover tracks sleep, adjusts the temperature, wakes you up, possibly does dishes.
It's clear that sleep tracking is all the rage in 2015. And I get it. Listen. If it were possible to marry one's bed, I would have been in deep mattressmony (ha) long ago. So when I heard about the Luna Matress Cover, the first one that converts any bed into a smart...
Skillshare brings the coolest classes to you instead of you having to go to them.
I'm really thrilled to introduce you to my new obsession, Skillshare, a wonderful community that offers online classes to help you learn new skills and dial up your creativity--or simply get it back. If you're like me, you often see all sorts of cool classes being...
Immortalia: The family history app to download before your next visit to Grandma’s house.
My grandmother once stowed away in the back seat of her father's Model-T while her sister went on a date. Then they crashed the car, into a pig. Now that she's gone, I really wish I'd had her record stories like that one so that my kids, especially my daughter who's...
The My Old Basement LEGO kit: Why should the kids born after 1996 have all the fun?
With all these new LEGO sets coming out, like Scooby Doo LEGO and Doctor Who LEGO, I've got total LEGO envy. Why should the kids get all the cool stuff? Well, this new My Old Basement LEGO kit is all mine. Designed by artist Chris McVeigh (a.k.a. Power Pig) who we've...
Sponsored Message: Bevy ingeniously stores and organize all your photos and videos automatically
This is a sponsored message for Bevy Just imagine all the free space and potentially sanity you could have back if all your smartphone photos and videos were automatically uploaded to one safe place as soon as you captured them. That's exactly what you'll get with...
A clever, customizable iPad sleeve for the very crafty or very fidgety.
We've found cool iPad cases made out of everything from felt to leather to industrial strength NASA mystery metals. But maybe never one made out of paper. That's the Papernomad iPad and iPhone cases. It's not just they're sustainably made --and incredibly cool...
How to free up space on your phones and tablets with 4 easy steps. Because more pictures are coming, you know it.
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 smart one. Fix it. But since...
Just for You by Caspar Babypants: Kids’ free music download of the week
I know I don't have to tell any new parent about the importance of sleep, but with Sleep Awareness Week beginning tomorrow, it's only appropriate I feature a sweet new lullaby to mark the occasion. And this lovely little song comes off an entire album of lullabies...
Here come the Men In Black for your phone.
Clever always wins, in my book. That's why I snorted pretty loudly when my editor Liz emailed me a link to this most excellent Men In Black phone case from Society6. I will also admit that it took me half a beat to catch the full joke, like, the fact that the figure...
Tech Tips & Tricks to Make Life (Way) Easier
5 ways to get more out of Instagram
With Instagram finally available to Android users and now getting snatched up for 1 billion dollars by Facebook (whoa!), it seems like soon everyone will be on our beloved photo sharing app--aw Instagram, we can say we knew you when. So I've rounded up five cool ways...
The ins and outs of Google Play
You've probably been hearing a lot about Google Play lately, especially if you're an Android user. What exactly is it? Well, in a nutshell, Google Play is the company's attempt at re-branding the formerly-named Android Marketplace--going straight against iTunes and...
The CMT/Motorola Productivity Guide for Working Parents Series: Making mobile work for you, not against you
For so many working parents in this world of technology, the office isn't just in your house or a building. It's wherever you happen to have a cell connection--the subway, your kid's lacrosse game, the coffee shop, movie theater. (But just during the previews,...
Even More Coolness. Enjoy!
The Photolane photo book app is an easy new way to end up with something beautiful.
The growing options for making photo books right from our phones makes a lot of sense, since that's where so many of us keep most of our photos anyway. And the new Photolane photo book app makes it so simple, you can design a couple of these cool books while the kids...
The best tips to spring clean your tech: Make your smart devices sparkle like they’ve never encountered a toddler
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. Sticky fingerprints, greasy...
HeyHey Hurry: The new app that’s just for fun
My iPad has dozens of educational apps loaded on it, and I usually feel better about letting my kids have screen time if they're learning something. The new app HeyHey Hurry from Belgian street artist Bué has none of that. And I'm okay with it. Because sometimes...
Making math fun: 8 ways to help get teens excited about math
If you have a teen in your household, as some of us do, you'll know that their math homework is getting much more challenging and sometimes (we'll admit it) frustrating. But that doesn't mean that there aren't ways for making math fun in really great ways. Hey, it's...
Gorgeous floral iPhone cases that have us thinking spring. We’re ready!
I've had a really hard time finding a case I love for my iPhone 6, mostly because the phone is so pretty I don't want to cover it up. But now I'm kind of swooning over Anna Bond's floral iPhone cases from Rifle Paper Company featuring her well-loved illustration styl....
An overview of the Amazon Prime Now app. Should you need baby wipes or a fishnet body suit delivered in the next two hours.
As a Brooklyn resident who falls squarely within the lucky Brooklyn-Manhattan delivery area for the new Amazon Prime Now app (iOS and Android) I downloaded it stat. It is a genius premise, functioning essentially like a Fresh Direct kind of service--the other home...
A emoji t-shirt that speaks a thousand words. Even if your baby doesn’t yet.
This certainly seems to be shaping up to be the week for emoji. First, Apple announces the new diverse emoji coming out soon, and now we're seeing emoji gifts popping up all over the place. I get it -- sometimes that yellow cartoon face perfectly expresses how you...
The Play Opera app: Music to soothe the savage second-grader
My appreciation for opera came early, and I credit a combination of ballet and piano lessons for this. But I can totally see how plenty of kids (and, real talk, adults too) can find opera boring, at least until they really take the time to listen and understand it....
We feel very Smiling Face With Heart-Shaped Eyes about Apple’s new diverse emoji
We've heard that developers are beta testing the latest versions of iOS and OS X, with a WiFi bug fix and blah blah blah blah. Let's be honest, we know that what most people really care about right now: emoji. More specifically, racially diverse emoji which we've been...
The new YouTube Kids app. For parents with children who love YouTube. AKA all children everywhere.
I cannot tell you how excited I am about the new YouTube Kids app that just launched today. Over the years, we're continually asked how to find great videos for kids on YouTube by parents, and while we've shared various safer YouTube apps as well as our own favorite...
Colorful charging cables because OH NO, NOT BORING CABLES.
The black and white standard-issue cables that come with your devices? Bor-ing. Just because we can't live tech life without cables doesn't mean they can't be fun. They not only can match your decor, or stand out in your bag when you travel with them, they have the...
Everything is Awesome: Kids’ music download of the week
Though we are still a bit miffed that The LEGO Movie wasn't nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Animated Movie category, we give two thumbs up to the academy for nominating Everything is Awesome for Best Original Song. Hey, it's nice to see a nomination for a...