tips and tricks

Just this week my 5-year-old son busted me for using my iPhone at the breakfast table. It's a no-no in our house, but I was reading something important . (It was a post ranking the Hot Guys of World Cup. See? Important.) Turns out, this …

As a longtime photo enthusiast and avid storyteller, I've been a huge fan of Instagram since it dropped three years ago. Especially as a parent who wants to get the best photos of my kids up there. That said, I take tons of pictures of l…

With my kids officially out of school, I, along with lots other parents I'm sure, am gearing up for loads of free time. And that means trying to figure out how to manage screen time for the kids. Over the last few months, I've put togeth…

Last week while I was out on a short trip to New York City, my smart phone battery died. Which wouldn't have been a huge issue except I was in the middle of dealing with a minor emergency involving my youngest daughter left at camp and a…

It's not uncommon to see tech resources, apps and services come and go, but when it's something we use ourselves, it's definitely a bummer to say goodbye. Unfortunately, the latest tech casualty is Springpad , an awesome online and mobil…

We spend a lot of time on Twitter. Maybe too much. But between our personal accounts, and @coolmomtech and @coolmompicks , all of us here definitely get to see our share of brand outreach. Not just to us directly, but to other folks on T…

Just in time for Memorial Day weekend--and Memorial Day weekend traffic, whoo!--I was so happy to get a chance to sit down with Google yesterday and learn more about some of the incredible changes they've made to the Google Maps app. I f…

As much as I love Twitter -- both for the news and the conversation -- there are times when I just need to cut down on the noise in my feed--TV shows I don't watch, playoffs I don't care about, or nonstop tweets from Caribbean vacations …

If you're like me, you get a ton of promoted content from Facebook, including a slew of recommendations for groups that you may want to join. Some of them are open--as in, hop on in, like the page and you're done! --while some of them ar…

For the last year or so, erroneous reports of "hacked" baby monitor systems that are WiFi enabled have been perpetuated by the media--and trickled down to our readers, who understandably email us to ask about the potential of danger with…

If you want to devote a whole 5 or 10 seconds and see your first tweet on Twitter, there's an easier way than scrolling back to the beginning. Visit Twitter's discover.twitter.com/first-tweet page just launched to celebrate their 8th bir…

I have to say that I have mastered the art of a good selfie, as you might be able to tell from my Instagram feed , but I'm getting especially good at taking a selfie with kids. Because let's be honest, it's the only way I'll actually mak…

It's no secret we love cool educational apps for kids that blend fun and teaching and getting kids excited about learning new skills. And now with summer around the corner, it's even more important that we find ways to keep kids engaged …

The new site Cricket's Circle is out to clear things up for new parents. And we get it; accurate baby registry help is hard to come by and it's hard to figure out exactly what to include in yours. In fact, it can be one of the most confu…

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…

If you're an Amazon Prime member, then you might be wondering how to borrow a book from the Kindle library--one of the excellent benefits you get with your membership. Now granted they're probably not all books you actually want to read …

We finally decided to give our sixth grader a smart phone. And while I think the good has outweighed the bad so far, I really wasn't prepared for how complicated things would get -- and how quickly it would happen. So I can see why imple…

Although my own kids haven't made any in-app purchases without my permission that I know of (knocking on wood right now), I know lots of parents whose kids certainly have. And thanks to a new FTC ruling, Apple has to pay you back for all…

Over the course of the year, we've put together so many helpful tech tips for our readers, plenty from your own questions to us. (We love answering reader questions!) Here, some of our favorite tips of the year, including lots just for p…

If you're giving a tech gift, here are 7 basic tips to add to your checklist, to make sure kids (and eager adults) can just rip open those packages and start playing. Not that we remember them ourselves all the time. Which is why we're m…

If you're wondering how to get started on Twitter or what the heck MT means, just this morning our Editor Liz Gumbinner shared her tips on The Today Show. Take a peek at the video clip to get the skinny on hashtags, retweets, who to foll…

There's no shortage of cool gadgets to help you find lost items , but lost cars? Not so much. I'm not quite sure if it's that I'm getting older or I'm trying to do too many things at once, but lately, I've been forgetting where I park my…

If you're big Twitter users like we are, then you know that currently, you can't send DMs to people who aren't following you--a feature we actually really like. Beause it means you can't get DMs from random people either. Well that's all…

On November 11, Google will go live with three new changes to their terms of service, with one particular component regarding Google ads that you might want to pay special attention to. Especially if you don't want your Google Plus profi…