audiobooks Archives | Cool Mom Tech

5 of the best audiobook apps to listen to while you scrub the counters. Again.

Anyone else need the escape of audiobooks while we hunker down and wait out the Coronavirus quarantines, school closures, and social distancing? These audiobook apps have proved to be the perfect literary lifeline for me while I’m stuck at home with my young...

3 free audiobook apps you need for back to school

by Kate Etue | Educational Apps For Kids

School will be starting up soon, and that means my kids’ tech will be focused more on education than Fortnite in a few weeks. Sorry, kids. I’m going to start by downloading these free audiobook apps that let you borrow them (along with books, movies, and...

The Pocket app helps you save and read your favorite articles to you

by Kristen Chase | Audio

Liz has raved about the Pocket app for years now, and for good reason. It’s a super handy app that lets you save your favorite articles, recipes, even tweets so that you can read them later. But, you know, how much time do we all have to read them later?...

5 apps I started using that changed my life this year

by Liz Gumbinner | Best Apps

Yes, we’re all still getting a lot of mileage out of “there’s an app for that” because…well, it’s true. Especially on iOS, though Android is doing a little better keeping up these days. Over the past year, there are a few apps that...

Your Google Home can now read your kids bedtime stories. Not that you would ever have it do that.

by Kristen Chase | Helpful Services

Our Google Home can do all sorts of helpful things, and now it can read to us. That’s because Google launched audiobooks, which you can use on iOS, Android, the web, and yes, your Google Home. Related: This app lets you borrow library books on your tablet. For...

Watch Levar Burton read Goodnight Moon to Neil Degrasse Tyson and swoon a little.

by Liz Gumbinner | Entertainment

We love Levar Burton. Did you ever listen to our podcast interview with him? He’s the best! We love Neil Degrasse Tyson. He’s not yet a podcast guest, but we’re still hoping, because he’s also the best! One thing we’re torn on...

iPhone trick: Turn any book into an audio book with a simple swipe

by Kristen Chase | Tips and Tricks

Here’s a cool trick that you can use on your iPhone to turn any book into an audio book, with a simple swipe using the handy Speak Screen feature. To enable Speak Screen, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech > Speak Screen and make sure...

The New Spotify changes: 3 awesome reasons to become a Spotify Premium member right now

by Kristen Chase | Entertainment

We’re huge Spotify fans in my home and on the go (in case you were still wondering whether moms actually know how to use Spotify), and now with the big New Spotify announcement yesterday, I’ve suddenly got a few more reasons to love this popular streaming...

Sparkup: An e-reader just for kids. (As in, hands off Mommy’s Kindle.)

by Christina Refford | E-Readers

Though reading to the kids has always been one of my favorite things to do, it’s not always possible for those of us who travel for work, have a newborn, or just get too busy to drop everything to read a book for the fourth time in an hour. On those days, instead of...

Immersion Reading for Kindle? – Reader Q&A

by Christina Refford | Educational Apps For Kids

As a mom of a child with a learning disability in reading, technology has been a huge help. But most of the reading apps out there are geared toward young children who are learning to read, not 9 year olds. I just stumbled across the Whispersync and Immersion Reading...

NEW: The podcast that helps you be a savvier digital parent in under 15 minutes a week

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.