Shari Simpson

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…

We were excited to have a chance to put together a MiiPC review, considering there's pretty much nothing that causes a modern parent more angst than monitoring your kids' online life. Keeping them safe, limiting their screen time, making…

I wrote last year about where to print Instagram photos , considering my penchant for taking adorable photos of my kids on my phone and then...doing absolutely nothing with them. Has anything changed for me in a year? Of course not. That…

I'm not kidding you when I say that every year, I plan to do one of those cool advent calendars with little toys or candies in every counting-­down window, and every year, I don't follow through. (Sad face.) That's why this adorable adve…

We love companies that consistently try to improve their already-pretty-fab products, so we're enthusiastic to tell you that SquareHub , a social networking app made just for families that we love, is branching out to Android families no…

This mom is a writer, so obviously it makes my heart soar when I see my children reading a good, old-fashioned book (you know, one with pages) or writing their own. But since we live in a time when there are more often tablets in their h…

There's nothing more delicious for a parent than when we appreciate an app as much as our kids do--even if it's not quite for the same reasons. We really loved Mo Willems' first app and his new one has even more of the spirit of the quir…

To write this post, I just checked my cell phone's Photo Gallery to see how many pictures I've collected. 318. Three hundred and eighteen photos and videos. And I'm sure for some, that number would be on the low side. So what do we do wi…

Not to feed into any stereotypes or anything, but in general, guys like tech. Oh sure, maybe your fella would be pumped to get a t-shirt inscribed with "World's Greatest Dad" for Father's Day, but let's just say, for argument's sake, tha…

Yes, it's come to the world's laziest pizza ordering ever. And boy, are we geekily excited. Come on, admit it, who hasn't wished during a maxed-out gaming session that they would have food magically appear without having to cook it? Evid…

I like bright colors, moving objects and intense battles as much as the next guy, but my favorite incarnation of the virtual world is when it's used for education. Particularly if bright colors and moving objects are part of the learning…

Great news for all you faithful Windows phone folks, especially if you love your tunes. The uber-popular music streaming service Pandora is offering not only free, but ad-free, streaming for Windows phone users. And only for Windows phon…

If you've got an alphabet-hungry kid and are craving some awesome ABC apps for your iPad, I understand completely. When my son little, he was so obsessed with the alphabet that he saw letters in everything: a scotch tape dispenser was a …

I review a lot of apps for kids and thus, am inundated with spinning, whirling, jumping, and shrieking characters/animals/aliens on my iPad. But once in a while, an app comes along that makes me breathe a sigh of "well, finally." Such is…

My forgetfulness has been the bane of my (and my husband's) existence. Lest you think I exaggerate, perhaps I will tell you about the time I left my wallet on top of my car and drove away. For fellow forgetters like me, here is a fantast…

Your mother is calling--again--and just when the Bachelor is handing out his roses. (Priorities, people!) What do you do? Ignore the call and feel guilty? Reject the call and feel guiltier? Pick it up and feel grouchy during the whole ex…

As my husband and our electric bill will tell you, I love light. I'm constantly searching for more ways to bring sunshine/lamps/candles into our home (the last leading to numerous fire alarm activations--oops). The minute I saw this cool…

Let's just imagine that I'm standing on a street corner, chatting with a friend on my Android phone and suddenly she says "Hey, let's go to Paris this weekend, stay in an reasonably-priced hotel, eat at some fabulously-reviewed restauran…

What if you had a time machine and could zoom back to hear Janis Joplin work her magic at the Fillmore East in NYC in 1969? Or maybe you're more the type to catch 2012's breakout band, Mumford & Sons, on a studio stop in Illinois just a …

As much as I love my Droid, I've always been a bit envious of the bright, cool iPhone cases I see everyone sporting. Why can't we have so many pretty cases too? So I decided to take matters into my own hands and find fun cases for Androi…

Imagine a new service which gets you rent the hottest gadgets before you commit to buying. From cool cameras and phones to the latest video game consoles, and even devices like Apple TV or a new tablet if you're not sure which you want. …

'Droiders, rejoice! We were jumping with nerdy photo-taking joy when the Holga iPhone lens made it possible to take Instagram-like photos from your smartphone and whatdya know? Now there's a Holga for the Samsung Galaxy i9100. Like the i…

If you're like the tons of people I know who got a new Kindle Fire for themselves (or their kids) over the holidays, then I strongly recommend you put a case on it, like yesterday. Whether you want soft, stylish and low-tech, or a case s…

If you're on the hunt for a cool calendar app for your Android smart phone, it can be tough to figure out what's best in a sea of options. So, I tried a whole lot (see what I do for you?) and narrowed them down to these three options--al…