smartphones

It's always a good time to talk about how to best clean your phone and gadgets. But especially this time of year. With cold and flu season now meeting Covid-is-back season (again, sigh) it's important to know how to safely clean your pho…

With yesterday's Apple announcement of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max (and I am sooo excited!) I've heard a lot of gripes about the switch from a lightning charge cable to a USB-C charge cable . Here's the deal in a nutshell-- and it's ac…

I know firsthand how hard it is to decide when is the best age for kids to have their own cell phone . On one hand, we want them to be able to reach us if soccer practice gets out early or they want to leave a sleepover at 1am, but expos…

After a little texting debacle between my 11-year old and her friends, I realized that maybe I wasn't the only parent dealing with cell phone etiquette issues. And, after asking our Out Tech Your Kids group about the annoying cell phone …

We've officially hit the point of full Apple product saturation in our household -- and as so many parents in our Out Tech Your Kids community tell us, they have too. So what do you do when you're all basically on Apple devices, your kid…

How magical are these snow globe Pop Sockets that I just discovered for the holidays? Yes, they perform the exact same function as regular Pop Socket grips in preventing dropped phones during selfies, but also, THEY'RE SNOW GLOBES. In ca…

We love when parents ask us "how do I know if my kid is ready for a cell phone?" It means you're conscientious, caring, and involved -- and of course, want to make sure that you're raising a kid to make good choices, and not who isn't th…

With spring nearly here, I'm getting antsy to clean up my yard and go through all my closets to get rid of all the junk we've accumulated over the winter. But I'm going to start small, literally, and follow these tips for spring cleaning…

Whether your kids have had a smartphone for awhile now, or you're considering getting them started with one, it's important that they understand how to use it. And as we all know, when it comes to a smartphone, it's not as simple as dial…

These days, July 15 and 16 means Amazon Prime Day . (Yes, it's two days this year.) We've been keeping an eye on the tech deals to see if they're worth the hype, and well, depending on what kind of gadget you're in the market for, they j…

This is a sponsored message from Relay So many parents want their kids to have the safety and security of a phone, especially over the summer when kids have a little more freedom, and a little more run-around-outside time. And yet, those…

Thank you to Verizon Wireless for sponsoring this post. If there's anything all parents can agree on, it's that we could use a few more minutes (or hours!) in the day, and we do our best to try to find that extra time where we can. It's …

We can't tell you how much debate we've seen over the simple question, "when is my kid ready for a smartphone?" It brings out nearly as much stress, passion and well, sanctimony, as questions about breastfeeding or sleep training. Well, …

Next up in our series on how to curb your screen addiction, we're tackling the issue of notifications. Back when I first got a smartphone, those little red numbers next to my apps filled me with excitement. Someone had messaged me! Or li…

If your kids are anything like ours, they've got a phone up high on their holiday wish list. And as much as you want Santa to make them squeal, you also know that a smartphone is a huge responsibility that they might not be ready for jus…

The MAKERphone is about to give an answer to that nagging question parents frequently get, because now when kids ask for a mobile phone, parents can just say: Go make it yourself. Related: A DIY Bluetooth speaker kit for kids that totall…

This is a sponsored message from Relay So many parents want their kids to have the safety and security of a phone, and yet those kids aren't necessarily ready for all the responsibility and liability that comes with owning one. It's a ma…

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...) …

A few years ago, we featured the Kickstarter campaign for The Light Phone , a gadget that was designed to help people separate themselves from their smartphones. Well, they've recently launched The Light Phone 2 and it's blowing up Indie…

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!

We're all learning about new technology right along with our kids, which can put us at a bit of a disadvantage. Darn those growing brains. And if you've ever gotten a new cell phone and seen how much more your kid knows about it than you…

Show a little love to the device that is quite literally, closest to you. Here are 22 ways to get your iPhone into the holiday spirit.

I've been seeing a lot of research lately that seems to find a correlation between how much time we spend on our phones and our kids' behavior . Specifically, their bad behavior. The constant distraction of pings and alerts from my phone…

When it comes to smart phone addiction , we've done our own experiments with putting away our phones around our kids here at Cool Mom Tech. We've even used various techniques to manage screen time for our own kids and tweens. That's why …