tips and tricks

One of the most frequently asked questions we get here on Cool Mom Tech is how to take a screenshot. Before you feel silly asking the same question, you should know that it's a common one, and not necessarily as simple as it sounds. Here…

You might have noticed that some (or many) of your favorite Facebook fan pages have started disappearing --again--from your news feed on Facebook. Thanks to a recent Facebook update that eliminated Facebook Edgerank, entirely changing ho…

Parenting tweens and teens is challenging enough, but the prevalence of tech in most kids' lives makes it that much more important for parents to try and stay one step ahead. Where safe internet browsing was once our biggest concern, now…

I read your post on removing your information from Spokeo and have a question: How often do you need to go there and remove yourself? Also, is anyone doing anything to protect citizens' privacy? Displaying this information without an ind…

Just about every day, I have a moment where I'm grateful social media wasn't around when I was a teen or pre-teen. Don't get me wrong; technology is a major positive in my life and in my kids' lives. But it's also kind of scary to think …

I've always wondered if there's an easier way to type accent marks if you don't have them all memorized, or stuff like currency symbols. Do you have any ideas? Thanks! -Juliet Oh, the accent marks. The special characters. The symbol for …

With the advent of Vine and now Instagram video , I'm betting that your phones are getting filled to the brim with sheer data. While thinking about your phone cache probably isn't something you do regularly, having a phone nearing capaci…

Maybe you've never thought about playing piano on a bunch of bananas or turning Grandma into a space bar, but once I saw this cool new gadget that lets you turn (almost) anything into a computer key. Think of it as one Father's Day gift …

Most of my TV watching is done on the weekends and I love using the downtime to catch up on all the high-quality programming I DVR through the week. (And by high-quality, I may possibly mean Bravo). While we are not planning to replace o…

Now that I've started posting photos of my family on the Internet, I've been thinking much more about how to watermark my photos. Thankfully, it's not nearly as complicated as I thought, especially with the help of my go-to photo editing…

If you're like me, you've got tons of family videos on your smartphone and lots of aspirations to do something with them all. But then "one of these days" turns into months and years, because who really has time to sit down and edit toge…

If you're like me and you've spent way too long trying to figure out how to cancel your accounts or magazine subscriptions, then you will love this awesome new site I discovered that gives you simple, quick directions in a click. Think o…

[This post has been updated as of January 2014 to include new information] I'm pretty sure almost every one of my oldest daughter's friends got an iPod Touch for Christmas this year. We're talking third-graders. And while even we here at…

Obsessed with Pinterest like we are? Follow us , then check out these 5 pins that you don't want to miss. 1. One of the coolest alphabet apps we've ever seen. 2. A must have if you use your smart phone as a digital recipe book . 3. 5 sup…

After we posted instructions on how to get your personal information off Spokeo , we received numerous comments and emails from our readers with concern about having to share your email address in order to remove yourself. While we under…

You may recall our raves about the brilliance of Livescribe's fancy Echo smartpen . Just when we thought the bar had been set on the techy coolness factor from this clever company, they come up with a nifty new trick to blow our minds. M…

Since my job is primarily on the Internet, I'm pretty vigilant about my family's privacy. So every now and then I'll search my name to see what comes up. And even though I removed myself from the Spokeo database a few years ago, I was sh…

I was obsessed with getting the very best photos of my kids on my iPhone on their first day back to school. But since I happened to be away, my husband had to stand-in as family photographer--which doesn't sound so bad until you see some…

Sometimes it's the little technological things that make the biggest difference--like this $14 outlet that I can't wait to install all over my house. The Leviton recessed outlet is one of the best and simplest ideas I've seen, especially…

More and more, you're probably hearing about checkpoint-friendly cases for your laptop--in other words, cases that make things easier for the TSA; and help you get through that security line quickly, so that Mr. Grumpypants Impatient Fre…

Q: I am tired of the piles of bills every month that I have to stuff into a file, cram into my filing cabinet, and never look at again. Can you make any recommendations on tech that can help get them organized? - Sarah Hi, Sarah. Good qu…

If you've recently noticed a lack of updates from your favorite brands, bloggers, or fan pages on Facebook (or maybe you haven't realized it until just now), it may be because of the introduction of Facebook's new Promoted Posts . But we…

Oh Appy Day! gives you the scoop on the coolest apps from some of the coolest people anywhere. This week, Sharon Osbourne shares her favorite! I love my flashlight app because I'm bloody blind. It turns your whole phone into a light whic…

I can't count the number of times I've wished that I could just share a YouTube video at the best part rather than sending the whole entire thing. Well, even though you can actually do that on YouTube (who knew?), here's a cool service t…