free apps

Parents, the vague promise that Santa will come sometime while your kids are asleep just isn't working anymore. Our kids are too tech savvy. So, for those who are anxious to track Santa's every move this Christmas Eve, we've found three …

Halloween is right around the corner, so we decided to round-up fun Halloween apps for kids that aren't too scary, all of which happen to be free (yay!). What a fun way to get them excited about Halloween, though if your kids are anythin…

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…

With my daughter in Japan for the entire month of July, we needed to come up with a communication plan, most of which involved texting apps because they're free. Whether you've got a teen or college student heading overseas, or you're tr…

This is a sponsored message from Spotify Spotify remains the world's largest global music streaming subscription service and for good reason. It's transformed the way we can all find and enjoy music for free. And now, thanks to some amaz…

If your social media feeds are like mine, they're no longer places for me to find out what's going on with my friends and distant family. Instead, they're oftentimes the source of stress and anxiety for me, given the constant influx of s…

With the warmer weather finally here, I'm looking forward to getting outdoors with my family. We're avid campers and hikers, and I have to admit, I enjoy the time we spend away from screens. Turns out, it's also Screen-Free Week, so how …

Podcasts can promote your child's creativity and imagination without spending more time in front of a screen.

Our Cool Mom Picks' editor, Liz, had the awesome opportunity to check out the latest Crayola creations at the 2018 Toy Fair, and we are pleased as tropical punch (aka magenta) to sneak peek their brand new and upcoming releases with you!

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 …

Life is short, and now is the best time to do something for yourself and your health.

Considering Disney has had their own wait time line trackers for years now, and now, thanks to my favorite travel app TripIt , you'll be able to track real-time security wait times at the airport. It's a feature now available to Pro subs…

Harness your thoughts (and maybe a New Years' resolution) with one of our favorite free journal apps.

The Portable North Pole app and website is hands-down our favorite way for kids to get a chance to talk with Santa. And this year, it's back with new features that make it better than ever. For kids who are clever, curious (and maybe a l…

I admit, Yelp drives me crazy for a number of reasons. And now, just in time for the holiday shopping and travel, comes a truly viable app alternative. Let's say you live in Silverlake, you like comedy shows and galleries, and four of yo…

The TBH app has been blowing up over the past few weeks and just hit #1 in the App Store for iOS following the announcement that Facebook has purchased it. I've seen multiple articles referring to it a "kindness app" or an "anonymous com…

My tweens know that I have a pretty strict policy about social media in our house. We won't even have the conversation about setting up accounts for them on Facebook or Instagram until they're the minimum age required by the app. And eve…

For ages now I've touted the wonderful benefits of Boomerang for Gmail to help me better manage my incoming and outgoing email, and it seems the folks at Google like the feature themselves. Because now Gmail has actually incorporated Boo…

If you're on Instagram Stories , Snapchat, and now Facebook Story , you know that stickers are THE hottest thing right now. All caps required. Well, we found a fun new free app for you to try that let's you turn your selfies into sticker…

You know the frustration of sitting down for family movie night, searching Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, but not finding the show you've been so excited to watch, right? Well, we thought we'd share some other sites that stream great movie…

My family has been looking for some ways to fill these long summer days by giving back to our community. We were shocked to find out that more than 20% of families are food insecure in the USA, which means you very likely know someone pe…

Do you remember The Mother of All Celebrity Selfies? You know, the one Ellen DeGeneres took at the 2014 Academy Awards surrounded by A-list nominees? Well, Richie Sambora remembers it too, especially that the photo ran all over social me…

Just yesterday I was chatting with a couple of my mom friends at my daughter's track club about podcasts and I was surprised to discover that neither of them knew that they could easily access podcasts right on their iPhone. "Wait, they'…

I like to keep at least one totally mindless, just-for-fun app on my iPad for some winding-down entertainment at the end of the day. Of course, Candy Crush and 1010 have dominated recently, but I've just discovered the Stack app (iOS and…