pop culture

It took me longer than most people to get into audiobooks . Even while friends raved about flying through so many books on their commutes or while sitting in carpool lines, I had tried a few novels on Audible -- good ones! -- and just co…

Who else is shopping for Valentine's gifts for geeks this year? My own spouse takes his, ahem, calling as a gamer very seriously, so no red roses for him. Instead I try to get creative and find gifts that incorporates his love of all thi…

Here are some fun Halloween-themed playlists that your kids may enjoy on YouTube. Yes, YouTube. Now that YouTube Kids has upped their parental controls game , I've been feeling more comfortable with them using the app, and hey, sometimes…

If you've ever said, "Alexa, play When the Party's Over " then you'll be thrilled that Amazon has just announced the launch of the Billie Eilish special edition Amazon Echo Studio and it's pretty darn cool if you're a super-fan. Remember…

When your teen takes the time to text you the news about InnerSloth's official Among Us costume for Halloween this year, you know that the party game that got millions of kids through the worst of the pandemic last year is only growing i…

Just in time for this summer's long-awaited 2020 Tokyo Olympics -- yes, they're still calling it that -- leave it to Apple to create the accessory to match. They're out today with 22 new, limited-edition International Sport Loop Collecti…

Of course we had to share these incredible Mandlorian gifts now that season 3 has been announced. I know I'm not the only one with kids who are still obsessed! In fact, our devotion may have gone beyond low key a while ago. So I've put t…

If you're like us and have an abundance of geeks to buy for this holiday season, you'll appreciate these awesome, affordable geeky gifts under $20 for the holidays. Whether they're into Star Wars, Stranger Things, Dr. Who, or just losing…

We recently asked the members of our Out Tech Your Kids Facebook Group to share their choices for best podcasts for parents -- that don't have to be about parenting at all -- and wow, we scored big. And well, so did you. If you're lookin…

What Potterhead among us hasn't wanted to accio our own working wand and perform a little magic? Like, I don't know...make some Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans get bigger, disappear a few Mandrakes, or summon some chocolate frogs? Well,…

We always love looking for the most fun, geeky Valentine's Day cards every year. After all, some of our favorite valentines are geeks!. Whether they're our kids or our sweethearts, we've put together some awesome geeky Valentine's Day ca…

I'm hoping at least one of my kids will choose one of these amazing geeky Halloween costume ideas -- which is to say that no, my kids still haven't made up their minds about their Halloween costumes this year. Hello, kids! Time for a dec…

Yes, International Emoji Day is a thing. 21st century, y'all! And while we've described that the upcoming addition of custom emojis to your keyboard will lead to some creative options, there are some awesome sets of emojis we'd really li…

Next up in our Cool Mom Tech Holiday Tech Gift Guide, we've got two dozen ideas for great geeky gifts for a kid in your life. From little babies just cutting their teeth on Nintendo (literally -- you'll see) to big kids and kids at heart…

With Halloween right around the corner (nope, we can't believe it either), we thought it would be fun to round-up a bunch of the coolest free geeky pumpkin carving templates. As in, a whole lot of them! Whether you've got Pokémon fans, e…

As I was searching for a cool new unicorn iPhone case for my tween this week, wouldn't you know it --all over the news, a story about an actual siberian unicorn fossil that was discovered. Not that it looks anything like the magical crea…

This being the year of the emoji , of course someone was going to rock the emoji pumpkin carving idea in a big way. What's better, is that it's BHG and they're making it easy for you to follow along with a whole bunch of cool, free emoji…

Those who know me know that deep down, I am a data nerd. And those who listen to the Spawned podcast know that it's not so deep down, since I'm always researching studies and quoting statistics and shooting down lame studies about why pa…

We're as geeked out about Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens as anyone else, but let's all step back for a minute and take a moment of reflection for today's #ForceFriday national day that's really a giant unboxing and marketing event desi…

Should I be embarrassed that I, a 30-something mother of four, saw this Fujifilm Instax Mini Hello Kitty camera and let out a tween-level squeal? Possibly. But heck, who cares? This is freaking awesome. I've had a long standing luv-affai…

Yes, it's an ABC app. But unlike other ABC apps we've covered here, I don't know that the new ABCiné app (as in cinéma) from Spanish design studio Atipo for Meikme is going to help kids with the alphabet as much as it will help adults --…

Bless the big-hearted Star Wars fans of this world, for on May the Fourth Be With You Day, they are always an extra-giving bunch. Like Jason Yang, the designer and illustrator behind Invisible Element, who just offered up this wonderful …

This seems like the kind of weekend after which we all need to smile a little. And I've found just the thing. The series of ironically placed iPhone photos over real environments by clever French photographer, professor, and cool dad Fra…

Just in time for Mother's Day, I was absolutely thrilled to discover Zazzy , a new platform that allows you to design 3D jewelry , only they take out all the time-consuming stuff...like downloading sometimes complicated software, figurin…