tips and tricks

You've probably seen the letter "F" in the comments of a Facebook post. Or perhaps you've typed the word "Following" yourself, because when you comment, you'll get notifications of other comments and get to follow along. However, there's…

Keeping our kids safe and healthy is our number one job as parents. And with so many of them using smartphones and other electronic devices, their online safety has become a huge part of that. At Cool Mom Tech, we have always provided pa…

As I was prepping for our family vacation to Iceland, I found myself searching for information about cellular signals -- not so I can check my email while I'm gone, but so I can use Google Maps . While I found several posts that assured …

Raise your hand if you know how to lock your notes on the Notes app on your iPhone. And now...here's me not raising my hands.Honestly, I never even realized you could do it at all! So leave it to my 11-year-old daughter to show me a cool…

One of parents' biggest concerns about kids today, is the access they have to inappropriate content. Parents are often asking us for parental control devices, services and apps to help them moderate what kids' can see and keep them safe.…

With some of us still in summer vacation mode, and others of us heading back to school, the one thing we all have in common is that we're taking a crapload of photos of our kids. I realize we do this every day out of the year, but vacati…

If you thought your kids tech-savvy as toddlers, it's amazing to see how quickly they pick up video games when they get a little older. They know what's hot and what's not faster than Mario with a super star power-up. Turns out there are…

There is a chance that you've seen your iPhone ask you to turn on Low Power Mode when it gets to 20% battery life, but what you might not have known is that you can toggle it on and off manually when you're out and about to help you save…

I've become extremely diligent about using a moisturizer with an SPF that I slather all over my face and hands on a daily basis, but I had absolutely no idea that staring into my phone and computer could be causing skin damage. Well, tha…

Thanks to comedian Chelsea Peretti, Netflix is about to get a whole lot of movie and TV requests. She recently discovered a link on the Netflix site that allows you to submit your suggestions for what you'd like to see offered. Related: …

So, we were all a little freaked out about the story that an Amazon Echo had recorded a private conversation in a user's home, then sent that conversation to someone else. Because, oof. Beyond embarrassing, this is a major privacy breakd…

Back a couple of years ago, Liz and I addressed our email pet peeves in one of our first Spawned podcast episodes. It was actually Episode 4, to be exact. Aw. Sniffle! Well, apparently, the debate about how to sign-off on your emails is …

We declutter our closets, and rotate our kids' toys, but what about all those apps on your phone right now? Or the notifications pinging you every few minutes? Do I even need to bring up how many photos you have on your phone? Related: 6…

If you were already a big fan of the Instagram Story poll feature, but felt like it was a little limiting (why only two answers, Instagram?), they just launched a new emoji slider poll that might just give you the voting nuance you were …

As Twitter has just informed all 330,000,000 of its users in an apologetic but so far underreported post, you should really change your Twitter password right now, this very second. Not to be alarmist -- but out of an abundance of precau…

I recently upgraded from an iPhone 7 to an iPhone 8+, and as much as I love the bigger screen, it does take a bit of time to get used to. If you're like me and have gone up an iPhone size, you'll want to use Reachability Mode to help mak…

If we didn't know before, we've certainly learned very recently that Facebook knows a whole lot about us. But today I discovered that they're assigning us to marketing categories, which are chosen based on the data gathered from your Fac…

You might remember a few months ago when Apple announced that they are purposely slowing down your iPhones to prevent them from shutting down. This after we all thought we were going a little crazy when a new iPhone (and iOS) would launc…

As someone who is pretty constantly tethered to her smartphone, it's no surprise that I feel as though I'm addicted to it. The challenge for me is that I use my phone for work, but I also enjoy looking at social media (and apps, and...) …

Back in 2017, we covered a story about hackers using Facebook quizzes to steal user data . And now, here we are in 2018 with the Cambridge Analytica scandal , where over 50 million users had their information pulled thanks to a personali…

It finally happened! You can now check out all of Disney's 11 parks with Google Street View . So if you're getting ready for your trip and want to get the lay of the land, or just want to spend the afternoon at The Magic Kingdom while st…

Let me start by saying that we here at Cool Mom Tech are hardly germaphobes, however, if you knew what was growing on your iPhone and tablet screens, not to mention your ear buds (yep, just think about that for a second), you might be mo…

If you're like us, you find yourself using Google to check the same recipes and ratios over and over again. How much water for brown rice? What amount of butter do I need for that pie crust again? That's why we're loving this clever iPho…

Managing my kids activities -- and the time it takes me to get them there -- is one of the more complicated parts of parenting for me. Carpooling is the solution that not only saves my sanity, but also helps out the environment. We have …