iOS apps

We've raved many times about Toca Boca , one of our absolute favorite kids' app developers--and yours, from everything you tell us. Today they've released Toca Pet Doctor , another app we're pretty sure kids (and parents) will love, beca…

Do you know the way to San Jose? Google Maps does, and so does Waze (We didn't ask Apple Maps) which is why we pit them against each other in a Google Maps vs. Waze smackdown. So which one of these navigation apps is the better bet to ge…

In light of this week's big news about the Apple Security Breach , a reader of ours (and probably many of you) are wondering how to make Chrome the default browser for iPhone and iPad, in lieu of Safari. Especially because at this time, …

Full disclosure before talking about the new Ken Burns app: I’m a big Ken Burns fan. For nearly 40 years, the award-winning historical documentarian has been telling beautiful, expansive, influential stories on film about everything from…

For those of you who didn't know, it's always best to shoot video from your phone in landscape mode--meaning turn your phone sideways--rather than in portrait mode. You'll get the full scene and when it displays on the computer or TV, th…

Just in time for next week's National Tooth Fairy Day on February 28th (yes, that's a real thing), comes the launch of a brand new app designed to create more magic in children's lives: Wishingtooth for iPad, Android and Kindle Fire. And…

As much as I use my phone for list-making and note-taking , there's nothing like a good old Post-it note that just gives you a glaring reminder of things you still need to do. I have Post-it's all over my desk, kitchen and computer. So i…

As much as I love fun, educational apps for kids , I might get even more excited about finding great books to add to our family iPad. Especially original stories without any licensed characters trying to sell me on a cartoon to match a d…

Along with enjoying a nice day off from school, I want my kids to spend at least some time on Presidents' Day learning about our Commanders-in-Chief of yore. So I've rounded up three great apps for Presidents' Day that will teach them a …

Lucky kids. In the olden days, we learned numbers from boring flashcards, but our fortunate progeny have a sweet monster floating in a bathtub wearing a shower cap as their instructor right from an iPad. Just as we loved The Lonely Beast…

All hail the new Spoiler Shield app , a mobile app whose time has come. It's very rare that I watch TV in real time these days, and for so many of us, it's all about Roku or DVR--which means we have to dodge all those spoilers on our soc…

Mamas of my generation will immediately recognize the phrase: Mom always said, don't play ball in the house. Funny how decades after those Brady Bunch days, I am still reminded of that phrase every time I see my kids--yeah. Playing ball …

As much as I love real live, hold them in your hands, save them forever and ever Valentine's Day cards, there are a few reasons I love the digital Valentine eCards from Paperless Post. First, these are not those awful ecards you remember…

I'm really excited thinking about my future kitchen. It'll have cool things like a smart refrigerator , Wi-Fi enabled appliances , and now, I've learned, a gorgeous Viking Professional 7 Series Range that will sync with my smartphone. A …

Did everyone's aunt have a Polaroid camera? Because that was the coolest thing I had ever seen sometime around 1978. The idea of seeing, capturing, and instantly sharing imagery certainly didn't start with Instagram -- Polaroid was the f…

This week, you may have heard buzz about the launch of the new Facebook Paper app . (It's been a busy week for them, considering the huge success of the Facebook Lookback videos we shared yesterday.) In a nutshell, Paper combines your Fa…

If you live anywhere in the midwest or on the east coast, you know you are freezing and sick of hearing about polar vortexes. So let's think about wonderful summer produce instead? We recently found this the great Farmstand app for iOS, …

Life can be crazy for me as a working mom of multiple kids. And even though it's good-crazy, sometimes I really want just a few moments away from the clutter in the living room and the constant pinging of my iPhone to just get a bit of c…

Remember when you used to sit lazily on a Sunday morning with a huge cup of coffee and read the paper? I call it the BK era (before kids) and clearly some of the developers of the Umano app for iOS and Android feel it too. This app was d…

Thanks to Cool Mom Tech, our family iPad is packed with cool apps and fun games . While a few franchises like Angry Birds and Toca Boca do a great job with new releases, lightning doesn't strike more than once for every developer. So I w…

How many times have I gotten into my car and started driving, only to realize that I've forgotten my phone? (Answer: Too many.) So I love that a nifty gadget called Bringrr (rhymes with ringer ) is upping the ante in the world of trackin…

I feel lucky that my daughter is a voracious reader, but her curiosity has a downside: She always wants to know more. So I also feel fortunate to have discovered Duh! books . These fiction e-books, geared toward kids from second to fifth…

Cate & Levi are the artists behind those gorgeous upcycled hand puppets we've seen at craft shows, and higher-end stores like West Elm and Red Envelope. The puppets are locally sourced, upcycled works of art, so how wonderful that they'r…

Being an avid picture-taker, I have thousands of pictures of my kids in my camera roll. It is blatantly obvious who the photographer is since I am probably in about ten of these photos. But there's a crazy exciting new app that we checke…