games + gaming

Not done with your holiday shopping yet? No problem. We've rounded up today's best Cyber Monday tech deals and discounts all in one handy place. Make sure to check back as we'll be updating this post all day long and follow us on Twitter…

The holidays are coming—as in, fast —and that means company. While we're always thinking about organization tips like cleaning off the china or straightening the bookshelves, it's easy to forget about what a presence tech is in our homes…

The concept of intelligent robots taking over the planet used to be something you'd only see in sci-fi movies but I'm starting to wonder whether a robotic takeover may not be so far-off. Okay, maybe not in our immediate future, but highl…

I was once a struggling engineering student, so I have a special appreciation for the courage and creativity of kids who really want to know how stuff works and aren't afraid to jump in and figure it out. Now that one of my own kids is c…

Not even the biggest die-hard Minecraft fans can live on screen time alone, so when it's time for them to step away from their favorite game, you could try some of our screen-free Minecraft games , or offer up one of the cool little Mine…

I've seen these game controller chocolates at all the fancy chocolate shops in my 'hood, so how cool is it that you can save yourself a fortune and make your own thanks to our pals at Think Geek . This game controller chocolate mold feat…

Confession: I'm a skate betty from way back, and I've never outgrown my fascination with skateboarding. (Okay, and with skaters too.) So I was totally stoked to check out the new Skater app , which launched this week on iOS. This brand n…

I do not play Candy Crush. Hear that, Facebook friends who keep sending me invites? Not going to happen. But that doesn't mean I'm against playing games on smartphones. In fact, just last week I was playing something fun on my husband's …

The increasing essentialness that is Google Maps is fairly well known by now, so it's no surprise that as parents, we're loving their latest project -- a geography trivia game called SmartyPins that will take you around the world. Each g…

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 …

The new Monument Valley app may be the most gorgeous, mindblowingly cool app I've seen in a while. And that's saying something. It's a puzzle game that's like Figaro Pho meets MC Escher. Your job is to get the silent little princess Ida …

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…

H i Cool Mom Tech, any suggestions for fun kid-friendly typing apps or websites? - Tiffiny via Twitter How perfect -- I've just been looking for typing websites myself, to get my own kids to learn how to type online. Especially after the…

Back in September, I discovered a cool board game on Kickstarter with a lofty goal: To teach kids as young as four the basics of programming. And now that I have a final copy of Robot Turtles , I can say that you parents of preschoolers …

Sure, our kids love to play with iPads like uh, all kids these days, but no matter how educational an app may be , it's usually a solitary activity. We've loved collaborative games made for iPad like Duo Plink (though the company is sadl…

Remember back when Ataris, station wagons, telephones, and all machines of power and taste included sexy strips of wood? We've covered (heh) wood veneers for iPads and other gadgets , and now we've got just the bling for your gaming cons…

Long live my Grandpa's reel-to-reel, symbol of long, boring vacation films we were forced to sit through for hours on end as children. And now--yeah, I feel a sort of nostalgic longing for that kind of simplicity, pulling down the giant …

As an avid Kindle user and very frequent Amazon Prime customer (I'm on a first-name basis with my UPS driver), I was so excited to do a full-on Amazon Fire TV review. After a couple of weeks playing with it so I could really see its capa…

Considering how popular streaming devices are these days with Apple TV, Chromecast , and the Roku , it came as no surprise when we heard Amazon would be launching their own streaming service , which they finally did today with Amazon Fir…

You might think that my dark circles are due to my kids, or work, or simply insomnia, but they're not. I've only got Threes! to blame. The cool new Threes! app for iOS has got me absolutely obsessed. Slide numbered tiles around a board, …

With the tremendous success of the Frozen movie, it's no surprise that the massive Disney merchandising arm has included an app to go with it: The Frozen Free Fall game . If you're tired of your kids stealing your Candy Crush app (that's…

My kids will no longer settle for any old box of Valentine's cards, especially now that they know how easy it is to dig up some cool printable Minecraft Valentine cards to hand out in class. Even for those of us who aren't sure if the Sh…

It sometimes appears that my kids' devotion to Minecraft borders on fanatical. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it was their screentime of choice tonight even over the Super Bowl. Rather than fight the love, I'm choosing to embrace it…

Thanks to Cool Mom Tech, our family iPad is packed with cool apps and fun games . While a few franchises like Angry Birds and Toca Boca do a great job with new releases, lightning doesn't strike more than once for every developer. So I w…